Cassette Player

jimz61 · 02-08-2005, 01:35 PM

Ok all you old Deadheads...

25 years ago I purchased a Nakamichi BX300 3-head cassette player as a componant for my home stereo. It was state-of-the-art at the time and it gave me 2 decades of great performance. I still have a reasonably nice collection of live concert tapes on cassette, as well as albums recorded onto cassette (from my younger days). To my great enjoyment, my kids are now beginning to discover this collection of fine music. But a few years ago the Nak finally died. Sure I can still play tapes in my vehicles, but what choices do we have today for cassette player/recorders for home systems? Heck, I don't even know if one can still purchase blank tapes!

Anyone know?

-Jim

vash · vash's Garage

which nakamichi flipped to the other side of the tape by physically turning the tape around? dragon? i cant remember. anyhow, i bet you can find it cheap!

id10t · 02-09-2005, 08:55 AM

Check pawn shops, etc. for a player, then hook it up to your computer and go from tape to .wav file and .wav file to CD.

M.D. Holloway · 02-09-2005, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by id10t
...hook it up to your computer and go from tape to .wav file and .wav file to CD.

interesting - how do you hard wire it? Can you take the output and feed it to the mic input? If so, is there an impedence issue? I would love to be able to do this.

legion · 02-09-2005, 09:16 AM

I don't know if you want to put it into the mic input. My sound card has an "audio out", "audio in", and "mic in". I would plug the tape deck into the "audio in". My father-in-law recently transferred all of his out-of-print records to CD using this method. (He also used some mastering software to make the .wav files.)

Groesbeck Hurricane · 02-09-2005, 09:17 AM

The Dragon and the 202 flipped the tapes, if I remember correctly. I LOVE my BX300!!! Still going strong.

Copy to CD, best way. Make sure you have a nice deck to play from.

jimz61 · 02-09-2005, 09:21 AM

legion,

You're saying your father in law was able to plug his turntable directly into his computer?!?! We need more info! If one can really plug in the cassette player or turntable to copy to CD, I'm a happy guy!!

How is it done?
What software is needed?

Thanks!
-Jim

Jay H · 02-09-2005, 10:01 AM

I'm a cassette deck freak too... My beloved Onkyo Integra TA-2070 finally wore out several years ago...

I bought a device that takes any analog source and allows you to input it into your PC and burn CD's or turn it into most PC audio types of files (MP3, .wav and Apples's iPod format among others).

The device has RCA inputs and connects to the PC via a USB cable. The analog source comes into this PC powered box and is transfered via USB into the PC and uses Nero software to edit and burn. You record your source on your PC and then can burn to CD. Or, you can record and then transform the audio to any type of audio file. Monitoring can be done via a set of RCA outputs on the device/box or via your PC's sound card.

It will accept a low level signal from a turntable as well and they really market it as a way to get your vinyl pressed to CD. I've taken quite a few of my old, non-replaceable cassettes and burned them to disc.

Jay
90 964

legion · 02-09-2005, 10:08 AM

I'll ask him what software/computer hardware he needed/used. I do know that he used his 30 year old turn-table in the process. I remember him explaining the software to me and it took two scans of the record and composited them together. I remember him saying it took something like 10 hours to do an LP, but the results were very good.

M.D. Holloway · 02-09-2005, 10:11 AM

Jay: Info on the device you speak of please

jimz61 · 02-09-2005, 10:12 AM

Jay,

It sounds like you have the ticket. Can you provide a name for that device?
Where did you get it?

id10t · 10:21 AM

Anything that has audio out that can be converted to 1/8 miniplug can be plugged into your sound card. I use the "line in" or "audio in" not the mic line. Then, you just need software to capture the sound. Under windows, soundforge is great. Then it is a simple matter of playing and recording to a wav file, then using whatever CD burning app you have to make an audio cd. Audacity (http://freshmeat.net/projects/audacity/) is cross platform and can do the capture, it can also clean up hiss/pops/background garbage.

Jay H · 10:34 AM

It is an ADS Technologies Instant Music RDX150. I purchased it at www.jr.com for $49.88 It uses Nero software.

The only shortcoming is that my cassette output is a bit much for the input on the device and sometimes the record level on the Nero software will clip, causing some distortion. I use a very cheap $39 Behringer pro audio mixer to just reduce the levels a bit. I run the RCA out from my analog source into the mixer, reduce the master outputs on the mixer just a bit and then run the RCA outs from the mixer into the Instant Music device. For purists, it might ad a bit of noise due to having another signal device in the path, but my old analog stuff is so noisy (just due to it's format) and age deterioration, that I doubt anyone could hear the mixer in the signal path anyway. Adding the mixer also allows me to eq poor recordings.

It's only $50, so it has it's limitations, but I've been able to transfer quite a few irreplaceable items to CD with good results. There are more expensive transfer devices and software but this is giving me good results (and I'm picky on my audio). The audio editing features (fade out, cut, paste, etc) are good enough too for what I use it for. For my total investment of $90, it's not bad.

An RCA cable comes with this unit and it has a ground wire attached for your turntable. It does come with it's own USB cable and is self powered by the PC (no wall wart power supply for example).

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with any of these manufacturers, just a satisfied user.

Just buying software that will transfer what you can run into your sound card could be less hassle too. However, this device seems to be a good transfer device for low level turntable applications.

Hope this helps,

Jay
90 964

RickM · RickM's Garage

Also, there are lots of shareware, free ware and feeware to help clean-up the transfered music. Goldwave is one I've heard good things about over the years.

Here'a nice write up: http://www.seneschal.net/papers/restoration.htm

Overpaid Slacker · 02-09-2005, 11:14 AM

Check recent Audiogon listings...

They've got BX-300s and Dragons...

JP

jimz61 · 02-09-2005, 01:03 PM

Anyone know any other devices to look at besides JayH's ADS Technologies RDX150?