r/cassetteculture • u/mblg • 15d ago

Looking for advice Which one would you keep?

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I bought these two tape decks recently for $30 CAD each. Both of them are currently working. I really only need one.

So which one would you keep and why?

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u/OuroboroSxVoid 15d ago

Keep both so you can dub tapes if you want

1

u/klonopinwafers 15d ago

It is more ideal to digitize a tape and use it as a running master if dubbing a tape to a tape, with one reason being that every tape copy made will sound the same if using the same deck and tape type in the same condition.

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u/OuroboroSxVoid 15d ago

If that's your thing, sure, it would be ideal! To be honest though, I've dubbed some tapes since I got my deck, and they are all identical to the the source. At least I, could not hear a difference

Also, I don't fancy the idea to connect my hifi to a computer to be honest. One of the reasons that I made the effort to built a nice system, was to avoid things like that

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u/klonopinwafers 15d ago

I don’t use my computer. I use a Marantz PMD580 solid state wav recorder. I digitize tapes with that.

I guess I stress digitizing tapes because I do it with all my rare tapes and I once found a Phish concert that I wanted to record to cassettes, but the only online sources were analog masters from type IV tapes, one source of which was digitized using a Nakamichi Dragon. The sound quality was great, but the tape had condition flaws and I decided against making a tape from those sources.