Few years ago after bying a bunch of boomboxes, I decided to search for a quality cassette deck from eBay. Luckily I found a Denon DRM-800A, for 25€ plus shipping (around 50€ total). The thing was that the deck door latch was broken. I got it fixed and since then I've done some recordings for the boomboxes and occasional "just for the kicks" -listening.
The deck came with an old ABBA -tape and oh boy was I amazed when I pressed play. Before that moment, I never knew how good a tape can sound. Of course I never owned any hifi, just some old bits and cheap DIY pieces of speakers...
The first recording attemp I did was very memorable moment. Since the Denon is a 3-head, the end result can be monitored. I got a sealed sample of Maxell XLII-S and before recording any actual music, I tested with pink noise and set the Bias so that the top end had maximum clarity. I put some CD on the old cheap modded Philips CD320 and gave it a try. I was purely amazed when I pressed the monitor button while listening the end result on tape. The source sounded more muddy than the tape! I think I had a bit too low bias setting, but man, the sound was clear as day.
Recently the deck started to make a squealing noise and one of the motors was having issues with the bushings. Few quick fixes didn't really help and I had to dismantle the motor, press the shaft out and flip it around. Also added some industrial lifetime rolling bearing grease. That seemed to work good.
I'm in a process of getting the deck speed clocked right, but should buy a calibration tape. At the moment, I just eyeballed it using a stop watch and adjusting the speed so that the tape counter keeps on time. Before it got quite a bit ahead. Also all the boomboxes would probably need slight speed adjusting too.
Last month I got an old Sansui SE-8 equalizer and serviced it. That thing can make a real difference on a tape. With some tapes, I've boosted the high frequencies to somewhat counteract the lack of highs. Also because I'm mostly using the tapes on boomboxes, I wen't ahead and tested a kind of pre-equalization, that would make the sound more full. So a tape that is recorded with the EQ has a "built-in" loudness and I don't need to turn the bass and treble (or loudness) so much on a boombox. Of course not any crazy amounts of boost, but more like taking a few dB's out of the upper bass and midrange, giving the 8-16 kHz a decent (+3-6dB) boost and also a few +dB's to the 60-100Hz.
I've redone some recordings. The other was a 90's pop/dance album and I found it on a CD from a thrift store, So I recorded the whole thing again. The original recording was very cold and had somewhat lacking dynamics. The tape itself was -really- high quality, probably the best normal tape I've heard (recorded). I could'nt hear almost any difference from the source vs. the tape, only the slight hissing gave the tape away.
The other album I re-recorded, was Perturbator - I Am The Night, that I bought last year. It had horrendous dynamics, hissing was so high that it showed on the VU-scale. After finding a torrent download with 320kbps MP3, I thought It couldn't possibly go any worse If I re-recorded it. The tape wass a mess, but after blanking it a few times with Sharp GF-700 at high speed dubbing and higher bias (chrome position), the tape seemed to give at least some dynamics. With some EQ (again, no need for flat hi-fi response) I got the album sounding OK and with punchy basslines. I also used Dolby B, not really sure if it helps anything if the playback doesn't have Dobly, but because the tape couldn't handle much levels, I ended up using it.
After testing with a few boxes, it seems I have to measure and adjust the balance because when the Denon's headphone output and VU:s L/R are equal, it seems that the right channel will play more quiet.
