Onkyo Cassette Deck

Hi,
Can any of our Forum members give me some feedback, comments or advice on the Onkyo RW 255 Deck ? I already have one so I would like to see how you rate it. Nikhil, I believe you have one.Cheers

Hi Sanjay,

It's a decent choice given the paucity of current-production options now (Marantz still has one model going I believe). Onkyo is quite committed to the Indian market with ready availability of spares/ service.

Based on my brief listening sessions in less-than-optimal conditions, the RWA255 (and also the single deck version, forget the model number) is quite smooth and pleasant to listen to. Given the obsolescence of the medium, most people want a decent affordable deck to play their 'legacy' collection and this fits the bill perfectly.

One of my decks is the current-production Marantz and more or less similar to the Onkyo in terms of SQ/ tech specs.

The last Yamahas (out of production but some stock still available) would have provided a marginally better frequency response (top-end frequency extension) and a little more resolution. But only marginally better and not worth the swap.

Cheers
Persiflage

Agree with the remarks above.
I have the Onkyo single cassette player model TA 6211. I preferred it to the dual cassette models bec of better Hi freq extn.
I've had it for about 8-9 yrs now.Its a good player & importantly, Onkyo's service support is available, which is a critical factor. I know several owners of Nakamichi cassette decks whose machines are unusable bec of lack of spares/trained service personnel.

Sanjay its a really good piece of equipment in my opinion. The reason I bought mine years ago was for my collection of cassettes. The sound quality was a huge surprise and at one point the sound was better than disc - but getting cassettes are harder these days. As far as cassette players go this one will "open up" your music up for you very nicely.

Hi Persiflage,
Thanks a lot for the feedback.As you said, I use it mostly for the Legacy collection, which largely consists of Albums recorded on tape, some of them over 20 years old.I made the choice keeping the availability of spares in mind.Does a fairly decent job,all said and done. The recordings made more recently, mostly from Worldspace,are great to listen to in the car, as they are all pre-edited, and there are no dud songs to spoil the ride !!! Cheers,
Sanjay

Hi Nikhil,
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, Cassettes are hard to get hold of these days. The sound quality even of my old recordings remains very good on this Deck. I have made recent recordings and you are right - they sound as good as discs and almost impossible to tell apart.Besides, I like recording on my own, so that I can fiddle around with the recording volumes and equaliser settings so that I can get it to sound the way I want. Cheers,
Sanjay

Sanjay,

Agreed. Having said that, we never know what the cassette tape medium is capable of, till we've heard a Nakamichi built in the heyday of the cassette. It's as close as it gets to audiophile grade sound reproduction - 20 Hz-20KHz, soundstage, imaging, the works! This is when you come to know that the medium wasn't flawed, just that people stopped caring about building the right playback equipment (I guess an early incarnation of the convenience vs fidelity theme).

I don't want to be seen as fuelling 'upgraditis' here (God knows we suffer enough from that already) - but I did want to put this on record.

Also: if your car deck has an aux-in, you may want to consider recording Worldspace to mp3, and playing it back through your ipod or something. If you care about the content, then these recordings will endure better.

Regards
Persiflage

I'll second that opinion. Cassettes of course have a storage issue and thats where the CDs killed the medium. Still if you get good cassettes they are really good on a quality cassette player.

Hi.

First and foremost, sorry for poking my head in this thread with my question.

Well, went to Onkyo Chennai today to enquire about tape decks, as I want one very soon. Double deck they are quoting around 25k, but only when you give half amount they will order

I saw a single deck from Onkyo too, was very small, but didn't like the loading method, price quoted 10k.

So, am planning to bring the double deck from UK. My question to you all is should I get the double deck from UK or just buy the single deck from India.

Is there any SQ difference between them? Thanx.

I can't believe they're quoting 25K for an Onkyo deck. Have things changed since I last checked? Don't even think about it! The fair price should be 12K or thereabouts with warranty. For about 14K you should get a Marantz double deck.

In the UK you should have no difficulty finding decks at 100 quid or so.

Single decks generally have better SQ.