ultrx rd-c21

[lordxale]

Picked this unit up today for $4.99 at GW in lil' ol' Sterling, IL. It's a single-well, Dolby B/C and DBX deck. Apparently Ultrx is a division of Sanyo - it says so on the back. Date code probably suggests that this is from 1984.

I don't have any pictures of it yet (And couldn't dig up any on the web), but it's pretty nice looking. I saw how good of shape it was in and I couldn't pass it up for $5. I tried it out and it played, fast forwarded and rewound well enough, and the inside of the tape well looked basically spotless. I'm listening to it right now and it sounds pretty good to me, though I don't know too much about cassette decks yet. I'd say playback is probably on par with my Pioneer, though I don't have enough cables to do an A/B with them. No recording, yet... The display on it looks really, really nice to me, too.

It has soft touch controls, isn't auto reverse, and it seems like it's single motor, but it seems like it's pretty decently built. Did I mention how good it looks? :D Maybe it's not a great deck by any other standards, but it's certainly a well-preserved relic of the early '80s.

If anybody knows anything else about this deck/line of decks, I'd love to hear it! I couldn't really find anything about the Ultrx brand except that it's a division of Sanyo...and apparently it must not have been around long, the Wikipedia page for Sanyo bears no mention to the Ultrx brand.

[Des-Lab]

Well I will say that is definitely an obscure name. I'd never heard of it till I read your post. Would definitely be curious to see some pictures and perhaps a test report. AFAIK, Sanyo was never all that renowned for their cassette decks; portables and low-end seemed to be their forté. And they had an offshoot to that? And you sure it's genuine Sanyo and not a knockoff such as SanKyo?

[lordxale]

Yeah, definitely checked for Sankyo, heheh. It's definitely weird if you've never heard of it, Des!

Getting the pics up in just a second...

I'm liking the sound so far, especially compared to the stuff I've listened to lately. That CT-W502R didn't sound very good the few times I got it to play, and the Sony I picked up yesterday (another story for another thread) is totally garbage compared to this...then again, that's not the Sony's fault...anyway, I've now moved on to a recording I know fairly well...my girlfriend's copy of "Human" by Death. You aren't a metalhead if you don't love that record! It's not in perfect shape, but it's not bad and I don't have this album any other way so it works for me.

[lordxale]

One more thing I've noticed about this deck...when I do have the B/C NR on, it doesn't seem to take nearly as much life out of the music as it does with my Pioneer CT-W770 (maybe that means it's not working? :) ) . I still don't like having it on, though.

Oh, and before anyone says I'm nuts for thinking it sounds better than my CT-W502R, yeah, yeah I know it sounds like crap because it needs work :D I haven't bothered to clean the heads yet since I can't even get it to play.

Anyway, try deez pics out! (The second and third kinda suck, I know) It's certainly not much higher end than the average Sanyo-bred stuff I've seen, but it's no Sounddesign, either.

[lordxale]

the only info I've found on it is here:

http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/vt.pl?f=tape&m=8

Somebody thought it was relatively nice, at least!

[Scorpion8]

It looks like an interesting deck, and the wouldn't have licensed dbx for some el-cheapo me-too deck. I'd be interested in seeing how it compares and sounds.

[lordxale]

That's kind of what I thought. In fact, that's the first thing I saw on it - The DBX logo is pretty much the most prominent thing on the face of the unit and at first glance that's what brand I thought it might be, too. Didn't they make some equipment, as well as license their NR tech?

Anyway, I was looking at it and there was another guy kind of looking at it and asking me some questions about it. At the very least, I would have had to go home and ask questions on here about it because I was pretty sure it was uncommon, and maybe even sounded good :D. I wasn't about to pass it up for $5. So far, I'm not disappointed. At the Batavia, IL GW I found a total of three decks the other day, all pretty nice, but all in some sort of disrepair. A dual-motor single-well Onkyo in which only one motor seemed to be working, a dual-motor single-well Yamaha which didn't power on at all, and a dual well, dual-motor Sony that at least had one deck working. For $3, I just took it home hoping it would at least sound decent...however, its problems are going to be the subject of another thread - how not to treat a tape deck and how not to design one in case you ever have to repair it...! After that string of failures, I couldn't pass up this one even if I wanted to!

[graffias79]

No way! I was born and raised in Sterling, IL! The GW there is relatively new, and I haven't found much of anything there before I moved away. The best thing I found was a JVC R300X receiver and a strange ELAC 850 turntable which started to die horrifically soon after I bought it (but I salvaged the M95 cartridge from it) Yes!

I usually hit it when I visit my family there.

[lordxale]

No way! lol, I'm actually from Dixon, and now I'm a suburbanite.

Someday, I might come back, if I can find myself a solid job and bring back some of the suburban/city $$$ with me!

[graffias79]

Very cool. With Route 2 having become a 65MPH highway, Sterling and Dixon are not so far from each other anymore. I'm always worried about that damned stoplight for Sauk changing while I'm approaching!

Sterling can be a good place, but I don't think I want to go back there aside from visiting. I moved to the Chicago area (Lived in Addison and then Wheeling) from 2005-2007, but I found my partner up here in Janesville, WI and last year made the big move. I love it up here in Wisconsin.

I had fun in the Chicago area but I sure don't miss the traffic and tolls!

[retrokeeper]

I have a couple of brochures for two of the early models of cassette decks by Ultrx aka by Sanyo.I have the RDR51,not an overly impressive deck by no means,but about on par with similiar Sanyo decks of the era,possibly they got better with time.They also had some impressive looking receivers,for which I have 3 brochures for...the R100,R70,and R55,if you liked receivers with no knobs,just small & large buttons to push!!I could look back into some other audio magazines I have and see if there are any reviews of their gear,haven't seen much on the 'bay about their gear and not much anywhere else for that reason,I don't believe it was in production for very long.The brochures I have are all dated 1984. Rob

[Scorpion8]

Thanks, Rob!

[lordxale]

Thanks indeed, Rob!

Pretty much everything I've seen that remotely mentions Ultrx is from 1984...I wonder if that was the only year?

[niklasthedolphin]

Ultrx RD-C61 cassette deck was reviewed in High Fidelity Magazine February 1985.

Don't have the magazine and don't know the deck.

"dolph"