Summary:
Not a bad cassete deck for its money, but the recordings and reproduction are not close to the original source. The bass sounds lighter and the high frequencies are a bit muddy. Dolby S helps but it does not give the clarity of the original source, especially vinyl records, during playback.

Strengths:
Many facilities, Dolby S, Three heads

Weaknesses:
Dull recordings and reproduction

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha, Akai

Summary:
Bought the deck in February 1996. It was awesome. In listening tests, you could not distinguish between tape & CD, using type II tape and Dolby S, and carefully calibrated for each individual track (because tapes tend to vary even within an individual cassette).

Then a couple of months later, it sounded like a lesser machine, with hiss and loss of treble. Took it in, and they cleaned up the heads a little, and said there wasn't anything wrong with it, even though I cleaned the heads often with 100% isopropal alcohol. It worked fine for a couple of more months, so I guess I wasn't cleaning the heads well enough.

February 1997, the performance was awful again. Hiss, high frequency dropouts, and occasionally 1 track (either the left or the right track) would sound muffled. This occured even if I used different tape brands, types, new tapes, old tapes, etc. Plus lots of cleaning with swabs and isopropanol.

So the machine was taken apart and rebuilt (they re-aligned the heads) on warranty and it worked ok for about a year, even though it still exhibited the occasional high frequency dropout and the 1-track muffling problem. Funny thing about these problems is that if I rewound the tape and reattempted a recording, the problem would sometimes fix itself, and it would sound alright. On some days it would work find, and on some days it wouldn't. It was unpredictable.

Late 1999, the problems worsened. I couldn't boost the equalization/bias controls enough to maintain a flat response, and the left side was consistently dropping out. So I paid a Sony authorized repair center to fix it (new heads, pinch roller, etc.) for a lot of money, and it works ok now, although not as good as when I first bought the machine. ie. if you listen carefully, you can hear a difference between the CD and the tape. When I first bought the machine, you could not hear a difference.

So I guess I got a lemon.

Strengths:
competent recordings
no frills

Weaknesses:
deteriorating performance

Similar Products Used:
none

Summary:
First off, I am not a fan of SONY's consumer's products but these decks are exceptional. And what I have is actually the TC-K611 S which is a three head cassette deck with a motorized well and Dolby S. Of course along with the calibration tones and everything else, this was a short lived model predecessor to the TC-K615S but it shows all of its attributes already.

I also agree in that you need to set the tones bias calibration a notch or two to the bright side or else recordings tend to sound dull. But once you got them right, Man! Those tapes you can take with you on travel anywhere and the quality of their sound will make you feel right at home

What I use them for mostly is to listen on my car and the office. I 'm not a fan of carrying my hard earned CD's collections and risk a melt-down in the car or getting them stolen; SO great sounding tapes make me very happy.

It's amazing how much sound you can impregnate into the tapes with this puppy. (I love to push to the limits) You get absolutetely decent sound & frequency response out of NORMAL Tape! At one time it made me seriously consider why spend more money into higher quality tape kinds and the answer was: because you get still better dynamics out of them which is what CD's were all about.

With the calibration tones, you discover how much the tapes vary in frequency and dynamics response uniformity through the same cassette! Thank goodness that is hardly ever noticeable by us unless it is pretty BAD! ... Tapes that works best for me with this deck in terms of frequency response neutrality (not adding more to the base or the anywhere) are TDK's CD Power - High Bias or Type II. Maxell's type II sounded fine too except they seemed to add more weight to the bass low end... which sometimes you would want when you reproduce them in your car. I've never used or tried METAL types on this Deck so sorry but I can't tell you about them.

I record with dolby B, because that's what I can use in the CAR on my ALPINE cassette/tuner and my SONY WM-FX455 walkman at the office with the selfpowered PC's Yamaha YST-M7'S Active Servo Technology speakers (This setup sounds extremely AWESOME! for it's so modest price. Try the PC Yamaha speakers with any of the WM-FX### Sony walkman series.)

Also I just recently discovered these decks are BEGGING for good quality input Interconnects! Last time I put in it my Monster M1000i's interconnect (against off the shelve ones)for the Input just for kicks and I mean WOW!! that little veil of white noise harshness was gone as the fluid watery! and wide staging output, resolution and detail of the microdynamics (decays, acoustics, resonances) of my digital end's output Finally! integrally impregnated into the tape!! I haven't stopped playing that tape since! Hey! These decks can truly go HI-FI if you "feed them well".

Clean their heads with Q-tip and isopropylic alcohol every 10-20 hours of use and demagnetize their heads with a head demagnetizer every 50 hours or so (Radio Shack used to have such magic wands) to keep the recordings coming out in crisp conditions.

This is the Best Deck I've ever Had!!! I payed about $320 back when I got it about five yrs.ago. When my friends play my tapes in their systems they can't tell them apart from a tape or a CD and keep asking me: "How do you do it? how do you make these tapes play SO Loud without distorting!!?" ...

I can't say enough. I Love this Deck and I think you would too, it will make you proud of your recordings. I Highly recommend iT of any of its following three head siblings.

Very Happy Listenings! ...

Strengths:
Gets the Most Dynamics out of any Tape.

Weaknesses:
none

Summary:
I have owned numerous tape decks over the years (30). This unit gets it done right. It is so quiet, you don't even need the Dolby NR. The recorded sound is indistinguishable from the original medium...what else can you say.

Strengths:
Accurate reproduction

Weaknesses:
none

Summary:
Ditto previous reviews. This deck was an excellent bargain at $318.00 and it is still working fine after 5 years. The frequency response and rock steady drive system make dubs indistinguishable from the CDs. It has features normally found only on decks twice its price such as Dolby S and manually adjustable bias and rec level with its own test tone generator. The frequency response once again defies its price and together with my dbx-224x outboard noise reduction unit I can get up to 105 db of dynamic range for those classical CD's that demand it. Overall this is probably the best casette deck I've heard for this price and the bang-for-the-buck is only surpassed by my Magnepan MMG's. Sony definitely got it right with this one!

Strengths:
Excellent value with low wow and flutter, very good frequency response,adjustable bias and record level with test tone generator, three head design with dolby b,c,s and hx pro.

Weaknesses:
lacks dual capstan, three motor drive