braxus
06-09-2008, 07:06 PM
I have been starting to use my Aiwa XK-S9000 tape deck which is to replace duty of my Sony 909ES deck. The Aiwa still has issues that need attention before I commit it to full usage. The 9000 was the top end deck from Aiwa in late 1991 till maybe 1993-94. It uses Dolby S as its top feature and has a fequency response up to 24Khz with metal tapes. Its basically a deck to rival the Nak Dragon. Anyway since my decks Dolby S board needs some work before I start to use it, I did a recording today in Dolby C. I had a used cassette I bought off Ebay which was a Sony Metal Master 90. It had Elton John recorded onto when I got it, so to keep it consistent I got my greatest hits of Elton John and did a new recording onto the tape with the Aiwa. I compilled some songs in the program mode of the SACD player I have, and got the tape ready to go. The deck told me it wanted the bias to be set to 10 oclock which I thought was a bit low for even a metal tape. It could be because the tape has degraded. But I noticed a lot of low end distortion on the recording, so I bumped the bias to the 12 oclock position and left it there. The high end was still fine, so my bias calibration could be off like the tech said it was. The deck records fine in Dolby Off, B, and C. Its Dolby S that loses high end compared to the others. So set the record level to 4 and let the CD roll.
Now the sound that was coming out of the Aiwa seems to put my Sony TC-K909ES to shame. Maybe its just using a metal tape. I don't know. The sound coming out of the Aiwa was so crisp with dimension in the sound, it openned up a new level of recording. The sound from the CD was still bright as CDs tend to be, so this deck was not rolling anything off or watering down the sound. It still had that slightly edgy sound I notice off CDs. The tech did say he was very impressed with the frequency response on this deck, so maybe this is what I was hearing. The dimensional sound on this tape was so good, it made me rethink what Dolby C was capable of. I always thought that was a trait more of Dolby S. All I can say if the tape sounds this good on the Aiwa, then I wouldn't possibly imagine what the best deck ever made- a Tandberg 3014 would sound like. Now I'm wondering what vinyl would sound like on this deck. Too bad my vinyl rig has a hum I can't get rid of. It does make me want to take the deck in to get the rest of it fixed though. Of course that will bring it into the extremely expensive territory of what I spent on this deck.
Another weird thing the deck was doing was the CD program said the list of songs added up 45 minutes. On the deck it says 48 minutes. I know no tape goes for 48 minutes, so Im aware the deck is probably off on its count. They did replace the belt for the counter, so I can't say why its adding extra time while in use.
Now the sound that was coming out of the Aiwa seems to put my Sony TC-K909ES to shame. Maybe its just using a metal tape. I don't know. The sound coming out of the Aiwa was so crisp with dimension in the sound, it openned up a new level of recording. The sound from the CD was still bright as CDs tend to be, so this deck was not rolling anything off or watering down the sound. It still had that slightly edgy sound I notice off CDs. The tech did say he was very impressed with the frequency response on this deck, so maybe this is what I was hearing. The dimensional sound on this tape was so good, it made me rethink what Dolby C was capable of. I always thought that was a trait more of Dolby S. All I can say if the tape sounds this good on the Aiwa, then I wouldn't possibly imagine what the best deck ever made- a Tandberg 3014 would sound like. Now I'm wondering what vinyl would sound like on this deck. Too bad my vinyl rig has a hum I can't get rid of. It does make me want to take the deck in to get the rest of it fixed though. Of course that will bring it into the extremely expensive territory of what I spent on this deck.
Another weird thing the deck was doing was the CD program said the list of songs added up 45 minutes. On the deck it says 48 minutes. I know no tape goes for 48 minutes, so Im aware the deck is probably off on its count. They did replace the belt for the counter, so I can't say why its adding extra time while in use.