Eighties-tastic Aiwa AD-F660 - When Cassette Decks Finally Came of Age
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- Опубліковано 22 жов 2024
- In this episode we warp back in time to the mid nineteen eighties, when David's haircut was last in fashion.
Michael Evans and David Price remember Aiwa's classic AD-F660 cassette deck, a leading edge tape deck back in the day. With advanced features like Dobly HX Pro and a finely aligned dual capstan transport, it delivered super sonics.
Analogue addict David sings its praises, and says it's a great second-hand buy even now - for those wishing to get into, or back to, the joys of Compact Cassette.
Each episode of Mike and Dave's Hi-Fi Riff features their unedited, unexpurgated views about all manner of weird and/or wonderful hi-fi designs.
Mike has a huge wealth of knowledge from his hi-fi retail years, and David’s written about hi-fi for thirty years. Now Editor-in-Chief of StereoNET, he's picked up a few tips along the way.
So relax and enjoy some one-take hi-fi riffing - and do leave your comments below.
Don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button, this one goes up to eleven!
The eighties-tastic title tune is called ‘UFO/Mike’s Jumper’, and used with the express permission of our old pal and rights holder Simon Lythe.
simply lovely, i also enjoy cassettes on a daily basis, my Kenwood KX9010 and Technics RS-B965 do me proud. My tape of choice is TDK AR-X. However, slowly getting bitten by the bug of reel to reel...
I really enjoyed this, guys. This series of Aiwa decks was superb: top notch performance for considerably less than a Nak. They're possibly the most "Wow! 80s!" looking decks ever made and if they had a voice it would probably be Bruno Brooks or Peter Powell! I have a Luxman fixation and for me, my dream deck would be a K-04/K-05 (or even K-03) but those aside, I would quite happily provide a home for a AD-F770 or AD-F990.
Wasn't it just? More eighties-tastic than a Honda Prelude with a digital dashboard! The AD-F770 is better still but the F660 is a lot cheaper and almost as good, sonically. Sensational value, pop pickers!
@@MrVinylista Yeah, they remind me so much of the kind of toys/ gadgets/ games that I and/or pals would have had at that time. A bit like the cassette deck equivalent of the Raleigh Vektar (the fully-loaded one, of course). I'm going to shoot you guys a message with some suggestions for vintage gear for you to look at, if that's ok...
@@TheNorliss Absolutely - or the Honda CH250 Spacy in scooter terms!
You're welcome to send us questions/suggestions. Our email address is in the 'About' section of the Hi-Fi Riff UA-cam homepage.
990 runs very hot,and way muchos gimmicks fullof stuff going on there...i only like it about that amourphus head !! I got 770 now,and loving it.Blows nakaas out of the water.
Can't wait for mine from ebay :-)
Update : I have it now and i love it :-)
That Is A DECK. I also got me a 770 model.Its lovely,nakakiller,when thy look at them pricetag. I ordered it from kentycky,here at Finland/suomi. Just did a metal tape record,and whatta ssweett yummy sound! Enjoy and spread the word about analogue earcandy sound.
Brings back memories. Could not afford a 660, so I bought the lower 330 model, which I used for a decade and then passed on to my dad and he used it for a good number of years. A riff on the Sony Walkman Pro D6C would be nice - yes, please.
Gorgeous deck
Very nice review, I'm in the process of getting my old system back up to par after my receivers caps started leaking, after a few years of searching I finally stumbled upon Yamahas A-S801 Integrated Amplifier which can run my 4 ohm JBLs. next in line is the cassette deck and luckily I found the 660 at a Hifi restoration shop. considering the superb quality of this Aiwa I'm amazed I found one, one reviewer said the Aiwa AD-F660 will soon be on the Unobtainium list ! Love your show. 👍
I had the big brother of this deck - the AD-F770 - wonderful machine!
I have one too. Every early eighties schoolboy's dream! The UK hi-fi press was a bit sniffy about them because they weren't Nakamichis, though. Their loss.
@@MrVinylista I ran one from the mid eighties to early 90's before replacing it with a Nakamichi "Cassette Deck One" after 7 years of heavy use. I cannot say the Nakamichi was a better deck despite costing twice the price. I also had a B&O Beocord 9000 (bought for just £275 brand new in a sale!) at the same time as the Aiwa and the Aiwa was the better sounding deck although I loved the style and build quality of the B&O.
@@StylusDrop I have a B&0 9000 too, and it's an amazing bit of kit. The first cassette deck to have Dolby HX Pro, if my memory serves me correct?
I always thought HX Pro was the only Dolby worth having, and of course this generation of Aiwas has it too - Aiwa was quite rightly a very early adopter.
@@MrVinylista Yes, as you'll know Dolby HX Pro was not a noise reduction system but a "headroom extension" system which improved high frequency response, particularly with Type I tapes - definitely worth having. When I first got the Aiwa I recorded everything with Dolby C NR as it was the "latest and greatest". However as time went on I realised that Dolby B gave slightly better sound quality so that became my noise reduction of choice. I even recorded some tapes with Dolby off which gave even better sound. Who needs hiss reduction with something like Iron Maiden or Motorhead anyway LOL.
@@StylusDrop Absolutely.
The great thing about the AD-R660 was that it was one of the first affordable cassette decks to feature Dolby HX Pro, which was automatically active during recording, and gave a flatter, more extended and less saturated treble - but you could keep Dolby B and C switched off, for a less processed sound. And you could use metal tape and ram the levels up to +6dB with ease, for a better signal-to-noise ratio.
Compare that to a cassette deck from 5 years earlier - i.e. Aiwa's AD-6700 - and it was another world. Even better, it had very low wow and flutter, to make the most of its performance. The early eighties was a great time for cassette, when it truly came of age as a hi-fi format. By in 1987, in the UK, it had become the best selling pre-recorded music format, too.
Only bettered by my ADF800 beautiful machine! AIWA made some awesome decks for cheap! At their price for me DRAGON killers!
And you can connect them even to your phone and record off the internet without worrying about THEM! 😁
I have one of these decks. I bought it January 3, 1986 for about 320 USD. It needs new belts, otherwise in excellent shape.
ich habe dieses Tape mindestens 15 Jahre gehabt . Es war wirklich sensationell in der Bedienung . nie war irgendetwas da dran . den Abspiel/Aufnahmekopf hab ich mal regelmässig gereinigt . Ansonsten Weltklasse für das Geld .
This channel has huge potential and I enjoyed the A1 review. But...... The fun and interest in retro cassette decks in the fab mechanisms and display leds etc. If you are going to review kit at least give us a decent look at it in action. Sitting on David's knee isn't really cutting it.
Greetings from mandurah western Australia. Ive just brought myself a AIWA F660 .it turns on everything seems to be working correctly but the tape is playing to fast ....any idea what might be the cause of this .the seconds counter seems to be a twice normal speed ...any help would be greatly appreciated....i really enjoyed watching your video so i hunted one down in my local area
Difficult to diagnose remotely. It sounds like a component failure in the electronic speed control circuit.
ооо,у меня была такая дека,пока не перешёл на компьютер со звуковыми картами :)
Are cassettes audiophile, on a good deck?
Yes
I had a 770 and later a 990. I would've married the 990 if it had let me.
I had the ADF640 ..
Its very good indeed. Same mech in a tapepath,flywheels.
I had the AD-F770 which was very good but not quite a Nakamichi killer. To my ears a Nakamichi has a more natural sound and seems to be able to record a higher signal level without clipping.
Well...very hard to believe,indeed. Azimuth issue,maby..
Anyone else remember 'Aiwa's ok. ok'
Nice…. 😇
I had the same cassette deck in the 80's great machine, also had a Sony TCK 88B with the sliding front loading deck but that was very unreliable unfortunately
У МЕНЯ ТОЖЕ ТАКАЯ ЕСТЬ В КОЛЕКЦИИ В МОСКВЕ. ОЧЕНЬ ХОРОШАЯ ДЕКА. А ПИШЕТ ИЗУМИТЕЛЬНО.
The Alpine & Teac/Tascam top of the range decks were even better than Nakamichi but equally unaffordable back in the 80's 😪
I still have a cassette player in my van 🤡
JVC TD-V6…..simple