TEAC AD500 Integrated CD/Cassette Deck

Let me start by saying that when I scanned all of my CDs in to iTunes to work with my iPod and iPhone, I deliberated long and hard about the compression rate I would use, and I finally settled on 320-bit AAC with explicit stereo, because I really could tell the difference between various setting after comparing them with carefully chosen songs. And I do regret a bit not having done Apple Lossless Format now. By this I'm trying to say I have sensitive ears.

I was so looking forward to the TEAC AD-500 to solve all my problems. (1) I really wanted to be able to control cassettes with a remote control and (2) I wanted a "real" single-disc CD Player that functioned as such, instead of using a DVD player to play CDs, which is slower and inconvenient--the track number is not displayed, the "screen saver" often engages so you have to hit buttons more than once after a time, etc.

The first thing I did when I unpacked the TEAC AD-500 was to set it up and attached it to my tuner so that I compare it against my existing equipment. The cassette player was the most disappointing. I currently have a Pioneer CT-W606DR, which remains the best sounding cassette player I have ever encountered or read about online (that has a reasonable cost). I chose two cassettes to compare mainly because I new that the magnetic tape in them was in excellent condition and has great sound quality. These were "The Dealer" by Chico Hamilton and "Introspective" by the Pet Shop Boys. I tried both with speakers and with headphones. The TEAC sounded pretty good, I must admit. However, when you compare it against my current Pioneer, it paled in comparison. The Pioneer had far greater treble response, yielding a far more vibrant and crisp sound. There was also a far greater "depth" with the Pioneer--that feeling that you can reach into the sound to touch the individual instruments. I should say that I had Dolby noise reduction off on both units. I mean, the TEAC does sound far better than my two Sony cassette walkmen. However, the promise of a remote control was not enough for fogive the lesser sound quality.

The CD section of the TEAC is less dissapointing. I was comparing it to a Sony DVD-Recorder RDR-GXD455. The similarity was much closer here. However, I have to say that the Sony came out slightly ahead of the TEAC. The tonal quality of the reproduction was a bit richer and the highs were a bit more crisp. This might boil down more to a matter of personal preference rather than absolute superiority.

So, alas, I'm going to return this unit and limp a long with the functional deficiencies in my current equipment in exchange for better sound quality.

Cassette section failed within first year. Tapes auto-reverse and auto-stop randomly. Tape counter inconsistent.
It takes a looong time for CDs to be recognized.
CD controls are insensitive. They need a good solid click to activate.
CD audio plays through the tape outputs, as well as the CD outputs.
Wish I'd avoided this one and bought separate units.

Good for both CD and Cassette tapes with easy functions for those needing user friendly features. Sound is very good for cassettes.

The TEAC arrived today... I have been playing with it all evening. Here are a few highlights:

First off, the machine is built like a tank! This thing is built to last and it has the heft of a pro machine.

The CD section is amazingly good. This is one of the best CD players I have ever heard. Now, that's saying something because I have used pro Sony and Denon machines in radio stations that cost several thousand dollars. My current Sony changer is a great sounding machine but this TEAC has something extra going on that I can't quite put my finger on. According to the manual's spec page, this is a 4 times oversampling machine with an analog filter. In comparison, my Sony is eight times over with all digital filtering. The TEAC's laser is a powerful tri-beam type not seen since the early days of CD's. This is very old-school design and I can only come to the conclusion that TEAC did this on purpose. There is no cost savings using 4 x and an analog filter. As a matter of fact, this is more expensive because we're talking about some very delicate discrete circuitry in that filter... I'm gong to be listening to a lot of CD's in the next few weeks.

The cassette section was a bit of a surprise because it was in perfect alignment right out of the box. The last time that happened to me was when I bought an Onkyo machine back in 1990. I don't have an alignment tape but I have several tapes I know for sure are prefect. I grabbed some of them, put the output in mono, with screw driver in hand, ready to tweak the heads and they did not need anything done to them at all. They are perfect and the technician sealed off the azimuth and height screws with some dope so it is not going to change anytime soon. I put the screw driver back and that was that. The speed is dead on and the wow and flutter is extremely low.

The noise levels are phenomenally low on this machine, as well. With the Dolby B on, you have a hard time hearing any hiss at all. The specs say that the noise is down around -57 dB with it turned off and you get near -70 dB with it on.... That's with normal tape! The stats only get better with chrome or metal. That is about the same performance you get from a broadcast cart machine or a high end quarter track tape recorder at 7&1/2 ips. Very impressive.

The door is very robustly built with a magnifying window that actually enlarges the window in the tape so you can look at a glance and see how much tape has gone by. The tape itself sits very deep in the machine. The transport controls have a solid feel and the solenoids must be huge because when you work them they give out with a loud 'ker-chunk!'

As I suspected, the Dolby does sound better because it's only B circuitry and nothing else. There is no bias adjustment on this machine at all, either manual or automatic. However, the record play response was great. I tried laying some audio on a couple of different brands of tape and there was not much difference in the sound from one to another. TEAC is doing something unusual with the bias on these machines. It must be a very high frequency bias circuit because the noise is so low. Cassette bias is usually somewhere around 40 kHz but Sony put out some decks a few years ago with bias up around 150 kHz. This machine performs like those decks so I think TEAC has gone that way too. You can really slam the levels and get very little distortion on playback.

A couple of down points.... The automatic CD dubbing is at a fixed record level and a really loud CD will overload the tape. No biggie. I like doing it manually anyhow. The CD player does not have a peak search function on it. My Sony does so I can dub off of that one when I do level critical stuff. There are several functions you cannot access from the front panel and you have to use the remote control to get to them. The only one I'll miss is the time function that allows you to show remaining times on track and the whole CD while it is playing. You have to do that from the remote.

All in all, this is a fabulous, high end, old school piece of audio gear.

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It's great finding a combo CD/cassette deck. For old schoolers with a large collection of music in these 2 media it's invaluable. It's a very fair price. This machine seems identical to the much more expensive TASCAM model