I recently found this Denon in a "Goodwill" thriftshop in Denver, Colorado. The horizontal load tray immediately got my attention as I had never seen this feature on a cassette deck before (I am 40 yrs old, btw..). It was in immaculate condition, a Denon product, and on sale for some RIDICULOUSLY low price so I thought I'd take it home with the intent of selling it on Ebay. The unit powered up like a champ.... the first thing I noticed was how smooth and SILENT the loading mechanism was! No catches or delays in the action - reminded me of loading a cd. I quickly ran through the dolby functions and found them to be quite impressive - my 'bench test' setup is a Pioneer 502 receiver and a pair of mid-size Sony speakers, so no hi-end assistance in that department, ha! In fact, the sound reproduction was SO GOOD it was indistinguishable from a cd. Better than some Nakamichi, Onkyo, vintage Pioneers I have heard.. I would say the cleanest, most impressive sound I have ever gotten from a tape deck, in fact. The lower panel drops down to reveal dubbing/headphone/bias/input features. I was particularly pleased with the 'input' adjust... functioned like a pre-amp, so I could 'dial in' the maximum input signal to my receiver without distortion and improving the efficiency of the speakers. The bias worked well and like the Dolby, I could actually HEAR a difference in sound quality when adjusted, so not just a gimmicky feature. With this deck, there is no 'wow/flutter', noise to speak of - just amazing sound! The only missing feature I would have liked to see is a 'music search' capability, to complement the auto reverse. Overall, a real gem and making it hard for me to put up on the auction block!!
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