The cheap '90s stereo systems that spawned today's cheap cassette decks 

"Cheap speakers not a scam I promise" gave me a chuckle

I totally loved all in one Aiwa, Kenwood, Pioneer, Sony... The 90s were great for all in one mini systems, great mini systems with three way speakers!

Yeah they have to get the mold from somewhere. It's cheaper than creating something new. Also saves costs when massproducing it under different brands in different chinese factories. I just wish they would actually copy the built quality of the original tapedecks too.... I mean.. the Chinese CAN produce quality if they want to.

I really wish they'd start making decent-quality cassette decks at a reasonable price again

I know that playing or recording cassette tapes is not really popular or economical these days, but it does make me a bit sad that this is what we are left with for new cassette decks. Last October, I managed to snag a very nice JVC TD-W203 dual cassette deck from a local second hand store. Everything works as it should on it and the sound quality is quite good. My deck is full logic control and was made in 1989 or 1990. It's way better than these new ones. I only paid $8 for it, too.

I still have my JVC set I bought in 94. Still works perfectly.

nothing like sitting back with a slice of pizza and soda enjoying a new vwestlife video on a monday evening!

The Wharfedale back when they used that "Brandy" font really cheapened their image. I remember seeing a lot of products in an Argos catalogue years ago, and only learned about the true origins of the name much later. Such a shame those once well-respected brands have suffered cheapening - even Nakamichi, once renowned as "the Rolls-Royce of cassette decks", couldn't escape that. Though thankfully, Wharfedale are once again going back to their roots, and have ditched that "Brandy" font logo in favour of resurrecting a variant of the W-in-a-square logo they once had.

I was going to comment about these decks being available in the German Conrad electronics chain stores, but you have done a great job researching this already. I was in Conrad for the first time in 2006 I believe, and they had one of these component tower systems on display, it was silver (not sure if they also had a black version available) and branded X4Tech. There was the cassette deck, CD player, tuner, equalizer and amplifier. No matching record player. Some years ago, maybe around 2010 or so, Conrad prominently revived the brand Renkforce which used to be the store brand of another electronics chain store called Völkner that Conrad had taken over in 1990. Since the revival of this brand, they have replaced the X4Tech branded silver system with the Renkforce branded black system. I need to go back and double check, but I think they do still offer the complete system to this day, and not just the cassette deck.

I wonder if there are any warehouses left with new-old-stock quality tape decks anywhere that are still sitting gathering dust. It would be great to get an old (new) early 80s Pioneer deck with those blue luminescent lights..........

honestly when it comes to tape or vinyl go with equipment from the 70's and 80's. The build quality and sound production is superior to anything you can buy new today at a decent price.

I have lots of old cassette decks. The one I use is in an old rack system. Thanks for the video.

there is no point to a Tape Monitor output unless the deck has a separate record and playback head like the decks that came with 3 heads (erase, record, playback)

As a 70s child, my first stereo all in one decks where “Soundesign” and “Emerson” and Radioshacks Clarinet, which was better than the previous 2. But in 1983 Zenith Allegro had powerful all in one systems with awesome sound and quality

I am working on upgrade circuit board for the Pioneer CT-F500 tape deck, that will have some very new features, as these 40 year old units are commonly available today. I am working on the prototype at the moment and the plan is to make an upgrade kit available in the new year. This project is all about making a high end cassette decks in the 2020's that is able to show there is still development happening today with this technology. I will be posting updates as this project as it takes shape over the coming months, as there has been some interest aready for this idea.

I remember seeing them Wharfedale separates in the Argos catalogue as a kid. that was late 2000s They sold the shelf alongside the separates

Wharfedale licenced their brand for use on everything except speakers to Argos, a catalogue retailer in the UK and Ireland. Generally applied to Turkish made kit but not exclusively.

A proper tape monitoring loop has also vanished from most if not all brand name stereo receivers. TEAC's AG-790 is one of the few exceptions I'm aware of.

Holy nuts! You're amstereo.org? Cassettes + AM Stereo + Tandy 1000 SX = beyond awesome!

The whole system was sold in Argentina under the Onward brand in the early '00s, the deck alone was also available as Pyramid here.

Techmoan told me I could press the buttons however I want!

The Ariston branded components were sold in the UK by Richer Sounds. It still amazes me that such a prestigious name can be so cheapened over the years! Once up there with Linn - now down in the pile with Pyle!

Thanks for doing this video! As a former Wharfedale WPA-3038 amplifier owner I had looked into the Digitech (Jaycar - Australia) and Eltax (another speaker brand) versions of that.

Conrad still sells these decks today as Renkforce TP-1000. Amazing that this originates from the early '90s.

I read your post on the Tapeheads forums where you said the genuine Tanashin mechs have been discontinued since 2009. Assuming that's true it really leaves two possibilities; either some companies have large stockpiles, or Tanashin is willing to do special production runs for certain customers.

Here in the UK, Bang & Olafson was the gold standard with Denon coming a good close second. Back in the eighties "separates" were hugely popular ranging from the ultra cheap Amstrad "deck" hi fi to some serious Technics and Pioneer kit. Nowadays I just use a Denon micro hifi, it has a very good CD, radio and cassette, extremely good speakers with no wow or hiss on anything played back and bought it broken for ten pounds it needing a new drive belt in the CD and a thermal fuse replacing, not that it gets much media in it as I just hook my fone up to it and channel through the fone.

I had that Pyle tape deck bought new about 3 years ago for $70. Flutter was pretty bad, audio had a lot of hiss, and the circuit board failed after a couple of years. Something was emitting a burning smell whenever it was plugged in, and I couldn’t figure out what, except I knew it wasn’t the power supply. I gave it to a local HiFi shop for free for parts and bought a really nice Tascam deck which I am glad I purchased.

They should be careful stacking them like that since it can cause Pyles

Great intro, I really enjoyed that overview with the cutaways.

I am always kinda tempted to get back into cassettes when you and other RU-vidrs post videos like this, it a real shame that the end of line stuff for them we have is just not worth the investment right now and I am too newbie to really want to look at older stuff and gamble that it still works.

I was under the impression marantz was an actual brand perhaps I was wrong

Basically the best thing to do is buy used brand name decks from the 90's and early 2000's and refurbish them.

Very interesting video, I watched it feeling hypnotized, absorbing the information fully focussed. Thank you!

I keep rewatching this video and forgot about the follow up video that was supposed to happen.

Yup. Renkforce is a very familiar brand if you're German and often drop by at Conrad for some electronic components, cables or devices. Or when you read their catalogs. And i think i've seen some similar dubious brand Audio Component system back in the days at another German electronics store called Azert Radio. A bit like Conrad, who too have huge stores. Kinda like Radio Shack. I remember them selling everything from Radio tuners, Equalizers, Turntables and also Cassette Decks.

"Soundwave" was also sold in the UK from one of the mail order pay monthly catalogues with high interest payments.

I had a Sansui EXACTLY like one of these for a little while and I wondered why it felt so cheap! Will edit this comment later when I find the model no.

I’m from the other side of the tracks, and I will agree that they would sale a rack system like that over at Joe’s Shack, and I just called Joe. He said that he sold the crap out of these, along with guy’s in different color vans bought a lot of these. Then we got to talking about back years ago, and his old shop. Good days.

Re dimensions: are you saying these tape decks lack depth? I’ll see myself out…

Ahh, Pyramid. The preferred brand at flea market stereo shops.

I am so glad to have my Radio Shack's Optimus Stereo System from the late '90s (5.1 Surround / Dual cassette deck / 6 CD cartridge changer / Direct Drive TT -this one from 1985- / 3-way tower speakers -also from 1985-) still in excellent condition.

I have a sansui double cassette deck and a technics FM tuner. Found it in a pawn shop. I'm in love with them

I'll stick with my old high end Sony double deck that even includes Dolby S. Bought it off of Ebay reconditioned and still works great!

Excellent detective work!

Alba and bush brands in the uk. Crown was another cheap brand in uk.

I just got myself a onkyo ta-2000. Wich was a mid range deck in its time. So far im quite happy with how it sounds. i dont think ever heard any high end decks.

Check out the 1991 Sony TC-D505 deck, part of the Sony LBT-D505 system. The design is identical to the ones you presented, and I think that's where these cheap brand copied it from. Funny thing, for the upper models - TC-D607, 707 etc Sony changed the design, and we're stuck with these awful machines.

The Wharfedale hi-fi system shown is not a "real" Wharfedale system. The brand name has been licensed to Argos in the UK to slap on low end consumer items. Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere in the comments. Sadly I think the licensing of the Wharfedale brand could be undermining the company's legacy and reputation as I'd imagine lots of people buy these things with the branding on them and never know it's low end stuff or end up disappointed that it doesn't turn out to be a high end system. High end Wharfedale hi-fi systems are still available though online and in proper hifi stores.

“ma, can I get a Sony Hi-Fi system for christmas?” the Sony Hi-Fi system I get for christmas

Looking forward to the modern day comparison, I'm considering buying one of these (Renkforce brand here in Germany), as we listen to cassettes quite extensively in the past few months and I'm afraid of wearing the heads of my 3-Head Pioneer deck down. Want to save it for recording because it has all the fancy recording features that you can't get anymore. I know I should bite the bullet and spend the money for the Teac one because they deserve it, but there is quite a big difference between spending a hundred or four hundred bucks. Would be nice if they de-cheapen these multi brand decks a bit.

Касетата си е касета за всички любители. Този носител е много по-добър. Със най-траен запис. Ще го разберете, но ще мине време. Тези компресирани записи, цифрови и т.н. не са дълготрайни. Не може смачкан формат, да го "разпънеш" и да получиш същото качество.Има много хубави и качествени декове. Касети също се произвеждат. Трябва да потърсите повече. Насладете се на нещо, което не се забравя. Със Здраве.👍❤️

Argos used to own Wharfedale and produce their cheaper electronics under that name - they now do that with the British brands Bush and Alba. All through this time, Wharfedale was still manufacturing high-end speakers under it's own brand, whilst simultaneously licensing the name to Argos to stick on boomboxes, radios and hifi systems.

Pfft! I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see one. And look - there's Magnetbox and Sorny!

These days Marantz cassette decks are just over-glorified by "audiophiles" for it's "superior sound quality" and "low wow and flutter", wherelse it's just a rebranded Pyle or Ion deck with a shiny, luxury looking paint job.

I just came across your channel , I most say I remember those cheap decks in the 80's and I remember when walmart sold the cheaper tower stacks with speakers , I think they were sound design or something like that. Anyway I like seeing videos like this I collect 80's and 90's receivers and boomboxs

Very good review and read your buying guide, much of which I am aware of. I had the older Ion silver dual deck, and it wasn't too bad. I did sell it at a club auction for $25.00. The Pyle unit I had a couple of years ago was cheaper, at about $75.00 from Walmart, was pretty bad. The keys would pop up on play and record, fighting the tapes being too tight for the motor mechanism. I contacted Pyle, and it would have cost about $20.00 to send it to them for repair. So I tried to return it too Walmart, but was refused for being past their 90 day limit for return. I just left it there abandoning it. More recently. I obtained the Silver Teac W-1200 from Japan for much more, with solenoid touch controls, which works and records well, with none of the problems I had with Pyle.

This was fun to watch

I had the original ION TAPE2PC (black) and the pressure required to depress the buttons was awful. It soon started chewing up tapes which I discovered was caused by the tape walking across the pressure roller and then winding itself around the spindle, indicating some misalignment problem. I did not manage to fix it and eventually dumped the deck. I do remember that the recording was poor,but the playing back was quite good. I am looking forward to watching the new version to see if there are improvements. Thanks.

The Wharfdale brand was licensed by Argos to produce & sell audio equipment WITHOUT speakers. Personally I think it was a mistake. Argos was a retailer who did not display anything in store to any degree. Instead they had a catalogue and all a small counter where you placed an order from the catalogue. The goods were held in a warehouse behind the counter and they were picked to order. It meant that they could stock 1000s of items from toys to curtain rails to tvs etc. It was a place to go for good value but not high quality. Wharfdale continued and still continue to make their excellent speakers but I fear that the licensing of the brand name has 'cheapened' the image of the brand.

We have some X4-Tech stuff. It's pretty good actually

Any 80´s deck is cheaper and betther then any one of this post years 2000.

The Palladium Brand was also or even mostly sold by via "Otto Katalog". Soundwave by Quelle Katalog. Palladium even sold the famous Pioneer Urushi high end series under their brand etc, so not everything was cheap or bad quality, it depended on the price. Some Palladium suff was really good. Look for "Palladium and Urushi"

Great content Yamaha dvd c-900 laser eye bad and need motor with belts what’s my options on getting parts to fix very hard to find ??

Ha! Conrad Electronics! Here in Germany they are well known, the still sell quite a lot of odd stuff, which makes them great :D Greetings from northern Germany!

Great info and examples... Thank you for the video... Much appreciated...

I was real, REAL fortunate to be bopping around in a Goodwill store a couple of years ago and found an early 1990s Onkyo dual cassette deck for about $10.00. Got it home, took a QTip and some alcohol and cleaned heads, capstan rollers, et cetera, popped a "sacrificial" tape in there first, sounded great, popped a more important one in there later, works like a charm. Hooked up to a Pioneer SX-780 (circa 1978) acquired from same thrift shop (and also $10.00 ... which seems like standard pricing for their used electronics, because I'm not sure they realise what they have on their hands. More obviously cheap stuff like sad little 2010s boom boxes that were on sale in the same store were also $10, as were computer speakers). Glad to see how your channel has grown.

“Vector Research” is the brand that made the best receiver / cassette / EQ combo. Really cool mini shelf system that had the ability to clip a handle on top, and latch the speakers onto the sides. Nice little boom box, Voltron style!! Best dead giveaway that it’s a crap tape deck? IF it doesn’t have a dedicated cassette tape type selector switch, for metal / chrome and normal. I’d make no considerations if I can’t throw in my old super heavyweight TDK metal tapes and remain confident that the machine knows it. Those old TDK metal / chrome tapes would likely weigh those plastic decks down enough to keep them from sliding back on the shelf! Thanks for sharing this, good insight!!

i miss the radio+8 track player receiver I had. Nice fake woodgrain too.

I bought an ION Tape2PC at Circuit City shortly before it closed.

I think that at @9:33 number 12 in owners manual is Dolby Noise Reduction ( DNR ). Great video. I didn’t know Marantz also had those tape decks.

That owner's manual actually does mention the dolby noise reduction and show it on the diagram. It's just marked as DNR, it's #12 on that list.

The reason so many companies are making their products lower and lower quality is because they are more concerned with keeping their shareholders happy instead of their customers. Sometimes it is so bad that some products are almost as junky as something home made.

Tricky dickie's here in Australia rebadged that amplifier, my school had a load of them, this would have been around 2005,6. I think Jaycar still sells it to this day, I remember seeing one in store not long ago

Go back to the 80's. I still have two original decks.

I find it interesting that there is still so many makers of audio cassette decks, while the VCR has been universally discontinued. I don't think that's the natural workings of a free market, but some kind of pressure to reduce competition with TiVo, etc.

I cannot believe anything else is in the news right now when you have seriously BLOWN THE LID OFF this scandal! This should be front page news 😀 In seriousness, thanks for the diligent research and interesting content, even for those of us not about to buy tape decks. Still fascinating to hear you tell the story.

First saw these branded as Ariston in the early 90's sold by Richer Sounds!

I have 2 great decks the first one is a JVC TD-R421 and the other is JVC TD-W 354 one is a single deck and the last one is a dual deck with DOLBY B & C NR HX feature these are well built.

Never buy a tape deck that praises itself for having an "Auto Stop System" 😊

2:37 Hahaha :D i'm surprised they didn't also miss spell High Fidelity as "High Fiddelty"

I’m in the U.K., not the USA so we had Tandy here rather than Radio Shack (same company), but I can assure you that Tandy used to sell at least some of those components under the Genexxa/Optimus brand names... they were pretty crap.

I think pyramid made a deck like this too..I used to have one of their cheap amps that matched it too. The amp actually didn't sound too bad but it wasn't very powerful either. I never knew what the matching tuners or anything looked like until I seen this.

Unfortunately, like many companies, Wharfedale licensed their name to Argos to put on cheap junk, only their speakers remained high end/decent because only they remained proper Wharfedale designed products. Argos also bought the rights to use the once decent Bush name on Chinese built junk in the 80s along with Alba another once decent brand name.

My Pyles are playing up!

That one tape deck you had questioned if it had Dolby Noise Reduction? In the screen shot of the manual its button 12. “DNR.”

Pyle was always a rebrand for hire. Even recently they put there name on anything they clearly did not design or manufacture.

I wonder if a manufacturer with vision could look to improve on the mechanism used by Teac/ Tascam and use better quality components? Obviously, it would not hark back to the glory days of cassette decks but it would provide a basic platform for those wishing to renew their relationship with tape or for newbies. Tooling costs would be lower than a ' ground up' project. Once again though, finding a manufacturer willing to do this is the issue.

Apparently, Sony also had a model with the exact same looks, the TC-D705 from 1991. It was part of the LBT-D705 HiFi system. Obviously the Sony model has way superior build quality, with Type IV compatibility, 3 heads and a VFD display

You havent lived until you have had a integated amp!

I have a technics rack stereo from the 1980's and it has on the back riben Radio to amp CD player dual tape deck player. these components to work to hear the sound.

My solution is to hook a VU meter up to the cassette deck and play a commercial tape and adjust the VU meter. Once calibrated to a commercial tape, put the VU meter between the source and the tape recorder and then you have a visual monitor so you know what is going into it. If the source doesn't have a volume control, then get an inline headphone style volume potentiometer too hook up between the VU meter and the tape deck.

Thanks! Looking forward to your Cassette Deck Guide. I had to go vintage via eBay to get a decent 3-head cassette deck with advanced noise reduction and auto tape type selection. The only new cassette decks from major audio brands like TEAC, Marantz and TASCAM are just rebranded and slightly different cover designed versions of the cheap Ion and Pyle decks you have reviewed in your videos. Sad...

Richersounds used to sell a lot of this stuff too under their Ariston brand. The Wharfedale stuff was not made by the speaker company but the firm that owned the rights to their name licensed to Argos and they used it to sell their cheap electrical goods. Thankfully I don't think IAG who own Wharfedale licence the name out anymore as it just devalued it.

I still have a Kenwood Spectrum 88 rack system & I guess i'll be looking into the dual deck. Overall it's a very nice unit with plenty of power; 155 wpc rms into 8 ohms at not more than 0.015% THD. I just don't see them using subpar components matched with higher quality components, they weren't cheap. I guess it's just the re-released products that are effected (hopefully) but i'll do the research.

Also one of these infamous brands: As a kid in the late 80's i had a Supertech branded stereo "tower".

This looks very much like the Pioneer Z series system. I personally don't have the cassette deck, but looking at the amp - it looks exactly like my Pioneer a-z370

I think one Museum will be made for old Electronic systems. Such as music cassette plyer. Walkman , Video cassette plyer (VCR) , gramophones, Records disc. ,Old TV sets. Radio, Etc.. for next generation.

I got memories of my old Phonophonics stereo system and my Sorny TV set.

I REFURBISHED MY 80'S STEREO EQUIPMENT. ALL THIS NEW STUFF IS NOT UP TO PAR! THE 70'S ARE STILL THE BEST!

I always thought SoundWave was a brand exclusive to Grattan. Goodmans also made Delta series hi-fi components that were similar. That mini Pyramid Compact Disc player 3:25 looks very similar to a Goodmans Delta series CD player from the mid 1990s.