The AKAI is the winner it has a very clear sound, even though it's the oldest of the three. It came out in 1976. I own one too. I restored it and it sounds wonderful. But it records better on ferric tapes than an chrome tapes. Greetings from Germany!
The difference in treble (and any lower end bass) is down to Playback de-emphasis, or sometimes referred to as 'PB EQ'. Sony seem to apply more pre-emphasis and hence more de-emphasis to attain their quoted signal-to-noise figures. I am not the only one who suspects in the tapehead world.
Great Test ! I like all 3 recordings but after going back and forth several times do find the Akai the Best out of all 3 ! As for my self i do own Nakamichi Dragon since 1986(new) been trough a few deck before.
they all sound good but akai in tape recording was ahead of other brands , i don´t understand one thing i know nakamichi since i started to listen to music but it´s normally built with worse parts or just made it´s entrance in the 70´s with quality and later they become cheap in what concerns to matrials used in fabrication ,the cassette decks if it isn´t the higher reference it turns to be worse than any other brand even pioneer makes fun with it in 76 when putting their high-end deck for sale the one with 3 windows(meters) they use a entire page to show the 3 head nakamichi deck and then trash it and a litle photo in the corner of the new pioneer, this in magazines
So what we observe is that, at first, taking into account the tape gain, the JVC bombox has the VU uncalibrated. Sure you didn't play the recordings on Akai or Sony on JVC, to have a correct parameter of the VU calibration.
there´s some screws next to the vu meters inside on a plaque that allows you to decrease or increase the level ,output or input ,but i´m not seeing the machine i can´t explain better than this or find a recording from other deck with perfect values on the meters and after finding perfect azimuth put it to the level using the litle screws ,normally made of plastic with metal casing
Akai GXC and GX tape decks record and playback any tape in the most original and crystal clear sound. There are several high end Sony decks that also can record and playback tapes with panoramic sound. Nakamichi decks can also record and playback tapes with accuracy and there are certain models that are worth having. The best sounding deck ever discovered is a Japanese A&D 91000EV which has perfect highs and lows for both playback and recording, in my opinion the "magic sounding deck" of course all these decks required calibration and maintenance to sound perfect! Usually the Naks require all caps in the amplifier path to be replaced sometimes also certain transistors, same with Sony high end decks, only Akai decks do not require these caps replaced , again if all well preserved at ambient temperature since purchase. It is amazing how well a 40 year old tape deck can play and record tapes, even better then CD or LP in my opinion if well calibrated.
i have the same opinion and my oldest akai is from1970 and even with some reels i didn´t store them good now when recording over the sound cames perfect and when GX heads appear they even turn out more acurate ,only bought my first cassette deck because a datsun GT i bought came with clarion radio and cassette player in separate ,and recordings from reels not equal to originals but may sound louder and with more dynamics
