Price Paid:  $360.00 from Shudehill Hifi

Summary:
Well this tape deck is phat, I cant believe there is only one review about it!. I purchased this for £200 squid dead on in USD $350? ish. I would have got the autoreverse deck with a few more features but could not afford it at the time. Anyway the AZ6 has exactly the same specifications as the AZ7 so there is no loosing out in sound quality. This deck makes well recorded sources sound like CD's or even better in some respects. The auto calibration facility makes sure recordings are done the best they can according to the tape in the machine.

That magical tape head that Technics use does the job that it is supposed to, keep it clean that is all it needs for many years of cassette listening plaesure.Lets the user get the maximum out of any tape all of the time.

I have found that with even standard tapes such as the TDK d type, have excellent low end well hung highs and mids that are in tune with a class A system I can forget somtimes that I am listening to a tape expecialy with Dolby C on. I found that recoring with Dolby B and palyback with Dolby C works a treat with moat recordings. A good recording on a TDK metal tape well, sounded better than the CD I was recording from I thought to myself this cant be right, but it was!!

Old tapes form the bottom of my drawer have had a little life put back into them good enough to store then on to an MD or somthing. Overall a genuine tape deck with many good qualities. No flaws in thi one.

Strengths:
Tapes have a sound near CD quality!
Auto calibration
makes the best of even old crappy tapes

Weaknesses:
No auto reverse
No dolby S

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Summary:
What can I tell you about this tapedeck? I think it's better to provide you with some technical specifications: - 3 Head
- Amorphous Z head
- WRMS 0.07%;
- Frequency (DIN)
Normal: 20Hz-18kHz
CrO2: 20Hz-19kHz
Metal: 20Hz-24kHz (better than a CD player - 22050 Hz (44.1kHz sample
rate))
- S/N ratio
Dolby C inactive: 71 dB
Dolby C active: 78 dB
- High speed rewinding: 50 sec. for 60 minutes cassette
- TPS (works also with high speed rewinding)
- Great ATC (auto tape calibration) in one step (because the 3 Head)
- Automatic cassete tray

It's an awesome product especially for audiophiles. The only major problem is that this tape deck is not available in North America and I had to buy it from Europe. Here, in Canada, I've bought a converter for 220V (from 110V) to be able to use it. I don't know why is that but this is a fact. Actually this not the only product what can't be found in North America (see all the Technics integrated amplifiers and some speakers, also very good products and at good prices, also). In Europe I paid $450 CDN including tax for this tape deck and I've found is a good price since a same one, Onkyo i.e., but with lower technical parameters (frequency 20Hz-20kHz on Metal tape, 60dB with Dolby C inactive) is almost $700 US without tax.

If you want a tape deck with a background light, which lifts up the cassette and with the exactly same specifications plus a Direct Play function, you can go for an RS-AZ7 which is a little bit more expensive.

I rate this product with 5 stars.