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  • Author Author: Jan Cumps
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Photos of a late 80's cassette deck

Jan Cumps

I opened my cassette deck today, to remove the dust it collected.
I took some photos:

image image

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It's grown a beard:

image

The inside is perfectly clean, but the cassette well has collected a lot of lint. A bit surprising, because other gear in my house typically collects powder dust, not this.
It has the same colour as the felt that's used in cassettes to push the tape against the head. Could it be that?

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  • That was quite a high end deck inits day:

    https://www.cassettedeck.org/luxman/k-112

    $600 new.

    The electronics don't look very high end now - there's been a lot of progress in some ways in the last 30 years Slight smile

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    The electronics don't look very high end now - there's been a lot of progress in some ways in the last 30 years Slight smile

    The audio path of a cassette deck is fairly simple. No strange frequencies or high demand on the bandwidth. Bias requirements well defined and easy to implement.
    The Dolby circuits were somewhat involved, but manufacturers had to source those from a limited set of licensed integrated circuits providers anyway.
    On my deck, there are two Dolby ICs, both manufactured by Sony.

    This tape deck has two heads combined in a single housing: a record and playback part.

    image

    It allows to monitor the recording real time. You can listen to what's being written on tape.
    It doesn't (opinion :) ) give better playback sound. But when recording, it makes it easier to set up recording level and fine-tune the bias. It's easier to make a good recording.

    That said, any cheap digital device does a better, easier and more consistent job at that anyways. 
    Like driving an old-timer. Any modern car does a better job. But not necessary with the same fun.

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  • in reply to michaelkellett

    The electronics don't look very high end now - there's been a lot of progress in some ways in the last 30 years Slight smile

    The audio path of a cassette deck is fairly simple. No strange frequencies or high demand on the bandwidth. Bias requirements well defined and easy to implement.
    The Dolby circuits were somewhat involved, but manufacturers had to source those from a limited set of licensed integrated circuits providers anyway.
    On my deck, there are two Dolby ICs, both manufactured by Sony.

    This tape deck has two heads combined in a single housing: a record and playback part.

    image

    It allows to monitor the recording real time. You can listen to what's being written on tape.
    It doesn't (opinion :) ) give better playback sound. But when recording, it makes it easier to set up recording level and fine-tune the bias. It's easier to make a good recording.

    That said, any cheap digital device does a better, easier and more consistent job at that anyways. 
    Like driving an old-timer. Any modern car does a better job. But not necessary with the same fun.

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