Sound Quality, build, durability and usability. Best used for creating master reference tapes using dbx giving a S/N ratio of 115 dB!

No remote or auto-reverse. fussy with pre-recorded stuff (can sound compressed). Not good for making Dolby tapes for the car or Walkman (though this depends upon what tape deck you use).

The most reliable cassette deck I've ever owned (purchased in 1992). The head (3 head) alignment stays constant and the tape transport mechanism is one of the most solid bits of engineering I've ever seen in a hi-fi deck (Quartz locked dual capstan servo). Using reasonable quality tapes with dbx noise reduction and CD direct you really have difficulty in telling the difference between the CD and the tape, although tape drop outs give the game away. Its best used for making perfect (for tape) copies of other sources with dbx noise reduction. Not particularly good with pre recorded tapes. Recordings made on the deck should be played back on it only, As there is too much variation between various brands of tape deck in Dolby presets and equalisation circuits. If you need to make tapes for walkmans and the car or playing pre-recorded buy a basic Yamaha deck. Sad to think that this deck is now obsolete with the advent of affordable CD burners. I have thought of selling it as all my dbx tapes are now burned on CD, but I still like its looks and it just happens to fill a gap in my rack. Love it's big well scaled VU meters though. Not for sale! But if you find one, buy it.

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Tape decks from Aiwa, Akai & Rotel.

The best tape deck ever produced by Technics. The dbx NR is far better than the Dolbys on this deck, but it needs a good bias and record level calibration (never use the automatic tape calibration system but only your ears - don't be afraid to record the same tape several times !). Needs good metal tapes and dbx to produce maximum performance (type II are deceiving).
An audiophile deck (not suitable to record tapes for car or portable system) which requires a very good pre-amplifier.