We’re staying in the cassette world for this week’s Vintage Audio Spotlight, which features a super-cool Denon DRS-610 tape deck.

What makes it super-cool, you ask? The DRS-610 has a front-loading drawer just like a CD player, with the cassette actually lying horizontal inside the player. Denon’s reason for this design is improved playback, aided by a ceramic composite stabilizer that clamps the cassette housing and further restricts unwanted vibrations and tape misalignment. The Dolby B, C and HX-Pro features provide stable performance at high frequencies.

If you’re looking for a solid cassette deck at an approachable price, this $100 Denon fits the bill.

Tags: vintage audio

We shift gears this week to feature a badass cassette player with our Vintage Audio Spotlight.

Several staff members have had their eyes on this Nakamichi RX-202 ever since it came in. This audiophile cassette deck from 1982 features UDAR, Nakamichi’s unique uni-directional auto-reverse mechanism, eliminating the azimuth error loss of conventional auto-reverse decks.

The music-sensing circuit monitors playback and fast forwards through blank ‘tail’ to provide uninterrupted playback. A dual master fader creates smooth 2- or 4-second fades at a touch.

This rare beauty has a $180.00 price tag. Snag it before one of us does.

Tags: vintage audio