Lungs - a 2019 copy - to be honest, it’s a little bright sounding on my old Sony deck. Must be the lack of a type IV metal setting?
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I already have this on CD, but when I found out that it had been released on cassette, I decided to buy it to see what the quality of a contemporary pre-recorded cassette was like.
It appears to be ferric tape, just by looking at it (there’s no mention of the type anywhere on the liner notes or on the tape itself). Also, no mention of Dolby B noise reduction. I didn’t spot this at first, and played it on my Dragon with Dolby B in. It sounded fine. I have subsequently replayed it on my CR-4 and Cassette Deck One, in both cases listening via headphones. Again it was fine with Dolby B in. With it switched off, it sounded brighter (which is to be expected), but not by as much as you might have expected, and with increased background hiss.
So not 100% sure if the tape was encoded with Dolby B or not.
As regards the overall sound quality, pretty decent, albeit with noticeable distortion in some louder passages, especially on side 2, which is a bit disappointing. More care could have been taken,
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Hi Dutus,
How do you like your CR-4, say compared to the Dragon? I have the CR-2 now, and don’t want to pursue the Dragon due to cost. There’s a nice, newly serviced CR-3 on a popular US audio site at the moment, and curious your thoughts on whether the 4 is worth the extra search / funds until I find a great example?
Cheers
OA
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I’d say that it will depend on your requirements. If it’s just for playback the there’s not a huge amount of difference between the CR-3 and CR-4, save for the direct drive of the latter. However, the tape tuning (bias and level) system on the CR-4 is excellent and so for recording it will be advantageous. Against that, with age the tuning system can go wrong, and the CR-3 does at least have a variable bias control.
Main issue with these decks are flat spots with the motors. One day the motor can just play dead. It happened with a CR-3 I had. Then when I came back to try it some months later, all was fine again.
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Hi,
My Cr-4 is currently used just for playback as it has an issue with the tuning and recording side of things (I got it very cheaply knowing this). Having used a CR-3 for a while some years ago when I was studying in Belfast, I would agree with Richard’s assessment of the two decks.
And you should be able to pick up a 3 in good nick for considerably less than 4s go for at the moment in the same condition.
To these old ears, the Dragon doesn’t sound significantly better on playback where the tape is playing without azimuth issues on the 4, but it does have the advantage of being able to extract the most from any tape thanks to its NAAC.
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Yes, I’m purely interested in playback only - not recording. Within that context, when looking at the cost benefit of the 3 vs 4 vs 5 (7’s appear much more expensive), your thoughts on fidelity of playback on these 3 machines is very helpful.
Thanks
Thank you - this is helpful!
Has anybody here ever used or still use the FeCr type lll tapes and how do they compare against type lV metal tapes?
I used to use Denon FerriChromes back in the early 80s @anon10403888 - didn’t rate them much, they were neither fish nor fowl. Not even as good as chromes/Type IIs, and nowhere near as good as metals.
K
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The only half decent ones were the FECR/DUADs from Sony - hardly a surprise as it was basically their format. They aimed to give you the combined advantages of ferric and chrome but without their drawbacks. In the end both ferric and chrome improved considerably in a fairly short space of time which left FECR high and dry. As for Metal it was way better in every area.
I still have quite a few old FECRs, including a few sealed ones, which have become quite collectible now. A curio really, nothing more.
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I was reading about Denon DRS 810 and they mentioned the FeCr tapes. I don’t remember seeing decks with that type of tape selection. I have used Fe tapes which I never thought were much cop, sticking mostly with the TDK SAs.
All this came about because I have just rescued a humble DRS 610 from the skip.
I gotta stop this!
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Never heard one @anon10403888 - but I do like its looks. Apparently spares no longer exist so they are almost impossible to repair these days.
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I have always wanted to hear the Pioneer CT-1, a beast ever there was one.
I wonder if @Richard.Dane or any other forum members have heard it?
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Interesting as they kind of cost twice as much as a Dragon. Would be nice to hear from someone who’s done a side-by-side comparison. @Richard.Dane perhaps?
I’ve never heard one. I did hear a Phase Linear once many years ago at a dealer in Phoenix - it was based on the CT-A1, IIRC. Sounded very good with a Mobile Fidelity cassette of DSOTM. And of course I did have a CT-A9, which was nice but not up to a Dragon or my ZX-9. In fact, not even quite as good as a BX-300…
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