My New, Old, Classic Cassette-Deck

[huntertrw]

As someone who came to audio adulthood in the 1970s I have always been a fan of the cassette. Compact and reusable, they allowed me to record the music that I loved in the order that I wanted. My first deck was a Sony with Dolby B noise-reduction, and its audio quality was good. Somehow, though, it got away from me. I replaced it with a workman-like Akai machine that was OK, but not a shining star. It's belts finally deteriorated, and I could not find replacements.

The solution to this problem was obvious: I needed a direct-drive deck, but which one? After much research and searching, I found it: a used Yamaha K-2000. Mine is all black (like the one shown below) and came equipped with removable rack-mounting brackets. The eBay Seller advertised that it worked; however, upon arrival the hubs would turn for a second or two, and then the transport would disengage. No rewind. No fast-forward. To his credit, the Seller refunded the bulk of the purchase price, and allowed me to keep the deck.

After nearly eight-hours of disassembly, diagnosis, repair, and reassembly, I got the deck working last night, and all that I can say is WOW! For a machine that is more than 40-years old (this model was manufactured from 1982 to 1985) it sounds great. I'm looking forward to revisiting some old favorite tapes, and recording some new ones.

 

[LeafErikson]

Heck yeah man that's an awesome deck. I've recorded lots of original music on 4-track cassette portastudios, one of which was a Yamaha mt4x. Yamaha made some incredible cassette decks.

 

[fireground_piper]

I knew there were some of you out there haha. I never could stand the cassette. I just did a cassette transfer this past week and was reminded all about that format.

Enjoy your revisit! I must have about eight Tascam 322 machines sitting in my work storage.

 

[Jbrewer2002]

As someone who came to audio adulthood in the 1970s I have always been a fan of the cassette. Compact and reusable, they allowed me to record the music that I loved in the order that I wanted. My first deck was a Sony with Dolby B noise-reduction, and its audio quality was good. Somehow, though, it got away from me. I replaced it with a workman-like Akai machine that was OK, but not a shining star. It's belts finally deteriorated, and I could not find replacements.

The solution to this problem was obvious: I needed a direct-drive deck, but which one? After much research and searching, I found it: a used Yamaha K-2000. Mine is all black (like the one shown below) and came equipped with removable rack-mounting brackets. The eBay Seller advertised that it worked; however, upon arrival the hubs would turn for a second or two, and then the transport would disengage. No rewind. No fast-forward. To his credit, the Seller refunded the bulk of the purchase price, and allowed me to keep the deck.

After nearly eight-hours of disassembly, diagnosis, repair, and reassembly, I got the deck working last night, and all that I can say is WOW! For a machine that is more than 40-years old (this model was manufactured from 1982 to 1985) it sounds great. I'm looking forward to revisiting some old favorite tapes, and recording some new ones.

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I have a collection that I’m getting ready to sell for our neighbor. It was her husbands (who was a friend of mine) collection. If you’re interested I can send you more information once I start going through it. I’ll probably try to sell it as a lot as I don’t see them being worth much.

 

[kcghost]

It seems really ironic to get a deck you were told was working but it wasn't and then after a lot of work you got to work brilliantly. Congrats to you!!

 

[yanoJL]

This is so awesome!

I still recall fuming with anger when I would try to record from FM radio, and the DJ would talk over the into. So frustrating.
But I also remember "fixing" a few cassettes using a pencil to wind the tape back into the spool.

I kinda miss the 80s.

 

[mikethompson]

I have always associated pencils with cassettes too! Haha I guess we are showing our age a bit here.

Congrats on getting your machine up and running, and maybe your new collection from @Jbrewer2002

 

[jerry]

I recorded tons of original multi-track compositions on the first Tascam four-track Portastudio, I believe it was $500 in 1985 money. The current digital “portastudios” are crazy good, but lack that groovy analog sound!

 

[bluegrassbrian]

Nice! Yamaha made some solid gear in the 70s and 80s.
I've been using a Yamaha YP-D71 turntable for about ten years and it's been killer.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I just wish cassette tapes had held up as well as my vinyl did. I had thousands of cassettes, but after setting in boxes for decades, most have melded together in solid coils of tape, or becoming fragile, all breaking the first time I tried to listen to one.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Oh, and while we are at it... what a pussy generation we've become with our music when the largest speakers are all under one foot in size. Sure, sure, people will say that technology has made it so that smaller speakers sound better. But, they don't move the air like those giant Kenwoods used to. I remember the bass would hit you in the chest. You could actually feel the music move the air. Now, the bass is usually some false vibration, as if we just wanted to "hear" the bass. In the old days the bass would karate kick you in the groin.

 

[mawnansmiff]

I have two cassette decks, a Technics twin deck and a Denon single deck but they don't get used anymore.

Last year when I removed the decks from my Hi-Fi rack I gathered up a load of cassette tapes that I had and bundled them into two carrier bags and put them out in the rubbish!

Days later I mentioned this to a pal and he couldn't believe I did that. He told me to look on Ebay and see what cassette tapes sell for and when I did I kicked myself several times over

Most were top of the line TDK/Memorex etc. Thankfully I still have a hundred or so on a shelf so I might just hang on to those.

Jay.

 

[woodsroad]

​

A few years back, a family friend asked me to help him with a research project. In the 70's, he had recorded several hours of interviews with some guy that was very well known in the tiny, obscure, siloed slice of academia that he used to work in. His tapes were the only recorded interview that survived the guy. The recordings were really poor, a stereo Sony Walkman with built-in mic, sounding like it might have been in the same room with the guy. Since my Walkman Pro had long since given up the ghost, I bought a used NAD deck off eBay, cleaned the heads, demag'd them, and digitized everything. It was my first time doing digital audio (i used to produce soundscapes and other non-narrative audio programming for a local college station, all analog). So kewl. So easy to clean up those tapes without going through a stack of analog filters! No razor blades! Almost as soon as I finished the last tape, and before I could transfer MY old tapes, the deck died.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I also miss mixed tapes. Today, kids think that a mixed tape is just a playlist with whole songs on it. But, if you had a good twin cassette rig, you could overlay two different tracks, melding two songs, add bits of dialog taped from the radio, or commercials, or you could find books on LP and splice in bits of that, making cool soundscapes or messages declaring your love to some special girl. Sometimes you could include whole songs, but mostly they were to send an audio message. You might be able to do with digitally, but it would require special programs, and would lose a bit of that cut and paste feel that the original mixed tapes of the 80's had. IMO

 

[woodsroad]

I don't know.
Like digital photography, I am happy to see the process get out of the way.

Back when, I was quite adept at analog 16mm film, stills and audio. While I enjoyed mastering the craft, and being able to do something quite well that most people couldn't do at all, the complexity and cost of the process always got in the way of what what I was really trying to do. I suppose that if you love tinkering with gear more than you do producing content, then the old analog systems were fantastic. Truth be told, I make better pictures today than I ever did, in no small part because the process has become so much more transparent.

My parents worked in a hospital lab their entire adult lives. They, too would wax poetic about the old, analog lab instruments with great wistfulness. I had to remind my dad about the panicked phone calls in the wee hours of the morning because the overnight techs couldn't get the controls on some lumbering chunk of analog opto-electronics to come out right. "Yes", my father would concede,"But that was good overtime, and that's what kept me employed."

 

[fireground_piper]

I don't know.
Like digital photography, I am happy to see the process get out of the way.

Any format that just has sunk time, I find a nuisance. I’m glad there’s people that like them, more power to those folks.

I keep these 3 formats accessible and I maybe transfer 1 of these formats per year but the time sink in fast forward/reverse/etc is literally just wasted time due to technology of the era.

 

[woodsroad]

Ah, but do you have a U-Matic deck?

 

[fireground_piper]

Ah, but do you have a U-Matic deck?

Lord, no. I live in an audio only word, thankfully.

 

[LeafErikson]

Any format that just has sunk time, I find a nuisance. I’m glad there’s people that like them, more power to those folks.

I keep these 3 formats accessible and I maybe transfer 1 of these formats per year but the time sink in fast forward/reverse/etc is literally just wasted time due to technology of the era.

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I have one of those tascam 302s as well. They’re pretty great decks.

 

[agnosticpipe]

The best cassette deck I ever owned was a Nakamichi RX-505. It was an amazing deck that had so many unusual features that worked so well. I had it for about 10 years then sold it in 1999, and haven't missed it at all. But seeing what people are paying for them now I wish I had kept it because I could have sold it now for 3 times as much as what I sold it for then. I never found cassettes to be a high quality or long lasting sound source compared to LPs and CDs. Just my opinion, but if you enjoy them good for you!