Cassette Deck Needed and Found

MikeT.

My Name is Flounder
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I had exactly one cassette, a mix cassette, I had made for my wife over 35 years ago, while we were dating. It has a lot of emotions and memories tied up in there for both of us.
I tried a “no-name” crap Walkman type player from Amazon and it was just that, CRAP. Back it went. OK, a Goodwill trip is in order, maybe I’ll get lucky.
I did! It’s no Nakamichi Dragon but it’s a nice component dual-well cassette deck by Pioneer and it sounds VERY VERY GOOD. We listened to the entire thing, noting every song. I’ll rip it to my Mac Mini or just develop a playlist on Qobuz or Tidal.
This $6.99 Goodwill find is very cool, but not as cool as my wife who puts up with me and my hobby even though she doesn’t quite get it. :rolleyes:

Cassettes do sound pretty good. Mix recorded on Sony UCX90.

E26C86CD-3296-4CDA-8AC7-9CDB882B1578.jpeg5B72EBA3-DCEC-48C9-9A8C-1B9DC1D662FF.jpeg
 
In my (albeit somewhat limited) experience, some brands of the dual-well cassette decks are better than others vis-a-vis belts that sag, stretchm and/or turn to goop. The Sonys were (are) bad. Very bad. The Pioneers, not so bad.

I have one of the Radio Shack "Optimus" branded Pioneers (long-ago dump find) that is hooked up upstairs for recording occasional air checks (as they say). Must be a bit older than the titular one of this thread, as it has a blue (and faded) fluorescent display. Works absolutely fine, despite its provenance and (presumably) fairly great age. :)
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Optimus Pioneer cassette deck by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

DSC_5910 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
 
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