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View Full Version : CT-F 8282 vs. CT-F 9191


TAGOMAGO
11-04-2009, 08:08 AM
About four or five months ago I picked up a Pioneer CT-F 8282 from a guy on freecycle. The repair shop gave him a fairly high estimate of about $160.00 (although I seriously doubt that amount of money would have gotten him a deck as nice) so he decided that the deck was too old to put money into, so that is how I ended up with it.

Turns out the only problem with it (which I expected) was the belts were shot. It cost me about $20 in parts to fix it, although with the amount of labor I had to put into it, I sort of understand the labor cost. Since I have it up and running I find this quite a lovely deck, although the top of the line deck at the time was the very similar (in appearance at least) Pioneer CT-F 9191. Someone had one of these at a local flea market for $20, although I gave it a miss (mainly because it was filthy, but it might have been worth looking into, in retrospect).

How did these two decks compare? I know they are both two head, two motor machines, although the 9191 did offer automatic Cro2 sensing as well as an open button for the curved tape door, better wood grain and it was a little bigger. Were there major performance differences between the two?

Naknut
11-04-2009, 09:38 AM
On a feature to feature comparison there is not much difference between the two. The CTF 9191 is a beast and to me epitomizes the cassette decks of that era and everyone should have one in their collection as a show piece. Having said that the CTF 8282 is so close that having this one in your collection make the CTF 9191 kind of redundant.
I believe that there are many here who own a CTF 9191 as the thing seems to work forever with belt replacements.

TAGOMAGO
11-04-2009, 11:16 AM
Having said that the CTF 8282 is so close that having this one in your collection make the CTF 9191 kind of redundant.


Probably it was good I did not pick that one up as I have plenty of tape decks I don't use already. I hope someone else deserving was able to get it for that price. Sadly I did end up spending about the same for a pair of Genesis Physics speakers at the same flea market which turned out to have replacement woofers and midranges as well as damaged tweeters. Smarter money probably would have been spent of the Pioneer.

TAGOMAGO
11-04-2009, 11:28 AM
I believe that there are many here who own a CTF 9191 as the thing seems to work forever with belt replacements.

I would imagine, those decks were very well built. I would be afraid to see how much something built like that would sell for today.

Audiomayvin
11-11-2009, 04:27 PM
Hi Guys!
I've mentioned this before. I am a big believer of Cobalt-Amorphous heads and have installed C-A heads in many CT-F8282 and CT-F9191's. It propels the performance to another level. Lower distortion and improved H.F. saturation.
And I still have a number of C-A heads left!
All the best,
Leon(The Audiomayvin, Montreal(514)739-5403)