I have used this machine for mainly backing up rare original commercial cassettes as well as custom tapes I have made.

It is a heavy duty machine with good specs all around, dependable and the pitch control is essential as some tapes were recorded on less than dependable machines which had obvious pitch deviations.

My only issue is a problem that arose , possibly has been an issue since I bought it as I found it 2nd hand online. I can't record properly as the levels cut in and out so maybe a component problem on the board. I can enable the automatic compressor (ALC) and I can record but that's not ideal. 0.

rugged. clean. Intelligent auto record level

latency between button press and action

folks,

This is just to tell you that the pMD502 does have an AMS type fuction. Essentially you ahve to double click the FF or REW button. Shoulda read the manual.

:P

Similar Products Used:

sony decks

Rugged, clean sound, nice displays and controls

No AMS!

So far this deck sounds very clean. It presents much better dynamics than our sony decks. The build quality is also very nice. If you like the mid-late seventies type of rugged products, this is much like one.

Having Auto Mute Search is a pretty invaluble tool when you are doing live gigs. I wish this deck had that. Also, there seems to be a 1 sec delay between hitting the buttons (rev, ff, play etc) and the effect. A bit anoyying, but pluses outweight these flaws.

Similar Products Used:

Sony decks

Well-lit buttons, exception display, one of the best automatic record levels (ALC) that I have ever used!

slow eject, optional XLR-connectors cost +$100

This is one of my favorite tape decks... when running live sound, it keeps me from having to constantly watch my tape deck levels.

The PMD-502 does an EXCEPTIONAL job of watching the levels for you, while maintaining some semblance of headroom. In my opinion, it does a better (and smoother) job of watching the levels, than if you had another audio technician standing right over the levels and adjusting for peaks. And it does all this without significant compression, or noticable "squashing" of the recorded program.

Not the cheapest, but it packs a lot of value for the dollar and is easy to use. Reliable manufacturer (Marantz) and a reliable product, as well. Probably would quickly become one of your favorites, too!

Similar Products Used:

Technics, Tascam, Denon, Sony, et. al.