As to why Dolby Labs abandoned manufacture and licensing of Dolby NR: For much of its history, Dolby Laboratories was a privately-held company. Ray Dolby was THE boss. After the year 2000, I would imagine that revenue from Dolby NR systems, whether licensed or manufactured to Dolby specs, plummeted. Dolby NR was no longer a profitable business line as everyone assumed that Analog tape recording was clearly on the way out, particularly in the professional arena. The professional Dolby NR systems were abandoned, but Mr. Dolby likely insisted that consumer Dolby NR remain available "as long as I am alive" or something like that. This isn't an unusual ask in a company with an iconic founder. In February 2005, Dolby Laboratories became a publicly-traded corporation. The real question then becomes: why wasn't the money-losing Dolby NR system eliminated sooner? My answer is: The company's iconic founder was still alive. Ray Dolby passed away on September 12, 2013. About for months later, licensing for all Dolby NR systems was terminated.
but i mean, how can they be losing money on selling a noise reduction algorithm? it couldn't be costing them more than a few dollars a year to have a piece of paper laying around with the algorithm and selling said piece of paper for X money to those that want it. it's not like they need to make anything. they just need to sell you the tech and a piece of paper saying "you're allowed to put this on your products for X amount of time". There are no manufacturing costs whatsoever, the algorithm already exists
@@tfwmemedumpster Agreed. When new corporate leaders assume command after the passing of the company's founder, they often start weeding out the low-profit product lines much loved by the company's now-deceased founder to focus their resources on "new and improved" technologies with potentially higher profit.
I have enough tape decks and CD players to serve my needs, yet watching reviews like these still makes me think seriously about a new up-to-date model. Especially with a decent USB recorder! Thanks!
i bought a TASCAM CD-A500 from a thrift shop for $15 a few years ago because they thought it didn't work. it has got to be the best sounding cassette deck i have ever heard.
reccently paid £160 for a 2nd hand CD-A500 fully working and I am completely in love with it!! its the first proper cassette player I've had, but I'm blown away However, the NR on side B of all my cassettes always sounds muddy, even when the tape is encoded with dolby B. So would that mean that the tape-head is slightly misaligned?
TASCAM likely specifically mentioned classrooms and conferences in their literature because there is a lot of academic material sitting in libraries that's only on cassette (old interviews, lectures and field recordings would be a big thing), especially when you get into specialized fields. Being able to easily digitize tapes would be a bonus in this area too. And you might want to mention the Tanashin mechanism is the only tape mechanism still being made.
It is a bit of a nightmare in academic setting because formats come and go and you can find people that are chasing trends and want to "standartise" on one, future-proof format. My university choose DAT tapes in 1990s and used them until the last machine died in 2015. Nightmare to get anything from them, and nobody could service these machines over here, not even Sony themselves.
After buying an old deck on eBay that I had to return, I bought a new TEAC AD-850 based on this review, and I am not disappointed. I have no use for the USB, but recording to type 1 tape has given me excellent results whether from internal or external CD, vinyl or streaming. At this point one of my main goals is to stream and record Apple Music play lists of pop and rock from different years starting in the '60s. This way if I ever cancel my subscription I still have the music. For some reason listening to cassette or vinyl is a much more satisfying experience for me, plus it's fun just doing the recording. As for noise such as tape hiss, it is almost imperceptible to me and is absolutely not an issue, and I think it is overly exaggerated by the digitally brainwashed crowd.
Nice review and Cheers for the shoutout. This seems decent enough. People often ask "What's the best deck for $xxx" and I usually respond that a deck that works as it should and you know it's history is more important than features. This seems to be of the same quality as we got in midi systems back in the day, in fact with the logic control is better than some I had. The problem is that the community who use cassettes, in 2020 are wanting old vintage for cheap or a new superdeck to appear. The only thing I don't like is there display, looks very cheap, but with that CD mech provenance, I think this is a nice entry point for those who who want to play physical media without going vintage or expensive and will be able to sell on if they decide to upgrade.
I care a lot less about a CD’s transport than its DAC. About the only thing a transport can do is ensure a quality laser with good tracking and intelligent error recovery. But all of that has been refined and tightly integrated at this point, and if someone can make a CD ROM drive work at 52x, an audio CD at 1x is practically standing still. :-) I do miss those vacuum fluorescent displays though. LCDs just don’t look right in a hifi component.
I'm so glad there's still a company that makes a good quality cassette deck in 2020. I wish someone would put this mechanism in a portable unit instead of those crappy ones.
I am quite impressed with the CD and cassette parts, the cassette recordings off CD this Tascam made actually sound really good. Much better than the MP3 recordings in fact - why Tascam, whose products are aimed primarily at the professional market, could not include uncompressed WAV recording to me is a mystery. 128 kbit/s MP3 recording is just hopeless. Also it's nice to see the features of the cassette section. Automatic tape selection, tape counter, manual level control. The missing Dolby NR wouldn't be a problem for me as I don't use Dolby for my recordings, but it would certainly be possible to implement a "high cut" filter switch that has the same characteristics as Dolby B on playback - for old prerecorded cassettes that had Dolby B applied to them.
A few commenters mentioned that 128 kbps is the highest bitrate they can support without needing to implement Digital Rights Management (DRM), but I don't know if there's any truth to that or if it's just a guess.
I dunno... Who would even enforce that? MPEG authority? Or Phillips / IEC? I tried finding some info but just got a ton of stuff about encoding and playing your own stuff.
Still sounds good though... it shouldn't be written-off as 'crap'. It's not... this player does a good job with MP3 encoding on its' recordings; VWestlife demonstrated an example..... did that sound bad? No. It's good, and is great for undisturbed long-play sessions, or for in-car use - if your car stereo as a USB port - my Toyota Auris does, and it sounds excellent...
I was just talking to my parents about how "newer cassette decks are lower quality because they use a cheaper mechanism". I didn't realize better mechanisms were still being manufactured. Thanks for this, I'll have to keep something like this in mind for my collection! I'm trying to convert all my tapes to MP3s, and this would be a much easier and higher quality way to do that than what I was doing.
Maybe tape will have a revival like vinyl (nostalgia is stronger than logic and there's plenty wrong with vinyl, too, so never say never!) and really good mechanisms will start to be manufactured again. They'll probably cost a fair bit, though. As much as they did back in the day (adjusted for inflation), and then more on top because they'll have small production runs.
I suggest getting a good cassette deck (this one seems decent enough but you never know what the azimuth is going to be like on these) and a USB external sound card with line inputs. Record the tapes into Audacity and fix track names, normalisation, and anything else through there. You could even get rid of the tape hiss if you wanted. From Audacity you can export into almost any format you could imagine, anything from WAV to AAC. And best of all: regardless of what analogue audio equipment you want to capture from in the future this will work. I use a Soundblaster X-Fi HD.
@@PuffyRainbowCloud My regular sound card has line-in, and I know all about Audacity (in fact, that's what I use for my tape conversions currently). I don't need my tapes to sound "perfect", just better than what my previous methods could produce: one cheap-o USB tape player from ION and one mono-only analog tape player/recorder (I can't remember the brand).
@@michaelmartin9022 agreed on the old vinyl Craze. Playing my Old vinyl records, Doobie Bros, Beatles, etc., etc., compared to remastered CDs, there is no comparison IMO. cant comment any new vinyl pressings bc i wont buy those. Years ago when CDs first came out, yes they were very tinny sounding (play Springsteen Born in the USA on vinyl vs the first cut CD , the vinyl was much warmer and had more bottom). With the removal Of cassette deck from cars and a just few available in the market today , not so sure there would be a revival to Cassettes. But as you say, You Never Know..... The music industry needs to proport something to the market
I have both the TEAC AD-850SE and the W-1200 and they are both great. Well done to TEAC/Tascam, you have done well with the components available. I purchased the AD-850SE first, I wanted a CD player so I bought it to get one and the MP3 plack/recording feature too. The cassette facility was a bonus as I knew I was going to buy a twin tape deck later too, but I also wanted to play around with the 850 tape deck to check out TEAC's quality. I was happy with it so I then picked up the W-1200 too. I am very happy with the quality, to me they both sound really good. Thanks for your videos on this range, they helpeed me buy both and I do not regret my purchases at all.
If Cassette decks are making a comeback..then the Japanese should start manufacturing one of their high quality cassette mechanisms again. Bring back Dolby NR!
@@nbrown5907 People aren't using analogue formats for good quality; they're using them for the sake of using them. For the appeal. For the street cred. For the novelty. So think before you write a reply.
Finally someone who knows what they are talking about and and doing some testing and measurments. It was very nice that you covered all of the basis of this device and mentioned the lack of Noise Reduction. I am buying this device to convert what tapes I have left to CD then will convert them to higher bit rate on my computer.
I recently purchased a TEAC W-1200..I considered both the Teac and Tascam versions of these CD/Tape combo decks,but I have an ONKYO cd player that is less than a year old and I figured I would just stay with it.Great video,as always!
my question is "why doesn't Dolby license the NR technology anymore?" Do they hate money? I'm sure there's still tape deck manufacturers out there who would love to start offering it again.
@@Nukle0n They never did. The ICs were made by their licensees. Signetics was first with NE545, then came Sony, NEC, Hitachi etc. I checked the records - the last time I ordered Dolby and dbx ICs was in May 2016, it was a closeout for one dollar a bunch. The best ones were already gone, but the point is, they were sold by a reputable dealer just like any other components, no Dolby approval required.
This is better than I expected. It seems like Tascam did the best they could with the parts they could get whilst maintaining a price point that isn't outrageous. The only minor criticism I have is that it could do with XLR outputs, especially given this is aimed at the pro audio market.
awesome review buddy, I've just ordered and received all of these in the TEAC versions. I now have the Teac A-R650MK2 Stereo Full Amplifier, Teac W-1200(B) Double Cassette Deck, Teac Ad-850 CD Player along with the Audio-Technica AT-LP120X and the 2000 model Tech RW-D280 Dual CD Player. I'm going to build a HiFi rack for these soon and hopefully enjoy hours of retro style listening to my cassette and vinyl collection.
Hello Neil, I want to take Teac version. Are you satisficed? Are the Cd player good, the sound? Also want to know, does it playing burned CDs? Thanks, Erhan
Damn good review! I bought this unit 2 or 3 years ago. I learned some things I didn't remember seeing in the manual. Mine has been mostly sitting under a dust cover, but after your review, I think I'll move it from the living room to my office where it will get much more use. I've always loved the cassette tape, I still have 3 twenty count cases with all my BASF and Maxell high-bias recorded tapes from the mid-80s through the 90s. Believe it or not, they still sound just as good.
How is the recording onto Cassette's so far? Any good? : ) I'm interested in buying this for recording my 80's rock albums onto cassette i can't find. So i'd love to know your thoughts too.
@@MatrixAlphaCWX you'd be surprised at what you can find on cassette, I have been rebuilding my collection now for a couple of months. However prices are slowly starting to soar. I'd much rather just find the tape then go through the trouble of having to sit there and put on an album, and sit all the way through it for each taped album.
I have to say, this is quite the attractive looking device. There is sadly so many cheap modern tape decks (and other devices) that try so hard to look "professional" that they come out at the completely opposite end and look like toys.
I've got the Teac AD 850 , its pretty good. I have it connected to an Auna Birmingham music centre which has a USB but doesn't record to USB. I love how I can adjust the record level on the USB recorder on the Teac . I've had umtean USB recorder hi fi's and the USB was stuck at the same level. Having this all in one Teac machine is a brilliant idea it saves a hell of a lot of space!
I think that fans of audiobooks will like this device, many audiobooks comes in mp3, compact disc mp3 and compact cassette. One machine that can play many books.
Very few audiobooks (less then 1%) are on cd and those which are on mp3 can be streamed and if they don't they get downloaded on a device that's portable and easy. Why bother even moving it to a static big device such as this?
@@flybeep1661 because lots of us still listening to music at home... and have large libraries of music or books or cassette/cd/vinyl... and it's nice to have a unit where you can play anything your library has to offer. I have a lot of physical media that just is not available on the internet to stream or download. If I want to listen to it, I'm left to jam that cassette into something.
Thank you for this review. I bought the TEAC about six months ago, used it a few times, and then was really sad because I was frustrated by the mp3 quality (or lack thereof). Your video has helped me feel that I didn't waste my money even so.
Hello David, I want to take Teac version. Are you satisficed? Are the Cd player good, the sound? Also want to know, does it playing burned CDs? Thanks , Erhan
In the early 1990s when equipment manufacturers were trying to launch the first digital recorders - Minidisc, Digital Audio Tape, Digital Compact Cassette and CD Recorders -- they were sued by record companies over possible digital-to-digital "piracy". Ultimately governments passed laws that manufacturers needed to prevent exact digital copies of copyrighted material. The choice was either SCMS or crippled lower-resolution digital copying output. Since there's a digital CD player, TASCAM limited digital output to 128mpps MP3. By contrast, the analog cassette-only 202 MkVII isn't restricted by those regulations. The 202 mkVII output is WAV which has much fuller digital sound than 128mbps MP3.
@@brutalmorality5885 well honestly..... I have about 400 cassettes..... And many are no longer available to purchase in any physical form..... So .... If I had the cash it'd be top of my list.
Did you miss the part where it will only record 128kbps MP3s? That's terrible quality. You don't want that. Shame on Teac! They did that on purpose to prevent you from making a quality copy of a CD.
@@Hyxtryx128 kbps sounds okay. Mostly you wouldn't notice difference between 128, 160, 192 or higher unless you use some really high quality headphones and have very good wax free ear. Anything below 128 in mp3 sounds bad and its clearly noticeable. 128 was a default standard used by encoding softwares. It kept the file size small without compromising on quality.
@@EasternSurvival "128 was a default standard used by encoding softwares." Yes, and I'm still upset at Steve Jobs for that. Why him, you ask? Because at the time when SACD and DVD-Audio were battling it out for high-def supremacy, Apple was convincing people to stuff as many songs as they could onto a portable player. Those 2 worlds shouldn't have collided, but I think they did. The low cost "many songs in the palm of your hand" won out over the expensive "surround sound in your living room" for a new music listening paradigm. "128 kbps sounds okay." That's the problem. It's just "okay". I can hear the difference as you move up the ladder. And yes, high quality headphones and wax-free ears! 😃
Ha, I was just looking through some old car brochures the other day and now I come here and hear the 'Special feel of an Oldsmobile' that I read, come to life :)
That's certainly very nice. Almost makes me want to get one...if I only had cassettes. More CDs than I'll need, but I never play those either. CDs go into the computer and the CDs go back into the case. Great review!
Thanks man for sharing this! I was all fired up to buy this, mainly because I wanted to record tapes to USB but when you said it can only record at 128Kbps, I immediately cooled down.. you saved me almost 400Euros!
Around 1992 when record companies sued equipment makers over digital-to-digital copying capability, they imposed restrictions on digital output from a CD player. In this case TASCAM/TEAC had to limit digital output to 128kbps MP3. However, because the cassette-only 202 mkVII and W-1200 are analog-only, there are no such restrictions and digital output is uncompressed WAV. So those are much better choices if you specifically want to record from tapes onto USB.
Great review. Glad I picked up a new Teac AD-800 a few years ago. Seems that the tape deck is better on that unit. Even has dolby nr, auto reverse. Keep your eye out for one of those to compare.
Great review. I'm surprised to see the main circuit board uses through hole component mounting rather than surface mount. These days you expect to see a small circuit board with a few custom chips. This looks like a more 'period correct' circuit design.
The "brains" of the unit, the microcontrollers running the firmware, will likely be on a double-sided circuit board right behind the front panel. That seems to be how they design a lot of hifi equipment now.
I bought a Tascam DR-7, a couple of years ago, to digitize tapes and lp's, I think that (such recorder) is still the best solution (and easiest) for superb digital recordings of any source, a great quality device. Think they need to limit USB recordings to 128kbs to avoid the need to implement a copy protection feature similar to the DAT days. The manual indicates that the USB is USB 1 .1 FULL SPEED (12 Mbps) - pretty low spec, that could be the reason it takes a while to load the index and the searching skipgaps occur when frames (chunks) get larger with better quality MP3s.
Jesus! Finally a review where you get to see the product instead of the face of the reviewer. What a luxury. I have a couple of questions in case you ever have time: would the usb read a solid state hard disk and what the navigation experience would be in case you had five thousand songs instead of a dozen.
The USB port should work with a hard drive, but since it's only USB 1.1 speed, it would be rather slow if there's a large amount of files on the drive.
To all the people complaining. Rise Records, Huge record label and others are following ,just released all of their new bands cd's on cassette's. So obviously people do enjoy cassette's
Ooh, you got Panic! on tape, I love it! Lovely review. They're putting good effort into these decks (even if the USB recording is very 'meh'). Always nice to see.
Thanks for a Great video covering this deck. I just purchased a new one and I'm looking forward to all it's features. Great content included in the review... keep up the great work!! Thanks again!✌
Regarding Dolby Laboratories and their end-of-life of the consumer noise-reduction systems: For much of its history, Dolby Laboratories was a privately-held company. After the year 2000, sharply declining sales of Dolby NR equipment - whether chips made by Dolby or licensing manufacture to third parties - likely eliminated profitability from this line of business. Analog tape recording was assumed to be fading away for good particularly in the professional arena. However, Ray Dolby was still the unchallenged boss. While he allowed pro-audio Dolby A and similar systems to be abandoned, Ray Dolby likely insisted that consumer Dolby NR remain available as long as he was alive (not an uncommon ask in businesses with iconic founders). In February 2005, Dolby Laboratories became a publicly-traded corporation. The real question then becomes: why wasn't the money-losing NR system licensing eliminated sooner? My answer is: The company's iconic founder was still alive and everyone knew Mr. Dolby's wishes on the consumer NR products. Ray Dolby passed away on September 12, 2013. About four months later, licensing for all Dolby NR systems was terminated.
Tascam is one of the most underrated companies in the profesional audio space. They don't have that reputation like Sennheiser does, but I've never been disappointed by a Tascam product before, and I can't say the same about Sennheiser.
I just pulled this Tascam unit out of my system. For some reason it wouldn't power on. I didn't use it much anyway as the cassette deck really didn't sound great. A bit of flutter, and it chewed one of my tapes. Just a low quality transport. I put my much better Denon DN-T625 back in the system, even though the cassette deck on it needs looking at. But the Denon is just a better built unit. The transport on it is solid and it has Dolby. I've got to get the Denon serviced and hopefully just new belts on the cassette. My advice. Buy an older, better deck and get it serviced.
Hi VWestlife, i purchased the Teac version AD850 for $399 at Sweetwater based on your rsview here for tge Tascam unit. I haven't used all the features yet . A note of advisement, is to goto Teac's / Tascams web site. Look at the support section. I discovered that Teac issues upgrades to the firmware of the units. I had an older version on mine, and now upgraded the firmware to the new Juky 2020 version. At this point , i dont know what it chznged but will see as i use it so e more. Thx for your reviews and Congrats on your subsriptions over 100K!!! Be safe and well all.
@@erhanshukri works/sounds very nice, just wish it had "automatic next-track detection"(?) Seems to be solid so far, just don't pay any more than $300 for it!
Thank you for the detailed review! I've bought TEAC AD-850 few days ago. I was impressed by the recording quality on cassettes. But... On the day two of test drive device got broken :) The mechanism makes very loud rattle noise at the end/beginning of tape when fast forwarding/rewinding. After few seconds of terrible sound auto-stop is activated. Something goes wrong with gears. Famous Tanashin mechanisms are not so good as they were in 90s :) I'll return this faulty device to seller and replace with new one.
@@vwestlife ah man you deserve it i enjoy the content greatly as a vintage audio fan. grew up on 8 tracks. moved on to cassette. got in to turntables at 38 but I can't find good albums.
Nice review... love the edit at 26:10... ;-) I have the Teac version and it's a great unit, though I find recording at over 0dB can lead to distortion - I guess it depends on the CD playing, and the tape itself; using Maxell UR and TDK D mainly.... but I do find that with a good CD or well recorded cassette it sounds excellent.... Funny to see that the same CD mechanism is in a current Marantz player that sells for over $/£1200..... Wow!! It's either a brilliant CD transport, or Marantz are really over-hyping their player... I wonder which... Ha Ha!! :-D
Just pulled the cover off mine today - as it's now out of warranty, and I notice that mine has a couple of extra circuit boards... one of them stands proud of the main circuit board on plastic riser legs, and appears to have signal cables direct from the cassette deck plugged-in, and another is mounted just below the center support bar that runs front-to-back, and has a large 'block' with a few other components - hard to see under it without further dismantling! So I guess there have been some revisions to this item since it's initial release.... I also noted that the main PCB has numerous ICs from a manufacturer 'JRL' with the same number codes on them.... A couple of larger ICs are hidden under the riser-board and I can't see the manufacturer or numbers on them. Whatever, it's not as bad sounding unit - a good CD player, and the tape deck isn't half bad either!
@@stevesstuff1450 I have the same unit, and it also has those extra circuit boards. However I don't use it, because it's not working properly. The playback head has deteriorated in a few months and it sounds really bad, the cd mechanism is a poor one (if you have a cd with a few scratches, it will skip horribly. I use a Technics SL-PG380A cd player, from 1996, and I have no such problems). Also, the cassette mechanism has a very small pinch roller which is not good, because I have some tapes that are a little crumpled at the beginning, and when I try to play them it sounds ok at first, but then it sounds muffled (because the tape is slipping on that pinch roller. But when I play them on my Yamaha kx-w302 stereo double cassette deck, from 1988, it has no problems at all when playing them, since it uses bigger and better rollers, and it sounds a lot better as well.) Now, the teac cassette deck runs at a slower speed too, for some reason, so I don't know... Maybe it is only my unit the faulty one. Anyway, I have other cassette decks and cd players that I can use to play my cds and cassettes, so I don't worry too much about it, but I am very disappointed because, for that amount of money, I was really hoping for something pretty good and reliable.
@@darthjarjar6358 : I really can't say you're wrong! I admit that the cassette mechanism in my TEAC, whilst still performing properly, and as it did when I first bought it a year ago, it really doesn't sound as good as playback and recordings done with my Sony TC-WE475 double cassette deck from the late 90s - ish! I have no problems with the CD player as yet, though once again, I prefer the sound from my late 80s Sony CDP-470 - which I've owned from new too! The TEAC is 'OK', from what I've found, and wrks reasonably well - it's just not as good as even late 80s or 90s units were; which is a great shame - especially from a brand such as TEAC, who were always a quality manufacturer. You'd think that some of these tjose great companies like Sony, Technics, Pioneer, etc, would still have the manufacturing documentation and machinery kicking about somewhere, that could be cleaned up, and put back into production to make 'new' versions of their old decks....
@@stevesstuff1450 You're right about those companies. Well, at least Technics or Yamaha don't make cassette decks anymore, which is a good thing, since they won't be as good as the older ones. A small correction, if you don't mind: The sony TC-WE475 cassette deck is actually from 2001. VWESTLIFE has a video about it (you probably already know about it). I hope your Teac will last longer than mine and take care of your sony dual deck and cd player.
@@darthjarjar6358 : Yes indeed, I am very well aware of Vwestlife, his video on that cassette deck, and am a subscriber to his excellent channel; however, you may have noticed the "-ish" that I put when roughly dating the Sony deck.... I couldn't remember off the top of my head the actual date! Thanks for the reminder though :-) Even though it's late in the life of cassettes, that old Sony 475 still sounds terrific, and makes very nice recordings; and, most importantly, it's still using a Sony manufactured transport, and not just a bought-in Tanishin mechanism.... I'm glad that there is at least one company still making tape transports of varying quality (see Vwestlife's latest video on 'clone' tape deck transports!), though I have heard that they have now stopped making them? A real shame as cassettes are still trying to make a comeback - someone needs to get the old production machines out of mothballs and start manufacturing again!
I'll stick with the 90s decks. To be a "professional" deck, it lacks several things (full compatibility with metal tapes, manual or automatic calibration of BIAS, azimuth, etc). The VU meter is crappy (the old ones were faster and more accurate), and the MP3 digitizing is appalling. I prefer to connect the deck to the PC a thousand times and digitize my cassettes there. It doesn't even have Dolby B at least.
@KJER ERRT Ofcourse :D i had, ive repaired many tapedecs, old and newer. And specs of THAT one are just terrible, average boombox from 90s was better that this one.
I own an old Sony with wood in the lateral. Something like 808 something...the model. Has 3 heads and Dolby S on it. Something is telling me it may be a little bit superior to this one. I don't use it anymore though. I keep it because it looks cool. Doesn't have the smallest scratch on it. Very beautiful as furniture.
A lot of people didn't realize that the proper use of the Dolby noise-reduction had to be used with a tape that said Dolby noise-reduction on it. Some older cassette players had where you could record with the Dolby noise reduction on, then when you played it back it brought out the highs a lot clearer before they had digital. A lot of it had to do with the quality of the tape type you were using and how you recorded it then how you chose to play it back with or without Dolby. I had an old JVC boombox that weighed 50 pounds back in the late 80s. It even had a record player on it LOL that's thing had Dolby Digital recording and Playback and rocked with 50 Watts of RMS power, it took 8 D cell batteries that would only last 2 hours. When you are on the go. Then you can plug it in when you got home. It was inexpensive on the go
"brought out the highs a lot clearer before they had digital" - perhaps, the other way around chronologically. When home recordings were made off vinyl or another cassette, Dolby encoder boosted all the click and pop and hiss of already noisy sources. Then CDs came in, and this nuisance was largely gone...
That certainly was an excellent demonstration. Wouldn't it be great if one of the consumer giants like Sony brought out a new cassette machine. Sony have the experience and I think the market is out there. Analogue rules for many!
I haven't got much money, so I ordered an AD 850 on your recommendation. It came yesterday and hooked it up today. CD's are not my cup of tea (I have maybe two dozen CD's) and I don't record anything, whether on tape or on MP-3. I haven't listened to my cassette tapes in nigh on fifteen years and it sounds terrific. It's like seeing an old friend...
Hello Saint, I want to take Teac version. Are you satisficed? Are the Cd player good, the sound?Also want to know, does it playing burned CDs? Thanks, Erhan
@@erhanshukri I could not be happier. Both the tape deck and the CD player are excellent. I don't know if the CD player can read burned CDs. You could call them at 1-800-229-1689 or 1-201-785-2600 for customer questions. Stay safe.
freaking sweet man. love cassette decks. went thrift hunting I got a teac v450x. might need a belt it won't fast forward but everything else works fine.
Marantz may have customized that JTL-101Y mechanism, but in the grand scheme of things a $1,200 media player is a mid-tier component so they have probably not tweaked it all that much.
I purchased this unit in August of 2018. You haters can bash it all you want... but it's a solid machine that's not given me any problems in almost two years.
It ain't much, but I'm happy with my old Technics RS-B107. Best $3 I even spent on an audio component... only needed a slight speed adjustment. Not top of the line, but it's just tapes, & it works for me!
Another thorough, precise and fascinating video from VWestlife! Loved seeing all the features and the detailed demo of how this unit performs. And the direct sound output of all your selections was wonderful on my computer speakers! I have to say, my favorite sound clip was the last one. Unfortunately, it is an earworm for me, and now my head is STUCK with the words, "There is a special feel --- in an Oldsmobile". I have to ask about that last one though -- was it composed by Christian Rock musicians? The sound and style seem so similar to some CR I have heard. No offense to anyone -- just curious about the musical styling. Probably no way to know.
The Oldsmobile jingle sounds very 1970s (although they were apparently using it as late as 1988), which I think pre-dates most Christian rock music, but it has an uplifting melody with lots of reverb, so that's probably the similarity you noticed. Cadillac had their own jingle which I uploaded previously: th-cam.com/video/Co7b2qEzVY0/w-d-xo.html
@@vwestlife Thanks,. I hadn't seen that video! The RCA cassette deck you used is very similar to the Radio Shack Realistic ST-86 stereo cassette deck. The Realistic had mic inputs on the back. I got mine in 1992, but they had been sold for about 3 years (I think) by then. The Realistic one has a bizarre shape with an angled top, so nothing can stack on top of it! My machine is still running fine, no need for belts or anything.
One suggestion I'd offer for future cassette reviews would be including some piano music in the test recordings. By its nature, piano music tends to be very revealing of the audibility of wow and flutter effects. Thanks once again for this video!
Oh I so wished there was a MK2 version of this deck that included the Dynamic Noise Reduction from the 1200. If it did I would replace both of my current tape deck and cd player in a heartbeat.
Forgive me if someone has mentioned this but no playing of or recording to FLAC files on usb seems a bizarre omission. The ability to copy CDs losslessly would be a major bonus for this machine. Also, I just have to say that the cd mechanism is only one aspect, and probably not the most important one, in determining the quality of a cd player. However, I agree it's nice this has a decent quality transport.
Probably most users who want to copy CDs to FLAC, MP3, OGG, etc. might be using a computer for this, using a tool like EAC, which can also automatically tag the files, with artist, song title, album title, genre, etc. I always used a PC for this job.
As to why Dolby Labs abandoned manufacture and licensing of Dolby NR: For much of its history, Dolby Laboratories was a privately-held company. Ray Dolby was THE boss. After the year 2000, I would imagine that revenue from Dolby NR systems, whether licensed or manufactured to Dolby specs, plummeted. Dolby NR was no longer a profitable business line as everyone assumed that Analog tape recording was clearly on the way out, particularly in the professional arena. The professional Dolby NR systems were abandoned, but Mr. Dolby likely insisted that consumer Dolby NR remain available "as long as I am alive" or something like that. This isn't an unusual ask in a company with an iconic founder. In February 2005, Dolby Laboratories became a publicly-traded corporation. The real question then becomes: why wasn't the money-losing Dolby NR system eliminated sooner? My answer is: The company's iconic founder was still alive. Ray Dolby passed away on September 12, 2013. About for months later, licensing for all Dolby NR systems was terminated.
but i mean, how can they be losing money on selling a noise reduction algorithm? it couldn't be costing them more than a few dollars a year to have a piece of paper laying around with the algorithm and selling said piece of paper for X money to those that want it. it's not like they need to make anything. they just need to sell you the tech and a piece of paper saying "you're allowed to put this on your products for X amount of time". There are no manufacturing costs whatsoever, the algorithm already exists
@@tfwmemedumpster Agreed. When new corporate leaders assume command after the passing of the company's founder, they often start weeding out the low-profit product lines much loved by the company's now-deceased founder to focus their resources on "new and improved" technologies with potentially higher profit.
She blinded me with Science
@@tfwmemedumpster Someone had to manufacture the chips, and that costs money.
Might be coming back. The new TASCAM type 2 tape has the actual Dolby logo on the J Card.
I have enough tape decks and CD players to serve my needs, yet watching reviews like these still makes me think seriously about a new up-to-date model. Especially with a decent USB recorder! Thanks!
i bought a TASCAM CD-A500 from a thrift shop for $15 a few years ago because they thought it didn't work. it has got to be the best sounding cassette deck i have ever heard.
reccently paid £160 for a 2nd hand CD-A500 fully working and I am completely in love with it!! its the first proper cassette player I've had, but I'm blown away
However, the NR on side B of all my cassettes always sounds muddy, even when the tape is encoded with dolby B. So would that mean that the tape-head is slightly misaligned?
@@Mildon44 yes
TASCAM likely specifically mentioned classrooms and conferences in their literature because there is a lot of academic material sitting in libraries that's only on cassette (old interviews, lectures and field recordings would be a big thing), especially when you get into specialized fields. Being able to easily digitize tapes would be a bonus in this area too.
And you might want to mention the Tanashin mechanism is the only tape mechanism still being made.
B word where?
It is a bit of a nightmare in academic setting because formats come and go and you can find people that are chasing trends and want to "standartise" on one, future-proof format. My university choose DAT tapes in 1990s and used them until the last machine died in 2015. Nightmare to get anything from them, and nobody could service these machines over here, not even Sony themselves.
After buying an old deck on eBay that I had to return, I bought a new TEAC AD-850 based on this review, and I am not disappointed. I have no use for the USB, but recording to type 1 tape has given me excellent results whether from internal or external CD, vinyl or streaming. At this point one of my main goals is to stream and record Apple Music play lists of pop and rock from different years starting in the '60s. This way if I ever cancel my subscription I still have the music. For some reason listening to cassette or vinyl is a much more satisfying experience for me, plus it's fun just doing the recording. As for noise such as tape hiss, it is almost imperceptible to me and is absolutely not an issue, and I think it is overly exaggerated by the digitally brainwashed crowd.
Nice review and Cheers for the shoutout. This seems decent enough. People often ask "What's the best deck for $xxx" and I usually respond that a deck that works as it should and you know it's history is more important than features.
This seems to be of the same quality as we got in midi systems back in the day, in fact with the logic control is better than some I had. The problem is that the community who use cassettes, in 2020 are wanting old vintage for cheap or a new superdeck to appear. The only thing I don't like is there display, looks very cheap, but with that CD mech provenance, I think this is a nice entry point for those who who want to play physical media without going vintage or expensive and will be able to sell on if they decide to upgrade.
I care a lot less about a CD’s transport than its DAC. About the only thing a transport can do is ensure a quality laser with good tracking and intelligent error recovery. But all of that has been refined and tightly integrated at this point, and if someone can make a CD ROM drive work at 52x, an audio CD at 1x is practically standing still. :-)
I do miss those vacuum fluorescent displays though. LCDs just don’t look right in a hifi component.
@@nickwallette6201 It depends. I think Sony's Hi-Fi stuff from around 2007-2010 had some pretty nice looking displays.
I'm so glad there's still a company that makes a good quality cassette deck in 2020. I wish someone would put this mechanism in a portable unit instead of those crappy ones.
build your own system than you can put what ever drive system you wan't in it
Building a cassette player is easy I've built several over the years
@@elk3909 Still using Heathkit...lol
Finally hit 100k subs, dedication has finally paid off. Congratulations.
I am quite impressed with the CD and cassette parts, the cassette recordings off CD this Tascam made actually sound really good. Much better than the MP3 recordings in fact - why Tascam, whose products are aimed primarily at the professional market, could not include uncompressed WAV recording to me is a mystery. 128 kbit/s MP3 recording is just hopeless.
Also it's nice to see the features of the cassette section. Automatic tape selection, tape counter, manual level control. The missing Dolby NR wouldn't be a problem for me as I don't use Dolby for my recordings, but it would certainly be possible to implement a "high cut" filter switch that has the same characteristics as Dolby B on playback - for old prerecorded cassettes that had Dolby B applied to them.
A few commenters mentioned that 128 kbps is the highest bitrate they can support without needing to implement Digital Rights Management (DRM), but I don't know if there's any truth to that or if it's just a guess.
I dunno... Who would even enforce that? MPEG authority? Or Phillips / IEC?
I tried finding some info but just got a ton of stuff about encoding and playing your own stuff.
@@nickwallette6201 I guess it would be the RIAA. TBH I think its limited to 128Kbs due to the USB 1.1 bandwidth.
Still sounds good though... it shouldn't be written-off as 'crap'. It's not... this player does a good job with MP3 encoding on its' recordings; VWestlife demonstrated an example..... did that sound bad? No.
It's good, and is great for undisturbed long-play sessions, or for in-car use - if your car stereo as a USB port - my Toyota Auris does, and it sounds excellent...
@@stevesstuff1450 it didnt sound bad partly because youtube audio is encoded in a slightly more sofisticated 128kbps propietary codec
I was just talking to my parents about how "newer cassette decks are lower quality because they use a cheaper mechanism". I didn't realize better mechanisms were still being manufactured.
Thanks for this, I'll have to keep something like this in mind for my collection! I'm trying to convert all my tapes to MP3s, and this would be a much easier and higher quality way to do that than what I was doing.
Maybe tape will have a revival like vinyl (nostalgia is stronger than logic and there's plenty wrong with vinyl, too, so never say never!) and really good mechanisms will start to be manufactured again. They'll probably cost a fair bit, though. As much as they did back in the day (adjusted for inflation), and then more on top because they'll have small production runs.
I suggest getting a good cassette deck (this one seems decent enough but you never know what the azimuth is going to be like on these) and a USB external sound card with line inputs. Record the tapes into Audacity and fix track names, normalisation, and anything else through there. You could even get rid of the tape hiss if you wanted. From Audacity you can export into almost any format you could imagine, anything from WAV to AAC. And best of all: regardless of what analogue audio equipment you want to capture from in the future this will work. I use a Soundblaster X-Fi HD.
@@PuffyRainbowCloud My regular sound card has line-in, and I know all about Audacity (in fact, that's what I use for my tape conversions currently). I don't need my tapes to sound "perfect", just better than what my previous methods could produce: one cheap-o USB tape player from ION and one mono-only analog tape player/recorder (I can't remember the brand).
@@michaelmartin9022 agreed on the old vinyl Craze. Playing my Old vinyl records, Doobie Bros, Beatles, etc., etc., compared to remastered CDs, there is no comparison IMO. cant comment any new vinyl pressings bc i wont buy those. Years ago when CDs first came out, yes they were very tinny sounding (play Springsteen Born in the USA on vinyl vs the first cut CD , the vinyl was much warmer and had more bottom). With the removal Of cassette deck from cars and a just few available in the market today , not so sure there would be a revival to Cassettes. But as you say, You Never Know..... The music industry needs to proport something to the market
I have both the TEAC AD-850SE and the W-1200 and they are both great. Well done to TEAC/Tascam, you have done well with the components available.
I purchased the AD-850SE first, I wanted a CD player so I bought it to get one and the MP3 plack/recording feature too. The cassette facility was a bonus as I knew I was going to buy a twin tape deck later too, but I also wanted to play around with the 850 tape deck to check out TEAC's quality. I was happy with it so I then picked up the W-1200 too. I am very happy with the quality, to me they both sound really good.
Thanks for your videos on this range, they helpeed me buy both and I do not regret my purchases at all.
Can you transfer the audio from your cassette to computer through the USB?
If Cassette decks are making a comeback..then the Japanese should start manufacturing one of their high quality cassette mechanisms again. Bring back Dolby NR!
@Merv Stent Someone should just develop new technology of NR.
@@nbrown5907 are you talking about you?
@@nbrown5907 People aren't using analogue formats for good quality; they're using them for the sake of using them. For the appeal. For the street cred. For the novelty. So think before you write a reply.
@@nbrown5907 you're full of shit. Tapes and vinyl both sound amazing
Menace Gaming
They sound different. They’re low-fidelity.
Finally someone who knows what they are talking about and and doing some testing and measurments. It was very nice that you covered all of the basis of this device and mentioned the lack of Noise Reduction. I am buying this device to convert what tapes I have left to CD then will convert them to higher bit rate on my computer.
I recently purchased a TEAC W-1200..I considered both the Teac and Tascam versions of these CD/Tape combo decks,but I have an ONKYO cd player that is less than a year old and I figured I would just stay with it.Great video,as always!
Hello Gilbert! How are you satisfied with Teac AD850? how is the sound of the CD player? how is the deck?
my question is "why doesn't Dolby license the NR technology anymore?" Do they hate money? I'm sure there's still tape deck manufacturers out there who would love to start offering it again.
collins : because there is no selling of those pre-recorded cassette anymore. no more gains with that standard
@@Nukle0n They never did. The ICs were made by their licensees. Signetics was first with NE545, then came Sony, NEC, Hitachi etc. I checked the records - the last time I ordered Dolby and dbx ICs was in May 2016, it was a closeout for one dollar a bunch. The best ones were already gone, but the point is, they were sold by a reputable dealer just like any other components, no Dolby approval required.
It is because the patent expired.
I have a new deck as of last year with a ‘NR’ switch which seems to do the same as Dolby NR
@@Nukle0n🙄👈 you're right. I have a idea: we have to digitalise those cassette and invent a *olbyB via software..
This is better than I expected. It seems like Tascam did the best they could with the parts they could get whilst maintaining a price point that isn't outrageous.
The only minor criticism I have is that it could do with XLR outputs, especially given this is aimed at the pro audio market.
awesome review buddy, I've just ordered and received all of these in the TEAC versions. I now have the Teac A-R650MK2 Stereo Full Amplifier, Teac W-1200(B) Double Cassette Deck, Teac Ad-850 CD Player along with the Audio-Technica AT-LP120X and the 2000 model Tech RW-D280 Dual CD Player. I'm going to build a HiFi rack for these soon and hopefully enjoy hours of retro style listening to my cassette and vinyl collection.
Could as well bought a Panasonic Cobra off eBay.
@@ConsumerDV Prefer brand new with that Retro look
Hello Neil, I want to take Teac version. Are you satisficed? Are the Cd player good, the sound? Also want to know, does it playing burned CDs? Thanks, Erhan
Congrats with the 100k!
Greetz from The Netherlands.
Damn good review! I bought this unit 2 or 3 years ago. I learned some things I didn't remember seeing in the manual. Mine has been mostly sitting under a dust cover, but after your review, I think I'll move it from the living room to my office where it will get much more use. I've always loved the cassette tape, I still have 3 twenty count cases with all my BASF and Maxell high-bias recorded tapes from the mid-80s through the 90s. Believe it or not, they still sound just as good.
Thanks for the video. Very interesting. I think I'll buy one of those. Recording quality sounds awesome!
How is the recording onto Cassette's so far? Any good? : )
I'm interested in buying this for recording my 80's rock albums onto cassette i can't find.
So i'd love to know your thoughts too.
@@MatrixAlphaCWX you'd be surprised at what you can find on cassette, I have been rebuilding my collection now for a couple of months. However prices are slowly starting to soar. I'd much rather just find the tape then go through the trouble of having to sit there and put on an album, and sit all the way through it for each taped album.
An informative and enjoyable review, thank you. I purchased one of these six months ago for use with Klipsch R41PM’s and it’s working well.
I have just got the TEAC version of this on sale and this is a brilliant video. I have learnt so much about the unit thanks so much!
Amazing, 2 weeks ago I bough the TASCAM 202 MkV for 70 dollars on a fleet market at Seoul. I love it.
I have to say, this is quite the attractive looking device.
There is sadly so many cheap modern tape decks (and other devices) that try so hard to look "professional" that they come out at the completely opposite end and look like toys.
I've got the Teac AD 850 , its pretty good. I have it connected to an Auna Birmingham music centre which has a USB but doesn't record to USB. I love how I can adjust the record level on the USB recorder on the Teac . I've had umtean USB recorder hi fi's and the USB was stuck at the same level. Having this all in one Teac machine is a brilliant idea it saves a hell of a lot of space!
I think that fans of audiobooks will like this device, many audiobooks comes in mp3, compact disc mp3 and compact cassette. One machine that can play many books.
I love the books,
Very few audiobooks (less then 1%) are on cd and those which are on mp3 can be streamed and if they don't they get downloaded on a device that's portable and easy. Why bother even moving it to a static big device such as this?
Fly Beep give me all your audio books
@@flybeep1661 I have Audiobooks on CD and they are pretty common when I am at stores.
@@flybeep1661 because lots of us still listening to music at home... and have large libraries of music or books or cassette/cd/vinyl... and it's nice to have a unit where you can play anything your library has to offer. I have a lot of physical media that just is not available on the internet to stream or download. If I want to listen to it, I'm left to jam that cassette into something.
Thanks for the review! And thank you for finding Candy Apple Blue for me! I'm officially a fan now!
Huge congrats on hitting 100K subs. Totally deserved
Thank you for this review. I bought the TEAC about six months ago, used it a few times, and then was really sad because I was frustrated by the mp3 quality (or lack thereof). Your video has helped me feel that I didn't waste my money even so.
Hello David, I want to take Teac version. Are you satisficed? Are the Cd player good, the sound? Also want to know, does it playing burned CDs? Thanks , Erhan
I'm pleased with it. It sounds great and does play burned CDs. It does not burn CDs, just so you know.
@@DavidLGill Thanks David :)
In the early 1990s when equipment manufacturers were trying to launch the first digital recorders - Minidisc, Digital Audio Tape, Digital Compact Cassette and CD Recorders -- they were sued by record companies over possible digital-to-digital "piracy". Ultimately governments passed laws that manufacturers needed to prevent exact digital copies of copyrighted material. The choice was either SCMS or crippled lower-resolution digital copying output. Since there's a digital CD player, TASCAM limited digital output to 128mpps MP3. By contrast, the analog cassette-only 202 MkVII isn't restricted by those regulations. The 202 mkVII output is WAV which has much fuller digital sound than 128mbps MP3.
The TEAC version is barely 20 dollars less than this one on Amazon. Thanks for the video. Buying the Tascam.
I love the mixed bag of test sources and genres. Rick Astley, CANYON.MID, and the 1985 Oldsmobile jingle, all in one video.
Classic content, Kevin. I loved the zing at the Stereophile review of the Marantz unit and the Oldsmobile jingle at the end.
1:33 I like how the thing behind the remote faded out of existence
That was my Califone keyboard: th-cam.com/video/c1Z5Im80aps/w-d-xo.html
Feeling owesome to see
...new professional cassette decks .... coming to market 💥💥😍
Wow!!!! A regular full size cd/cassette deck that can record MP3 to a usb thumb drive!!!! Wow! I want one!
Just $699 and it can be yours....
@@brutalmorality5885 well honestly..... I have about 400 cassettes..... And many are no longer available to purchase in any physical form..... So .... If I had the cash it'd be top of my list.
Did you miss the part where it will only record 128kbps MP3s? That's terrible quality. You don't want that. Shame on Teac! They did that on purpose to prevent you from making a quality copy of a CD.
@@Hyxtryx128 kbps sounds okay. Mostly you wouldn't notice difference between 128, 160, 192 or higher unless you use some really high quality headphones and have very good wax free ear. Anything below 128 in mp3 sounds bad and its clearly noticeable.
128 was a default standard used by encoding softwares. It kept the file size small without compromising on quality.
@@EasternSurvival "128 was a default standard used by encoding softwares."
Yes, and I'm still upset at Steve Jobs for that. Why him, you ask? Because at the time when SACD and DVD-Audio were battling it out for high-def supremacy, Apple was convincing people to stuff as many songs as they could onto a portable player. Those 2 worlds shouldn't have collided, but I think they did. The low cost "many songs in the palm of your hand" won out over the expensive "surround sound in your living room" for a new music listening paradigm.
"128 kbps sounds okay."
That's the problem. It's just "okay". I can hear the difference as you move up the ladder. And yes, high quality headphones and wax-free ears! 😃
YASSSSS! We are here for the cassette deck! Love your show! Keep up the good work :)
I bought one to digitalise my LP and Cassette collection and the reproduction is excellent. Very satisfied...........
I hope you're doing well with TH-cam because I enjoy the videos you make.
Ha, I was just looking through some old car brochures the other day and now I come here and hear the 'Special feel of an Oldsmobile' that I read, come to life :)
That's certainly very nice. Almost makes me want to get one...if I only had cassettes. More CDs than I'll need, but I never play those either. CDs go into the computer and the CDs go back into the case. Great review!
Thanks man for sharing this! I was all fired up to buy this, mainly because I wanted to record tapes to USB but when you said it can only record at 128Kbps, I immediately cooled down.. you saved me almost 400Euros!
Around 1992 when record companies sued equipment makers over digital-to-digital copying capability, they imposed restrictions on digital output from a CD player. In this case TASCAM/TEAC had to limit digital output to 128kbps MP3. However, because the cassette-only 202 mkVII and W-1200 are analog-only, there are no such restrictions and digital output is uncompressed WAV. So those are much better choices if you specifically want to record from tapes onto USB.
@@peacearchwa5103 any recommendations for cd players that can record in unrestricted compression?
Great review. Glad I picked up a new Teac AD-800 a few years ago. Seems that the tape deck is better on that unit. Even has dolby nr, auto reverse. Keep your eye out for one of those to compare.
Great review. I'm surprised to see the main circuit board uses through hole component mounting rather than surface mount. These days you expect to see a small circuit board with a few custom chips. This looks like a more 'period correct' circuit design.
This is basically an updated legacy product, the board is probably assembled on an ancient ACI line from the 1990s.
BRING THE CASSTEES BACK PLEASE.. analog sound the best.
The "brains" of the unit, the microcontrollers running the firmware, will likely be on a double-sided circuit board right behind the front panel. That seems to be how they design a lot of hifi equipment now.
@@irtbmtind89, "ancient"...amusing, and only accurate due to the life-span of tech these days.
@@thegreath.sapiensapien6907 better bring back the Reel to Reel machines, this is THE best analogue sound
Always amazed that recent vintage gear like this don't allow recording to USB as uncompressed WAV files from CD or tape
I bought a Tascam DR-7, a couple of years ago, to digitize tapes and lp's, I think that (such recorder) is still the best solution (and easiest) for superb digital recordings of any source, a great quality device. Think they need to limit USB recordings to 128kbs to avoid the need to implement a copy protection feature similar to the DAT days. The manual indicates that the USB is USB 1 .1 FULL SPEED (12 Mbps) - pretty low spec, that could be the reason it takes a while to load the index and the searching skipgaps occur when frames (chunks) get larger with better quality MP3s.
Jesus! Finally a review where you get to see the product instead of the face of the reviewer. What a luxury. I have a couple of questions in case you ever have time: would the usb read a solid state hard disk and what the navigation experience would be in case you had five thousand songs instead of a dozen.
The USB port should work with a hard drive, but since it's only USB 1.1 speed, it would be rather slow if there's a large amount of files on the drive.
To all the people complaining. Rise Records, Huge record label and others are following ,just released all of their new bands cd's on cassette's.
So obviously people do enjoy cassette's
Ooh, you got Panic! on tape, I love it!
Lovely review. They're putting good effort into these decks (even if the USB recording is very 'meh'). Always nice to see.
Too bad that Panic! tape is distorted during the loud parts, at least on my copy. They had the recording level set too high.
An excellent, thorough review. Thank you.
Congrats on 100,000 Subscribers! Been subscribed under various different usernames since under 30K :)
The CD-A500 doesn't have the USB/mp3 functionality but does have Dolby B NR ... I just need a remote for mine. Sounds great.
Thanks for a Great video covering this deck. I just purchased a new one and I'm looking forward to all it's features. Great content included in the review... keep up the great work!! Thanks again!✌
How much did it cost you?
This video is very informative 👌 I appreciate the detail you go into describing this deck as I have been thinking of buying this.
Regarding Dolby Laboratories and their end-of-life of the consumer noise-reduction systems: For much of its history, Dolby Laboratories was a privately-held company. After the year 2000, sharply declining sales of Dolby NR equipment - whether chips made by Dolby or licensing manufacture to third parties - likely eliminated profitability from this line of business. Analog tape recording was assumed to be fading away for good particularly in the professional arena. However, Ray Dolby was still the unchallenged boss. While he allowed pro-audio Dolby A and similar systems to be abandoned, Ray Dolby likely insisted that consumer Dolby NR remain available as long as he was alive (not an uncommon ask in businesses with iconic founders). In February 2005, Dolby Laboratories became a publicly-traded corporation. The real question then becomes: why wasn't the money-losing NR system licensing eliminated sooner? My answer is: The company's iconic founder was still alive and everyone knew Mr. Dolby's wishes on the consumer NR products. Ray Dolby passed away on September 12, 2013. About four months later, licensing for all Dolby NR systems was terminated.
Probably somone got paid off to kill it.
12:37 yeah that mp3 recording capability is maybe just a novelty but to be positive it is a lot better than the tivdio v115 radio you reviewed
Love the video. And cassette decks. And your channel. Thank you!!!
Tascam is one of the most underrated companies in the profesional audio space. They don't have that reputation like Sennheiser does, but I've never been disappointed by a Tascam product before, and I can't say the same about Sennheiser.
I just pulled this Tascam unit out of my system. For some reason it wouldn't power on. I didn't use it much anyway as the cassette deck really didn't sound great. A bit of flutter, and it chewed one of my tapes. Just a low quality transport.
I put my much better Denon DN-T625 back in the system, even though the cassette deck on it needs looking at. But the Denon is just a better built unit. The transport on it is solid and it has Dolby.
I've got to get the Denon serviced and hopefully just new belts on the cassette.
My advice. Buy an older, better deck and get it serviced.
Hi VWestlife, i purchased the Teac version AD850 for $399 at Sweetwater based on your rsview here for tge Tascam unit. I haven't used all the features yet . A note of advisement, is to goto Teac's / Tascams web site. Look at the support section. I discovered that Teac issues upgrades to the firmware of the units. I had an older version on mine, and now upgraded the firmware to the new Juky 2020 version. At this point , i dont know what it chznged but will see as i use it so e more. Thx for your reviews and Congrats on your subsriptions over 100K!!! Be safe and well all.
Interesting! I bought the Teac ad 850 from Newegg and had to send it back bc the tape deck was DOA, however the replacement works great.
Hello Aldo! How are you satisfice with this model after three months? How is the sound?
@@mickschnabel How are you satisfice with this model after one month? How is the sound?
@@erhanshukri works/sounds very nice, just wish it had "automatic next-track detection"(?) Seems to be solid so far, just don't pay any more than $300 for it!
Thank you for the detailed review! I've bought TEAC AD-850 few days ago. I was impressed by the recording quality on cassettes. But... On the day two of test drive device got broken :) The mechanism makes very loud rattle noise at the end/beginning of tape when fast forwarding/rewinding. After few seconds of terrible sound auto-stop is activated. Something goes wrong with gears. Famous Tanashin mechanisms are not so good as they were in 90s :) I'll return this faulty device to seller and replace with new one.
Congrats on 100,000 subscribers!
Type I, and II tapes are common on Ebay. Congratulations on 100,000 subscribers on your TH-cam channel.
i can get type 1s to sound better than metal by running them fast
100K subscribers - now get a verification mark
Highly unlikely. They now only give out verification checkmarks to celebrities and "known public figures".
How unfortunate
Thanks, Susan 🙄
VWestlife you can get one, you just need more then one large following, like a twitter account with 10k followers.. something like that
@@vwestlife ah man you deserve it i enjoy the content greatly as a vintage audio fan. grew up on 8 tracks. moved on to cassette.
got in to turntables at 38 but I can't find good albums.
I have this unit and is great for getting some rare recordings I have on cassette into a digital format.
Nice review... love the edit at 26:10... ;-)
I have the Teac version and it's a great unit, though I find recording at over 0dB can lead to distortion - I guess it depends on the CD playing, and the tape itself; using Maxell UR and TDK D mainly.... but I do find that with a good CD or well recorded cassette it sounds excellent....
Funny to see that the same CD mechanism is in a current Marantz player that sells for over $/£1200..... Wow!! It's either a brilliant CD transport, or Marantz are really over-hyping their player... I wonder which... Ha Ha!! :-D
Just pulled the cover off mine today - as it's now out of warranty, and I notice that mine has a couple of extra circuit boards... one of them stands proud of the main circuit board on plastic riser legs, and appears to have signal cables direct from the cassette deck plugged-in, and another is mounted just below the center support bar that runs front-to-back, and has a large 'block' with a few other components - hard to see under it without further dismantling!
So I guess there have been some revisions to this item since it's initial release.... I also noted that the main PCB has numerous ICs from a manufacturer 'JRL' with the same number codes on them.... A couple of larger ICs are hidden under the riser-board and I can't see the manufacturer or numbers on them.
Whatever, it's not as bad sounding unit - a good CD player, and the tape deck isn't half bad either!
@@stevesstuff1450 I have the same unit, and it also has those extra circuit boards. However I don't use it, because it's not working properly. The playback head has deteriorated in a few months and it sounds really bad, the cd mechanism is a poor one (if you have a cd with a few scratches, it will skip horribly. I use a Technics SL-PG380A cd player, from 1996, and I have no such problems).
Also, the cassette mechanism has a very small pinch roller which is not good, because I have some tapes that are a little crumpled at the beginning, and when I try to play them it sounds ok at first, but then it sounds muffled (because the tape is slipping on that pinch roller. But when I play them on my Yamaha kx-w302 stereo double cassette deck, from 1988, it has no problems at all when playing them, since it uses bigger and better rollers, and it sounds a lot better as well.)
Now, the teac cassette deck runs at a slower speed too, for some reason, so I don't know... Maybe it is only my unit the faulty one.
Anyway, I have other cassette decks and cd players that I can use to play my cds and cassettes, so I don't worry too much about it, but I am very disappointed because, for that amount of money, I was really hoping for something pretty good and reliable.
@@darthjarjar6358 : I really can't say you're wrong! I admit that the cassette mechanism in my TEAC, whilst still performing properly, and as it did when I first bought it a year ago, it really doesn't sound as good as playback and recordings done with my Sony TC-WE475 double cassette deck from the late 90s - ish! I have no problems with the CD player as yet, though once again, I prefer the sound from my late 80s Sony CDP-470 - which I've owned from new too!
The TEAC is 'OK', from what I've found, and wrks reasonably well - it's just not as good as even late 80s or 90s units were; which is a great shame - especially from a brand such as TEAC, who were always a quality manufacturer.
You'd think that some of these tjose great companies like Sony, Technics, Pioneer, etc, would still have the manufacturing documentation and machinery kicking about somewhere, that could be cleaned up, and put back into production to make 'new' versions of their old decks....
@@stevesstuff1450 You're right about those companies. Well, at least Technics or Yamaha don't make cassette decks anymore, which is a good thing, since they won't be as good as the older ones.
A small correction, if you don't mind: The sony TC-WE475 cassette deck is actually from 2001. VWESTLIFE has a video about it (you probably already know about it).
I hope your Teac will last longer than mine and take care of your sony dual deck and cd player.
@@darthjarjar6358 : Yes indeed, I am very well aware of Vwestlife, his video on that cassette deck, and am a subscriber to his excellent channel; however, you may have noticed the "-ish" that I put when roughly dating the Sony deck.... I couldn't remember off the top of my head the actual date! Thanks for the reminder though :-) Even though it's late in the life of cassettes, that old Sony 475 still sounds terrific, and makes very nice recordings; and, most importantly, it's still using a Sony manufactured transport, and not just a bought-in Tanishin mechanism....
I'm glad that there is at least one company still making tape transports of varying quality (see Vwestlife's latest video on 'clone' tape deck transports!), though I have heard that they have now stopped making them?
A real shame as cassettes are still trying to make a comeback - someone needs to get the old production machines out of mothballs and start manufacturing again!
I'll stick with the 90s decks. To be a "professional" deck, it lacks several things (full compatibility with metal tapes, manual or automatic calibration of BIAS, azimuth, etc). The VU meter is crappy (the old ones were faster and more accurate), and the MP3 digitizing is appalling. I prefer to connect the deck to the PC a thousand times and digitize my cassettes there.
It doesn't even have Dolby B at least.
@KJER ERRT Yes its pro in sense its sound quality is worse than phone calls :D ROFL
@KJER ERRT Ofcourse :D i had, ive repaired many tapedecs, old and newer. And specs of THAT one are just terrible, average boombox from 90s was better that this one.
Gratz on the milestone!
its always weird to see TH-camrs you watch watching other TH-camrs you watch... but really cool!
Pleesegiveme
i know I'm kind of off topic but does anybody know a good place to watch new movies online ?
I love this cassette deck and that way you review.thank lots for up loading video
I own an old Sony with wood in the lateral. Something like 808 something...the model. Has 3 heads and Dolby S on it. Something is telling me it may be a little bit superior to this one. I don't use it anymore though. I keep it because it looks cool. Doesn't have the smallest scratch on it. Very beautiful as furniture.
The problem with new cassette decks is the heads are fairly much all the same.
A lot of people didn't realize that the proper use of the Dolby noise-reduction had to be used with a tape that said Dolby noise-reduction on it. Some older cassette players had where you could record with the Dolby noise reduction on, then when you played it back it brought out the highs a lot clearer before they had digital.
A lot of it had to do with the quality of the tape type you were using and how you recorded it then how you chose to play it back with or without Dolby. I had an old JVC boombox that weighed 50 pounds back in the late 80s. It even had a record player on it LOL that's thing had Dolby Digital recording and Playback and rocked with 50 Watts of RMS power, it took 8 D cell batteries that would only last 2 hours. When you are on the go. Then you can plug it in when you got home. It was inexpensive on the go
"brought out the highs a lot clearer before they had digital" - perhaps, the other way around chronologically. When home recordings were made off vinyl or another cassette, Dolby encoder boosted all the click and pop and hiss of already noisy sources. Then CDs came in, and this nuisance was largely gone...
@@nvo7024 that's right! :-)
That certainly was an excellent demonstration.
Wouldn't it be great if one of the consumer giants like Sony brought out a new cassette machine.
Sony have the experience and I think the market is out there.
Analogue rules for many!
I haven't got much money, so I ordered an AD 850 on your recommendation. It came yesterday and hooked it up today. CD's are not my cup of tea (I have maybe two dozen CD's) and I don't record anything, whether on tape or on MP-3. I haven't listened to my cassette tapes in nigh on fifteen years and it sounds terrific. It's like seeing an old friend...
Hello Saint, I want to take Teac version. Are you satisficed? Are the Cd player good, the sound?Also want to know, does it playing burned CDs? Thanks, Erhan
@@erhanshukri I could not be happier. Both the tape deck and the CD player are excellent. I don't know if the CD player can read burned CDs. You could call them at 1-800-229-1689 or 1-201-785-2600 for customer questions. Stay safe.
@@erhanshukri Maybe you could ask VWestlife whether it plays burned CD's.
@@saintmichael1779 Thank you very much :)
@@erhanshukri Could you tell me whether it plays burned CD's when you find out? Thx.
Great Video. Congrats on the 100K subscribers.
Hey congratulations on reaching 100k Subscribers
Never mind this noise, I gotta find me an Oldsmobile right now!
yeah... the feeling is special!
Yeah me too!
i have one with 300.000.lol
@@DreamGrandDragon Lol i drive a 2006 mustang, has cassette player. And dad's 2009 truck has one too.
Thank you for this video, it made me buy the Teac version :)
Congrats on 100k subscribers!
The only missing thing as an AM/FM Tuner.
freaking sweet man. love cassette decks. went thrift hunting I got a teac v450x. might need a belt it won't fast forward but everything else works fine.
Damn your fine reviews.
You made me order that Rick Astley cassette.
100K !!! Greetings from Finland!
Well done on the 100K subs. BTW I thought this would have a CD writer installed.
Full of Shi..... “BethAnne Clayton” hahahaha!!!! 👍
seeing all that excitement about this 'director's cut', I'm really bemused - who is this lady and what makes her entrance so remarkable...
Marantz may have customized that JTL-101Y mechanism, but in the grand scheme of things a $1,200 media player is a mid-tier component so they have probably not tweaked it all that much.
I purchased this unit in August of 2018. You haters can bash it all you want... but it's a solid machine that's not given me any problems in almost two years.
Hello! I want to buy Teac AD850? Are you satisfied with this unit?
@@erhanshukri Read above comment.
This would be the perfect addition to my setup.to go with my receiver( Realistic STA-7500) and turntable(Akai Pro BT-80) all bases covered.
It ain't much, but I'm happy with my old Technics RS-B107.
Best $3 I even spent on an audio component... only needed a slight speed adjustment. Not top of the line, but it's just tapes, & it works for me!
That was really good review. Thanks!
BRING THE CASSTEES BACK PLEASE.. analog sound the best..
Thinking about getting the TEAC. This video very helpful. Many thanks.
Another thorough, precise and fascinating video from VWestlife!
Loved seeing all the features and the detailed demo of how this unit performs. And the direct sound output of all your selections was wonderful on my computer speakers!
I have to say, my favorite sound clip was the last one. Unfortunately, it is an earworm for me, and now my head is STUCK with the words, "There is a special feel --- in an Oldsmobile".
I have to ask about that last one though -- was it composed by Christian Rock musicians? The sound and style seem so similar to some CR I have heard. No offense to anyone -- just curious about the musical styling.
Probably no way to know.
The Oldsmobile jingle sounds very 1970s (although they were apparently using it as late as 1988), which I think pre-dates most Christian rock music, but it has an uplifting melody with lots of reverb, so that's probably the similarity you noticed. Cadillac had their own jingle which I uploaded previously: th-cam.com/video/Co7b2qEzVY0/w-d-xo.html
@@vwestlife Thanks,. I hadn't seen that video! The RCA cassette deck you used is very similar to the Radio Shack Realistic ST-86 stereo cassette deck. The Realistic had mic inputs on the back. I got mine in 1992, but they had been sold for about 3 years (I think) by then. The Realistic one has a bizarre shape with an angled top, so nothing can stack on top of it! My machine is still running fine, no need for belts or anything.
I used to buy those Supertape from Radio Shack. How I miss them...
Great info. Quality of the machine/versatility make it worth owning. I'll likely buy the AD-850 for my necro black metal tapes. Thank you.
You did a fantastic review and demo of this cassette deck. Will done my friend
One suggestion I'd offer for future cassette reviews would be including some piano music in the test recordings. By its nature, piano music tends to be very revealing of the audibility of wow and flutter effects. Thanks once again for this video!
And strings. I always judge a system on how it plays violins. Ormandy and the Philadelphia Strings.
Oh I so wished there was a MK2 version of this deck that included the Dynamic Noise Reduction from the 1200. If it did I would replace both of my current tape deck and cd player in a heartbeat.
My school has one of these ( looks identical but from 2006) and because it has Dolby, it's pretty good
That's one of the pre-2014 models with Dolby B NR, such as the TASCAM CD-A550 or TEAC AD-800.
@@vwestlife yeah, and it also has an orange VFD!
Forgive me if someone has mentioned this but no playing of or recording to FLAC files on usb seems a bizarre omission. The ability to copy CDs losslessly would be a major bonus for this machine.
Also, I just have to say that the cd mechanism is only one aspect, and probably not the most important one, in determining the quality of a cd player. However, I agree it's nice this has a decent quality transport.
Probably most users who want to copy CDs to FLAC, MP3, OGG, etc. might be using a computer for this, using a tool like EAC, which can also automatically tag the files, with artist, song title, album title, genre, etc. I always used a PC for this job.
Pretty cool to see a brand new tape deck. To sad it has no dolby :C
Tell dolby to offer it
Are you a classical music fan?
I never used it back in the day because I'm not.
Except for Beethoven.
Dolby ruins song by cutting of the frequency. I don’t miss Dolby at all
Am kinda new in the dobly world. Honestly using a dolby b to play back on portable machines. It isnt a bad idea.
@@EfficientTrout A good equalizer can perform as well or better than Dolby noise reduction