Dolby S

uninspiring dull boring sound, mono mic input!, poor headphone output

I obtained this casette deck as demo unit, cheap. Otherwise I would returne it. It has everything, Dolby B, C, S, HX Pro, BLE, Flex...you name it, just it does not sound right. Dull unispiring boring sound. No spark. Old Onkyo Integra sings in comparison to it. I wanted to do some mic recording and except poor sound discovered it has mono mic imput!
Has anybody out there have schematics from this beast? There must be at least a half a dozen of muting transistors messing up the sound. I am willing to experiment with it. email me, please: eorvisky@box-e.nih.gov

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo Integra

The main reason I chose the deck was due to Dolby S. I was very impressed with the improvement over my old Sony deck. The sound quality is great and even though I don't listen to tapes often, it does a great job.

Rewinding and fast-forwarding is a little loud.

I researched tape decks for awhile before I decided to purchase the 703RS, it sounds great, even for tapes.

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Dual Sony Deck.

BLE-XD Automatic bias and eq adjust.

poor head alignment

I own the Radio Shack version of the Pioneer CT-W703rs (OPTIMUS SCT-57) "The same deck"I love this deck.. It sounds real good. The drawback of Dolby S is that it really isn't compatable with any other Dolby. In order to use Dolby S you must listen to tapes that were recorded in Dolby S, or it will not work right. The problem is recordings that are recorded in Dolby S will not sound right in any other tape deck unless it also has Dolby S. By doing this Dolby S sounds great... The automatic bias and eq adjust is awesome... David brings up a good point about the audio quality when it changes direction. That is because of poor head alignment. I havn't really played with that yet. And the autoreverse mechenism screws up on me from time to time. If used right you can make your 50 cent blank tape sound like a CD. I am well satisfied with the frequency responce because I have never herd that well of freq. responce out of any other deck. Well pleased.

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none

I managed to get this Pioneer Deck at "cost" a few years ago, but even that price was not a good value. It's been my workhorse deck, but I hate its clumsy interface, uninspiring sonics and loud mechanism. There are a few cool Pioneer features (the auto calibration works well) but you know you're in trouble when you have to use the audio clarity boost on the deck with recordings you just made on the selfsame deck to improve the way they sound. The Dolby S is welcome but it takes even more life out of the recordings even while eliminating noise. I've also had trouble getting consistent sound from the left and right decks, even after cleaning them, and a strange problem where the auto-reverse makes the recording sound bad one way and OK the other way. Specs aren't everything.

I bought this deck because of its impressive numbers. First, its dynamic frequency, from 20 to 20,000 Hz (with type IV tapes), second because of its features, like almost exclusive Dolby S, Flex, Auto BLE among others. I dont know if it is because of my speakers, but it sounds bland, uninspiring. Its Dolby S seems to reduce tape hiss, but still takes the musics brightness and magic. Wow and flutter is noticeable easily, as the motor seems not well adjusted. Simply I expected more. A lot more.