Portible cassette (for recording airchecks)

[John Holcomb II]

I record still on cassette , and am wondering if anything is made today that has Auto-reverse during both  recording and playback?
I remember this Panosonic boombox my parents baught for me in 1993. Wish I could find it again.
It had
auto-reverse
3-band EQ (with Sliders) and base boost
Analog tuning
great FM reception (I could get WRFY with just its telescoping antenna from Bensalem, PA
I  know Sony still make cassette boomboxes.
Digital tuning is nice and so  is the sleep timer (as a lot of times I will start recording in the car when I get to someplace, and leave it on and come back waaaay after the  tape would have finished)
the bad things about what I've seen is  there is usually only a meggabase, if it is a bigger box it'll have a button for the EQ (not sliders)
The Fm reception is okay, but not stellar.
I did some lookin around on eBay for pro decks  and newer ones are becoming harder and harder to find. I have pro enough decks so this isn't a big deal to me, but it really does seem as if the cassette market is dyeing.
I don't plan on switching to anything like the  CC Witness at any point soon, mp3's it makes are not  quality.
Perhaps I should be lookin at Vintage Portable electronics on eBay but I wouldn't know  what is good. There isn't always specs.

this is what I can live with
Musts:
Auto-reverse for recording and playback.
Not sure what this option is  called)
choose record one side then stop, play one side then stop, or record both sides then stop, play both side then stop
at least 3-band EQ (controled with sliders) and Base boost
Very good frequency response during recording
Sensitive selective FM Reception
Does not default to mono when stereo reception gets weak
No CD player (I do not use the CD player often on the boomboxes I have - If I wana use CD and not record airchecks, I'll bring my MP3 diskman and usually audio CD's)

Plus's
Wide-band AM Stereo reception
Wide-narrow bandwidth selector for AM and FM
Digital tuning (
Sleep timer
Pitch  control
switches sides (optical) when it senses leader
I'd rather have one really nice older box then the ones I have now.
I plan on sticking to cassette for the foreseeable future.

[willdav713]

I used to have a Panasonic boombox that my grandparents bought me in 1991.

It had a 5 band graphic equalizer, cassette deck, AM/FM stereo tuning, and Aux inputs.  Had xtra bass, and cro2 switch Metal for playback only.  It could record on those Type IV tapes. My grandparents bought that Panasonic unit for about $250 at Best Buy back in December 1991.

What you need is an 80s Hitachi ghetto blaster.  Those have the manual gain controls which make a big big big difference in recording.

Another solution buy a AM/FM Walkman, 3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo connector, and a Marantz PMD series cassette deck off ebay, which features the manual gain controls, and tape selector switch.  Those will run on 2 AA batteries for the Walkman, and 3 D batteries for the Marantz.  PMD-201 is mono, they also make stereo models as well.

[willdav713]

You really want to stay away from Auto Reverse decks if you want your tapes to last, and the player as well.  Plus with the Marantz I just mentioned you can record in slower speed which doubles the cassette tape a 50 minute per side tape becomes 100 minutes per side.  Marantz PMD-201, PMD-221 are good but they do record in mono.

[John Holcomb II]

I'm  lookin at boomboxes, maybe portible audio is more what I'm lookin for.
Something that has the features I mentioned but smaller.
The one I remember ran on 6 C batteries. the EQ was 3 band (though I'd  prefer 5.)

[willdav713]

I'm  lookin at boomboxes, maybe portible audio is more what I'm lookin for.
Something that has the features I mentioned but smaller.
The one I remember ran on 6 C batteries. the EQ was 3 band (though I'd  prefer 5.)

You do know that the EQ is for playback not recording, unless you have the EQ standalone unit connected to rec input.  Then any boombox with cassette player with 5 band EQ will do for playback. I use a different unit to record onto than to playback from.

The downside to that is you would have 3 different pieces to tote with you plus a lot of batteries to buy for them.

or

What you could do is buy some Multimedia speakers and connect them to a AM/FM Cassette Walkman that has a 3 band EQ there are out there but hard to find, and use a Marantz PMD unit for recording.

[johnbasalla]

I'd like to be able to find 3-head cassette decks so you can cue right up to what you want. 

The Marantz PMD units mentioned by willdav713 are excellent, just be sure to treat them gently.  At my work, one was knocked off of a table, hit the floor and from there had to hit the repair shop.  We use the Marantz cassette decks as the back-up for the digital recorder.  In the 1990s they changed to audio recording of important meetings instead of paying a couple of people to get it all themselves in short hand.  That's when we got the first of two Marantz audio cassette recorders.  Some years ago, they purchased a Marantz digital recorder.  Two times the digital unit failed, and we were so happy to have recorded the legally required, important meetings onto audio cassettes as well.  I do know that Marantz, as well as some Marantz dealers have a reasonably large stock of these cassette recorders that they still sell for a pretty high price.

[John Holcomb II]

Yes I know the EQ is for playback and not recording. I picked up a Sony CFX-6000 and after repairs I think that wil work nicely.