New 2022 Marantz PMD-300CP cassette deck review & test

it's new cassette deck review time again and this  time we have the marantz professional pmd-300cp if you're looking for a new cassette deck  especially one that you can plug into your   computer so you can convert your old tapes  into digital files this is one of the more   affordable options on the market today it's  currently available on amazon for 159 dollars they call it a double deck cassette  player although it can also record   with pc usb connection the listed features  are turn music on cassette tapes into mp3s   plug and play usb connection for mac and pc dual  deck with high speed dubbing works with standard   metal and chrome tapes and as shown  on the box it includes optional rack   mount ears and screws in case you want  to put it in a rack mount installation there have been numerous different models and  brands of these decks all based on the same basic   design that have been around since the early  1990s but over time as the market for cassette   decks declined the internal components of these  decks got cheapened out a decision which i pleaded   the manufacturer of these decks to reverse and  apparently they did see my video and they actually   listened to it because i'm happy to report as  of 2021 a few months after i posted that video   they switched to a higher quality supplier for the  cassette mechanisms and motors used in this deck so that's why i wanted to do a review of one  of these to see if it's a viable option for   someone looking for a cassette deck at  an affordable price especially if they   don't want to take a risk on a used vintage  cassette deck or if they lack the knowledge   and skills to restore one you get more peace  of mind buying a brand new item that comes   with a money back guarantee and a warranty  that is if it's any good so let's find out inside the box you get the cassette deck  and a package containing the rack mount ears   rca audio cables usb cables and the manuals and  right away i can tell one other little improvement   with this new version the rubber feet on  this are much more grippy than they were   on previous versions of this deck which  tended to annoyingly slide around on you   when you tried to push the buttons with this one   that is no longer a problem the feet are grippy  enough that it's not going to slide around on you also it has soft eject cassette doors  but unlike some previous ones which were   annoyingly slow to open "if i take it out  the first thing you notice is how slow this   eject mechanism is on this machine it's so  slow i mean if you're a rush doing things   you're going to get really really  frustrated" this one is just about right   not something important but it  shows a nice attention to detail you get standard mechanical pushbutton  tape transport controls the left side   deck is for playback only the right side deck  is for playback and recording on the control   panel in the middle you get a digital  tape counter for the right side deck   with a reset button an led level meter  for playback and recording of both decks   a noise reduction switch although  that is not dolby noise reduction   i'll talk more about that later a recording level  adjustment and buttons for playing chrome tapes   recording chrome tapes dubbing and high speed  dubbing that's for copying one tape to another the level meter is marked in increments from  negative infinity which just lights up whenever   the deck is turned on to +3 db and it looks like  a separate meters for the left and right channels   but they both show identical readings because  it's showing left plus right and this has caused   some confusion because it makes some people  believe that this is not a stereo cassette deck   when it actually is it does  record and play in stereo   it just only gives you a combined left and  right channel indication on the level meter "at the moment i am directly between the  front microphones but i'm now moving over   to the left front microphone i am just starting  a mechanical stopwatch which will move with me   and help you in locating the sound as i  walk between and around the microphones   no this is not 60 minutes and to further  indicate our positions no this isn't a   sex manual i have my little zapper with its  low distortion one and a half inch speaker i'm now moving across the front and  am stopping at center front again   i should be heard now directly between your  front speakers now we move across to extreme   right when we get to the pink noise tests  the sounds will be electronically panned   to be only in each of the four locations front  center left and right front and center rear" you also get another led which is difficult  to see through the smoked plastic window   which lights up when you're recording the cassette doors are easily removable for  more convenient access to clean the heads   or adjust the azimuth and speaking of the heads  you get a stereo recording and playback head with   ac bias recording and an electromagnetic erase  head the playback only deck on the left side has   the same stereo head for playback and obviously  no erase head because it does not record it supports playing all four types of cassette  tapes type 1 normal bias type 2 high bias   commonly known as chrome even though most  of them are actually a cobalt formulation   type 3 ferrochrome and type 4 metal for recording  it only supports type 1 and type 2 although that's   not such a big deal because type 3 tapes are very  rare they're only around for a couple years in the   late '70s and early '80s so you'll probably  never come across one and most people never   use type 4 metal tapes either because they  were very expensive and they have not been   made in at least 20 years so you'll probably  never come across one of these either and if   you're the kind of person who is rich enough to  have a large collection of type 4 metal tapes   you're probably not going to be in the market  for a new entry-level cassette deck anyway on the back you get standard rca line level  inputs and outputs for recording and playback   you get the usb output for connecting to your  computer and a gain adjustment for it which is   very nice to have it's something i wish the much  more expensive teac and tascam cassette decks had and in case you're new to cassette  decks and you're considering buying   this as your very first one i suggest you  watch my cassette decks for dummies video   but to answer one frequently asked question  about cassettes no they do not include built-in   speakers nor does this particular one have  a headphone output so you will need to use   it with some kind of external sound system  either an amplifier a receiver powered speakers   something that will connect to this line level  output and produce sound from it but if you   just want to use this to convert your old tapes  into mp3 files all you'll need is the included   usb cable and some software on your  computer no extra hardware is required it'll work with almost any pc or mac made  in the past 15 years so if you have an old   computer you're not using anymore you'll be  perfect for this you just plug in the usb and it will automatically install the drivers  there it found and installed three usb audio   drivers and it's ready to use you just may want  to go into your control panel or system settings   and change the playback device back to your  built-in audio because it will switch it to the   usb audio even though this cannot output audio  from the computer to the cassette deck through   usb it's only for playback not for recording so  you want to switch your playback back to your   built-in speakers you right-click on it and set  as default device and you can disable the usb   output since it's not going to work anyway then  under the recording settings you'll see a new   device here called line usb audio device and it  set itself to the default device we may want to   go into the properties and check that it's set  to two channels because i've seen some of these   where you plug it in and it sets itself to one  channel which means you only get mono recording   so you want to make sure it's set to 2 channel  16 bit either cd quality or dvd quality now at this point you can download and install  audacity which is a very popular program for   recording and editing audio you can find many  tutorials about how to use it but marantz   supplies their own software you go to their  website marantzpro.com you click on products   you go to down to rackmount and then you'll find  the cassette deck here pmd-300cp click on it   go to downloads and then you'll find their  EZ vinyl/tape converter for windows or mac   and you can download and install it from there and here it is the EZ vinyl/tape converter begin  by connecting your audio device to the computer   which we already have and it has an option to  split the recording into tracks automatically   so i have my cassette tape that i want to  convert i put it into the cassette deck   i press record on the software  and then play on the cassette deck that was just a short test to show how it  works and here it is in the my music folder   and there's the file we recorded it's a wav  file and it sounds just the same as it was   when i was playing from the cassette  so it's basic but functional software now let's pop off the lid and look at those  improved internal components i was talking about   because as i discussed in my knock off the  knockoffs video the previous versions of these   decks had switched from using genuine tanashin  mechanisms to no-name knockoff mechanisms   but one important thing i was not aware  of at the time i made that video is that   tanashin had stopped production of cassette  deck mechanisms so in order to keep these   cassette decks in production they were forced  to find alternative suppliers and unfortunately   the suppliers they chose were far inferior  but thankfully that has now been rectified let's take a closer look the mechanisms used in  this deck are now made by csg the same company   that makes the mechanisms used in the much  more expensive teac and tascam cassette decks   although this is obviously not the same  part because this is a mechanical pushbutton   mechanism while the teac and tascam decks use an  electronically controlled full logic mechanism   it's good to see that they've switched from  those no name tanashin knockoff mechanisms to   these mechanisms made by csg which seems to be  the highest quality supplier available today it's difficult to see it from this angle but the  motors that these decks now use are made by trw   and i looked at the part number and it's  actually the same exact motor that are   used in those teac and tascam decks so instead  of using those counterfeit fake mabuchi motors   they switch to these higher quality trw motors  and the improvement in performance is striking whereas the combination of the no-name  knockoff mechanism and counterfeit mabuchi   motor yielded a wow and flutter rating  of up to 0.5 percent peak or 0.26 percent   wrms with the new csg mechanisms and trw motors  the wow and flutter is considerably reduced   instead of just showing a few seconds of the test  i played the entire wow and flutter test tape   and logged it into the computer so i can show  it to you as a graph and on the left side   playback only deck it was coming in a little  bit above 0.1 percent wrms and a bit above   0.2 percent peak so it reduced the wow and flutter  by more than half and also the speed accuracy is   pretty good the tape has a 3000 hertz test tone  on it and it was coming in at around 3010 hertz   that's within half a percent of the correct speed  you would never notice that difference and i   wouldn't bother trying to adjust it because  it's already so close to the correct speed the right side playback and recording deck isn't  quite as good but it's still much better than   before it's around 0.13 wrms wound flutter and  slightly above 0.25 percent peak and likewise   the speed was pretty close to accurate it's still  within about a half a percent of the correct speed another feature which has been improved is  the speed at which the auto stop engages   when you're rewinding or fast forwarding  or playing or recording a tape and it   reaches the end and now stops almost immediately this is good because it means that it's almost  guaranteed not to eat a tape if you're playing   a cassette and for any reason the take up reel  stops the auto stop will engage immediately   to prevent any of the tape from getting  spilled out and tangled in the mechanism and if you're watching this a couple years down  the road and you're considering picking up one   of these secondhand and you want to make  sure you get one of the updated components   you can check by looking at the serial  number in this case 2203 means this one   was made in march 2022 so look for a 21 or  higher in this part of the serial number and as for whether or not these improvements  also apply to the other versions of this deck   that are available such as the pyle pt-649d  i would think so since they're all coming out   of the same factory in china but i can't  guarantee it so if anyone watching this   buys one of those other decks please take a  look inside and see if it matches what you see   in this video and then leave a comment so that  way i'll know and i'll update the description despite the improvements there are still several  reasons why this may not be the ideal cassette   deck for you first of all is this noise  reduction feature which as i mentioned   is not dolby noise reduction because dolby  has not licensed their noise reduction system   since 2014 so any new cassette deck made today  cannot feature it marantz calls it dynamic noise   reduction which wouldn't be so bad because as  i demonstrated in my review of the teac w-1200   it is a pretty reasonable facsimile of  dolby b noise reduction for playback "we've put together this demonstration  that you can play on any equipment   but to get the most benefit from it you'll  need to switch to your dolby b setting   position any equalizers or other processors flat  or off and set your tape bias selector to high" but unfortunately on this one despite what the  manufacturer claims it is not dynamic noise   reduction it is just a fixed lowpass  filter which does reduce the tape hiss   on playback but also reduces the  trouble response quite severely "we've put together this demonstration  that you can play on any equipment   but to get the most benefit from it you'll  need to switch to your dolby b setting   position any equalizers or other processors flat  or off and set your tape bias selector to high" and this is strictly for playback  it has no effect on recording   and speaking of recording a major bugbear with  this deck is that there is no recording monitor   right now i have its input connected to  my smartphone playing a youtube video   and it's output connected to a pair of powered  speakers but you can't hear what i'm recording   unless you have it connected to an amplifier  or receiver with a tape monitor feature   it's only when you stop rewind and play back the  tape that you can actually hear what it recorded "dark mineral grain texture vinyl storm gray  turkish brown texture vinyl iceberg white" that may be why marantz doesn't even advertise  the recording feature of this deck they just   call it a cassette player also there is  some 50 or 60 hertz ac mains hum audible   in the audio output of this deck as well as some  background hiss generated by the circuitry of this   deck which is noticeable when playing the clear  leader portion of a tape which should be silent and despite that improved mechanism and  motor there is still some noticeable   flutter with certain types of music probably  due to that lightweight plastic flywheel so   fortex industrial if you're watching this please  consider upgrading these decks of a metal flywheel   even the cheap little sony cfd-s70 boombox  which costs about half as much as this   has a metal flywheel so it can't be  a terribly expensive upgrade to make and there are several other little quirks which  may get on your nerves when you're using this deck   sometimes when you put in a tape and go to  close the door it doesn't close easily you   can force it closed but something is obviously  not right by the way it's sticking out like that   that's because the reels are not lining  up with the sprockets on the hubs here   i've never had this problem with any  other deck i've owned but just this one   sometimes you need to move this a little bit and  then it will line up and let you close the door and normally an advantage to a deck with  basic pushbutton controls is that as soon   as you put in a tape and press play  it starts playing immediately there's   no waiting for the mechanism to engage but  with this one there's actually a noticeable   delay between when you push the play button and  when the sound starts coming out of the output also whatever you're doing of the left side  deck takes priority over the right side deck   that's normal for playback because you can't  hear both tapes at the same time but with   this one you can't even rewind the tape on this  side without cutting out the sound on this side   since it overrides anything you're doing  on this side with the controls on this side   although that's not a problem the other way  around you can play a tape on this side and   rewind or fast forward the tape on this  side and it won't interrupt the playback   also for some strange reason whenever you push  any of the buttons it causes the meter to peg the right side deck has a digital tape counter  which is nice but it's only three digits and   that's not enough because after about 41.5 minutes  of playing or recording a tape it wraps around to   zero so you'll have to keep that in mind if  you're using a 90 minute tape which is 45   minutes per side before you get to the end of the  tape the counter is gonna go back around to zero as i hope my review has showed as objectively  as possible while these decks have been improved   with their new internal components they're  still far from perfect but they were never   meant to impress the discerning audiophile  they were meant for the average consumer   who just wants to play their old tapes again  which are probably not that high fidelity to   begin with and convert it into mp3 files and  for that purpose it's certainly good enough "but it doesn't make noise i'm recording stuff" "somehow my mom got grouchy  well i'm walking over here" "tommy hit me" and if you do start out with one of these decks  and then upgrade to a higher quality vintage deck   in the future it's still worth keeping this  around for one unadvertised feature it has   and that is it can be used to convert any line  level audio source to digital on your computer   all you have to do is plug the usb output into  your computer and then your audio source into   the play output jacks of the cassette deck i  know it seems counterintuitive to plug an input   into an output jack but the reason why this  works is because the usb conversion chip in   this cassette deck just taps onto the output  jacks of this deck so it doesn't matter whether   the audio is coming internally from the cassette  deck or externally from a device you plug into it   either way it's going to convert it  to digital through the usb output for example i connected it to  my turntable's preamp output   and now it's playing through the computer and in other cassette equipment news i'm  happy to report that the panasonic rx-d55   cd/cassette boombox which techmoan did a video  about is once again in stock and available on   amazon for about 150 dollars and tascam has  just reintroduced the cd-a580 cd player mp3   recorder and cassette recorder combo deck  which i did a video about it had been out   of production for about a year but according to  their press release it will be coming back soon   so if you want to enjoy both cds and cassettes you  will now have some decent options to choose from

Channel: VWestlife

Views: 214,168

Keywords: marantz, pmd300cp, pmd-300cp, cassette, tape, deck, recorder, player, usb, conversion, ripping, mp3, software, audacity, review, test, improved, mechanism, motor, csg, trw, tanashin, mabuchi, fortex, industrial, pyle, pt649d, pt-649d, renkforce, auna, teardown, tascam, cda580, cd-a580, panasonic, rx-d55, rx-d50, boombox

Id: UMcMPNIQc5o

Length: 26min 34sec (1594 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 06 2022