blakey72 Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Wow, just bought an Aurix (Toshiba) deck for $100 and it's amazing. I've plugged it into my Plinius amp---->Whatmough speakers and put on a recorded cassette from 1986. It was recorded using a portable dc player a mate bought back from the US onto a TDK SA-X90. I have a big grin thinking about how a cassette can deliver a sound like this. It sounds nicer than quite a lot of newer cd's I have. Dynamics are great. Here's some pics: 9 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 A lot of Aurex gear was well thought of back a few years ago - the brand still exists, but not as it once was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakey72 Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 6 minutes ago, Pigpen said: A lot of Aurex gear was well thought of back a few years ago - the brand still exists, but not as it once was. Yes I got a good tip off a mate that said it was really good gear. It sounds wonderful, haven't tried recording yet. I'll ebay a few decent blank tapes and give it a try soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red MacKay Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 You just have to love anything that has VU meters too! Uber cool. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakey72 Posted June 20, 2020 Author Share Posted June 20, 2020 14 minutes ago, Red MacKay said: You just have to love anything that has VU meters too! Uber cool. Spot on mate Hope you're keeping well Red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasebass Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Aurex to Toshiba is like Esoteric to TEAC.... Nice score...enjoy.. Tase. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rrobot Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 That looks absolutely fantastic @blakey72. Those VU meters! The famous Alex from A.N.T rated that deck very highly, glad to hear it delivers. Now, down the rabbit hole with alignment tapes and oscilloscopes for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakey72 Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 14 minutes ago, Rrobot said: That looks absolutely fantastic @blakey72. Those VU meters! The famous Alex from A.N.T rated that deck very highly, glad to hear it delivers. Now, down the rabbit hole with alignment tapes and oscilloscopes for you? Been looking at TDK SA, SA-X, MA, MA-x and MA-XG. New from $30 to $130 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rrobot Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Check out these guys mate. Garish colours but extremely good tape stock apparently https://dupeshop.com.au/home.php 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Looking at some old hifi magazines from the late 60's and early 70's and looking at the advertising and reviews it seems to me for a while there, that there it was a toss up as to where music reproduction was going and it could have gone either way, vinyl or cassette tapes as the dominant form. And I wonder why we opted for Vinyl ? Maybe it was the tack feel of cassette cases, the inevitable scratch of the case or the low tech look . I heard Nakamichi Dragon playing cassettes through a high end system that was absolutely first class. Congrats on your purchase looks like a great result. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 It looks like a nice deck - well done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hergest Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 On 21/06/2020 at 11:43 AM, blakey72 said: Been looking at TDK SA, SA-X, MA, MA-x and MA-XG. New from $30 to $130 Yep, prices are unbelievable. Keep an eye out daily though as most don't sell at those prices and quite often someone will list a pack of ten for $20 or so that they've found at the back of a wardrobe. I picked up a couple of packs of decent BASFs for not a lot of money in the last year and they are great. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igotmearecord Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 Amazing the things that turn up on this forum. I remember the Aurex cassette decks well. We sold quite a few of them back in the early '80s and the PCX88AD was the top of the line. Their was a production issue with a few of them which was to do with some plastic injection moulded parts of the mechanism getting hairline cracks in them and fouling/jamming the take up spool bearings. I took Toshiba in Sydney to task over it and initially they acknowledged the issue. However, when it all started to get too hard, they got quite nasty and played hard ball. They didn't want to have to refund or replace. Consumer law was a bit different back then. My favourite is the PCX60AD which has the ADRES noise reduction system and has a die-cast alloy front panel. It is a 2 head, 2 motor machine but very good. The ADRES system works well and is kinda backwards compatible with Dolby B for playback. Aurex used the later version of ADRES whereas Nakamichi used the early version. On 21/06/2020 at 11:43 AM, blakey72 said: Been looking at TDK SA, SA-X, MA, MA-x and MA-XG. New from $30 to $130 Maybe I should have a look at the back of the wardrobe and see what I might have in the way of tapes . If I find anything useful I will advertise them here first. Good score on this deck though. Congratulations! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakey72 Posted July 25, 2020 Author Share Posted July 25, 2020 @Igotmearecord thanks for the information, very interesting. I haven't had any problems with it at all so far (touch wood). So was Aurex to Toshiba what Integra is to Onkyo? I haven't been able to find much info on them. What sort of RRP did they sell for back then? And yeah if you find anything you want to sell advertise it and let me know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igotmearecord Posted July 25, 2020 Share Posted July 25, 2020 3 minutes ago, blakey72 said: @Igotmearecord What sort of RRP did they sell for back then? From memory, rrp was either $399 or $429. By then the duty on tape decks had come off and they had come down in price a lot. Still decent money back then considering the average weekly wage. 11 minutes ago, blakey72 said: @Igotmearecord So was Aurex to Toshiba what Integra is to Onkyo? I haven't been able to find much info on them. Yes Aurex was to Toshiba as Otto was to Sanyo, Lo-D was to Hitachi, Optonica was to Sharp, Esoteric to TEAC. There are probably others that I have forgotten or didn't ever know. Onkyo and Pioneer also have high-end speaker product branding - Onkyo has Scepter and Pioneer has TAD, both highly respected in parts of the hi-fi world. Then there is all the sub-branding like Pioneer Elite, Sony ES, Onkyo Grand Integra, Yamaha Aventage etc. Hurts the braincell to think about it all I will go tape hunting in the next few days and let you know if I turn up anything worthwhile. I might have some used tapes that have basically had an lp or 2 recorded on them and then never been played after that. It will be a mix of TDK, Fuji, Denon and Maxell. Mainly type II so TDK SA and SA-X equivalents. They will be a decent price ( i.e. cheap) but better than throwing them out. Postage will add to the price though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rrobot Posted July 25, 2020 Share Posted July 25, 2020 (edited) There are some incredibly exotic looking aurex speakers that come up from time to time in Japan. Aurex was the real deal as far as high end gear goes I think. Tape prices on ebay are often a bit hopeful/deluded I find. Before covid I think a mob in Europe were making new tape at decent volumes. Recording the masters. https://www.recordingthemasters.com/ Edited July 25, 2020 by Rrobot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dean Gale Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 On 21/06/2020 at 8:44 AM, Tasebass said: Aurex to Toshiba is like Esoteric to TEAC.... Nice score...enjoy.. Tase. Was about to say the exact same thing . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest My HiFi Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 Very nice. I still enjoy my tapes. Found these on a council clean up recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PicoWattson Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 Had one of these in the day for a number of years. 3 heads and you could bias for tape type. Used both Chromium Dioxide and Metal. By the way I've listed 168 pre-recorded cassettes I found in my local Oppie for 20 bucks in the classifieds. (proceeds to Oppie) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian McP Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/toshiba/pc-x88ad.shtml 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robfoll Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 in the late 70s Aurex also made the first micro-components, a complete set of dinky toy size Hi-Fi. Quite lovely stuff, reference the size of the cassette. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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