The Tascam range of cassette recorders collectively provide for a plethora of applications whether in broadcast, live performance or where playback, recording, or archiving is required. Cassette recorders listed may be rack-mounted.
Tascam 202MKVII 3U rack-mounting, dual cassette deck is intended for use in 'professional studios, houses of worship and other installations needing reliable cassette performance'. The two twin-head decks can be used for recording or playback, supporting normal (Type I), chrome (Type II), and metal (Type IV) tapes.
202 MKVII can be used for normal speed dubbing. It has a 'return to zero' facility and 'A-B repeat', which can play back a section of tape up to 20 times. Deck 1 has +/-12% pitch control, and a mono microphone input is available on the front panel for convenient recording. Other facilities include continuous play, power-on play and record, continuous recording, and both decks recording for simultaneous masters. The user is also able to use the “special” play mode to play back one cassette tray and listen/cue the other tray.
Each tape compartment is accompanied by a set of controls and indicators including eject, stop, reverse play, forward play, fast forward and reverse transport controls and buttons to choose record, pause and record-mute, for creating a 4 second blank space and to reset the tape counters. The illuminated display has a level meter, and indicators showing when the tape is paused, recording or playing and the direction of travel, as well as the tape position for each tape.
A toggle switch located under deck 2 allows the user to enable noise reduction to reduce hiss during playback. Tascam suggest this is more effective with ‘cassettes recorded with Dolby B noise reduction’.
The rear has four RCA (phono) sockets for the stereo input and output, a USB type B output connector, and a captive AC power cable.
Frequency response: 30Hz to 15kHz, +/-4dB, Chroma tape (type II); 30Hz to 13kHz, +/-4dB, Normal tape (Type I). Inputs: 0.28V, equal to or over 30kOhms, line; 0.38mV, equal to or over 3kOhms. Line outputs: 0.46V, equal to or over 50kOhms. Headphone output: 15mW, 32Ohms. Digital output: USB type B. Output sampling frequencies: 8/11.025/16/22.05/32/44.1/48kHz. Bit depth: 8/16bit. Power consumption: 14W. Dimensions (WxHxD): 482 x 139 x 286mm. Weight: 5.4kg.
Included accessories: RC-1331 wireless remote control, 2x AAA batteries (for remote), rack-mounting screw kit, owners manual.
Tascam CD-A580 V2 offers cassette and USB memory recording or playback, along with CD playback - all of which are very popular professional and consumer audio formats for applications including hotel, restaurant, DJ playback, dance and sporting facilities. Unbalanced line input and line output connections are by way of RCA (phono) connectors. The device has fixed rack mounting hardware that requires 3U of space. A 6.3mm headphone jack connector positioned on the front facing panel allows local monitoring.
The twin-head tape deck can be used to playback normal (Type I), chrome (Type II), and metal (Type IV) tapes, and record to normal or chrome type cassette tapes. A dubbing function allows the cassette deck to record directly from CD, whilst +/-10% pitch control can be applied to cassette playback. The CD deck is compatible with CD-R and CD-RW in CD-DA and MP3 data formats, and shuffle or programmed playback are available. Repeat modes of single, all, or programmed can be applied, along with shuffle playback. MP3 playback from USB media offers standard, shuffle, or programmed playback. Recording onto the USB memory device is in MP3 format, and can be routed directly from cassette, directly from CD, or via input audio. Power-on playback can be set to cassette, CD player, or USB playback.
Included accessories: 1x RC-1329 remote control, 2x AAA battery cells, 1x rack mounting screw kit.
Analogue input level: -4.5dBu, 0.46V. Input impedance: greater than 50kohm. Line output level: -4.5dBu, 0.46V. Nominal output impedance: 50kohms. Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz, +/-2dB. Distortion: less than 0.02%, 1kHz. Signal to noise ratio: greater than 87dB, IHF-A. Maximum output level: +6dBV, 2V, CD. Power required: 230V AC, 50-60Hz. Power consumption: 13W. Dimensions (WxHxD): 483 x 139 x 290mm. Weight: 6kg.