What a find! Auto tape tuning in 1984. Auto tape select is one thing, but that's a proper high end feature! I am old enough to have used tapes in anger, but back then we didn't know much about them really, we just used them. Having gotten back into the whole tape thing (Covid made us go down many weird rabbit holes, didn't it!) and watching videos on tapes and recording I now understand what I, and probably most of us, missed back then. Having three heads and a monitor function is the most important feature, apart from the tape tuning. I never understood the point of monitoring the recording back in the day. And besides, I couldn't afford one) Now I have realized it is very nice to be able to compare a recording to the source. You will instantly be able to tell the quality of the tape, if you are recording at too high levels making the recording distorted, if the tape has dropouts etc. So much better than noticing this after hours of carefully making a mix tape. I have recently bought a Sony deck from the 90s, my first 3-head deck and first with tape calibration. It is soo satisfying to se the meters change as you adjust the bias and levels to the individual tape! And it really makes a difference to the results. Sadly it is not a dual capstan one. Looking to upgrade to a model with a better mechanism, including dual capstans. Sadly I live in a country (Norway) where there are hardly any thrift stores, and top of the line decks are rare and (over)priced when they show up on online market places. :-(
@@AudioThrift It was an eye opener to actually use that function. Unpacked a sealed Scotch to make a mix tape for a friend, and noticed that it had dropouts immediately. Saved me redoing the whole thing, I just got another tape. Many old tapes work just fine, but bad storage can sadly deteriorate them sometimes.
and being a sony will sure happen, my worst deck is a TC-K920QS or the MARK II of the well known and fabricated diferentelly for diferent countries, the TC-K611S, i had it fully restored and never used before so cassettes that were deck destroyers but with good tape like the maxells with light grey casing i recorded them in this sony i refer, still have it next to my Sony dat deck in the lower shelf of my hi-fi system as second deck, my main deck in this system is the better than any Nakamichi deck(that i had them all, the top models only)the Pioneer CT-959
forget to say that auto calibration was available is some decks depending on the brand since early 80´s but Pioneer had it , the BLE automatic calibration , check it on the early 80´s catalogs aqvailable on-line i when wanting a manual download it from hifi engine
Fantastic video! Clear visuals, great presentation and a positive, fun vibe. One small thing I will add for anyone seeing this comment is that you can adjust the individual input levels of the level and right channels, because the input knob is actually two parts that can be rotated independently. Once again, a great video, and a killer deck to boot (tape tuning, damn)!
Another nice find. Nice to have a 3 head-dual capstan deck. The wood panels look great. I love it when I get a receiver with a wood case or side panels...as long as they're in good shape! Usually they are scratched or the vinyl wrap is peeling. I have a Denon 7.2 multichannel receiver I really love as well Go Maiden!
Once again - A excellent find from an Estate sale, and a magnificent video presentation 👍 Your explanations are excellent! Not too technical, but just enough to get the point across…. Your Denon Cassette Deck (from 1984) is 40 years old and still going strong = Fantastic! By the way: I am glad you mentioned that you opened and looked inside the Denon, as one can be lucky (just like yourself) and find and fix problems / issues. Take Care.
I have one of those, including the rosewood end panels. I repaired decks for many years professionally, I chose the Denon because most of the internal parts are metal, the Nak decks have a lot of nylon parts, which don't age well.
Thank you. I spent a long time getting comfortable with the back end stuff like workflow and using the equipment/software... I finally feel like I can actually focus on content now after a year. lol So I very much appreciate your saying so. That means a lot. 😊
Heck, I remember more than 25 years ago, scoffing at the hefty $350 to $500 prices on eBay for used Nakamichi Dragon cassette decks, but those were bargains by today's standards compared to prices now ranging between $3,000 and $8,000. That's just nutty. :)
3:26 I like the backlight feature too and any lights, in fact, when it comes to vintage audio equipment. I used to photograph and often enjoy my stereo setups at night with the house lights turned off just to bask in the glow of the equipment lights with some fine tunes being played. Haha! :)
The backlight is a really handy feature. Being able to tell how much is left of the tape was/is important. If you were lightning quick you could even fade the music out quickly when you saw the leader tape appear. 😁
This is a great tape deck. This one - IMHO - is worth setting right. Denon made some great cassette decks. The one I'm looking for is the DR-F7, which a lot of guys I knew in college had - it made REALLY great tapes. At any rate, I'd make this one a keeper.
Wow - I saw one of these go for about a hundred bucks in Japan about a week ago and thought THAT guy got a good deal (their version is the DR-M9 by the way). This model is as good as it gets from Denon.
@AudioThrift I do a lot of tape recording on the various cassette decks I have. I don't have any remotes, BUT allow me to accept, I enjoy calibrating tape, setting recording levels, and engaging noise reduction systems ALL manually :)
I had the successor of this model, the DR-M44HX. It was a good deck indeed. I replaced it with the Sony TC-K700ES, which sounded way better. The wooden panels were - indeed - extra.
That one looks nice. Looks like you got a lot more control over the sound when you upgraded. Where did you notice the biggest improvement in the Sony; the playback or the recording?
I need to start going to these estate sales....................Nothing wrong with FREE. Back light for cassette tape incredibly important. De magnetizing the head or heads very important on these old cassette decks.
You totally should. Even if you don't find anything, they're still fun... now demagnetizing the heads, I did not do and probably should have. That's a good idea.
How do I hook up my Denon tape deck to a new Denon 2700. No dedicated inlets. I'm already using a CD,tuner and phono but indicator to wire the RCA Lead on the back of the amp. Any help would be great, thanks
Nice receiver by the way.with some 79 SB-F2 from technics will sound amazing ,the problem is knowing if it is the 79 model and not the 1980 when of the hi-fi Armagedeon
Dolby no longer issues licenses to manufacturers. So basically Dolby NRSs are commercially dead. You can only find Dolby on old tape decks so is pretty nice for "personal" recordings, but deprecated if your recordings are intended to be sold or shared with others, because recently manufactured decks simply doesn't incorporate that feature.
That's a fact. I know the little bluetooth cassette boombox I use at work doesn't have it... but it does make up for it by adding plenty of wow and flutter.
several bought this deck ,i bought the next year model as it had calibration already(manual),i think the reference had only a extra "X",later bought the DRM-800a and i´m still using it today, no calibration but perfect no other Denon built as good as this one not before nor after, but the DRM-700a was the same but with regular heads this had the so not loved amourphous heads
Subscribed! Dude, this deck looks awesome! One thing puzzles me though, why does it have dual capstan if it doesn’t have auto-reverse? Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be as lucky as to find one of these ones, but I’m planning on going to some thrift stores and see if I can find a tape deck that looks like it’s in a relatively good shape to then restore it (clean it, change the belts, lubricate it, and hopefully just that). There aren’t many thrift stores close to where I live in DFW but I’ll see what I can find. Thanks for the great content, keep up the good work! 😊
That's great to hear! My dad works at a thrift store and he says that a lot of them rotate their stock out after a week or two and they put new things out a couple times a day. So if you don't find anything, it's worth going back a day or two later. I go every couple days. But if you want something a little more high end, I'd go to estatesales. net and look up your area to see if there are any estate sales with what you're looking for. That's where the premium stuff usually is. The nice thing is they post a BUNCH of photos of the contents of the houses. And you don't have to sign up or log in or anything. ... I just looked up the DFW area and there are a lot this week/weekend. In fact, there's one that starts on Thurs. in Corinth that looks like it has a cool little collection that includes a Pioneer cassette deck. 😁
Dual capstan is meant to give a more stable tape transport, with less wow & flutter. Most 3 head decks will have this kind of mechanism. Sadly not on my Sony... Mostly it says "closed loop dual capstan" on higher end decks.
@@AudioThrift man, thank you so much for the estate sale tip and website! The Pioneer deck got sold right away, but I found another estate sale where they had a Sony TC-FX505R from 1983, and it is in fantastic shape! I only need to change one of the belts, now the pain is to wait until I receive them on Monday 😂… thanks again, I scored the deck for 12 dollars hahaha, happy day indeed 😁
the auto-reverse function isn´t for high-end deck ,it put´s it with diferent azimuth everytime you turn the heads after only some monthes of not heavy use, when older decks say dolby nr, aren´t dolby B but the A(so to speak), as it was the first ,only later the dolby B apeared
its a lovely cassette deck. i do have 44 and 44hx with HX Pro, to be honest i do have 5 of them :). one is already fully restored and recapped putted back like in brand new condition with some upgrades to the components. yeah, is a beast and i can say its one of the best deck ever and maybe the best deck made by denon. ps, when it comes to remote control you can do it yourself. just find which one is ground and by shorting other pins you start the option. you cand design your own style and maybe control centre to your system :) i did that myself when i was 10 years old with my other deck when i was a boy :) i used game pad got the controller, just use socket, solder cables and job done :) but that was over 35 y ago.
Oh man... the remote control idea is great. I'm gonna try that with just a couple wires and see if I can get it to work. I'm curious, what were the upgrades you did?
@@AudioThrift I like that DIY remote control idea. From the look of the jack on the back, you can do some initial tests if you have a standard 5-pin midi cable laying around. If it functions correctly by shorting pins to ground (likely pin 1) like the other commenter suggests, you could use a 7-pin midi cable to craft the remote. Great job on the video! I like the detail you put into it. It’s comfortably technical while still being a review from firsthand experience and passion.
The only Onkyo deck I've tried did sound really nice. I don't think it was on the same level as this one though so it wouldn't be a fair comparison. Hopefully I'll run across an Onkyo at some point but that's up to the Thrifting Gods. lol
@@AudioThrift Try to explore Onkyos integra TA-2570/2800, 2360/2058, 2500/2056, they are very good sounding machines and as for the sound are better than this Denon DR-M44, but DR-M 44 is better as for transport cassette mechanism.
There's nothing silly about that cassette backlight. I have a TEAC deck from 1995 that has it and a TEAC deck currently produced that doesn't and it's annoying when you have to use a flashlight to see the tape.
the "auto tuning system" automates the manual bias fine calibration process avalilable on other decks, so the "monitor" key on this particular machine looks pretty useless to me.
I got rid of mine years ago. I was tired of expensive repairs for what is a ; what's the point of owning a nice cassette deck these days when digital is sooo much nicer to record with.
@@AudioThrift Everything! I've owned highend decks since the seventies. On my Nak 682zx and CR-7a needed all the nylon parts, motors, idlers replaced more than once. It can cost $200.00 just for the nylon parts in a 680zx, probably more today. I have bills of $250.00 to almost $800.00, last one about two years ago on the CR-7a. Two Studer Revox's; a B-710 & B-215, those two machines about the best in the world. When they needed service, at least $500.00 for the same things as the Naks with the B-215's display having issues. I can say this: if there is any audio product that I can unequivocally say is the best it's cassette decks since they haven't been made(good ones) since the nineties and I've listened to anything worth listening to. Hands down best was (and I guess is) the Tandberg 3014, slightly edging out a Revox. I know that some indie bands are putting out tapes again but I think that's just some nostalgic thing. My first deck, a Teac A-650 I got as a highschool graduation gift, 1977 was pretty nice, stable transport, all solenoid operation, dynamic sound. Now Open Reel tapes, that's another story. I don't know how companies like Ap were able to get a license to make those Columbia performances from the 50s-60s.
Aaarrrrr, it be too late to find one online, like most decks these days they're well past the $500 mark! Aaarrrrrrr! This enough to make a man walk the plank himself.
@@AudioThriftAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! This be the same with other hi-fi gear. My friend's Pioneer SA-7500 and matching tuner TX-7500 from 1975 or 77 both go for a tiny sum nowadays. It bebquite disheartening because I rather like their sound. Makes me want to load me musket pistol with that single shot. At least the older B&W speakers be surprisingly easy to come by here in these Australian waters.
Me mutinous phone keeps mistyping or mispelling what I type, and it really shivers me timbres! Me thinks Polly had the right idea, sinking into complete madness. Right Polly? "AAARRRKKKKKK! I'LL KILL YOU! KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU YOU BASTARD.! AAARRRKKKK! KILL YOU YOU BASTARD! AAARRRKKKKKK!!!!!" Flamin' bird!
It kind of is to some degree. I don't mean to sound condescending to anyone but you'd be amazed how many grown adults have no idea how to even put a tape in a tape player, much less do anything with it. I had a bunch of cassettes at work that I used to let clients play and I constantly had to explain how to insert the tape to people who had never seen one in person before. ...so in a sense, you're right. That's the point.
Nothing special about automatic tape selection, is not rare. Mid to late 80’s, it’s rare to not have.. why don’t you explain how to bias calibrate instead. You should if caring about doing a good recording
We were really lucky to find this one, stick around because this one is pretty cool.. Sounds to me those words tougher easily could be the same as special and rare. Yes, you didn’t specifically say them, neither did i say you did. A 3 head tape deck with no fine bias adjustment on the front is unusual to me. Maybe not to you I guess not being an adult in these machines prime days. Then again maybe you should, when expressing yourself on TH-cam, always with low to mid range products tho. In early 90s I bought for the first time a brand new tape deck, a denon drm710, it’s a proper 3 head with fine bias adjustment on the front. As any 3head decks should have, the whole point of 3 heads is to do proper recordings, So i naturally assumed it to had being a good brand. If it you download the service manual from hifiengine you may find some potts inside it to fine adjust bias. If you have a lot of old stock denon tapes you probably don’t need to, But when buying tapes factory new in 2024 you may want to do, because the tapes calibrated to this machine isn’t being made anymore.
No, I was lucky to find it with the wood panels because usually this model doesn't have them. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough about that. I can't get on to Hifi Engine because account registration is closed. Been trying for a while... they have a TON of manuals that I want. I can usually just Google it but it sure would help to have an account.
It’s a brand and model sold worldwide. Finding a user and service manual online isn’t harder than finding these things in estate sales. I’m still wondering why you don’t ever find an Dragon, TCK7ESJ, high end technics & JVC
What a find! Auto tape tuning in 1984. Auto tape select is one thing, but that's a proper high end feature! I am old enough to have used tapes in anger, but back then we didn't know much about them really, we just used them. Having gotten back into the whole tape thing (Covid made us go down many weird rabbit holes, didn't it!) and watching videos on tapes and recording I now understand what I, and probably most of us, missed back then. Having three heads and a monitor function is the most important feature, apart from the tape tuning. I never understood the point of monitoring the recording back in the day. And besides, I couldn't afford one) Now I have realized it is very nice to be able to compare a recording to the source. You will instantly be able to tell the quality of the tape, if you are recording at too high levels making the recording distorted, if the tape has dropouts etc. So much better than noticing this after hours of carefully making a mix tape.
I have recently bought a Sony deck from the 90s, my first 3-head deck and first with tape calibration. It is soo satisfying to se the meters change as you adjust the bias and levels to the individual tape! And it really makes a difference to the results. Sadly it is not a dual capstan one. Looking to upgrade to a model with a better mechanism, including dual capstans. Sadly I live in a country (Norway) where there are hardly any thrift stores, and top of the line decks are rare and (over)priced when they show up on online market places. :-(
Thank you. I'm going pin this comment because you explained the purpose of monitoring better than I did, I think. :)
@@AudioThrift It was an eye opener to actually use that function. Unpacked a sealed Scotch to make a mix tape for a friend, and noticed that it had dropouts immediately. Saved me redoing the whole thing, I just got another tape. Many old tapes work just fine, but bad storage can sadly deteriorate them sometimes.
sadly? lucky you if with doble capstan one more thing to fail and destroy tapes
and being a sony will sure happen, my worst deck is a TC-K920QS or the MARK II of the well known and fabricated diferentelly for diferent countries, the TC-K611S, i had it fully restored and never used before so cassettes that were deck destroyers but with good tape like the maxells with light grey casing i recorded them in this sony i refer, still have it next to my Sony dat deck in the lower shelf of my hi-fi system as second deck, my main deck in this system is the better than any Nakamichi deck(that i had them all, the top models only)the Pioneer CT-959
forget to say that auto calibration was available is some decks depending on the brand since early 80´s but Pioneer had it , the BLE automatic calibration , check it on the early 80´s catalogs aqvailable on-line i when wanting a manual download it from hifi engine
Fantastic video! Clear visuals, great presentation and a positive, fun vibe. One small thing I will add for anyone seeing this comment is that you can adjust the individual input levels of the level and right channels, because the input knob is actually two parts that can be rotated independently. Once again, a great video, and a killer deck to boot (tape tuning, damn)!
Another nice find. Nice to have a 3 head-dual capstan deck. The wood panels look great. I love it when I get a receiver with a wood case or side panels...as long as they're in good shape! Usually they are scratched or the vinyl wrap is peeling. I have a Denon 7.2 multichannel receiver I really love as well Go Maiden!
Thank you. What year is that Denon of yours from, roughly?
@@AudioThrift it’s about 3-4 years old.
Nice. It's cool that Denon is still making good stuff. 🤘Maiden!
Once again - A excellent find from an Estate sale, and a magnificent video presentation 👍
Your explanations are excellent! Not too technical, but just enough to get the point across….
Your Denon Cassette Deck (from 1984) is 40 years old and still going strong = Fantastic!
By the way: I am glad you mentioned that you opened and looked inside the Denon, as one can be lucky (just like yourself) and find and fix problems / issues.
Take Care.
Thank you. I appreciate that. :)
I have one of those, including the rosewood end panels. I repaired decks for many years professionally, I chose the Denon because most of the internal parts are metal, the Nak decks have a lot of nylon parts, which don't age well.
It definitely felt solid when I opened it up, unlike a lot of decks I’ve seen where they wobble with the shell off. :)
Denon and Technics always gave you so much for your money, along with the highest standard of assembly and finish.
Denon yes, absolutely, but technics? no way.
Your videos are getting better and better as you go. More relaxed and willing to go into detail. I'm liking it!
Thank you. I spent a long time getting comfortable with the back end stuff like workflow and using the equipment/software... I finally feel like I can actually focus on content now after a year. lol
So I very much appreciate your saying so. That means a lot. 😊
I have a Denon deck from the early 90's. It's built like a tank and holds up three decades later.
Yeah, I'm really impressed with it... especially considering it was free and that rarely results in something that works. lol
You hit the jackpot! You explained the features very well also. I also think that back lighting is very important.
Thanks so much!
@@AudioThrift No problem. Just subscribed. Keep up the good work
Now THAT's classy, so naturally I want one to replace my early 00's Yamaha deck. I ain't going to find a Nakamichi Dragon after all :D
Truthfully, this Denon deck is quite nice. Worth it if you can find one for a decent price.
Heck, I remember more than 25 years ago, scoffing at the hefty $350 to $500 prices on eBay for used Nakamichi Dragon cassette decks, but those were bargains by today's standards compared to prices now ranging between $3,000 and $8,000. That's just nutty. :)
not an audiohead but i love the way you present! your voice is great and you're very pleasant to watch
Thank you. I appreciate that immensely.
Well built deck, I love the wood panels
So glossy. 😁
Now, that's one sweet-looking Denon DR-M44 cassette deck and the cherry wood panels give it a higher-end appearance right out of the gate. :)
I love how shiny they are. So satisfying. lol
3:26 I like the backlight feature too and any lights, in fact, when it comes to vintage audio equipment.
I used to photograph and often enjoy my stereo setups at night with the house lights turned off just to bask in the glow of the equipment lights with some fine tunes being played. Haha! :)
Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one that did that!
The backlight is a really handy feature. Being able to tell how much is left of the tape was/is important. If you were lightning quick you could even fade the music out quickly when you saw the leader tape appear. 😁
Thats a beautiful deck. Great find. Enjoy!
Thank you!
This is a great tape deck. This one - IMHO - is worth setting right. Denon made some great cassette decks. The one I'm looking for is the DR-F7, which a lot of guys I knew in college had - it made REALLY great tapes. At any rate, I'd make this one a keeper.
Wow - I saw one of these go for about a hundred bucks in Japan about a week ago and thought THAT guy got a good deal (their version is the DR-M9 by the way). This model is as good as it gets from Denon.
I have the DR-M24HX and DR-M30HX. Your deck has some neater features than both my decks :)
Those both look cool though. Do you have the remote? :) That's something I haven't gotten to try yet.
@AudioThrift I do a lot of tape recording on the various cassette decks I have. I don't have any remotes, BUT allow me to accept, I enjoy calibrating tape, setting recording levels, and engaging noise reduction systems ALL manually :)
@AudioThrift I just noticed, both my Denon decks don't have wood panels on the side, like yours has :)
I had the successor of this model, the DR-M44HX. It was a good deck indeed. I replaced it with the Sony TC-K700ES, which sounded way better. The wooden panels were - indeed - extra.
That one looks nice. Looks like you got a lot more control over the sound when you upgraded. Where did you notice the biggest improvement in the Sony; the playback or the recording?
03:05 😂😂😂😂 Nice one! Great deck, would love to have one.
LOTR is life! :)
I need to start going to these estate sales....................Nothing wrong with FREE. Back light for cassette tape incredibly important. De magnetizing the head or heads very important on these old cassette decks.
You totally should. Even if you don't find anything, they're still fun... now demagnetizing the heads, I did not do and probably should have. That's a good idea.
How do I hook up my Denon tape deck to a new Denon 2700. No dedicated inlets. I'm already using a CD,tuner and phono but indicator to wire the RCA Lead on the back of the amp. Any help would be great, thanks
If you email me a picture of the backs of your equipment, I could try to help. :)
@@AudioThrift thank you, please could you forward me your email address .
audiothriftyt@gmail.com
Nice receiver by the way.with some 79 SB-F2 from technics will sound amazing ,the problem is knowing if it is the 79 model and not the 1980 when of the hi-fi Armagedeon
Dolby no longer issues licenses to manufacturers. So basically Dolby NRSs are commercially dead. You can only find Dolby on old tape decks so is pretty nice for "personal" recordings, but deprecated if your recordings are intended to be sold or shared with others, because recently manufactured decks simply doesn't incorporate that feature.
That's a fact. I know the little bluetooth cassette boombox I use at work doesn't have it... but it does make up for it by adding plenty of wow and flutter.
several bought this deck ,i bought the next year model as it had calibration already(manual),i think the reference had only a extra "X",later bought the DRM-800a and i´m still using it today, no calibration but perfect no other Denon built as good as this one not before nor after, but the DRM-700a was the same but with regular heads this had the so not loved amourphous heads
Cool deck. Wonder how easy it would be to add panels to a stereo.
Shoot, I never though about that but I imagine it can't be that hard as long as the screws don't hit anything.
i have a black and a silver one, i use the silver for spare parts.
Nice. Do either of yours have the wood sides? Just curious how often people got them.
Subscribed! Dude, this deck looks awesome! One thing puzzles me though, why does it have dual capstan if it doesn’t have auto-reverse? Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be as lucky as to find one of these ones, but I’m planning on going to some thrift stores and see if I can find a tape deck that looks like it’s in a relatively good shape to then restore it (clean it, change the belts, lubricate it, and hopefully just that). There aren’t many thrift stores close to where I live in DFW but I’ll see what I can find. Thanks for the great content, keep up the good work! 😊
That's great to hear! My dad works at a thrift store and he says that a lot of them rotate their stock out after a week or two and they put new things out a couple times a day. So if you don't find anything, it's worth going back a day or two later. I go every couple days.
But if you want something a little more high end, I'd go to estatesales. net and look up your area to see if there are any estate sales with what you're looking for. That's where the premium stuff usually is. The nice thing is they post a BUNCH of photos of the contents of the houses. And you don't have to sign up or log in or anything.
...
I just looked up the DFW area and there are a lot this week/weekend. In fact, there's one that starts on Thurs. in Corinth that looks like it has a cool little collection that includes a Pioneer cassette deck. 😁
@@AudioThrift wow, I will definitely check it out; thank you so much for the great tips, you rock! 😊
Dual capstan is meant to give a more stable tape transport, with less wow & flutter. Most 3 head decks will have this kind of mechanism. Sadly not on my Sony... Mostly it says "closed loop dual capstan" on higher end decks.
@@AudioThrift man, thank you so much for the estate sale tip and website! The Pioneer deck got sold right away, but I found another estate sale where they had a Sony TC-FX505R from 1983, and it is in fantastic shape! I only need to change one of the belts, now the pain is to wait until I receive them on Monday 😂… thanks again, I scored the deck for 12 dollars hahaha, happy day indeed 😁
the auto-reverse function isn´t for high-end deck ,it put´s it with diferent azimuth everytime you turn the heads after only some monthes of not heavy use, when older decks say dolby nr, aren´t dolby B but the A(so to speak), as it was the first ,only later the dolby B apeared
Hey there. Nice shirt. Just subscribed. I have a channel as well. Found you on reddit
Awesome! Thank you!
its a lovely cassette deck. i do have 44 and 44hx with HX Pro, to be honest i do have 5 of them :). one is already fully restored and recapped putted back like in brand new condition with some upgrades to the components. yeah, is a beast and i can say its one of the best deck ever and maybe the best deck made by denon. ps, when it comes to remote control you can do it yourself. just find which one is ground and by shorting other pins you start the option. you cand design your own style and maybe control centre to your system :) i did that myself when i was 10 years old with my other deck when i was a boy :) i used game pad got the controller, just use socket, solder cables and job done :) but that was over 35 y ago.
Oh man... the remote control idea is great. I'm gonna try that with just a couple wires and see if I can get it to work.
I'm curious, what were the upgrades you did?
@@AudioThrift I like that DIY remote control idea. From the look of the jack on the back, you can do some initial tests if you have a standard 5-pin midi cable laying around. If it functions correctly by shorting pins to ground (likely pin 1) like the other commenter suggests, you could use a 7-pin midi cable to craft the remote.
Great job on the video! I like the detail you put into it. It’s comfortably technical while still being a review from firsthand experience and passion.
Thank you Andrew. :)
Great quality deck. Direct drive should be mentioned.
Agreed!
Onkyo decks of the same level class sound better
The only Onkyo deck I've tried did sound really nice. I don't think it was on the same level as this one though so it wouldn't be a fair comparison. Hopefully I'll run across an Onkyo at some point but that's up to the Thrifting Gods. lol
@@AudioThrift Try to explore Onkyos integra TA-2570/2800, 2360/2058, 2500/2056, they are very good sounding machines and as for the sound are better than this Denon DR-M44, but DR-M 44 is better as for transport cassette mechanism.
There's nothing silly about that cassette backlight. I have a TEAC deck from 1995 that has it and a TEAC deck currently produced that doesn't and it's annoying when you have to use a flashlight to see the tape.
Right? It's like... It's such a simple thing but it make so much difference.
@@AudioThrift
Exactly. 🙂
the "auto tuning system" automates the manual bias fine calibration process avalilable on other decks, so the "monitor" key on this particular machine looks pretty useless to me.
Yeah, it does seem a little redundant. lol
I got rid of mine years ago. I was tired of expensive repairs for what is a ; what's the point of owning a nice cassette deck these days when digital is sooo much nicer to record with.
Just for reference, what kind of things did you have to repair on it?
@@AudioThrift Everything! I've owned highend decks since the seventies. On my Nak 682zx and CR-7a needed all the nylon parts, motors, idlers replaced more than once. It can cost $200.00 just for the nylon parts in a 680zx, probably more today. I have bills of $250.00 to almost $800.00, last one about two years ago on the CR-7a. Two Studer Revox's; a B-710 & B-215, those two machines about the best in the world. When they needed service, at least $500.00 for the same things as the Naks with the B-215's display having issues. I can say this: if there is any audio product that I can unequivocally say is the best it's cassette decks since they haven't been made(good ones) since the nineties and I've listened to anything worth listening to. Hands down best was (and I guess is) the Tandberg 3014, slightly edging out a Revox. I know that some indie bands are putting out tapes again but I think that's just some nostalgic thing. My first deck, a Teac A-650 I got as a highschool graduation gift, 1977 was pretty nice, stable transport, all solenoid operation, dynamic sound. Now Open Reel tapes, that's another story. I don't know how companies like Ap were able to get a license to make those Columbia performances from the 50s-60s.
Aaarrrrr, it be too late to find one online, like most decks these days they're well past the $500 mark! Aaarrrrrrr! This enough to make a man walk the plank himself.
Aye Matey... but ye can always look for booty in the thrift stores. The internet, she'l sink a man's ship if ye let her.
@@AudioThriftAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! This be the same with other hi-fi gear. My friend's Pioneer SA-7500 and matching tuner TX-7500 from 1975 or 77 both go for a tiny sum nowadays. It bebquite disheartening because I rather like their sound. Makes me want to load me musket pistol with that single shot. At least the older B&W speakers be surprisingly easy to come by here in these Australian waters.
Me mutinous phone keeps mistyping or mispelling what I type, and it really shivers me timbres! Me thinks Polly had the right idea, sinking into complete madness. Right Polly? "AAARRRKKKKKK! I'LL KILL YOU! KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU YOU BASTARD.! AAARRRKKKK! KILL YOU YOU BASTARD! AAARRRKKKKKK!!!!!" Flamin' bird!
Dual concentric, not coaxial
I feel like this is video geared for 10 year-olds LOL
It kind of is to some degree. I don't mean to sound condescending to anyone but you'd be amazed how many grown adults have no idea how to even put a tape in a tape player, much less do anything with it.
I had a bunch of cassettes at work that I used to let clients play and I constantly had to explain how to insert the tape to people who had never seen one in person before.
...so in a sense, you're right. That's the point.
Nothing special about automatic tape selection,
is not rare.
Mid to late 80’s, it’s rare to not have..
why don’t you explain how to bias calibrate instead.
You should if caring about doing a good recording
Didn't say it was rare lol. It's very common. Can you elaborate on how you would calibrate the bias on this deck?
We were really lucky to find this one, stick around because this one is pretty cool..
Sounds to me those words tougher easily could be the same as special and rare. Yes, you didn’t specifically say them, neither did i say you did.
A 3 head tape deck with no fine bias adjustment on the front is unusual to me. Maybe not to you I guess not being an adult in these machines prime days. Then again maybe you should, when expressing yourself on TH-cam, always with low to mid range products tho.
In early 90s I bought for the first time a brand new tape deck, a denon drm710, it’s a proper 3 head with fine bias adjustment on the front. As any 3head decks should have, the whole point of 3 heads is to do proper recordings,
So i naturally assumed it to had being a good brand.
If it you download the service manual from hifiengine you may find some potts inside it to fine adjust bias. If you have a lot of old stock denon tapes you probably don’t need to,
But when buying tapes factory new in 2024 you may want to do, because the tapes calibrated to this machine isn’t being made anymore.
No, I was lucky to find it with the wood panels because usually this model doesn't have them. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough about that.
I can't get on to Hifi Engine because account registration is closed. Been trying for a while... they have a TON of manuals that I want. I can usually just Google it but it sure would help to have an account.
Why did you delete my previous comment?
It’s a brand and model sold worldwide. Finding a user and service manual online isn’t harder than finding these things in estate sales.
I’m still wondering why you don’t ever find an Dragon, TCK7ESJ, high end technics & JVC
Thank u for advertising my M44HX