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#1
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Advent 201 cassette rec. - keep or trash?
I have some old (dating from the 1970s) stereo components which I was
recently reviewing whether to keep. My old Dual 1219 turntable/changer works well and I will certainly keep it for vinyl use. But I also have an Advent 201 cassette tape recorder. This was one of the first cassette recorders to have Dolby and to use chrome tape. It was high-end at one time. It had all manual individual channel and master level controls and a pretty decent external microphone pre-amp with balanced inputs, which made pretty good location recordings. It still makes decent recordings but I'm sure distortion levels and speed control are not up to modern standards. It doesn't have auto-reverse or solenoid logic controls. A couple of these are on Ebay with box for bids of $20-40, so it probably has little financial value. I know that cassette is almost dead medium. For those of you who are familiar with this unit, is this a component that one might want to keep or not? |
#2
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Advent 201 cassette rec. - keep or trash?
Depends on the condition of the tape head - they wore out rather quickly -
and the pinch roller. This was a 3m / Wollensak mechanism, the pinch roller rubber turned to goo after a time. Last I heard one could still get the roller from Audio-Video Parts in LaBrea CA. In good working order an Advent would blow the doors off a modern cheapie cassette. You'd need a Nakamichi to compete. Mark Z. -- Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam have rendered my regular e-mail address useless. "Michael Volow" wrote in message ... I have some old (dating from the 1970s) stereo components which I was recently reviewing whether to keep. My old Dual 1219 turntable/changer works well and I will certainly keep it for vinyl use. But I also have an Advent 201 cassette tape recorder. This was one of the first cassette recorders to have Dolby and to use chrome tape. It was high-end at one time. It had all manual individual channel and master level controls and a pretty decent external microphone pre-amp with balanced inputs, which made pretty good location recordings. It still makes decent recordings but I'm sure distortion levels and speed control are not up to modern standards. It doesn't have auto-reverse or solenoid logic controls. A couple of these are on Ebay with box for bids of $20-40, so it probably has little financial value. I know that cassette is almost dead medium. For those of you who are familiar with this unit, is this a component that one might want to keep or not? |
#3
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Advent 201 cassette rec. - keep or trash?
On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 04:57:16 -0600, Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
Depends on the condition of the tape head - they wore out rather quickly - and the pinch roller. This was a 3m / Wollensak mechanism, the pinch roller rubber turned to goo after a time. Last I heard one could still get the roller from Audio-Video Parts in LaBrea CA. In good working order an Advent would blow the doors off a modern cheapie cassette. You'd need a Nakamichi to compete. This definetly worth keeping, maybe even if it doesen't work. It's a true piece of audio history, the original consumer cassette deck. Mark Z. is right that, like all early decks, the heads did wear out quickly, and the pinch rollers do go away. He is dead wrong that it would "blow the doors off" modern decks, except maybe for for cheapo Walkmans. In all respects - W&F, S/N, freq response, etc. performance was fairly poor by modern standards. The Wollensak transport was no jewel, but it's all that was available at the time. But it was good enough to get the cassette format off the ground as a real recording medium. Keep it or sell this nice audio curiosity to a good home - don't toss it in the trash! Hey Mark - no top posting... -- Registered Linux user #266531 |
#4
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Advent 201 cassette rec. - keep or trash?
Gotta disagree. I work on these things, and most modern decks don't even
have a flywheel as we understand the term. A stamped round disk with a plastic pulley attached does not qualify as a flywheel in my opinion. These pieces of crap sell at 79.00 or less for a DUAL deck. How good can they be? They don't use harder tape heads, they over-spec their frequency response by a country mile, and certainly aren't built to last. Heck - they mostly aren't even built by the companies whose names they bear. They're built in China by Hu-Nos-Hu. Besides, one's choices of cassette decks is very limited these days - it's an obsolete technology. If you record a dynamic classical piece on a new-condition or well-maintained Advent, the SOUND QUALITY will easily beat the cheap crap that's out there today. BTW Advent wasn't the first modern cassette, but they were the first to use Dolby, in their model 200, which was made by Nakamichi, by the way. Also there were Wollensak models using the same mech which DID have the ferrite heads. I did neglect to mention other good quality Japanese decks that were made from the mid-70s' through the late 80's or so. Many of these were definitely worthy. Mark Z. -- Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam have rendered my regular e-mail address useless. "Crashdamage" wrote in message s.com... On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 04:57:16 -0600, Mark D. Zacharias wrote: Depends on the condition of the tape head - they wore out rather quickly - and the pinch roller. This was a 3m / Wollensak mechanism, the pinch roller rubber turned to goo after a time. Last I heard one could still get the roller from Audio-Video Parts in LaBrea CA. In good working order an Advent would blow the doors off a modern cheapie cassette. You'd need a Nakamichi to compete. This definetly worth keeping, maybe even if it doesen't work. It's a true piece of audio history, the original consumer cassette deck. Mark Z. is right that, like all early decks, the heads did wear out quickly, and the pinch rollers do go away. He is dead wrong that it would "blow the doors off" modern decks, except maybe for for cheapo Walkmans. In all respects - W&F, S/N, freq response, etc. performance was fairly poor by modern standards. The Wollensak transport was no jewel, but it's all that was available at the time. But it was good enough to get the cassette format off the ground as a real recording medium. Keep it or sell this nice audio curiosity to a good home - don't toss it in the trash! Hey Mark - no top posting... -- Registered Linux user #266531 |
#5
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Advent 201 cassette rec. - keep or trash?
On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 07:17:01 -0600, Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
Gotta disagree. (snip) I did neglect to mention other good quality Japanese decks that were made from the mid-70s' through the late 80's or so. Many of these were definitely worthy. We could argue this forever, but I was talking in comparison to cassette *decks* not boombox recorders, etc. And yeah, the few decks available today are crap, but still maybe actually sound better (at least when new and working right) than the original Advents with the unreliable Wollensak transports (sorry, but they were) and no noise reduction. The Advent was OK, but not really good-sounding and reliable 'till Nakamichi started making them with Dolby and a decent transport. A well maintained deck from about '78-'90 is the way to go for quality sound and build, for sure. Hey, dude, yer still top-posting...not nice... -- Registered Linux user #266531 |
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