Vintage Cassette Decks - Collectors/Anyone Bother?

[gewoonmaf]

I have a few decks, but admit that they aren´t getting that much use since my car cassette player died and got replaced by a CD player because I couldn´t find a decent cassette replacement. I still own about 500 tapes and play some of them from time to time. Prerecorded tapes are relatively cheap here in thrifts but I´ve yet to find a decent one, most are not to my taste.

My decks:
Superscope CD-314
TEAC A-550RX
Akai CS-702D II
Pioneer CT-F2121
Philips N2532
Sony TC-133CS
Denon DRS-610
Yamaha KX-W482
Nakamichi 480
Nakamichi 582
Sony TC-K511S
Hitachi D-E10
Sony TC-WR455

I've owned the Hitachi since new (1979) and it still sounds great. The Sony 511 is a nice three-head Dolby S deck which I also bought new (1993, when cassette was on the way out). The Naks are my favourites.
The TEAC needs a belt, the rest is all working great.

 

[gmku]

Right now I own 3 decks, but I want more! I have a Nakamichi CR-3a and two Denon 2-head units, the DRM 555 and DRM 500. I want to add at least one Nakamichi 2-head to the collection, like a CR-1a or CR-2a.

Over my hi-fi lifetime, I've owned several decks that bit the dust and that I didn't think were worth repairing: a low-end Sharp that I bought around 1977 for about 150 bucks; a Yamaha K-350 that I bought in the early 1980s (this was actually a pretty good little 2-head deck, and nice looking); and some low-end 2-head plastic Sony thing that I used from around 1990 to 2005.

When the Sony died circa 2005, I found the Denon DRM 500 for around 30 bucks in a thrift shop, and it has been a work horse. It's still going strong, and I use it in my office at work now that the Nakamichi is in my home system.

I also have a Sony Walkman tape player from the mid-80s that still works and sounds great.

Yeah. I love tape decks. And the cassette format for home recordings.

 

[bobaloniny]

Since cassettes were a very integral part of my formative years (class of 79), there was no question that there should be cassette decks involved in life today. Other factor is, for the price of cassettes and decks, it seems a shame to give up such a thrifty choice of music, let alone that Ive ended up with alot of analog music that I just havent been able to source otherwise here in sunny Quebec.
So, have a few run of the mill units, some oddballs, and one highish end 3 head.
Realistic SCT-11
Sansui SC-700
Kenwood CT-203
Aiwa F770
Philips N2510
Marantz SD 800
Luxman K-111

Some can easily fall by the wayside, if I run across something better but The Aiwa, the Realistic, Sansui, and the Philips have found a permanent home.

 

[stacyellenk]

Cassette is my favorite medium....I keep coming back to it!

 

[BOUXY]

I have at least one of every kind of deck ever put out and by this I mean R to R,8 Track,Cassette,El Cassette and also a TT or two and as well one black faced double cassette,one first generation CD Player and a newer one all installed into or working with a 70's Pioneer Silver faced system.Every piece is Pioneer where possible!I use every one of them at least once a week and it sure is a lot of fun as well as lookin' good I might add....

 

[satkinsn]

If not noted earlier...

http://cassetteanarchy.blogspot.com/

s.

 

[trhee]

There are only 5 cassette decks that I'd like to buy for collection purposes, all in new or at the very least mint+ condition.

- Nakamichi CR-7a
- Nakamichi Dragon
- Nakamichi RX-505
- Tandberg 3014a
- Aiwa XK-S9000

 

[uxwbill]

I would not say I was a collector...

...yet all of my systems have a cassette deck in them. Some are even dual-well units. I do listen to cassettes regularly and have installed a Pioneer KEH-1900 cassette player in my truck.

My long-standing belief has been that the Compact Cassette format is insufficiently appreciated.

This was only reinforced when I uncovered my dad's Technics RS-M14 deck, gave it a good cleaning and put it back into service. It did very nicely on regular tapes. When I gave it a new old stock Sony metal tape (type IV) and recorded some stuff on it, the results were striking. It sure seemed like the noise floor was dead quiet and the dynamics incredible. I didn't use any noise reduction--I didn't have to!

 

[HiFiGuy528]

Not vintage yet, but still nice to look at. Here are two from my collection. Sorry for the bad pics.

 

[seta1]

Hi,

I have Proton and Marantz cassette decks I use. In fact, I have used them with my iMac to record certain things which just refuse to be saved to file. It's quick and dirty and sounds good. I still have an older car (1990 5.0L Mustang sedan) that has a cassette / AM/FM system. I record cassettes of my favorite music so it can be played in that car. My daily driver also has a cassette player in it's radio along with a CD player. As for collecting. I have never collected the players but do see prices for certain ones from companies like Sansui, Marantz and Pioneer climbing. These cassette decks do sound quite nice if you have high quality cassettes to play through them. Back in the day, these things were state of the art for recording music. The ultimate was the reel to reel recorder. But with the advent of CDR and such, they are not so popular anymore as a recording format.