The mission for any cassette deck is to reproduce your music well. Its job is to record and playback.

Most discussion of cassette decks revolves around nonsense phrases such as frequency response and signal-to-noise ratio.

In fact, these terms could have been relevant in a technical discussion. However, mass market manufacturers have subverted them by trying to make their numbers better than they really are.

The Test

As it turns out, the standard test devised by the audio industry contradicts their own instruction manuals!

Every owner's manual advises you, when recording, to set the controls to "peak" slightly above 0db on the meter and to turn the Dolby noise reduction circuitry on.

Fig.1

However, the industry standard test procedure for frequency response requires a recording at -20db indicated on the meter with the noise reduction off. This produces better numbers. The recording is scarcely listenable but the numbers are good!

Now, the lower the indication on the meter, the less the chance of saturating the electronics and recording head with too much signal. Unfortunately, low signals are closer to the "noise floor" of the machine.

This test set-up would produce poor signal-to-noise numbers (the econd most cited performance statistic).

The industry can't let this happen so it tests signal-to-noise at meter levels much higher than the 0 db setting recommended in the manual.

Of course, frequency response with this set-up is very much degraded. But the signal-to-noise number is really good.

Manufacturers recommend 0 db as a practical compromise for recording. But the numbers don't have much to do with the performance you can actually expect. And even after all this subterfuge, they still hide behind "design and specifications subject to change without notice".

Real Life

Fig 2.

We have our own, state-of-the-art tape deck analyzer (Fig. 1). to do independent tests - at the settings recommended in the owner's manual.

We strike out the phrase "design and specifications subject to change without notice". We tell you what the machine can do and we guarantee it with our signature on the report. (Fig. 2)

Does your audio store deal with a real speaker company and does your store really service what they sell?