New TASCAM 202ᴍᴋVII cassette deck - Detailed review
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- Опубликовано: 31 июл 2024
- A new dual cassette deck released in 2018 by TEAC's professional division, TASCAM -- the 202mkVII (also sold as the TEAC W-1200). It features soft-touch full-logic controls, the ability to record onto two cassettes simultaneously (Parallel Recording), support for playing all types of tapes and recording on Type I normal bias and Type II Chrome/high bias tapes, and a new noise reduction system for playback that claims to be equivalent to Dolby B NR.
UPDATE: The TEAC W-1200 cassette deck (the same thing as the TASCAM 202mkVII minus the Special Playback feature and rack mounting ears) is now available in the U.S. for $100 less than the TASCAM version. See my detailed review of the W-1200: • New TEAC W-1200 casset...
CORRECTION: The mechanisms are made by CSG, not Tanashin. (Tanashin has not manufactured any new cassette mechanisms since around 2009.) See my video about the TEAC W-1200 for more information.
Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
2:44 Unboxing
4:06 Features
5:51 Front panel controls
7:44 Remote control
8:11 Mechanisms
9:30 Tape types
10:20 Rear panel
10:37 First test
14:29 Speed accuracy
15:50 Azimuth
16:44 Noise reduction
19:07 Playback test
21:27 A look inside
23:38 Recording test
25:46 Conclusion
Intro music by Julian Croot ("80s Inspired Retro Synth Track").
#tascam #cassette #deck 
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So I recently dug up my old Aiwa ADF880 cassette deck, just to demonstrate to my 14 y/old son. He was interested as he saw Guardians of the Galaxy and wanted to make a mix-tape :). A trip down memory lane, allthough looked like a dead-end as the deck was in almost complete no-motion. It wiggled a little but didn't start playback. Sure enough, the belt set was toast, completely liquified. Yes, a project! Found the belts, ordered and got to work with son. Great exercise, trying to scrub liquid rubber off the flywheel. It worked out well, he made a mix-tape on a brand-new cassette I still had (yes, taking off the wrapper, hmm). If you have been playing around burning your own CDs in the late nineties, then moving to MP3 players and finally into the todays streaming age, it's kinda neat doing this again. Great history lesson! But practical? Not really
Awesome. I love cassette tapes
I was making mix dvds after ripping audios from my dads huge cd collection & selecting my favourite tracks then converting them to mp3 & burning them to 4.7gb dvds that i would play at home or in dad's car. The last one i did was in 2015 & i was 12yo backthen. I still have the last dvd & two reels of sealed dvds & cds i will probably never open in next 30yrs.
I wish Technics will start producing cassette decks.....
Still have my 1990 Technics dual cassette deck.
A used Pioneers a good bet- ebay or similar.
Just bought a 1986 Technics the other day for $5. Love it
Likewise! I have a RS-TR575 Dual Cassette Deck which was high-end back in '94-ish.... still works perfectly - no head wear, and even has auto tape callibration so it can adapt to various types of tape nicely.... It's not a top-quality 3-head machine sadly, but it still makes fantastic recordings, and only cost me about £100 brand new a year or so ago...(and you should see the dual heavyweight flywheels on each deck!!)......so good as that Tascam/Teac machine is, there are still some fabulous 'retro' bargains to be had....
Just never buy a NAD cassette deck. They've made some beautiful amps and CD players but boy their cassette decks 😳👀
I love the irony of an alignment cassette with a misaligned label.
This is probably one of the best modern cassette decks that uses the Tanashin mechanism in terms of features.
I love the smell of a freshly opened new cassette
HDXFH cassettes are awful.
smell of cancer
@Proteus Hellene you can get new ones from wallgreens in the use, just feric though
I think that’s “I love the smell of oxide in the morning”
I'm your 147th who agree with you :-)
Good ol' cassette tapes, I hope this format never dies for good.
Agreed. But at the same time, I wish it never makes a massive comeback with cheap china junk stuff like the way records have.
Well, CoolDudeClem, luckily your hope is going to be granted. In fact, it already has been. NAC is churning out literally millions of cassettes, blank and pre-recorded every year. There are thousands of new fans all over the world every day when they discover they can hold something in their hands that contains the music.... Humans will always be humans and somehow, they like things they can hug...
Marc Hugo Hitachi for being considered low in back then was actually better than what some other manufacturers were producing.
Very true CabinDoor. A thousand downloads is worth nothing really. What can be touched and held up has value. "Virtual" is not real by definition, soi here we have a software version of "a miss is a good as a mile". Hang on to that music collection of yours.
+CabinDoor A vinyl or cassette collection has value mainly because of its replacement cost. Vinyl and blank cassettes cost something to manufacture, and vinyl cost depends on the price of petroleum oil. It's not the distorted, imperfect audio stored on these media that has value (except for its value as intellectual property).
*UPDATE:* The TEAC W-1200 cassette deck (the same thing as the TASCAM 202mkVII minus the Special Playback feature and rack mounting ears) is now available in the U.S. for $399 or less.
so it is back in 2018 ? i heard compact discs is going to be gone very soon
The TEAC and TASCAM decks are identical except for minor differences in features and the TASCAM having rack mounting rails while the TEAC does not. The doors should be removable on all of them.
Going back to 1991 ... for 350€, Pioneer sold the excellent CT-757, the successor to the already-great CT-737 Mk.II. Good times to be a music lover.
VWestlife do you reel to
Do you have reel to reel tape recorder and player
Very well made review. Cassette playback sound is surprisingly impressive.
Just wanted to say, I've been watching your videos for some time now. I have no idea about audio equipment, but I really appreciate the time you take in being very thorough in your reviews. It's more education than people get nowadays when it comes to even basic electronics.
I’ve been enjoying cassette tapes since I was a teenager in the late 70’s and still enjoy using them ❤️🌈☮️
Unboxing videos are not stupid. They are very enjoyable to watch and are useful to potential buyers.
It's very therapeutic and relaxing to watch somebody unbox a product. It's useful to see what accessories come with the product as well as how the product is packaged, especially if someone is considering having the item shipped. Also to see what kind of setup is required if you are planning to buy it as a gift.
But there are plenty of other kinds of videos you can get your ASMR from.
@@vwestlifeI see that your post is 5 years ago 😊, I just wanted to share my experience concerning type IV tape.
I bought a couple (literally a 2 pack) just to try them out. Personally my hearing wasn't good enough to distinguish the difference between type II and type IV.
Anyway on to my experience trying them. Mine as mentioned a two pack brand new. The deck if memory serves was a Radio Shack Optimus single well auto reverse "I think" SCT-88. As I did my research for belt replacement (yep, the original turned to tar/black goo). It was essentially a rebranded Awia RD-40. It couldn't completely blank the type IV (if I re-recorded it), however the initial recording was great.
As I understood type IV's main purpose was to archive recordings because the tape formula was not as prone to fade (loose the recorded signal) or be damaged by potential stray magnetic fields.
This was great. I'm the only person I know that still has a cassette deck in the rack. I was curious about this Tascam and was delighted to see your review. Many thanks for the guided tour!
Randy Novick i still use a tape dec. i use it to recoard music.
its a technics m11 tape dec an it works well. vary well
Randy you, not the only one I even still have my VHS recorder too
My main studio recording deck is a Denon from 96. The fun ones are the Califone library deck with 7(!) headphone outs, Landscape HC-TT, which is a motorless hand cranked tape instrument (Human Controlled Tape Transport) and a Panasonic tabletop player. The Califone I have for the pitch control, the Landscape is for vinyl type scratching and I sometimes mic up the speaker on the Panasonic. All of this is in my music studio, which also includes a reel to reel and a cheap 4 track porta studio. About to order this 202 Mk VII. The pitch control (very rare) and simultaneous playback sound fun. Too bad there's no third head and monitoring for echo effects.
You definately are not the only one. I still have 4 cassette decks - Teac V-1050, Aiwa AD-S950, Yamaha KX-580 and Technics RS-BX501. All but the Technics are connected and in still in use (no more room for this).
abraham oriowo, When my reel-to-reel died, I started using a hi-fi VCR for my long recordings. Just don’t turn on the TV. Even though I have digital recording equipment, and I don’t use my Super VHS for audio anymore, I’ve added three more reel-to-reels. I love the things.
Your videos keep the format alive! Thanks for being you, VWestlife!
Wow, Vwestlide went in deep on this cassette deck. Good job in going into details & even taking it apart to show the internal. 👍
Two years later, I still found this review very useful. One aspect of the 202 MkVII which you overlooked was the tape-to-PC digital conversion. There seems to be an industry agreement designed to deter illegal duplication of digital audio CDs, limiting their digital output to 128kbps MP3 (i.e. the TASCAM CD-A580). Because this unit and the TEAC W-1200 only use analog cassette sources, the USB digital output can support higher-resolution file types such as WAV and FLAC. As for sound quality, I think this unit is comparable to most entry-level cassette decks of the 1980s including dual-well unit, which is to say it's a pretty good stereo deck if not TOTL. The well-used vintage TOTL decks from the "good old days" are going to be very hard and expensive to repair due to lack of parts and shrinking number of qualified repair techs, but this TASCAM and TEAC will probably be easily maintained and supported for many years to come. If I wanted a brand-new deck, I'd buy the W-1200.
but is it as good as a Nakamichi MR-2?
@@defiverr4697 IMHO, No.
I stopped short of buying a vintage machine off of eBay because let's face it, those machines from the late 70's really weren't designed to last 50 years. Like anything else, they wear out and become too fragile. I want a new model, but will wait a couple of years to see if we get any better choices. I might get a MiniDisc thru eBay just for the fun factor.
I am expecting mine this month. I ordered it a year ago. It is my intention to put this to use transferring my cassette and record collection to digital and onto flash drives. All of my vehicles have CD players and USB unputs. My Nakamichi needs to be warmed up and then it may just quit. I look forward to enjoying the 300+ 90 minute Maxell UD xl tapes I recorded so many albums on through the 80's and 90's.
Wow, one of the very best reviews I've seen in youtube. Thank you for the information.
Less than 30 seconds in and I already hear the voices of 2 of my favorite youtubers
The spec may not be the best we have seen. But i believe the points are; as of 2018, we can actually buy a brand new double cassette deck that is reliable on this planet, and for us to know some company still care and have balls and passions to produce cassette deck. love your unboxing video by the way.
*JOY* MUSIC yes, that fact that you can buy a brand new deck that isn’t a cheap piece of crap is a good thing even some features that some people want are missing. None of these missing features a absolute must haves in my opinion.
Hi Kevin congratulations on one million views. It’s a testament of how excellent your videos are!!
That is a very good review. You covered a lot of stuff, and explained it well. Thanks for the inside view of the circuit board (it looked like a lot of full sized ICs) and it's adjustment pots, and tape drive mechanism.
You know… i just recently made a mixtape for a girl. And even if she has no tapedeck it was still kindly & happily appreciated as a gift. 90 Minutes of well selected music arranged in a particular order with the goal to give one heck of a FANTASTIC listening experience. Making the playlist is great. But nothing beats the moment of actually recording it :)
A friend of mine is a big Greenday fan. Still. I wouldn't do that if I were her but still, the band makes her happy. I wanted to get her something she didn't have yet so I got her the original 1992 Dookie tape. She didn't have a cassette deck so I added a walkman, batteries, earbuds and I sent the whole package of the UK (which is there the tape came from to start with, oh well :D). She adored the gift. Good!
You are re-living the magic that I had in 1990/1991 with regards to Tape Decks. My GF (eventually My Wife) didn't appreciate CrO2 or Dolby or what not, but she loved the selected music arranged in a particular order. And Playback was awesome. I listened on Hi-Fi Stereo and in the Car; she had a Midland Boombox at her home that blew away all the competition at the time. Great Bass Response, Plus ''Stereo-Wide'' on it as well. Glory Days for sure.
Yeah this is probably what i'm gonna do as well :) Picking a good walkman (or personal stereo) with a pair of good headphones and giving it to her. So she won't pick up some crap like these "mp3 conversion" thingies with the tapehead glued to the "play" button....
I find it irksome when people call a cd compilation a ¨mix tape¨.
Those were some of the more happy days of my life and I am sure you will help her to choose well. My GF/Wife already had the Midland Boombox but I could not, for the life of me, believe how well the sound emanated from that early '90's Boombox. Midland, after all, was known to manufacture CB Radio's. But this Boombox was unsurpassed and unparalleled back in its day. It made Bose and Boston Acoustic (things that came after it) sound lame (at a fraction of their price). And MP3 Files... well they are Compressed anyway. Always have been and always will be. Until the FLAC format finally kills off MP3, a lot of the ''unsuspecting'' will continue to listen to Compressed Audio. A pity. Give me 2 Loudspeakers, a CARVER AMP, A Couple of Hundred WATTS, along with some DQ-10's, and until then......... ;-)
I may not have lived in the generation, but I appreciate and listen to cassettes on the daily
What a great review! Very informative. I've always had a love affair with audio electronics but I never used them for anything other than simple recording and playback, meaning most of the specialized features went unused. This is def a pretty solid looking unit, and considering the market for new cassette decks, dual or not, is so small, I'd say the higher price is well worth it even just for nostalgia!
One of my favorite things about listening to tapes when I was young was when I loaded the tape in, it felt like i was loading a gun lol
Hulk Slayer me like closing car door
Hulk Slayer stop taking the drugs, lol
You haven't tried using a camcorder in the 90s and swapping out rechargable batteries, and imagining you are handling ammo clips.
😆 true, true!!
Well at least it's not bad. If my old jvc cassette deck decides to give up, i would definetly buy this or the upcoming budget version. Just because it's new with factory warranty and probably will last for at least 5-10 years. Thanks for the great review West.
I was impressed with the sound quality of the recording you made on that Fuij tape. Even without noise reduction, there was hardly any noise in the sound at all. The highs also seem to sound pretty decent.
from Italy, excellent explanation and beautiful apparatus, I did not believe that someone still did them! thank you.
Thanks for this review with retro outlook! I’m into cassette and MD walkmans... so I enjoyed your video ver much. Keep this this thing up!
Cassette decks, are still available in market. I wish I had one. A huge thanks to you and your channel for acquaint this to me.
And that smell of newly-opened audio equipment. God I love that.
Excellent, clear and complete review. It was informative and a joy to watch. Thank you for this. 😊
Thanks for the review of this tape deck. I have the Tascam MD-CD1 for listening to minidiscs and cds and it’s my favorite music playback device. I bought the Record Store Day release of Prince’s The Versace Experiment last weekend on cassette. The last cassette I bought was Smashing Punpkins’ Melon Collie and Infinite Sadness double album back in the 90s. I’m really excited that Tascam is still making tape decks. As soon as I’m done watching your review I’m gonna buy the deck online.
WOW! You can tell this is actually made for the more serious Tape user. Having the ability to record on BOTH decks at the same time, having a recording and a 1st generation quality duplicate tape that either serves as a archival backup or copy for a friend, is absolutely fantastic! Dude, i think you just sold me to this deck :D
Serious tape users don't use double decks though. It's a mid-low end seperate. It's not bad, but it's very much entry level.
This is about as bad as cassette gets after about 1985. Which makes it even weirder that people seem to hate on it so much. They just have no idea.
at this point i'm glad they even offer something like this. Sure the price range is a little hefty but i'm sure this price will drop very soon (maybe even down to 250) and the more they flood the market with easy maintainable and new parts & machines, the better. At least this deck can record.
I doubt very much you will see much of a price change on this. If there is enough demand, they would likely sell a CHEAPER version under the TEAC name rather than lowering the price in the TASCAM line.
@@rollingtroll professional sound guys use double decks all the time we do use other things but tape is the best thing for recording something temporarily.
@@catsbyondrepair Easy dubbing. Also they are generally cheaper to buy new. They are never the better option though.
Five hundred dollars or a hundred dollars is still too costly for such a cheesy basic cassette player I would definitely go with a vintage high end.
Definitely the way to go. I don't even have any of my old cassettes anymore, but I've been watching the hell out of Techmoan and he's making me want to get all the components and build a super hi-fi.
That's just over $200 in late 80s or early 90s money. $200-300 back then would get you a nice - but not amazing deck and you would be looking at $1000+ in today's money for something really high end. So I think the price is fair considering low volumes they must be selling but some outlets are trying to push them for $599 which I think is going a bit too far.
Great video - @Cassette Comeback would be happy to hear someone such as yourself helping the cause.
What I love about cassettes is when they stay stopped and start at the exact same place in the recording. I also have hundreds of cassette tapes, both commercial and home recorded.
Expensive deck but you did a great review on this. Product. I was impressed a 2018 deck sounded amazing.
Tremendously thorough review, highly enjoyable
to watch.
Thanks for the really detailed review. The audio quality was apparent; even though it uses the Tanashin mechanism, the heads and audio circuitry must be higher quality than in the boomboxes you see for sale nowadays. Plus, like you mentioned, the availability of parts and maintainability of the deck should be good. Edit: The only thing missing for the review that I could see would have been a mention of the specifications, like the frequency response and signal/noise ratio.
From the User's Manual:
Frequency response
Chrome tape (Type II): 30 Hz - 15 kHz (±4 dB)
Normal tape (Type I): 30 Hz - 13 kHz (±4 dB)
Total S/N ratio: 59 dB (during maximum recording level input, A-weighted)
OMG they’re still making cassette decks? I still have mine. It’s maybe10-15 years. Glad I never got rid of it.
Hang on to that machine. Cassettes from decades ago still play.
Excellent presentation. Well done!
The return of the cassette deck. Who would've thunk it. I still have my old jvc. Maybe I won't get rid of it after all. Thanks for the review.
I suppose a major advantage with this deck over old decks is that it has a built-in A-to-D converter. The pitch control is certainly great too especially for playback of older cassettes recorded on myriad of decks and recorders. If these were sold in volume, I'm sure the prices would drop too.
I cannot believe how good this Tape deck sounds. I wanted a good quality machine that required no repairs. Worth every penny
Oh when you peeled open that new cassette, it took me back to old times of tape faith and dependence :)
This is a great video...it's good to see a review from a non-biased person: so many so-called audiophiles condemn these decks without ever seeing or using one.
I had seen this, and the Teac AD-850 available for a while and was curious about them, and after first seeing this review several months ago, I decided to go for the AD-850 - I wanted a decent cassette deck with CD player to simplify recording albums to tape, rather than using using one of my turntables and getting static/clicks/pops/groove damage noises from my LP's (I have a range of turntables from and AT-LP3, AT-LP120USB, Rega RP1, Project Primary w/acrylic platter...but so many new LP's come with groove damage from new - 'no-fill' in the grooves being the worst!) Also to eliminate having a second CD player connected... save on plugs and wiring!!
So yeah... I got the AD-850 and my word, it plays good quality pre-recorded tapes beautifully....sounds fantastic! CD playback is flawless of course: it's a good CD player. CD recording works well, but you have to be careful now with so many CDs being overly compressed and 'brick walled'... but when you get the record levels just right, the tape recording sounds fantastic!
I guess ultimately, all I'm trying to say here is that these 'cheap' Tanishin (sp?) cassette mechanisms are robust, perform well, and long may they last making them.. it's good to know that there's someone out there still who has decades of history with making them...and cheap as they are, they still work bloody well...!! :-)
Good review,,Can you explain what 'brick walled'..means please? Thanx
Thanks for the detailed review of this unit. The information you supplied regarding the azimuth adjustment screw was solid gold. I inquired to several well-known, reputable sellers whether the 202MkVII actually had an azimuth adjustment screw and was assured by more than one that it did NOT!! In fairness, I think this is because younger salespeople have no real experience with tape, looked at the specs or owners manual, and saw no reference to azimuth. Eventually, I found a more experienced person at a vendor who checked the service manual and confirmed. A sign of the times, I guess. Thanks again!
Why do I watch a 20 minutes review of a cassette deck I'll never intend to buy ? Just for the sake of good old times .. :-) Thank you for the video !
Absolutely incredible! Thank you for doing the "Unboxing" - Gene
Have always been a fan of cassette machines. I still use my 1974 model Sony CF 420L. It might be 46 years old but is in mint condition and still going strong!! They were really well made in those days (full metal chassis). The belts have been changed once.
Excellent Review and makes me feel Nostalgic for Tape Cassettes to be big again
Excellent Presentation, I'm quickly becoming a big fan of your videos!
Almost impossible to get hold of now and not clear if they are still pumping them out. Great video!
I love the smell of Hi Bias in the morning!
I love the smell of metal even better. Ferro chrome smells like crayons.
This is the first video of yours I watched. Very nice video. The narration was very nice, well thought out and sounds like you had notes if not some kind of script written. So many people do this off the cuff. I subscribed and will watch some more of your videos.
Thanks! All of my videos are unscripted. I may write down some of the things that are more difficult to remember like model numbers, specifications, and prices, but that's about it.
Oh man, that tape! It came with my friend's 1990 "Eddie Bauer" edition Ford Explorer way back when. I guess it's good to see cassette hifi components are still on the market, but that play head and assembly haven't been updated in decades. Also I never knew Tascam was the pro branch of TEAC. Great video, thanks!
Nice video! I am suprised to see that DNR chips are still made.
I bought those Fuji DR II Chrome slim cassettes by the gross. They sounded awesome, the slim design meant you could put two of them in the space of a standard cassette in a cassette holder. I never had a problem. Fuji Made good tapes then. Nice touch with Shango, and Techmoan In the beginning. I love those guys.
I love the flavour that cassettes contribute to the music. Every tape gives the recording another flavour and makes it unique. I think it's great tha cassettes are not dying completely off
Thank you for making this. I really appreciate all the hard work you put into your videos. Long live cassettes and cassette culture!!
Haven't seen a rack mountable tape deck for a long time! Looks good!
I do not think I wil ever buy a cassette deck but I enjoyed watching your review
This is so cool , one of my most favorite things to do for my friends and myself was to make homemade 90min cassettes for all my friends from all my 12" singles , just loved doing it , I first had s SAE tape deck and then I bought a high end professional series Sony tape deck .
I know it's an older vid, but still thanks for this more than excellent review. I am considering buying either the TEAC W-1200 or AD-850 (single cassettte deck with CD player. I guess/assume the cassette deck itself would be comparable to the one of the W-1200?), as I didn't have any luck with second hand purchases of vintage gear in the past and I - unlike many seriious tapeheads , it seems - applaud TEAC's effort to at least work with the components that are available nowadays and understand that prices need to be high for this niche hobby. I miss the nostalgia of cassette decks and have lots of pre-recorded tapes that I would love to listen to. Maybe I'll record some tapes myself as well eventually.
Yes bring back more cassette decks! Also I'm glad it's not autoreverse.
Awesome video. The only complaint I have is that you didn't smell that brand new cassette when you opened it! Dammit! :D
True! I always did that as a kid and in my early teens. New sony tapes smelled particularly sweet to my taste.
Lol that brings back some happy memories xD
😘😁😁😁😁😁😁
There's opportunity for a whole new RUclips channel here......
Complaint ???
You have NO IDEA,.. where he "Stashed" it. smuggling it from China.
Let's just say, Moist Towelettes were involved 😂
Great review! super informative, you really know your stuff!
Excellent review!! I was going to get my old Sony dual cassette deck repaired, but I’m sold on the USB to computer connection, for transferring my cassettes to digital! 👍🏾
Good one! 0:18: Techmoan! 0:21: Shango066!
The only big downside of this cheap cassette mechanism, is that the don't use a sleeve bearing at the back of the flywheel. Besides that, they work pretty well, as seen in many cheap stereosystems.
Philips even used two plates of iron as a flywheel in their 80's stereosets, which is nice and good for the wow and flutter.
As happy as I am to see a cassette deck still on the market, I thought it stumbled on the Pat Coil test recording with noticeable flutter on the piano parts. I do find it interesting that they enabled both decks to record.
Surely by now all the patents have expired on Dolby noise reduction for cassettes, so it probably comes down to trademarks and the lack of available ICs at this point. I wonder if perhaps some competitor's system, like JVC's ANRS, would be available for licensing.
Agree - lack of IC most probably.... I thought this deck is cost reduced. Record knob does not adjust L/R levels independently. A must feature. And MIC input should really be stereo inputs these days. Lack on metal recording really hurts this deck.... is this targeted to professionals?
I just lokated my Sony D6c in the garage of a friend. That thing is now highly sought after. It played all the tape types.
@@uncatila
All the tape types?
Reel to Reel and 8-Track Too?
What about SVHS?
(a Great Audio recording choice in its time)
And even my Phone,.. Has Dolby ATMOS.
...get with the times people 😂...
@@jimwilliams8858 I know I'm a year late, but -- it's not really a must 22:12. I would prefer just one record level knob anyway, personally. With those internal pots, you still get access to the separate L and R levels
My mom loves your vids ( so do I ) but she likes your videos because she can fall asleep to your voice!
Sounds really good to me. Thanks for this review.
Great review. This deck is nicer than I was expecting. Hopefully the price will come down a bit.
Man, that play engagement sound is so satisfying...
It screams 'cheap plastic!' though :D.
I love the 80's Italio synth intro. Radically awesome dude.
Great Vid !! I was surprised but happy to see a new Tascam double tape deck produced so recently I have to get one ! Im building up a rack of Tascam gear , all players of DAT , minidisc , cassette and CD to archive my old recordings and studio projects ive done over the years having this would complete my set up in my studio ! I love Tascam products ! Thanks for the guide and info ! I subbed ! =)
I have 2 Tascam MD-801R minidisc players and they really played music well..:)
Wow! When this came up in the recommended list, I thought it was going to be from 20 years ago. So glad to see they are still making quality cassette decks of this caliber.
Excellent review. Covered the things we need to know and included a lot of "like to know" material as well. Sticker shock? Not really. Costs about $200 less than the dual cassette deck (Yamaha KX-W602) I purchased some 25 yrs ago replacing a TEAC 360S - both great decks.
The question that came to mind is: You said that it didn't record metal tape, yet the Loran reference cassette was metal. Does that mean it has the capability to play, but not the equipment to record metal tapes? I guess what I mean is: Is the quality there on playback if it can't record this kind of tape?
Great feature set. USB support would be nice. Again, an excellent unboxing and review video. Hope you get years of enjoyment from your Tascam 202 Mk VII.
Any cassette deck that can play Type II chrome cassettes can also play Type III ferrochrome and Type IV metal cassettes, because they all use the same 70 µs equalization. The exact differences between these types only become relevant during recording.
Thank you. Wasn't sure if it the difference would affect the playback. Great video.
What caliber? It`s not 3 head system that means it`s not pro grade deck. what a disappointment
Damn that CD is mastered beautifully, I need to get my hands on it!
Just received mine via Fedex and am unboxing today thank you for the good idea and the in depth review....Thanks again....
so cool and very nice cassete deck...now i can use again my old tapes collection..thank you ..you made my day..
I Would've liked to have this Deck back in the Mid 70's when the Disco Music Mixes were in Full Swing Saturday Nights on WBLS and in WKTU
It´s amazing how many through-hole components can be in a 2018 device! Those PCBs look like an Atari 2600 board :-D Love it!
Through hole conponents are still found in switch mode power supplies and also some analog equipment like conputer speakers or headphone amps. Nothing really special and there is a ton of SMD in there.
Beautiful gear. Remember the Nakamichi RX-202 and RX-505 auto-reverse units that would open the door, flip the tape 180 degrees, and close the door? It was like magic.
Absolute gold!! Oh how I miss those days where I would align the head fr every cassette that I would play!
I was a broadcast bench tech for 20 years, built my own home recording studio and had dozens of Nakamichi among others that I'd get for free and fix up. It's hard to believe I'm looking at buying this way as they are long gone and have some old stuff on cassette
I really miss the live analog sound of the cassette tapes!
VWestlife, Thank you for all of your knowledge; which is ALOT, and which helps a great deal in knowing what to purchase. Ken
watched it right through. At first I was dissappointed with the lack of features and dolby modes, however I was impressed with the amount of nominally high standard tapes you used and the thoroughness of your review. I've been purchasing and reconditioning/repairing a few cassette decks with higher functionality like multi cassette changer and another with Dolby S. It was really nice to see the gleaming facia of a brand new unit, its motivated me to see just how clean and dust free I can make my second hand units look like. I would have liked so see you flick the noise reduction switch within camera shot so we can hear the difference of the dynamic noise reduction. I do wonder if your reference tape was accurate to within half a percent as its subject to tape stretch like any other tape... in short the speed of the unit was probably correct and the pitch knob adjusted slightly left. Thanks for a look at a new unit. I do recall the TEAC A250 that we had and the full size headphones that we used as Dad did not buy an amplifier for a while afterwards.. Teac lost its integrity a little after the 70s as it made some cheap portable players, however they've certainly remained a mainstay of cassette technology.
I wasn't TOO shocked with the sticker price...I was guessing $699.99...but it actually turned out to be LESS! Great looking deck and the quality looks to be great too! It should serve you MANY MANY years of great quality playback/recording
You can probably get something second-hand for about 100$ that's about the same quality.
Probably $10 for a superior quality...
@@walter-ly4dyand for that $100 you’ll get it home and find it doesn’t work, experienced this multiple time with VHS players from garage or estate sales
It's great that they seem to at least be trying as best they can with the limits of the mechanisms available, I'd say they ended up making something rather nice there, leaps above the "boombox" style new decks you can buy new today.
Oof, pricey though.
I attempted to Fast-Forward this video (no pun intended) but, there were so many interesting things at the end of the video that I ended up going right back where I left off and watching the whole thing!
Excellent video as usual. Thank you!
Loved the review! I recently have been getting into cassettes as they are much cheaper then vinyl (for now at least) and there is something charming about their form factor. Do you have any favorite websites for information on tape decks and other related audio equipment? There are tons of models out there and I find myself googling receiver model numbers at the thrift store often and just hoping for some solid info. Your channel is great and it is always nice to see youve posted a new video. Thanks!
Techmoan has done several good videos about cassettes and also there are forums like www.tapeheads.net
Nice video! I agree, compared to what you can get on ebay (high end tape decks from the 90s, many even fully serviced), this is ridiculously expensive for what it offers. And no Dolby for recording is just sad, even though I can understand they do not want to license it for how many decks they probably sell. Just get something like a used Pioneer deck with Dolby S (CT-900S, CT-S 820S or whatever), make sure it has been serviced (new belts etc.) and you will have yourself a nice tape deck which will smoke these "new" decks in every regard, and it will most likely be cheaper.
The situation is pretty much the same as when you want to start with analog photography - instead of buying some plastic camera which is produced/sold right now, it will be far better to go on ebay and buy a used high end Canon/Nikon from the 90s (EOS-1v, EOS-3, Nikon F4/F5/F100) which can be had for $200-300 (and cost $2000-3000 back then).
You can't even get a license for Dolby NR for cassette tapes anymore. From what I've heard, Dolby does not actively license it anymore as the actual NR chips aren't being made anymore, and Dolby has no intention of getting back into cassette NR.
+Neko Suki (nice name btw!) True, there simply is not enough demand from the general public for brand new tape decks/cassettes. So it is either these cheap Chinese mechanics, which can also be used in $20 stereos for the kitchen, or super high end hand-crafted devices which can be sold for thousands of dollars and so are profitable even when produced in single digit numbers (although I know of no actual tape decks which are produced that way these days, only reel-to-reel tape recorders - google "Ballfinger reel to reel"). That's why, as everybody who follows like this one or Techmoan knows, the best way to get a good tape deck these days sadly is to look on eBay for decks from the golden age in the 90s. What you can buy brand new today is pretty much the Crosley record players in tape deck form.
Unfortunately the same goes for blank tapes. Try getting your hands on a fresh chrome or metal tape these days.
But since vinyl, reel-to-reel and analog photo are on the return, I suspect cassettes will follow. As long as it doesn't involve hipsters being cool with cheap fake Walkmans which have USB.
normal and chrome tapes are still available e.g. on Amazon (although in the case of chrome tapes probably just leftover stock), but yes, sealed/unused metal tapes are pretty much impossible to get these days. Luckily I never threw away my tapes from the 80s/90s, so I still have a lot of used TDK MA etc. I can record over. You can still get metal tapes on ebay (of course all used) at a reasonable price - of course you then have to hope they were stored correctly etc.
If someone designed a new high-end cassette mechanism today it would be a *lot* more expensive. Just like the Technics SL-1200/1210 series turntables -- back when they were in mass production they cost around $500 to $700. Technics recently reintroduced new versions of it, and they now cost $1700 to $4000.
Great review. I purchased the Tascam 202 MkV back in 2010. To this day I'm not really sure why I purchased this deck since I already owned a very good Marantz SACD player bought around the same time. I guess one of the reasons why, was that I received a very generous Pension from my previous job after a a job lay-off. I had a little money to blow, so I decided to upgrade my stereo system with this deck.
Since cassette decks were a dying breed, I wanted to get my hands on one of the last cassette decks being made which was the Tascam 202. The only poblem, was that my SACD blew every piece of equipment I owned out of the water, so I didn't see any point into making, or listening to recordings that didn't measure up.
So my Tascam cassette deck sat there for years, looking pretty on the shelf while garnering all sorts of ooh's and ah's from friends, and not being used. It wasn't even connected to my Yamaha Amp(for 10 years !). It was only recently after retiring , that I decided to play with it. I bought myslef some empty Metal tapes and Chrome tapes, but unfortunately after thougroughly reading the manual only to realize that this machine does not record on Metal tape, my only hope was to record on Chrome tape and maybe listen to prerecorded metal tapes.
This review at least gave me some hope that I did not totally waste my money ($499.99) back then. I also own a Luxman 406 casssette deck that does record on metal tapes and has dbx noise reduction system. The Luxman is really a jewel, but unfortunately it makes a loud hissing sound once in a while out of nowehere and for no reason. So serious recording work with this machine is out of the question unless/until I can get it fixed if possibe. Right now it sits like a collectors item on my shelf.
You can actually record on Type IV metal tape on this deck. It will sound a bit bright (too much treble), but will work.
It's been 16 years since I bought a cassette 📼 tape for the last time. Gotta say this one sound superb ! I would say this receiver sound almost like my Sony hi fi receiver!
The simpler transport mechanism,the less stuff that can go wrong,plus for the first bird of casette deck comeback it is not bad at all.
That music on the Pontiac VIP Trans Sport Casette Tape is awesome. Wish I could find some digital versions of the songs.
The Ford/JBL premium sound system in my ‘93 Lincoln Mark VIII sounds terrific. The factory amplifier took a crap, so I replaced the factory head unit with a limited production Pioneer MVH-S501BS and wired all the internal speakers to it. I used a crossover filter so the tweeters only got the frequencies they’re supposed to, and I added 2 JBL 12” subs powered by a Fosgate 600 watt amp. It sounds GREAT. The 26 year old Ford/JBL speakers still sound excellent, no buzzing or rattles etc. Doesn’t surprise me they offered a quality recorded tape to show off the systems of the era. Nice!
I just bought mine. Can't wait to use it.