Hi from yellowyears

Recently I have gotten into music and looking for a physical way to listen to it. I've seen a few cassette players and recorders and wondering where I can get some advice on them?

 

Welcome. It is never too late to "get into music" although I suspect many of us oldies were in our mid teens when we started buying records, tapes etc.
However, personally I was 26 before I bought my first CD as before then they were much more expensive than vinyl.

What to buy depends very much what you want to get out of it. Do you already have any cassettes by a favourite artist or intend buying them?
Do you want to make your own recordings. Do you want something portable or would a system to listen to at home do?

My suggestion would be to watch a few Techmoan videos on Youtube although the availability and prices of equipment can be different in different countries.


Some advice would be to not set your heart on one particular unit but to look what is available locally. Bear in mind that most of the equipment is older than you, so I would suggest that something demonstrated working is worth at least twice something with a question mark over it which you might never be able to get repaired.

p.s. It might be worth asking relatives if they have anything stashed away in a drawer or in their attic.

 

Welcome to Stere2go yellowyears

 

Thanks for the link, that was super interesting. I like the idea of something like that sitting on my desk.
I plan on getting a proper hi-fi cassette deck later on but for now I'm just looking for something that I can record my own music on and listen to portably.
I found [this rebranded bush player](https://www.marstapes.co.uk/products/682971-the-sour-grapes-cassette-player) which i've seen techmoan advice against, funnily enough it seems to cover up the bush branding
This [looks promising](https://www.marstapes.co.uk/products/723726-cassette-player) but it's hard to tell if it's good, seems unbranded and I can't find any reviews online (little sidenote- if something can record, and has a headphone jack, could it be used with an aux cable to record desktop audio?)

You bring up a good point about finding stuff locally, I don't really know a price range but I wouldn't mind doing an easy fix like replacing belts but of course ideally something new would do me better

 

Now I know you are in the U.K. look in Charity shops which sell electricals. The local Sue Ryder one often has mini systems with cassettes. Despite lockdown, in the past couple of years I have bought there a no-name autoreverse cassette player with a USB socket for digitising tapes as new in the box for £3, and a Sony CFS200 stereo Radio Cassette which needed a new belt for £5.
A local second hand shop had a large Sharp dual deck boombox (tape not working so probably needing new belts) for £15 sat there for weeks. I already have enough things needing repair here to add another large one.

p.s VWestlife is another Youtuber worth watching for low cost cassette based gear.

 

I've found a deck with speakers, model Sharp XL-530 for 15 quid, working perfectly. But I'm not sure it can record to the cassette which is a big thing I need. seems too cheap though, might be scam

 

Having looked quickly at the manual it seems you can only record to CD from the cassete or erase a cassette, so definitely not recording to it from an aux or phone cable (though there is a phone jack?)

 

I checked the manual. The phone jack is probably for headphones. Recording would be from the Radio or CD to tape. I have pointed out a couple of times on Youtube that in 2008 Ford were still selling cars (Kas) with a cassette player so if you had one of those that was a useful thing to be able to do.

Technics sold a couple of systems to the Sharp but only the top of the range one had an Aux input. Things to look for are an Aux input Jack or sockets and an Aux button on the remote.

Anyway you have got yourself a CD player. Everytime I think CDs can't get any cheaper they do. At a recent car boot sale someone was literally giving them away.

 

Yeah to be honest CDs never really interested me but they seem to be dirt cheap. I could even burn some lossless files to cds then record to cassettes from them for portability. Since My last post I’ve done some more digging to find a Yamaha KX-330 deck and it seems to be a higher quality for recording tapes, and on the back there is a line in for recording but I’m still not sure if I’d be able to maybe get some kind of adapter and just plug an aux in there? Seems like a good deal, though I presume I’d need some speakers to go along with it which might be a hassle

 

The Yamaha KX-330 is a real HiFi component and probably cost as much new as the entire Sharp system. With the correct leads (which shouldn't cost more than a few £s) and some headphones or powered speakers (computer speakers would do) you could record to cassettes from many sources and play them back.

Even in 1990, when it was released you would have been quite proud to have a HiFi containing separates like the KX-330. The idea of separate components is that you can build up a system adding items like an amplifier and tuner or substituting better ones. In case you don't know, unless you want something fancy like remote control, you can mix units from different manufacturers

 

+1 to that! Now, as then, KX-330 is my main cassette deck, but nowadays I record off Tidal/lossless files, not CDs/LPs

Very decent specs as-is with a 30-year old belt, I did not even bother installing new belt from MarrsCommunications (which cost me as much as the deck itself!):


and as simple as you can dream of when servicing, mostly empty space inside:


compare this to my Nakamichi LX-3:


One drawback - no Volume Control for the headphone jack:

 

Seems like I've lucked out... hopefully I can pick it up before someone else does. Then I'll just need some speakers and to buy an RCA cable. Thanks everyone,

 

Ha! I love the term, is this something you keep next to your fav casserole? Please post some links/photos, I always thought those thingies are called boomboxes

But @Mister X is absolutely right, since KX-330 does not have volume control you won't be able to plug active speakers to the h/p jack to control volume. More boxes/pieces are needed

 

My suggestion was computer speakers. These were literally the first ones that came up on an eBay search.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294902074462?hash=item44a9888c5e:g:ad4AAOSw3KRiSeHf&LH_BIN=1
It would be useful to know what kind of budget Yellowyears has, although £100 today will go way further than it would in even the 1990s, since the average person (like my neighbours) have replaced their HiFi with a Bluetooth speaker.
Here, I have a Sony amp under the bed here that I didn't even want. It came with a turntable I did for £50. My Aiwa mini separates are also under there. I think I paid about £90 for both the amp and tuner. Expensive compared to a massive Pioneer receiver which I was asked to take to the tip but sold to a delighted buyer for £45

I have always had a soft spot for casseivers, but I reckon that they are quite a rarity. Techmoan got criticised for using one in his beginner HiFi

Like I was saying in a different thread another problem is that if one part (like the cassette deck) fails you have to replace the whole unit.

I suppose you could call the mid price Midi systems Casseivers. A friend had a Sony system I once fixed (dodgy connection to a phono socket) in which the amp, tuner, and twin cassette were all one unit. Only the cheap plastic turntable, and the expensive five disc CD changer were separate.

Another thought for @yellowyears Have a look in somewhere like CashConverters. Other than new ones in Richer Sounds, they are the place locally where you are most likely to find mid range HiFi.

 

Interesting you should mention that, I believe I have a vinyl record player ‘Jam vinyl HX-TTP300BWD-GB‘ which might have a preamp inside? It has stereo speakers so I was hoping I might be able to use them like that? it has RCA out and aux in

I’m working with about £60 at max but That’s for the equipment and not the tapes or music. Thanks for the cash converters tip I’ll take a look sometime this week

 

Looking at some pictures you should be able to hook it up to the KX-330 with suitable cables (which as I have said before will cost about £4 on eBay or Amazon, £20 in Curry's, or £200 in a high end HiFi shop ).

I suspect that the £5 computer speakers I posted a link to would sound better than the one in your turntable / record player, but if you have that already it will get you going until you find something better.

The important things are to look at the back of equipment to see what inputs and outputs it has, and to remember that even with most Mini systems you will need speakers and cables (although really cheap speakers sometimes have the cables hard wired). £60 is quite doable if you shop carefully. Do you have access to a car to bring things home. Something you often see in places like Cash Converters are surround sound amps with dozen of inputs that weigh about 20Kg.

A lot of this stuff is cheap because nowadays it seems that most people just wat a large wall mounted TV, a SoundBar, and a streaming service, although where is the fun in that

p.s. Are you aware of the old Argos catalogues on Retromash.
https://retromash.com/argos/
Have a look and you will see that in the 20th Century they sold HiFis, and at some points even HiFi separates. Everyone had one when you had to buy your music from a shop. If you weren't an Argos type of person you could go to John Lewis and actually audition different components in a listening room before buying them.

 

Thanks again for all the advice, I feel pretty confident in what I’m looking for now. The catalogue was interesting, thanks for sharing that!

 

The problem with portable tape players/recorders is that the mechanism quality is very low compared to what was available in the 80s and 90s