TECHNICS RS-M88: Japanese Battleship
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Archive for 'Analog recorders/players'
PIONEER CT-A9: The Silver Ghost
When I was a kid, Pioneer was company that was somehow above other Japanese commercial brands, or it just looked like. Techics was great, Sharp… so, so… Sony was really good, JVC the same, but if somebody would say that he has Pioneer system… well, this was something special. Today, Pioneer is just a shadow […]
(Serbian) TECHNICS RS-M253X: Jedan od junaka RS-M serije
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(Serbian) SONY TC-KB920S: Quality Standard – šala ili šta?
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SONY TC-KA6ES: “The last of the breed” for Europe
Sony made some great decks in the past, but, at least at Serbia they were never as popular as, say Technics, Akai or Aiwa. I remember how I was amazed while looking at beautiful TC-K950ES in Sony catalogue. Later I had several TC-K970ES, 990ES and 909ES, as well as TC-KA6ES. The latter was made at […]
(Serbian) Projekat “Sirotinjski HiFi” (11): Kaset dek 2 – Denon DR-M33
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(Serbian) Projekat “Sirotinjski HiFi” (10): Kaset dek 1 – Onkyo TA-2360
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SONY WM-DD9: Sound To Match The Ingenious Mechanism
Sony made so many various Walkmans like almost no other manufacturer did. But this is not the whole story: it also made some very interesting stuff and also used some hi tech technology while engineering them. We may talk about WM-10 and siblings like WM-20… Once being the smallest walkmans in the market. Or comparably […]
ONKYO TA-2760: A Honest Onkyo
I like Onkyo decks for their display: large, nice color, and very informative… maybe TOO informative after all. But it gives all the user needs… well not just everything as we will see later, but let’s stick to this right now. Onkyo TA-2760 was a top model, I suppose, I don’t have it in my […]
YAMAHA KX-1200: The Ice Queen
I was really amazed regarding efforts that Yamaha put during construction phase of it’s K2000 deck. It wasn’t the best in the world, nor was the best looking ever. Even the display could be better but overall this is a hell of the deck. Well, after K2000 which stays the most expensive Yamaha deck on […]
Pioneer CT-979: A Step Ahead CT-959
This one is continuing Pioneer 9xx series decks and is a younger relative to CT959. I won’t repeat some history facts about Pioneer and cassette deck line, so you can find it here. CT-979 is based on the same Reference Master Mechanism as many Pioneers did. The button section is well laid out with commands […]
TEAC V-970X: Plastic Giant
Teac V-970X cassette deck is a twin brother of TEAC R-919X I already wrote about. They look so similar – like the same model, not two different. Everything is the same: display with few unused symbols made for auto reverse R-919X, the same auto calibration method, the same cheap, squeaky plastic, the same housing and […]
ONKYO TA-6711: As Good As It Looks
Onkyo made some well regarded products in the past and is making very decent HiFi even today. It always gives very good quality for the price and maybe it is the formula that made it survive for decades. During analog tape era, it made few excellent decks, the most popular being TA-2900 (or TA-2090 in […]
TECHNICS RS-B78R: Programmable Tape Device
This is a similar age model as RS-M245X and had a higher list price, around 1.100 DEM. The RS-M245X model has a very nice front plate design but the RS-B78R is at least equally nice. There are many well laid buttons and it also uses membrane type commands for most transport functions which stood the […]
TECHNICS RS-M245X: Expensive looks
Technics is a trade name of Matsushita Electric Co., one of the world’s leading electronics giants. The other trade marks of Matsushita is Panasonic, and they also own JVC etc. You can also see National or National Panasonic mark on some old equipment from 70s. That means that Matsushita is very long in business and […]
SONY TC-S7: Design Or Quality
Sony Scenario was a design effort towards market for people without enough money or will to buy top ES models but wanted some ES quality and also get advanced industrial design devices in their home. Scenario line was made well but without technical advantages Sony put to it’s later Lissa line. And, unfortunately, Scenario was […]
SONY WM-D6C: The Little Dwarf
Long ago before I started to play with “real” cassette decks, I was a Walkman fan… I have had dozens and dozens of them and also like to get hands on some good Walkman even today. Of course, Sony WM-D6 was the pinnacle of these, along with DD9, some Aiwas, Panasonic, Sanyo and few others. […]
SANSUI D-570: A Real Sleeper
Japanese audio giant was very well known for it’s amplifiers. During 70s Sansui receivers were among the best, and are sought even today. Nevertheless, this Japanese company also made some very good turntables and damn good tuners. Unfortunatelz, Sansui could not stand competition during 80s and 90s, so it virtuallz disappeared from the market. Since […]
PHILIPS N5756: European Black Star
Few days ago I read in the newspaper that Philips decided not to sell it’s audio division to Japanese Funai. Decades ago, it would sound like a good joke. Funai was and is a respectable company, once even trying to put it’s own video format on the market. On the other side, I remember when […]
PIONEER CT-S740S: The Poor Man’s BX300
This one was from the 1996. according to the Pioneer catalogue. During this era, cassette decks declined in bussiness plans of all manufacturers. This meant that the small amount of them still in production were made using cost cut philosophy or were déjà vu models with some make up. Of course, I remember some good […]
KENWOOD KX-9050: Less Is More
This one is an older brother of KX9050S. It lacks Dolby S, but everything else is practically the same. Dolby S version, KX9050S is a good deck, maybe even very good, but I had the feeling it is missing something, that it should sound better than it actually does. So the idea was to get […]
YAMAHA KX-670: Black Meets Orange
Not so well known about cassette decks, but some other HiFi gear, Yamaha started KX-670 production in 1993., the era when cassette decks popularity was sharply declining. The cost cutting was popular in almost any department, so steel chassis became thinner, plastic was used all around etc. There was no trace of 70’s and great […]
Nakamichi 680ZX: The Golden Age
Nakamichi had several models in this 6xx range, starting from 660ZX and ending with famous 682ZX. Produced at the end of 70’s. these models were pretty expensive with price tag range from 995 to 1.800 USD. Unlike other cassette deck manufacturers, this companz didn’t make his 6xx line in the way that 682ZX is the […]
Pioneer CT-S640S: Middle class contender
This small cassette deck is a smaller relative of the high class Pioneer decks like CT95 or CT-830. Of course, it isn’t that great: it’s mass of just a little over four kilograms tells the whole story. The box is made of thin sheet of steel and the front mask is plastic instead of aluminium. […]
YAMAHA K2000: The Black Beauty
You have probably heard about Yamaha, haven’t you? The horizontal and vertical diversification is proudly presented by this corporation. Just imagine: you like to ride the motorbike, you buy Yamaha. Then You decide to get a small (or not so small) boat, and it’s engine is Yamaha. By chance, your hobby may be playing piano […]
PIONEER CT-959: Pioneer at it’s best
Pioneer has a long tradition of making high quality components and is one of the few companies that survived market turbulences started in the beginning of 80s up to now. Technically speaking, this company was one of the pioneers (sounds silly, does it) that used direct driven motor to rotate capstan and shaft on their […]
NAD 6300: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
NAD or New Acoustic Dimension started in 70s as a result of Dr. Martin Borish effort to make low cost but high audio quality amplifiers and other HiFi components. I don’t want to waste Your time bubbling about 3020 amplifier and other stuff, since any living audio being on the Earth could tell You this. […]
KENWOOD KX-9050S: The last one from the Japanese giant
This is the last one top recorder from Kenwood. It doesn’t mean that it is the best, even looking at the other models from this company, but is pretty good. Started in 1994., this cassette deck entered the market when analog audio compact cassette format was declining sharply. Compact Disc was the king of all, […]
HARMAN/KARDON CD491: Harman quality, top sound
Harman/Kardon CD491 I remember somewhere near the end of ’80s when my good friend brought me HiFi catalogues from Vienna. He gave me Sony, Pioneer and other marketing materials, but the one them was so special. “This one was not on the desk, they were hiding it underneath, but I asked them to give one […]
