Worth buying a vintage CD Player and a cassette deck

S

SeattleMan

Active Member
Hello,

Is it worth buying a vintage CD playe and a cassette deck? I have a Pioneer SX 5590 with vintage speakers and getting very good sound. Someone told me that it is quite risky to buy a vintage CD player due to many issues it may have.
 
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SeattleMan said:
Hello,

Is it worth buying a vintage CD playe and a cassette deck? I have a Pioneer SX 5590 with vintage speakers and getting very good sound. Someone told me that it is quite risky to buy a vintage CD player due to many issues it may have.
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I have several CD players from the 80's that work just fine and sound pretty good. But, my newer CD players sound better. Getting a high end vintage deck is what I would look for if I was waning to put something together from that time.
 
The lasers are getting harder to obtain. There are no newly manufactured original parts anymore, you have to take your chances on Chinese replacements. Some are ok, some not. If you can repair it yourself, a used Cd player may be ok to buy if it is working when purchased. A cassette deck is going to have rubber parts (idler wheel and belts) that need to be replaced. Depending on the brand you can get some parts. Pinch rollers are no longer available for most decks. If the pinch roller has a brass hub, Terry Witt can rebuild it for you, but you have to remove the old one and send it to him.
For Cd players, look for ones that use a KSS-210A, KSS-150A, KSS-240A, or KSS-313 laser. Phillips players that have a swing arm mechanism must have the entire mechanism replaced and none are available anymore. Go to this website and look up the laser for a particular player, then see if it is available at B&D Enterprises. I would not trust any other source for lasers, you may be buying a sub standard part.
http://vintage-audio-laser.com/DAC-liste-lettre-D
 
go with a newer cd player. Most of the cd players of today will sound better than the cd players from the 80's because the DAC's are better in the cd players of today. Plus the cd players from the 80's tend to have more problems due to age and many parts are unrepairable or unobtainable
 
afour495 said:
go with a newer cd player. Most of the cd players of today will sound better than the cd players from the 80's because the DAC's are better in the cd players of today. Plus the cd players from the 80's tend to have more problems due to age and many parts are unrepairable or unobtainable
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Actually the laser is pretty much the only part that can be impossible to get. Yes, if you blow a gear you are done, but that is rare. IC's can be hard to get also, but failure is rare. There are lots of people who call themselves technicians who don't know how to service Cd players, and they tell customers that the parts are not available without even looking at the unit, or they can't troubleshoot it effectively, so they say it needs a part that is unavailable.
 
Is it worth it? That's up to you.Cassette decks are cool and I still use them.You still can get some damn good sound out of them but definitely make your own tapes cause prerecorded sound awful.
 
Is it worth it? That depends on how much you spend on the said gear. If your able to get them for a good price and they have no issues, then I say go for it! If they last another 5 yrs or so, well your not out much money.

I would buy a better quality vintage cdp that has a digital out so you can bypass the internal dac and send the signal to a modern dac. Just use the cdp as a transport. Sony and others made some very high quality players back in the day.

Tape players are more likely to give you issues unless you buy a restored unit from a reliable source.

As others have said, be aware that parts for these vintage pieces are getting hard to come by. One day they will become "door stops".
 
just dave said:
Is it worth it? That's up to you.Cassette decks are cool and I still use them.You still can get some damn good sound out of them but definitely make your own tapes cause prerecorded sound awful.
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That's exactly what I thought until I bought a Nakamichi. I have never used it to record. Pre-recorded tapes sound incredible. I only paid $65 shipped for the Nak. At that price, I can afford to buy another when it breaks.
 
What CDP and cassette deck are those? And what is the asking price? The answer to your question may depend on these and some other details.
 
Worth buying if the price is cheap enough to make them disposable or you feel like opening them up and fixing whatever is wrong or becomes wrong in the future.
 
Might pick up a cheap new DVD player, many will play CDs, CDRWs, MP3 discs etc. Good sound from them too. Warranty. Cassette players are dirt cheap at thrifts, get a tape off the shelf and see that it plays, not much lost if it doesn't work for long.
 
tom3 said:
Might pick up a cheap new DVD player, many will play CDs, CDRWs, MP3 discs etc. Good sound from them too. Warranty. Cassette players are dirt cheap at thrifts, get a tape off the shelf and see that it plays, not much lost if it doesn't work for long.
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Some of the new DVD players sound good, some sound like crap. My Sony BDP-S185 sounds excellent on movies with music sound tracks. Haven't tried it with a Cd yet.
 
To me they are both worth it, but then most have required new belts and cleanings. It is really only worthwhile (in my mind anyway), if you are willing to get under the hood for the basics.
 
OP, hello neighbor.

I have a vintage CD player from the late 80's (Sony) that I like and it still works and sounds great. You are always taking a chance with vintage gear, but many of us are collectors and we like vintage. I also have a Denon and a few others. They all work well. The only CD player that went South on me was the first one I purchased when CD's first came out. A SHARP that lasted about 3 months.

Like many I was into Cassette players big time in the late 70's and early 80's.
I have a few but my favorite is still my Sanyo Micro Processor controlled vintage deck from 1980. At the time, I would play a Vinyl album ONCE directly to Cassette, and then store the Vinyl never to be seen again. I'd just play Cassette.
Like a few said, you can sure get fine sound out of a Cassette. I prefer High Bias Chrome tapes, and I use a Compander to reduce hiss and distortion. I have a DBX Compander that compresses sound to record, and expands it on playback. I feel this exceeds any Dolby noise reduction settings. My opinion of course.

So it's up to you, sir. I enjoy Cassette and CD, but not as much as Vinyl. I typically listen to Vinyl, but it's nice to have alternates.
 
I recently obsoleted my 2000 something Denon 2910 I use for cd. Dragonfly DAC was the culprit so now YouTube madness is abounding. I checked out Mog and it sounds peachy but I ran into a censored rap song so didn't pull the trigger on the membership.
 
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