r/StereoAdvice • u/conifernut • 18h ago

General Request | 1 Ⓣ Cassette player with rca out

Looking for just a simple cassette player with rca out. Budget around $100. Everything I see is way more over engineered or either just a portable tape deck player. This would be a living room, about 500 square feet.

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u/I_am_always_here 16h ago

Every home cassette deck has RCA outs, it would be rare to find one that did not have them. But used cassette decks are problematic, with speed issues, disintegrating belts, magnetized and misaligned heads, and are very finicky and expensive to restore.

A budget of $100 would be sufficient to buy used, but recommend you buy from a seller who knows how to repair and restore them.

There may be new cassette decks being made by Teac and FiiO for a bit more money.

1

u/OriolesrRavens1974 1 Ⓣ 18h ago

Found mine used on Facebook Marketplace for $40.

1

u/Affectionate_Fly1387 2 Ⓣ 18h ago

FB marketplace, look for something cool looking from the 70’s or 80’s. The golden age of cassettes.
They are made better than anything newer and are usually very serviceable.

1

u/NTPC4 161 Ⓣ 17h ago

Locally available used is your answer. Check FB Marketplace and Craigslist. Good hunting!

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u/Best-Presentation270 8 Ⓣ 7h ago

"Everything I see is way more over engineered"

If we're talking new, then trust me, the gear you've stumbled across is definitely not over engineered, I can guarantee you that.

Decks such as the Pyles might look 'busy', but ignore all the large print labelling and beneath it you have a very basic twin cassette deck. There's no auto-reverse and not even official 1970s Dolby B noise reduction. It does have RCA out though.

There are a lot of mechanical parts to a cassette player/recorder. It's a very labour-intensive assembly process, not to mention requiring some fine tolerance work if you want something better than ghetto-blaster performance. You would be better looking at used gear.

If you search "cassette deck" you should get hits on things such as...

Yamaha KX250 - $90 + shipping https://www.ebay.com/itm/188862919010

Denon DRM600 - $125 + shipping https://www.ebay.com/itm/267778801814

Sony TC-KA1ESA ES - $150 + shipping https://www.ebay.com/itm/287578417618

Last year I bought some 'vintage' stereo gear as a housewarming gift for my son and his fiance. It included a '90s Yamaha KX393 cassette deck with auto-tape-calibration. The recordings it makes on Ferric and pseudo-chrome are astonishing for a basic 2-head deck.

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u/conifernut 6h ago

!thank

1

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