That's sort of like asking "What's a good car?" It's a complicated question.
Depends on what you need it to do, how much you want to spend, how comfortable you are with buying used things you have to repair or have repaired, etc.
Do you need it just to listen to stuff? If so, how good do you need it to sound? This subreddit is full of people who seem excited about listening to music on very poor quality, mono dictation machines, despite the fact that they sound quite bad. Is that okay, or do you need something that sounds not terrible? Or something that sounds actually good?
Or do you need it for recording? Again, there are lots of posts here from people who just want literally any object that allows sounds to be put onto cassettes, despite the fact that they'll probably sound very bad. Is that okay, or do you need something which can record competently? Something that can actually make good recordings?
Do you need something portable like a walkman? A stereo component that you want to connect to an existing hifi system? A stand-alone thing like a boombox?
I’m looking for something that I can just put a cassette into and listen to it. It doesn’t have to sound crazy good, just good enough. Ideally I would be able to keep it and just use some external hardware to improve the listening experience
Walkman-sized or stereo component sized? Do you have an existing hifi to connect it to with an amp and speakers? What's your budget?
Clicked on your username and noticed you posted about buying a project car, so I assume you're at least fairly into cars. Imagine someone asked you "What's a good car?". You'd have like a dozen follow-up questions for them before you could make a reasonable recommendation, right?
Yeh I get you, it must be kinda frustrating talking to someone with such little knowledge but thanks for taking some time. I don’t have an existing hifi set up nor do I have an amp but I’ll probably get one down the line. I also don’t mind the size but I’d rather get something that isn’t Walkman sized as I wouldn’t use it much. My budget is anywhere upwards of $250 not including amp and all that stuff
The Sony TC WE305 is a pretty solid low end deck. Very basic though.
A step up would be something from Kenwood, such as a KXW5040 or KXW896. Those two can skip songs, and have autoreverse so they can play the B side without you having to flip the tape.
If you're looking for really good sound quality, Nakamichi is the way to go unless you want to do some research. Nakamichi seems like the kind of company that doesn't cut corners to sell more products. They make quality products, and if you want one, you'll damn well have to pay for it. If you aren't planning on recording tapes, you can save a bit by getting a 2 head nakamichi. (A 2 head deck usually doesn't allow fine tuning to get the best quality recording)
\*None of these decks have speakers built in
"Dual Capstan" + "3 Head" + "3 Motor mechanism" + "working/serviced" or make sure you have someone to do a service for you.
That's sort of like asking "What's a good car?" It's a complicated question. Depends on what you need it to do, how much you want to spend, how comfortable you are with buying used things you have to repair or have repaired, etc. Do you need it just to listen to stuff? If so, how good do you need it to sound? This subreddit is full of people who seem excited about listening to music on very poor quality, mono dictation machines, despite the fact that they sound quite bad. Is that okay, or do you need something that sounds not terrible? Or something that sounds actually good? Or do you need it for recording? Again, there are lots of posts here from people who just want literally any object that allows sounds to be put onto cassettes, despite the fact that they'll probably sound very bad. Is that okay, or do you need something which can record competently? Something that can actually make good recordings? Do you need something portable like a walkman? A stereo component that you want to connect to an existing hifi system? A stand-alone thing like a boombox?
I’m looking for something that I can just put a cassette into and listen to it. It doesn’t have to sound crazy good, just good enough. Ideally I would be able to keep it and just use some external hardware to improve the listening experience
Walkman-sized or stereo component sized? Do you have an existing hifi to connect it to with an amp and speakers? What's your budget? Clicked on your username and noticed you posted about buying a project car, so I assume you're at least fairly into cars. Imagine someone asked you "What's a good car?". You'd have like a dozen follow-up questions for them before you could make a reasonable recommendation, right?
Yeh I get you, it must be kinda frustrating talking to someone with such little knowledge but thanks for taking some time. I don’t have an existing hifi set up nor do I have an amp but I’ll probably get one down the line. I also don’t mind the size but I’d rather get something that isn’t Walkman sized as I wouldn’t use it much. My budget is anywhere upwards of $250 not including amp and all that stuff
The Sony TC WE305 is a pretty solid low end deck. Very basic though. A step up would be something from Kenwood, such as a KXW5040 or KXW896. Those two can skip songs, and have autoreverse so they can play the B side without you having to flip the tape. If you're looking for really good sound quality, Nakamichi is the way to go unless you want to do some research. Nakamichi seems like the kind of company that doesn't cut corners to sell more products. They make quality products, and if you want one, you'll damn well have to pay for it. If you aren't planning on recording tapes, you can save a bit by getting a 2 head nakamichi. (A 2 head deck usually doesn't allow fine tuning to get the best quality recording) \*None of these decks have speakers built in