The proper thing to do would be to pay that someone to fix it before it's sold. Or disclose the need for repair, and deduct the repair costs from the sale price. Not say to an unsuspecting buyer, "so sad for you....you might want to get that fixed."Originally Posted by 3LockBox
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Umm... sure. I never said, "rip 'em off". But yeah, a repaired Nak is miles better than what's available for new.
My Akai deck was working great a few months ago, but I need to recone my speakers when I get a chance.
Forget the cassette, get an Akai dual platter CD recorder with excellent A/D’s, and an excellent standalone phono preamp.
The problem with those standalone CD recorders is they require those expensive "music" CD-Rs. Contrary to popular myth, the high cost of those CD-Rs has nothing to do with quality. It's a piracy tax paid to the RIAA. Not to mention when a recording is already committed to a disc, the music can't be normalized. Nor can the pops and clicks be cleaned up.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Did a toe-in-the-water thing today and bought a pair of KEF LS50 Wireless II to replace some Edifier speakers. They sound really nice. Very clear and transparent. Not sure if I will get a sub, the KC62 would probably be the one. I was quite happy to see that it found my Logitech Media Server and I can stream to it. I'm not a streaming service subscriber, I was mostly after powered and higher quality.
I also ordered a pair of KEF R3 Metas. They sounded awesome in the store with a wide range of music. Don't think I will need a sub with those, although my amp might be a little unhappy. But I can revisit that.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Awesome - I had also demo'd the KEFs and they do sound great - I just can't let go of my Wharfedales.
Gotta report back when you've hooked em up
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
First once you talk about ticks and pops, music is fu&cked anyway. It is very easy to rip the record via A/D into the computer, before burning the CD. So why use a cassette anyway.
Technically those KEF LS50 wireless II looked excellent. The idea of designing in signal processing in an active speaker is interesting. https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/kef-ls50-wireless-ii
As previously stated, I plan on using the 3 head deck to play my large collection of pre-recorded cassettes. A couple of days ago I ripped Jon Anderson's Change We Must in 24/96 Hi-Res. Then used the app DDi Codec to accurately decode the Dolby C noise reduction. Breathtaking sound would be a gross understatement. 90s and early 2000s cassettes would be roughly equivalent to vinyl versions of 80s recordings, or modern vinyl versions. There are of course some exceptions. Eric Johnson's Ah Via Musicom sounds like the CD master was transferred directly to cassette. It's a matter of accurately undoing the harshness of Dolby Noise Reduction. Every cassette deck I've heard muddies and/or muffles the sound with NR engaged. Including the 3 head machine I just acquired.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
My daughter got into cassettes for a while, but mostly to listen to prerecorded tapes. A few years I saw used tapes go from 2/$1.00 to 3 or 4 bucks each. No thank you. I have some pretty decent new/old stock blanks that I bought for her but real-time recording just never appealed to her. There are a few YT channels where guys are extolling the virtues of home recording on cassettes but they all are using Revox or Nakamichi or a high-end version of Pioneer, Onkyo or Akai or whatever. And they're all recording from digital sources.
Cassette recording will never approach the professional reel to reel recording specs for high speed tape recording and were used as the specs for DSD (SACD) recording (100 KHz Bandwidth, 100 Db dynamic range or SNR). DSD is still superior because the impulse response is near perfect.
I actually own a Teac 3300 open reel deck, still fully functional. If I grew a wild hair up my butt and decided to start recording tapes again, that's the deck I would use.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
As long as you could afford high quality blank tape.
I saw on one of YT channels that you can still buy prerecorded open real albums. I don't remember the website.
I've acquired open reel tapes from multiple sources. Local used record stores and record shows, and discogs and ebay. I of course do a cost-benefit analysis when buying a tape. If for example it's 3 3/4 IPS, and it's $10 to $20 more than the equivalent vinyl record, I see no point in bothering with the tape. A 7 1/2 IPS tape may be worth paying an extra $10 to $20, depending on the title. Also depending on whether there's a Hi-Res download available. And whether the Hi-Res download is a remaster, which doesn't sound as good as the original.
Last edited by progmatist; 10-04-2023 at 02:32 PM.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
For any who own Tetra 333s or 222s (the top half of the 333s), they're offering an upgrade that has made a major difference to an already amazing listening intstrument. The new 333 more closely resembles the next level 606, just smaller in footprint and not intended for the same level of volume.
I took the plunge back in early July, and am so glad I did. The price was reasonable for what you get (under $1,000CAD), as they replace the original 222 woofer, which was chopped flat on the top and bottom and is now a fully round speaker. The bass delivery is much better without being overwhelming or excessive, and I'm so happy I did the upgrade. Even with the 111 bottoms, the now fatter 222s are just that much better now. Still a very neutral speaker, which is one of the reasons I love them, but they're now more balanced. And using my Leama Tucana II integrated amplifier (two mono blocks in a single enclosure), I can only say that I was a touch reticent as I thought "how can they make the any better?"...but they did.
And the turnaround is fast. Living in Ottawa, I just had them picked up and the upgraded 222s were back in my hands the following day.
Just a quick note for any 222/333 owners that this upgrade is well worth considering. It really is like getting a new set of speakers for a very reasonable price.
John Kelman
Senior Contributor, All About Jazz since 2004
Freelance writer/photographer
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
My adventure continues. The KEF LS50 wireless II with the KC62 sub are super nice to fill the living room with sound. It's kind of funny how some albums really flip the sub into overdrive, not the ones I expect.
The R3 Meta's are really nice too. They are in more of my 'sit and listen' room. The Yamaha RX-A2000 av receiver I have drives them ok, but I decided to take the plunge on a newer integrated amp.
The Arcam Sa30 ( and their integrated SA amp line ) is sort of being blown out to make room for new models. So I got one, 33% off. It should drive the R3 Meta's just fine. And it will offer a UPNP device for my streaming setup. It will do a bunch of services too, but I don't subscribe to any. It will do Roon ( as will the LS50's ) , and that might be interesting.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Isn't that the truth. When I added a powered subwoofer flat to 16Hz, I started discovering all sorts of new truths. Albums I had previously used for "demonstration discs" -- albums like "Fragile" or "Emerson Lake & Palmer" or "Fish Out of Water" -- I discovered really have no signal below 50Hz. In fact, it's extraordinarily-rare to find any album mastered for LP with ANY first octave content (16-32Hz), because that was intentionally filtered out due to the limitations of record cutting.
On the other hand, sub-sonics pop up in the most unexpected places. I have an album of harp solos, recorded in a studio or hall with a hollow wooden floor, and you can CLEARLY hear the harpist engaging the floor pedals....
Excellent ears!
Yes, the combo of the hollow stage and the harp will do that. Harps are of course very good at turning small vibrations into sound…the large soundboard and sound chamber are naturally all about magnifying the sound of the strings being plucked, but any sound such as taps on the soundboard (for percussive effects) is amplified as well.
Most people have little awareness of the pedals, what they do, and how carefully a harpist needs to be to continually adjust them to allow for playing accidentals in whatever piece is being played. Because the mechanisms are large, relatively heavy, tall (they go up to the neck to adjust the pins), and sprung-loaded, they can easily be noisy in the hands (feet!) of less-skilled players, even on quiet stages. But put one on a hollow stage and yes, even careful movement can resonate because of all those movements and vibrations.
Keeping all those moving parts moving properly and quietly is no small feat; harp regulation is expensive and time consuming and only for an expert. (They generally travel around the county doing regulations)
^^ Plucking the strings is pretty straight forward. There are only 7 notes at any given moment on a harp. Compared to 12 notes on a keyboard. What's extremely difficult is operating the 7 pedals. Which raise the 7 notes and their octaves to their sharps, or lower them to their flats. Setting aside minimizing pedal noise, dropping an E to an Eb at just the right moment is itself a daunting task. In 12 tone or "atonal" music, one's feet get a major workout.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Absolutely. Excellent points. The pedals and the way they work mean that glissandos can be unbelievably lovely, because one can arrange the pedals so that there are no “bum” notes, which also means several adjacent strings become the same note, thus making it lusher, ala a 12-string guitar.
The pedals are generally a significant headache for a harpist, But when playing jazz those same pedals become the only way to bend notes. It is not easy to do because that “daunting task” you mention is hard enough when trying to get clean notes. The last thing you want to do is play a string before the pedal has finished moving. Yet paradoxically, the only way to bend a note is by doing the opposite: playing a note and then moving the pedal. The harpist’s technique on the pedal must be very good to get the right bend, and not a terrible sound.
(My sister is a professional classical and jazz harpist, hence my awareness. She has played with Nils Lofgren, Linda Ronstadt, and a number of other artists and ensembles.)
The Arcam SA30 arrived, and I spent some time rearranging the setup. The Yamaha RX-A2000 was my foray into surround. I very rarely used it and removing the extra speaker wires cleaned things up.
The Yamaha drove the R3 Metas ok and I was expecting some difference with the SA30. I was not disappointed. Wow, a much larger difference. I lot clearer sound, pretty much better all around even at lower volume.
I'm going to give the Dirac room correction a try later. It also may make a difference. The room is far from perfect.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
I think the only harpists that I've seen live are Joanna Newsom and Loreena McKennitt. I consider myself to be very lucky to have seen them.
I like Andreas Vollenweider.
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