Re: Technical Equipment Question

[Bernard El-Hagin <belhagin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jean,

	I can tell you a few things about tape decks (btw, I studied
audio engineering in college so I know a bit about these things).
First of all, what Tom said is true, but not entirely. He said that
for the mentioned price you can't get a worthy tape deck. The truth of
the matter is that tape deck prices are dropping due to the rising
popularity of competitive mediums such as MiniDisc, DATs or even CDRs.
Gone are the days when a good deck is the most expensive element of a
system (apart from speakers, of course). The second thing about decks
and music equipment in general is that when you reach a certain
quality range (I'm deliberately not saying "price range", because the
two don't necessarily have to go together) you just stop hearing the
difference if you're not a profesional. I have a rich friend who has a
sytem worth $50000 (yes, that's four zeros) and can't tell the
difference between a normal tape and a chrome tape (I've tested him on
numerous occasions). I'm not saying that you fall into that category
(I'm even positive you don't), I'm just trying to paint you a picture.

	Two more things. First, stay away from double decks at all
costs. They have an audible lack of quality that even my friend would
hear. Second, as far as auto-reverse is concerned I wouldn't consider
it's presence a reason not to buy a deck if the rest is good. It's
true that the head is much less likely to be perfectly aligned when
you've got auto reverse, but, again,  it's not likely you'll hear the
difference. 

Cheers,
Poor-Tom

"I hope life is not a big joke, because I don't get it."