Commercial grade reliability and durability. Very good sound. Rack mountable. Mic compatible. Excellent copy maker.

If audiophile nervosa has you by the throat, you may need to buy a Nakamichi.

My vehicle came with a cassette deck, so I decided to get a good machine to make tapes. Prerecorded cassette tapes are the pits, but this deck makes tapes that are a couple of nitches up the ladder. I dare you to tell the difference between the tapes this deck makes and CD's when you are rumbling down the road in an automobile. The casette is also more immune from vibration. You give up instant search functionc, but if you record your cassettes in the order that I do, there is really no need to skip around. The deck makes copies that are almost exact duplicates of the original, even at double speed. I am easily able to make copies for other people. The mic inputs are useful for making voice recordings. This unit is way ahead of the consumer crap that floods the market. In nearly 7 years of use, I have had no trouble. Maybe not as good sounding as megabuck Nakamichi decks, but good ehough for 99% of users.

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Harmon Kardon

Lots of useful features, good build quality, smooth operation, front microphone jacks, dolby HX Pro

Only two heads, no bias trim to fix top octive.

I have never much liked the cassette medium. The frequency response was limited and there is too much noise. It is a limitation of the medium. My dislike was such that I never even owned one in a car. Then I leased a new truck. It came with a tape deck instead of a CD player. So, I bought a used Tascam 202 mk III dual well two head deck. (I paid $125 for it, which beats the heck out of the $600 retail) I figured Teac’s professional studio brand would be pretty good. And I was right. It did a credible job of reproducing CDs and vinyl records for use in the truck. And for most sources, it was good enough for home use. But, I started purchasing (from a local used record store) half speed vinyl masters pressed by Mobile High Fidelity Labs and some Sheffield direct to disc albums. The Tascam made a valliant effort, but couldn't quite get the job done. So, I bought a used Nakamichi RX-505. Once I had the NAK repaired and cleaned up, it blew the Tascam away. The NAK shows the flaws in the Tascam, which is that the Tascam runs out of steam in the top octive. On the other hand, the NAK has three tape heads, and cost three times as much in 1985 dollars, which is 5 times as much now. Other than that, the Tascam is a very good deck, particularly at its on the street price. A quick trip to Best Buy or the Good Guys will bear out that it is far better than the junk they sell for the casual user's home. The Tascam is well built, has lots of features, and the transport works flawlessly, quietly and quickly. The features include: recording two masters at the same time; high speed (2X) tape duplication; two microphone inputs where they belong, on the front; input volume level and balance controls; dolby B and C with HX Pro; and intro check, CD synchronization and blank scan. The front mic jacks have proven useful particularly for recording speakers and meetings. I currently use the Tascam to transcribe tapes to CD through my computer.

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Nakamichi RX-505; Harman Kardon hk 200xm

Outstanding build and sound quality for the money. You can make better tapes than you buy at the music store. Has all the features you really need for making great tapes and dubs.

No remote control. Rack mount ears may look a bit out of place in your consumer equipment rack with your other gear. #2 well (dubbing well) has a slightly greater hum level than #1 well, but not noticeable unless you are really listening for it. Use #1 well for making originals.

Mine is the Mk III model. This is a fabulous tape deck for the money. It is far better than the consumer grade crap for sale in the chain stores for about half of what this unit costs. It makes good sense to upgrade to this professional unit and get some good motors and heads. It also has microphone inputs which are history on most consumer decks. The tapes it makes are noticeably superior to prerecorded tapes if you have a high quality source to record from. I bought my unit new in 98 and have had not one bit of trouble in that time. This is a very common deck in professional installations such as radio stations or small home recording setups that a musician might have for making practice and demo tapes. The dubs it makes are almost identical to the original.

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A Harman Kardon unit not nearly as versatile or reliable.