Nakamichi 660zx cassette deck

[frothy]

Funny how one thing leads to another, buying receiver (lux r1050)has somehow sent me down the cassette deck rabbit hole. I swear it's as deep as the vinyl deck rabbit hole.
After lots of reading and watching market for last month I took the plunge and have purchased Nakamichi 660zx. It has had extensive work done on it by a knowledgable gentleman and he lives 10mins. away. Still have to P/U sometime this week then I'll post some pic's.
got to go... frothy

[Fidel Costar]

I have a small collection of cassettes from the eighties waiting for my Nakamichi BX 300 to be refurbished. But I wonder if the cassettes have stood the test of time. What is your experience ?

[frothy]

Will find out soon enough, believe it or not My Toyota Highlander has CD and cassette deck, used that car deck tonnes when travelling to the east coast from TO....I guess the next blast from the past will be 8 tracks (only 20-25 of them).I never tossed any of my Cassettes, sort of like my vinyl.
 I think there must be as many various cassette decks as there are vinyl decks, mind boggling the selection, but as with most vintage gear from that era most if not all will need the electronics checked, refurbished and brought back to spec.
I did quite a bit of reading at "tapeheads", got a Lencoheaven kind of vibe there, check them out if you are interested in any tape format, highly recommended site.

[floppybootstomp]

I have a small collection of cassettes from the eighties waiting for my Nakamichi BX 300 to be refurbished. But I wonder if the cassettes have stood the test of time. What is your experience ?

FWIW I have a large number of cassettes the majority of which are TDK SA and Maxell XLII Cro2 position, all sizes including some C120s which were handy for recording live broadcasts from the BBC as these were usually one hour long.

I very rarely use them as a playback medium but I am gradually ripping some of them to FLAC and I can say that so far not a single Maxell XLII cassette has been in any way faulty but a few TDK SA C90s were unplayable. Most were used to record in the eighties and nineties but there's a few from 1979 as well as that's when I bought my first cassette deck.

I've actually been pleasantly surprised at the sound quality on playback, much better than I had expected. Currently using a Yamaha KX393 to rip from through a Behringer UMC202HD Audio Interface using an older version of dbPoweramp (Windows software) that had the Auxillary module.

[tomatamot]

I have a small collection of cassettes from the eighties waiting for my Nakamichi BX 300 to be refurbished. But I wonder if the cassettes have stood the test of time. What is your experience ?

Christian, I have a big bag loaded with my mother's collection of cassettes. If you want this bag, I will bring it to Beauvechain for you.

 

[hatehifi]

I have a small collection of cassettes from the eighties waiting for my Nakamichi BX 300 to be refurbished. But I wonder if the cassettes have stood the test of time. What is your experience ?

I recorded mostly ca. 70 Maxell XliiS 90 min. on the superb Harman CD491 which I had had serviced. Now I have sold it, I had two over the years, and replaced it with a Nakamichi BX-125E, also newly serviced and adjusted to my Maxells. I am very happy with the sound though, tbh, there is a clarity loss from my turntable. However, there is a flow and the ‘difference’ is easy to live with.




Cheers!

[Fidel Costar]

Hi Tony,

Open reel tapes often do not age very well, and I suppose it is the same for cassette tapes. I guess a lot depends on the conditions (temperature, humidity...) in which they were stocked.

[Fidel Costar]

Christian, I have a big bag loaded with my mother's collection of cassettes. If you want this bag, I will bring it to Beauvechain for you.

 

Hello Hans,

Thanks a lot. Very kind of you, much appreciated. I probably won't go to the next Beauvechain meeting, but I suppose that one of the Belgian LH members could take the  cassettes for me. 

[hatehifi]

Hi Tony,

Open reel tapes often do not age very well, and I suppose it is the same for cassette tapes. I guess a lot depends on the conditions (temperature, humidity...) in which they were stocked.

I occasionally, maybe one in ten or less, need to rewind in both directions but drop outs (like occasionally happened to a few tapes when had my Amcrown R2R) or other negative playback problems haven’t happened yet.

Cheers!

[frothy]

So the seller searched and can't find the 660zx, very perplexing, seller was very apologetic about it.   
Well sometimes there is a silver lining when these things happen.    
The gentleman has some serious gear (cassette decks) and like lots of us he is pairing down his collection of equipment. He does extensive restoration/maintenance on them and is well known by some Tapehead members who have purchased from him in the past, that in itself tells me a lot.
From my limited experience of buying and maintaining, restoring LP decks and various pieces of equipment, I know my strengths and weakness.
Hands on mechanical...cool../ electronics.... send to the professionals, for this reason when buying electronic gear I try to buy low, then send to tech for full blown restoration, we understand that no matter how good a 40-50 year old piece is described as "sounds great, no issues, cleaned with deoxit" doesen't cut it and sooner or later the piece will be going into the shop. (my thinking/method)
So the seller has a lovely, restored Nakamichi RX 303 presently in his system that he is letting go.....to frothy....what a beauty, true plug and play
P/U in March pictures then.
good health frothy

[wenig watt]

When my father downsized his system there was this machine... Let's see if there is still life in it . Thanks for the inspiration Marcus! There are still quite a few mixtapes from the past...


With best regards

Arndt

[frothy]

That's a nice deck Arndt, your dad knew his stuff it's a keeper. Definitely worth some TLC.

[wenig watt]

Hmmm, just asked the net. I hope the thing is still OK. The Akai I had from him felt and looked better. But it died 20 years ago. This one doesn't look like anything but seems to be seriously good. I'll let you know when I've tried it.


With best regards

Arndt

[hatehifi]

I was selling tape decks when your Pioneer was made, Arndt and imho it is a very good deck.

Cheers!

[Colin_EJJ]

I have a small collection of cassettes from the eighties waiting for my Nakamichi BX 300 to be refurbished. But I wonder if the cassettes have stood the test of time. What is your experience ?

My collection of cassettes from the 1970s sound better now than they did at the time, thanks to a better cassette deck. One or two haven't done too well (Memorex is one culprit) and the BASF SM mechanism is flaky after all these years. But listening to live recordings made at the time can be an uncanny experience.