I have, I'm guessing, maybe one to two thousand or so cassettes, LPs and VHS tapes I would like to convert to digital.  I'm thinking onto hard disk - maybe a few 1TB hard drives should hopefully be able to hold it all uncompressed (well maybe not the video, but if I have to compress it at all I'd want to be extremely conservative (for example, for audio, 320kbps mp3 or 512kbps ogg would be too low), preferably using lossless compression.)

As for the cassettes, I've heard the Nakamichi Dragon is a good quality cassette deck.  Also I've read (online) that the 1000ZXL may actually be a better deck (but is more expensive).  Thing is, if I don't have to, I would rather not spend that much on a player.  What are some good tape decks in a few other price ranges?  (And, what would be a good reason, in each range, to step up to the next higher tier?)  Price tiers I'd be looking at are (approximately):  $70, $120, $200, $320, $500, $750, $1200 or so.  (I'd like to keep it below $200, which obviously would rule out the Dragon, but I'm thinking to get best results that would be too low, as the portable player I now have (Panasonic RQ-SW20), which is actually better than our in-home decks, is not nearly good enough (and it was $100 when new).
A couple features I would really like to have are auto azimuth correction, dual capstans, fine-tunable bias adjustment... and anything else I should look for?
Features that aren't necessary include any of the consumer convenience features, like auto-reverse, ability to record with the same deck, etc.
Also, for cutting out the hiss on tapes, is there any possible way to do that without losing any of the high frequency response?

As for the LPs and VHS... what would be good quality players for those?  My current turntable is a Sony PS-242, and the 2 VHS players are a Sony SLV-798HF and Sony SLV-393 - would those be good quality?

Also, should I make sure I buy one in excellent working condition, or should I consider getting (cheaply) one that has problems and get it repaired?

Basically I would like to get as good of a quality transfer as possible -- if I can get it to be as good as the original masters (some of which may have been recorded over 50 to 60 years ago), that would be nice.

Another thing I was thinking about...  with the quantity of analog media that I want to convert, which would be less expensive (assuming the same quality results), have a professional service do it, or buy good quality equipment (for cassettes, the Dragon or 1000ZXL) and do it myself?

Once I get everything converted, I plan to destroy the old analog media, so I'll want the transfers to be as high of a quality as possible.

(I'm searching my computer for some files I converted with less expensive equipment (to give an idea of some problems I'm trying to avoid) for a few sample clips to post.  To whet your appetites (IF I ever find them / post them), there's one I can think of with some noticeable flutter (for example, hear a note played on a piano that you know is in tune and it flutters like 15 times per second), significant high frequency response loss (I have one that's pretty much down -60dB by about 5 kHz, and another that barely cracks 1 kHz), one where it probably was recorded from another tape (which I no longer have) in which the "original" tape got twisted over during playback, just to name a few things....))

P.S. I had an older similar topic a couple years ago, but other things came up and was unable to get anything done, and I had already tried resurrecting it, with no results.

I think your VHS decks are a good as any other provided they're working properly. I have a Nakamichi 580M cassette deck that while only a 2 head deck is an outstanding performer. When new it was flat to 22.5KHz and the wow / flutter was inaudible to me even with classical organ, piano or acoustic guitar. The dragon is really good but one of their 'lesser' decks is still fine hardware.

For turntables, I'm partial to Thorens or the upper end Dual semi autos mainly because of the way the cartridge force (not mass) is applied via springs rather than a 'controlled' imbalance. Unfortunately the Shure V15 type V is no longer available which IMO was the finest moving magnet cartridge ever built. It was the only cartridge upgrade I did that was FAR better than the others including Stantons, Pickerings, Shure V 15 type IV, B & O SP12. As for me, I only transfer LPs if the CD is not available.

For storing files, I use .FLAC to save some space though with 1 TB drives for $87 it's not much of an issue and as AFAIK there's no downside to .FLAC.

G²

... It currently has a Realtek ALC889 onboard.

Quote from: Glenn Gundlach on 2009-05-14 04:19:59

I think your VHS decks are a good as any other provided they're working properly. I have a Nakamichi 580M cassette deck that while only a 2 head deck is an outstanding performer. When new it was flat to 22.5KHz and the wow / flutter was inaudible to me even with classical organ, piano or acoustic guitar. The dragon is really good but one of their 'lesser' decks is still fine hardware.

For turntables, I'm partial to Thorens or the upper end Dual semi autos mainly because of the way the cartridge force (not mass) is applied via springs rather than a 'controlled' imbalance. Unfortunately the Shure V15 type V is no longer available which IMO was the finest moving magnet cartridge ever built. It was the only cartridge upgrade I did that was FAR better than the others including Stantons, Pickerings, Shure V 15 type IV, B & O SP12. As for me, I only transfer LPs if the CD is not available.

For storing files, I use .FLAC to save some space though with 1 TB drives for $87 it's not much of an issue and as AFAIK there's no downside to .FLAC.

G²

What price range are you talking about on the turntables?  Also for the vast majority of these LPs, CDs, AFAIK, are not available, and for a few that I DO have on CD the quality is noticeably inferior - for example they were too heavy handed on the noise reduction or did it improperly, among other things, and they often sound like an mp3 that was encoded at a not high enough bitrate.

What would be some things I should look for in the less expensive Nakamichis, and would they be good enough (for example preferably including on-the-fly auto azimuth correction) to get the quality transfers I'm hoping to get?
Also would I need to invest in a better sound input for my computer?  It currently has a Realtek ALC889 onboard.
Or, if I don't get a Nakamichi, what would be something that would be many times better than the ones I now have access to?  The players I now have are the Panasonic RQ-SW20 (portable walkman style), Sony TC-W550, Sony TC-FX420R, and Technics RS-B11W.  None of them are even close to good enough, though -- for example, tape 1 might sound best on the portable Panasonic, then for tape 2 the first 15 minutes might sound best on the 420R, then for the next 8 minutes due to deficiencies in the recording every couple seconds it alternates between sounding best on the Panasonic and the Technics... then tape 3 might only have a 1 kHz response after a couple seconds of playback on the W550, but sound fine on the RQ-SW20...well you basically get the idea.... basically I want to avoid that, and have one player that plays the best quality possible.  Should any Nakamichi deck, even if it's only $50-150 or so, be fine?

I almost forgot about reel-to-reel tapes.  I don't know how many of those I have - maybe a couple hundred or so, possibly more or less idk.  The player I have access to for those is a Teac A-4010 - is that a high quality one or should I consider investing in something better?

Due to budget constraints (one reason I really don't want to consider purchasing the Dragon, otherwise I'd have to increase my total budget (not to mention I also need a new cell phone (considering T-Mobile G1 - my Motorola A1200's earphone jack and non-speakerphone speaker don't work), mp3 player (considering Cowon O2 32GB - my 16GB Creative ZEN's screen is broken), PDA / netbook (don't have anything specific in mind, but it's time to get rid of my 12+-year-old graphing calculator that I used to use for similar purposes, and I don't want to give up any functionality)) by like 4 or 5 times just to get a non-functioning used one, or wait a few years to do the project), I either will have to do these projects one at a time, or would have to sacrifice the quality (which is an option I really do not want to consider, as I plan to destroy the originals once it's done.  (If I have to choose one thing to work on now, it probably would be the standard 1/8" analog cassettes.)

Considering the quantity I need to do, is it less expensive to have it professionally done, or buy the equipment and do it myself?  As for time... I'm not factoring in "lost wages" type time for doing it myself, but if I have a pro place do it would they possibly do like 100 different tapes at a time, whereas I can barely afford entry-level equipment to do one tape at a time?

I have, I'm guessing, maybe one to two thousand or so cassettes, LPs and VHS tapes I would like to convert to digital.  I'm thinking onto hard disk - maybe a few 1TB hard drives should hopefully be able to hold it all uncompressed (well maybe not the video, but if I have to compress it at all I'd want to be extremely conservative (for example, for audio, 320kbps mp3 or 512kbps ogg would be too low), preferably using lossless compression.)

As for the cassettes, I've heard the Nakamichi Dragon is a good quality cassette deck.  Also I've read (online) that the 1000ZXL may actually be a better deck (but is more expensive).  Thing is, if I don't have to, I would rather not spend that much on a player.

What are some good tape decks in a few other price ranges?  (And, what would be a good reason, in each range, to step up to the next higher tier?)  Price tiers I'd be looking at are (approximately):  $70, $120, $200, $320, $500, $750, $1200 or so.

A couple features I would really like to have are auto azimuth correction, dual capstans, fine-tunable bias adjustment... and anything else I should look for?
Features that aren't necessary include any of the consumer convenience features, like auto-reverse, ability to record with the same deck, etc.

Also, for cutting out the hiss on tapes, is there any possible way to do that without losing any of the high frequency response?

As for the LPs and VHS... what would be good quality players for those?  My current turntable is a Sony PS-242, and the 2 VHS players are a Sony SLV-798HF and Sony SLV-393 - would those be good quality?

Also, should I make sure I buy one in excellent working condition, or should I consider getting (cheaply) one that has problems and get it repaired?

Another thing I was thinking about...  with the quantity of analog media that I want to convert, which would be less expensive (assuming the same quality results), have a professional service do it, or buy good quality equipment (for cassettes, the Dragon or 1000ZXL) and do it myself?

is it less expensive to have it professionally done, or buy the equipment and do it myself? As for time... I'm not factoring in "lost wages" type time for doing it myself...

...hopefully be able to hold it all uncompressed (well maybe not the video...)

I'm doing VHS restoration for myself at the moment and what seems most important to me is to get a player that is outputting on S-Video cabling (many S-VHS recorders do so). The reason is that using a composite cable the luma and chroma information is transferred inseparably over that one wire while using S-Video transfers luma and chroma information separately.