My first cassette deck was a Realistic stereo deck with a
built in amplifier and two speakers. I bought it used from a guy in HS in
1970 for $100. The first thing my buddy Bob and I did after getting it home
was play "Sgt Pepper" by the Beatles. The last chord in 'A Day in the Life'
was pretty cool. Kinda of a cheap system but still sounded good
compared to FM radio. Didn't quite match up to the r2r's but it was
new and the technology had a lot of promise.
Previously I had used one of the first commercial
decks from Phillips in the 60's. Voice was ok but it sure lacked musicality.
I was hooked then on cassettes for transportability.
I was using my r2r on batteries to cruise in my car. Loved the sound
of 8-track but recorders were scarce. The cassette offered the ability
to record what I wanted easily.
So started a 30-year love affair with cassettes.
Hardly ever bought pre-recorded tapes as the sound quality was poor.
Instead like a lot of people, I'd buy the vinyl record and make a master
recording of it. Then I'd only play the tape until it was time to make
a new one. TDK's Super Avilyn 'SA' tape was in my opinion the best all
around tape ever made for a cassette.
When I got into CD's in the 80's, not much was available
for car CD players. So I continued the same process of recording the
CD's to cassette. 18 yrs later I still listen to the tapes I made
then. What an amazing long-lived technology! |
|
|
Cassette tape decks to me is a
technology that shouldn't die. Great sound and
transportability. Cheap tape and easy to make copies.
Almost every car up until recently had a cassette deck.
One downside for some people is
not being able to easily locate tracks on the tape. But I've
always been someone who likes to listen to a tape from beginning
to end anyways. And no silly copy protection either!
Of course we all have a cassette deck somewhere - usually in
our vehicle. I started using them in the 60's when they were
only good enough for voice. Pioneer hit the absolute
pinnacle with their CTF-1250 cassette recorder. The sound
rivals the r2r's. Course there's a whole slew of great decks
by various companies. I sell mainly the Pioneer CTF900, 950, 1000,
and 1250 units. Wonderful to play and look at.
Some of my customers feel that recording to tape (cassette or
r2r) from a CD takes some of the harshness out of the sound. I
like the fact that I can make tapes quickly and cheaply without
firing up a computer to do it. Not bad for song writing
either.
|
I have about 50
cassette decks in stock These are the units that I
have gone through and are ready for sale. As I get thru more
off them, expect to see Pioneer CT-F1000's and CT-F1250's along
with Sharp, Teac and others.
When a new window appears after clicking the link,
resize the window for maximum picture detail.
Some Prices not
including shipping:
| Onkyo
Dual Cassette Deck High speed dub, metal or chrome tape.
One owner unit. 20-17000Hz freq response with metal tape.
Dolby, permalloy heads, separate erase head. |
$195 |
| Marine
stereo amplifier and equalizer with 65 wpc. Made for
the boat. New in box! Heavy construction for wailing on
the water all day long. Comes with manual. |
$95 |
| Tascam
PortaStudio 414 Mark II. New in box. 4-track
cassette deck for recording your own music. RCA and XLR
inputs. Can record a track, play it back and record on another
track at the same time. Pretty decent sound. Box,
manual and power wart. These are still being made.
Street price is around $250. A guitarist profiled
in Guitar Magazine made a whole album on this unit.
Pic2
Pic3 |
$150 |
| Fostex
X-12 Cassette Studio. New in box. 4-track
cassette deck for recording your own music. Can
record a track, play it back and record on another track at
the same time. OK sound. Great for diddling around with
a guitar and mike. Box, manual and power wart.
Pic2 |
$95 |
| Car
4-channel stereo amplifier and equalizer. 120 wpc.
Comes with manual. |
$45 |
| Pioneer
CT-F950 Cassette Deck. Like new! One owner unit with
original box and operators manual. Doesn't get any
better than this one.
Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
Pic4
Pic5 SOLD! More CTF-950's coming soon! |
$395 |
Tascam 112 Mastering Cassette Deck. Like
new! Pitch control, Dolby B/C, Rack mount, original box.
Copy of manual. SOLD! |
$295 |
| |
|
|
|
Email me at
mailto:randyr@randallareed.com for any questions. |
|
|
|
