My Sony TC-WA9ES dual cassette tape deck is broken an repair will run
about $200. If I should decide to replace instead of repair what two
or three best quality/value units would you reccomend. My application
is not professional but rather high-end, high-quality, high-volume
usage. Thanks, Hank Holman

Cassettes are a dying format and this deck is probably better
constructed than any new ones being currently manufactured.

Pioneer used to make some pretty good dual decks in their Elite line but
I don't know if they still do. And their recent offerings did not offer
Dolby C like the Sony.

You may be better off biting the bullet and fixing your Sony as it may
be better than anything you can buy new now.

You could always take a chance on eBay or Audiogon, but you may well end
up with someone else's problem.

Hank Holman wrote:
My Sony TC-WA9ES dual cassette tape deck is broken an repair will run
about $200. If I should decide to replace instead of repair what two
or three best quality/value units would you reccomend. My application
is not professional but rather high-end, high-quality, high-volume
usage. Thanks, Hank Holman

I think Tim is right, I had a single well Sony ES deck, nothing, even Naks
that I heard tapes from, matched the sound quality, and yes, it was well
built...

--
Best Regards,

Lou
"Hank Holman" wrote in message
news:FAbnb.41378$Tr4.86364@attbi_s03...
My Sony TC-WA9ES dual cassette tape deck is broken an repair will run
about $200. If I should decide to replace instead of repair what two
or three best quality/value units would you reccomend. My application
is not professional but rather high-end, high-quality, high-volume
usage. Thanks, Hank Holman

If you are comparing a Nak with a Sony, tapes made on a Nak would only
sound good on a Nak. They used a different equalization curve than any
other company. The results on a Nak to Nak were superb but not on a
different deck.

-MIKE

"---MIKE---" wrote in message
news:LIdnb.30039$mZ5.142517@attbi_s54...
If you are comparing a Nak with a Sony, tapes made on a Nak would only
sound good on a Nak. They used a different equalization curve than any
other company. The results on a Nak to Nak were superb but not on a
different deck.


True for three head Nakamichis, but not for two head.

Bill Balmer

Hi Mike,

I was speaking of Nak to Nak, but I was unaware of this, thanks for the
info.

--
Best Regards,

Lou
"---MIKE---" wrote in message
news:LIdnb.30039$mZ5.142517@attbi_s54...
If you are comparing a Nak with a Sony, tapes made on a Nak would only
sound good on a Nak. They used a different equalization curve than any
other company. The results on a Nak to Nak were superb but not on a
different deck.

-MIKE

Lou wrote:
Hi Mike,

I was speaking of Nak to Nak, but I was unaware of this, thanks for the
info.

--
Best Regards,

Lou
"---MIKE---" wrote in message
news:LIdnb.30039$mZ5.142517@attbi_s54...
If you are comparing a Nak with a Sony, tapes made on a Nak would only
sound good on a Nak. They used a different equalization curve than any
other company. The results on a Nak to Nak were superb but not on a
different deck.

-MIKE


AIUI it's not because of differernt EQ curves, but because of of
different playback head designs. E.g. from
http://www.sonicsense.com/nakfaq42.h...2.htm#naknonnk

Q: Do Nakamichi tapes not sound good on Non-Nak decks?

A: The degree to which this may bother a listener will vary. Nakamichi tapes are
certainly listenable on other machines but to fully appreciate the capability of a
Nakamichi deck the tape should be played on one. Since the gaps on both the record and
playback head is much narrower on a Nakamichi deck, the signal is recorded on a much
smaller portion of the tape. The result is clearer detail, definition, and reduced
crosstalk. However, other machines heads are not designed to read information in such a
small area. As a result high-end and overall sound quality is reduced. Of course when
this tape is placed in another Nak, all the sound is there and far surpasses what other
machines could reproduce from the beginning. Almost important--all must realize that
subtle differences in azimuth between any two decks can create as great (if not greater)
of a difference in sound quality between machines as the difference between Nak and
non-Nak decks.

--

-S.

Q: Do Nakamichi tapes not sound good on Non-Nak decks?

A: The degree to which this may bother a listener will vary. Nakamichi tapes
are
certainly listenable on other machines but to fully appreciate the capability
of a
Nakamichi deck the tape should be played on one. Since the gaps on both the
record and playback head is much narrower on a Nakamichi deck, the signal is
recorded on a much smaller portion of the tape. The result is clearer detail,
definition, and reduced crosstalk. However, other machines heads are not
designed to read information in such a small area. As a result high-end and
overall sound quality is reduced. Of course when this tape is placed in
another
Nak, all the sound is there and far surpasses what other machines could
reproduce from the beginning. Almost important--all must realize that subtle
differences in azimuth between any two decks can create as great (if not
greater) of a difference in sound quality between machines as the difference
between Nak and non-Nak decks.

Forgive me, but this is not (to the best of my knowledge) a correct explanation,
and it also contains a number of serious technical errors, regardless of whose
tape deck you're talking about.

Birefly... Nakamichi's playback heads appear to have been far superior to those
of any other manufacturer. They had much lower HF loss, and got more HF energy
off the tape. As a result, not as much HF pre-emphasis is needed during
recording. So Nak tapes tend to sound "dull" when played on other decks, while
recordings made on other decks tend to sound bright.

The first time I heard this was listening to a master tape dubbed onto a Sony
deck. The sound nearly sheared off my ears.

This is true -- for original tapes.

The "error" of playing a non-Nak tape on a Nak will be preserved when you copy
the tape to an identical Nak. So it should work.

Any thoughts?

I was speaking of Nak to Nak, but I was unaware of this,
thanks for the info.

If you are comparing a Nak with a Sony, tapes made on a Nak would
only sound good on a Nak. They used a different equalization curve
than any other company. The results on a Nak to Nak were superb
but not on a different deck.

(Hank Holman) wrote in message news:FAbnb.41378$Tr4.86364@attbi_s03...
My Sony TC-WA9ES dual cassette tape deck is broken an repair will run
about $200. If I should decide to replace instead of repair what two
or three best quality/value units would you reccomend. My application
is not professional but rather high-end, high-quality, high-volume
usage. Thanks, Hank Holman

Minidisc. You're using cassettes?