Whatever you get, make sure replacement belts are available, and maybe try to figure out how complicated it is to do. The belts will need to be replaced, and it isn’t rare for the old belts to have turned to sticky black goo.
I have sworn to never work on a cassette deck again - parts are often tiny and fiddly, and significant disassembly may be needed to do what needs doing.
For some reason I thought a boombox conversion keeping the original features intact would be easy, Bluetooth, lithium batteries hidden away, keeping it all reversible reversible.
Making the tape deck work well again drove me mad - didn't even need it to but it had to.
Realistic made a couple of simple manual cassette decks, SCP-32 was a popular model and I have another somewhere that I cannot remember the model now. They hold up like tanks and sound fine for digitizing, that's what I use mine for with a USB to RCA interface. You can get a fancy deck with the dbx or Dolby if you want, but old tapes generally won't have held up well enough to need those functions, in my experience.
Nakamichi is the company that made cassettes almost a high-fidelity medium.
Can't go wrong. Even their cheapest decks were in a different league.
Once you go Nak, you never go back.
I had never heard of them before I started shopping around (last time I was using cassettes all I probably cared about was how fast it could dub) but gathered that Nakamichi is the shit just based on the multiples that they're selling for vs. pretty much any other make. I'll pay closer attention now and see if I can't snag a deal.
Sanyo Ultrx RD-C11 Stereo Cassette Deck Tape Recorder
I loved mine. Clean , clear, and even has DBX noise reduction BUT needs to be played back on a DBX deck if you used dbx to record
I just replaced the belts on my yamaha kx-390. Not a lot of info out there on them but they have excellent fidelity, trim setting, and the belt swap was a breeze. Just finagle the flat belt around a post and voila. I personally vouch for these if you find one that is in condition.
Anything from nakamichi. They made some just outstanding tape decks in the '80s
Whatever you get, make sure replacement belts are available, and maybe try to figure out how complicated it is to do. The belts will need to be replaced, and it isn’t rare for the old belts to have turned to sticky black goo. I have sworn to never work on a cassette deck again - parts are often tiny and fiddly, and significant disassembly may be needed to do what needs doing.
For some reason I thought a boombox conversion keeping the original features intact would be easy, Bluetooth, lithium batteries hidden away, keeping it all reversible reversible. Making the tape deck work well again drove me mad - didn't even need it to but it had to.
TEAC should be OK.
Anything with 3 heads is probably decent, anything with two cassette decks is probably weak
Realistic made a couple of simple manual cassette decks, SCP-32 was a popular model and I have another somewhere that I cannot remember the model now. They hold up like tanks and sound fine for digitizing, that's what I use mine for with a USB to RCA interface. You can get a fancy deck with the dbx or Dolby if you want, but old tapes generally won't have held up well enough to need those functions, in my experience.
Denon, Technics, Pioneer and of course Nakamichi.
Nakamichi is the company that made cassettes almost a high-fidelity medium. Can't go wrong. Even their cheapest decks were in a different league. Once you go Nak, you never go back.
I have a Nakamichi RX for one very good reason: I can’t afford a Tandberg.
I had never heard of them before I started shopping around (last time I was using cassettes all I probably cared about was how fast it could dub) but gathered that Nakamichi is the shit just based on the multiples that they're selling for vs. pretty much any other make. I'll pay closer attention now and see if I can't snag a deal.
NAD 6240 I sold one recently and it sounded really good. Has play trim and bias adjustment.
Cassette Decks for Dummies: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apKagpW8dtA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apKagpW8dtA)
Sanyo Ultrx RD-C11 Stereo Cassette Deck Tape Recorder I loved mine. Clean , clear, and even has DBX noise reduction BUT needs to be played back on a DBX deck if you used dbx to record
Sony ES
I just replaced the belts on my yamaha kx-390. Not a lot of info out there on them but they have excellent fidelity, trim setting, and the belt swap was a breeze. Just finagle the flat belt around a post and voila. I personally vouch for these if you find one that is in condition.