I remembered now why I had once abandoned the format. For one, the speed turned out to be different for all decks we tried, second, there was some wow (speed variations) and third, all heads needed realignment. This nostalgic feeling quickly made place for disappointment over technical deficiencies. How cool it was to see the music carrier behind the little window and watching the tape make its turns while the red counter and VU-LEDs put on a hypnotizing show. Now that, for the first time in years, I had a cassette in my hands again, inserting it into the Nakamichi deck and hearing the transport do its work in a silent and supple manner, I got in a state of nostalgia. At the bottom a simpler 2-head machine, the LX3 ![]() In all cases, the preamp was a Jeff Rowland Synergy.Ībove: Decks used for playback: on the top is the legend: the Dragon. The Macbook recordings were copied over the network to the main PC and played back from there from the EMU1212M coaxial digital output, connected via a Belden RG59 coax cable, into the DCS Delius and Purcell DA converter and upsampler as well as tried into an Audiomeca Enkianthus. The decks were placed in the Spider Racks and were connected with good cables. In my Reference setup, I used two different Nakamichi-decks for replay of the recordings I made:an LX3 and a Dragon. For playback, I used the same machines in this setup, as well as a Nakamichi Dragon and a Nakamichi LX3 in my reference setup. Next to the 1000ZXL, we also used the ZX9 for additional recordings and cross-referencing. On this photo, the 1000ZXL is in use for recordings in tandem with digital ones via the Macbook. The record player is a rare and expensive Technics SL1000 mkII with Denon DL103D MC cartridge. The 1000ZXL is considered the absolute best deck ever, not only amongst Naks, but in the world. One of the recording setups with a Nakamichi 1000ZXL and ZX9 cassette deck. Recording on cassette using the best Nakamichi decks Apart from the Apogee device and software, you also need a WAV recording program. All settings are controlled digitally but are actually made in analogue fashion inside the controller. Here you can adjust levels and change the routing. The Apogee Duet is a controller with a built-in AD converter that accepts balanced analog signals, transfers them to a digital stream that is transferred to the computer via Firewire.Ībove: a screenshot of the Apogee mix application. I use it set at its maximum of 24 bits 96khz settings and record the WAV files with a program called Amadeus Pro. The Apogee Duet is a controller as well as an external AD converter. The other is an Apple Macbook with an external Apogee Duet firewire interface that has excellent analog inputs. One is my main PC with an EMU1212M semi-pro sound card. I also used his setup to make some recordings.ĭigital recordings were made on two systems simultaneously. Luckily I have a friend who collects these decks and who was friendly enough to loan them to me. They were simply the best cassette decks available, at a price. If you are unfamiliar with this brand, know that once these were considered state of the art. To put this to the test, I used a selection of excellent Nakamichi Cassette decks. Be that as it may, digital recordings do sound different from analog ones. Of course, there are many ways to record lp’s but because the computer is so popular now, I wanted to compare this method with the purest method we all used in the previous century: cassette! Many believe that by going digital you lose some of the musical information. ![]() in fact, I made recordings in various setups to get a really good idea of the results. The same records, same cables and the same setup were used. To discover what sounds best, I made some LP recordings with various Nakamichi Cassettedecks and compared these to recordings made on a computer in 24/96 with an external firewire interface, the Apogee Duet AD converter. When recording LP’s, what sounds better? Digitized or recorded analog?
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