Adventures in cassette recording 1
The NAD 6300 is perhaps the best cassette for the money among the TOL decks.
This is the first of an audio review series of a shootout between a NAD 6300, ReVox B 215S, Nakamichi ZX 9 and a TEAC Z 5000. Lot of surprises were found. Enjoy!
The audio cassette history is long and interesting involving fierce competition, royalty issues, ingeneous ads and technology advance. Since 1958 when RCA made the first attempt to put a reel to reel tape inside a cartridge, the race for perfection began. Originally, the cassette media was not intended for high fidelity purposes and were mainly designed for voice quality. In 1963 Phillips introduced the compact cassette at the Berlin Radio Show. The cartridge was load with BASF tape allowing 45 minutes of stereo recording on both sides. In those days only 3 companies were able to produce tape but BASF was selected primarily because it was the only one who presented balanced properties in the mechanics as well as in the tape itself. In 1968 TDK introduced the first cassette for high fidelity recording purposes. 1970 marked an era in cassette recording when Dolby Labs introduced their Dolby B version based on their professional Dolby A. The tape hiss was reduced significally. Because of this, a year later Advent introduced the first "Hi Fi" cassette recorder with dolby B and chrome tape capabilities. Then, in 1973 Nakamichi came out with the 1000 model, followed by the 700's showing the whole world what the audio cassette was capable of and...the rest is history!
My story with cassettes started in the early 1980 with my first cassette deck: Technics RS M63. I bought this machine brand new while working part time at my home town funeral home. It was a dream come true and for my young ears the sound coming out of that box was simply Nirvana! My tapes became famous over-night and most of my friends with car audio came by to order their mixed tapes. I charged them a sealed brand new C-90 for my use. Those were the days. Disco music was en vogue and the cassette was already an established high quality media, while cassette recorders were developing faster than the actual cel phones! Every company offered a series of alternatives. Technics, Sony, Sansui, Teac, Akai, Harman Kardon and of course: the usually out of reach for the John Q Public: Nakamichi.
In 1982, my brother in law who was signed by the San Diego Padres, came for vacations and brought with him a Nakamichi 480. That was my first encounter with the famous brand and believe me, the impression it made on me were enough as to some day wish to start a Nakamichi collection.There I was thinking that my tapes were the best sounding in the world...until I met the infamous 480! Wow! Comparing that sound to my M 63's was like comparing apples and oranges. The crystalline extended highs of the black beauty struck me really hard! Holy shit!
On that Technis RS M63 I did hundreds of recordings, mainly on TDK cassettes AD and SA. My first one was in 1980 and I still conserve that tape. The salesman gave me 2 cassettes "on the house" to start me going. It was June, 1980. Amazingly, 34 years after those cassettes still sounding very good and almost all of them were encoded with Dolby B. I like the extended highs from dolby B encoded cassettes playing it back without decoding, besides the CD wasn't around yet and LP's were used. I took care of all my LP's fanatically good, but when borrowed copies from my friends, dolby was imperative! Anyway, those dolby encoded tapes played extremely good on the best Pioneer's KP 9500 car cassette players of the era. No dolby mistrack at all. Amazing!
A giant leap: In 1984, after graduating from the school of Mortuary Science, I got a high paying job in Puerto Rico's metro area and it was then when I made a giant leap from my beloved M 63 to one of the best cassettes ever made in the world: the ReVox B 215. A boutique audio store had one on display. I bought it new for $1,495.00. The B 77 open reel and the B 225 CD player followed later on. I was only 20 and already having part of my dream system. The rest were a Perreaux pre-amp and power amp driving a pair of the famous transmission line speakers: the IMF Professional Monitor! From time to time I used equalizers. At first I used a Sansui, later on a Soundcraftsmen and finally an Audio Control C-101. Nobody could resist the analyzer leds jumping up and down! It was a total spectacle, specially with the lights off... My turntable was, and still, the Linn Sondek LP 12 with Itokk arm and a Koetsu Black cartridge.
And the saga continues. After many changes here and there, several components later I started a cassette duplication business in 1994: CopyTech Corporation. It was a real time facility with Nakamichi MR 2 cassette decks. The running master was a DAT tape. Looking for higher productivity while keeping the sound quality I get 2 Infonics "medium speed" 10:1 in cassette duplication systems. The best and most expensive of such a kind in the world. My system was the largest for high quality duplication of that brand in the world. There was a bigger one in Korea, but for spoken word recording. Not for critical music. Finally, after 3 years we got a professional Lyreq High Speed Bin Loop duplication system with 2 Twin Slaves (4). Running 80:1 with Dolby HX PRO was the best in the Caribbean. The other systems were sold, including all the MR-2's for $50.00 each. Shortly after we entered the CD business and mastering too. I did over 1,000 masterings earning 2 Grammy nominations, 1 Grammy, 10 Platinum and 20 Gold records. CopyTech Mastering Services was one of the best mastering suites in the whole USA. Over $100,000 were invested in equipment and acoustics. A real state of the art, but that's another story...
Collection: At the end of the 90's I started collecting audio pieces with an special interest in cassette decks. By those days the prices weren't as crazy as today. I got many of my TOL decks for $500.00 or less. Nowadays that is totally impossible in part thanks to those who doesn't care to pay $1,800 for a "non-working" TEAC Z-7000! Anyway, I decided to collect the best decks around and began with my already B 215. I grabbed a B 710 MK II from Canada, but it never worked! Yes, as you may know, that story is very common among the "fleabay" users like me. I later switched to Audiogon and it was a little better. Suddenly I had over 80 pieces of audio at home! Everything was right until my wife said: ENOUGH! Imagine; a 1/2" Studer A-80 in the middle of my living room! I I'm not kidding! In the next page I'll list all (or most of) the equipment I used to have. I was so involved in this hobby that I was planning to have all the 70+ Nakamichi decks ever made! Thanks to my wife, I stopped on time...
The List: let's see if I remember all the stuff I used to have:
NAKAMICHI: 1000ZXL Limited, 1000 ZXL,700 ZXL,700 ZXE*,700,700 II,500,600,600 II*,580,Dragon,ZX 7* & ZX 9*,
STUDER - REVOX: Studer A-80 1/2",B 215 (2),B 215 S*,B 710 MK II,B 225, B 226,B 77 MK II (2) & PR 99 MK II
OTHER BRANDS:Tandberg 3014 A,Pioneer CT F1250 (2), Aiwa AD F800*,Aiwa 6900,Otari MX 5050,Technics 1700,Technics RS M63 (2),Technics RS M85 (2),ADS C-4*,Panasonic 3500 & 3700 DAT*,TASCAM DA 30 MKII*, SONY 75ES*,Theta Carmen*,EAD DAC 1000 Series III Gold Face*,Marantz 5004*,NAD 4300*, NAD 6300*,TEAC Z 5000*,TEAC Z 7000*,Denon 790 R,Yamaha CR 440*,Jolida 202*,Wadia 23,Wadia 150 ADC, Arcam One,Arcam 5 Plus,Carver TX 10,Carver CM 1090,Music Hall DAC 25.2* DAC,YBA CD 1,Technics SL D2,Pioneer Belt Drive TT (forgot the model),Pioneer SX 450 & Yamaha CR 2020
SEPARATES:Crown DC 300 A II (2)*,Crown D 150 A II (5)*,BGW 750B*,Unison Research Mystery One,Carver C 1*,Carver C 4000*,Pioneer Spec 1*,Counterpoint SA 3000,Perreaux SM 2,Aragon 4004,Perreaux 1150B,Perreaux 3100,Cary Audio SLM (2),Cary Audio Slam (2),Sony TA E88B,Sonic Frontiers SFL1, Crown IC 150A,SAE 180*,Rega Planet,Golden Tube Preamp 1,Golden Tube SA 40 (2),Golden Tube SA 100 (2),Spectral DMA 100 & Spectral DMA 50.
(those with a * I still have)
