16-02-2020, 04:35 PM
(16-02-2020, 03:20 PM)ppppenguin Wrote: My view is that if you want a high quality cassette recorder, then don't use one with permanent magnet erase in the first place. if the designers intended it to be hgh quality they would have fitted a proper erase head.Agreed. Silk purses and Sows Ears come to mind. I'm not interested in cassette for its own sake, though some folks are. I've hardly played a cassette or recorded in 20 years. I got an Archos 160 GB HDD based PMP/Video/browser 14 years ago, better than portable CD. Battery died a couple of years ago, but replaced by phone before that.
If you're interested in cassette as a medium and want to use it for recording at better than dictaphone quality then use a decent deck.
I have a Zoom H4N for portable recording (uncompressed Wav) and an external Creative USB box with line I/O, optical I/O, mic & ear (uncompressed Wav).
I'd use the Sony TC186SD if I wanted something on tape, though I might fix the Awia M700 if I thought I could (I have the new belts) and it made much difference.
It was the Roberts RC818 (Sangean AT818CS) that made me wonder. It's not bad but let down by the magnet erasing. Not likely to matter if recording from SW and if I REALLY wanted something off VHF-FM radio, I have a PC beside a standalone HiFi tuner and also laptop beside an almost HiFi mini-JVC system.
Probably even 256 kbps MP3 on my phone is better than any cassette? More recent MP3 from CD is 320 k. Though I'm more likely to play from Laptop into the HiFi as I don't go out much and when I do, too short a journey for music.
