My Dad had a Pioneer car audio system in his 911. It was from 1982 and was so high end it had touch controls and auto reverse. It was even DIN and was modular, the tuner, tape, and amp were all separate hooked up with black DIN connectors, What a machine.

I love seeing Dutch reviews of old tech. Keep it up!

I have my CT-S740S still today in perfect shape as first day. Back in 1995. I was looking that CT-95 to buy but at that time he was very expensive for me and I dont have that budget. At the end I decide to buy CT-S740S which cost me new in the shop 880 DM ( Deutsche Mark ). I will never sell that tape deck. Many people ask me to sell deck to them but no way. He will stay with me to the end of my life.

subscribed! man i love the way you speak with such passion.

That's tapes were great. Their parent company manufactured the oxide and made tapes for other companies as well. Totally agree with you regarding Dolby, I never used it for either playback or recording back in the day. 80's and mid 90's I was using a Pioneer CTF-750, which I was very happy with. I also had a Yamaha for dubbing. Mainly used TDK and That's cassettes. I have a That's Metal tape, that i recorded hundred and fifty timesa really high quality dj mix and that tape has been played well over 150 times and it is still going strong, even used it in the car.

Wat een geweldige video! Ik wist niet dat ene tapedeck zo goed kon klinken. Wat je zegt, ik ook heb vroeger alleen goedkope rommel gehad. Ben erg veranderd sinds deze film in mijn mening ten aanzien van casettedecks. Leuke film, en ik ben je nieuwe fan. Groet uit Haarlem, Emil

Looks great! I am open to trying anything. I love my Nakamichi CR-40

Very nice deck. My buddy had the dragon, and it was cool in that it change from side a to b by flipping the cassette. My most expensive tape deck was $259.99 in 1983 so these deck where well out of my range. My weekly salary then was $80.00.

To me a good deck is when you compare source and tape with the monitor switch, you can't tell the difference.

I never thought that much of Nacamichi as the Pioneer decks could deliver identical sound for far less. The difference in specs could not possibly be heard and therefore its always been Pioneer for me. Specs are not the be all.

The CT-93 is "A" pinnacle. I own the 93, a 43, a Dragon, RX-505, DR-1, BX-300 and FOUR restored (all restored/aligned myself) CT-F1250's. They all excel at something the others don't. There isn't an ultimate Cassette deck. There are a few that share the crown and this (and these others) are SOME of them. Which one you prefer will have everything to do with your priorities. From a pure "sound" standpoint this and the 93 (followed by the 43) probably take that prize. But these machines don't have pitch control. The CT-F1250's imaging specificity is uncannily good, but Dolby B isn't the last word in NR technology. (But it and the 300 have pitch control.) None of them can match the Dragon and DR-1's ability to get the highest fidelity from pre-recorded tapes because of the OTF azimuth adjustment technologies. You get to choose your favorites, but let's be adults here, there is NO single best machine, just a stable of them and we're lucky to have access to them. Back in the day, you were pretty much stuck with taking your best shot at which one was best. 99% of us wouldn't have had the advantage of direct A/B comparisons because of the hideous outlay involved during their respective heydays. Many of us have that ability today. Some of them STILL pull a lot of wherewithal amperage, for Pete's sake.

I have the same - Any idea why a perfectly serviced machine shows some errors on calibration?

Awesome video my man!

Thanks for this video and in-depth information! crazy how people will spend more on lower specs! Maybe they just don't realize!

Your music is awesome! you can't get rid of those tapes!

I was making cassette player decks, in 80's. Yes, you read well, I made 5 of them, just for fun, and for some people from TV and Radio stations. They were all different s, two were double decks, completely independent, with two counters, and mixer on it (intended for direct DJ-ing)., With speed control (to sync a rhythm), headphones preview from left to right, And than, War in Bosnia started (where I'm living), and I lost connection with those to whom I made these unique machines. I think that I was the only in the World who made completely, from zero, a cassette decks. I've had around 20 at that time, now I;m over 50. They've had HighCom compressor-expander, unlike Dolby at that time. SNR Ratio was 98dB (I'd made as well, low noise operational amplifiers for them).

I purchased my Pioneer CT-95 in 1994, and I still have it. I was trying to buy a new Dragon but Nakamichi was out of business. The CT-95 eletronics is much more advanced than any Nakamichi, but I think the Nakamichi mechanism of the top machines are superior. The CT-95 sound is equivalent to the best Nakamichi decks. What is really missing in CT-95 is the manual control of azimuth... I purchased it with the DAT D-07. Well, Pioneer during their best days!

Amazing deck tape. It's very impressive. Thank you for the review.

Great Deck for sure, sound is subjective to the individuals ear. I love my Aiwa XK-S9000. This will always be my favorite deck maybe not the best deck it the world but close. The sound coupled with the looks put it number one in my book! Long live the Cassette! A deck that sounds really good believe it or not is the Pioneer CT-W616DR. I have a thing as you might have guessed for Digital processing in a cassette deck!

How do you replace belts on a AIWA tape deck dual type model number AD-WX 777 series because both sides of the deck have broken belts in them.?All I want is the r/r replacement of the 3 belts on both decks shown in your videos.

Don't worry, the That's tape is great tape. It's made by Taiyo Yuden (Japan). Their music cassette, CD and DVD media are top notch.

I had good luck with a ZX7 and LX5 Nak. My Tandberg TCD-3014 was awesome. I almost got a Pioneer Elite cassette deck for cheap. I missed out. I sold Pioneer Elite for years, but never needed a deck at the time. Now these Elites are expensive.

I like the silver faced stereo equipment, just looks sharp.

MPX filter is used when recording stereo FM broadcasts, not sure why they hid it round the back though.

Will you let me know what date is Ben Liebrand's In The Mix? I could not find exact episode you played on your KZfaq.

This is a great tape deck. This is where Evolution of Cassette recorders peaked and stopped. Such a shame. Love that it has a central mechanism, great vibration and resonance absorbing chassis and better frequency range than 90% CD players....even nowadays !!!! 10Hz-30kHz!!! I respect Nakamichis Dragon, TEAC Z7000 Master Deck and my Technics RS-B965 but none of ‘em can go that low and that high at the same time ( metal tape ). Never ever sell this!

I would like to know a websites that allow to pick every, from low to high end cassette deck prerecorded audio into lossless audio format.

Great! BTW, anything for sale? Does anybody know where to buy stuff, good equipment like these?

Anyone know what is the difference between the Pioneer T-1100S and The T-1000S, please? I have both of these machines and cannot tell the difference in cosmetics or specifications apart from the model number :)

If everything in this world was designed like hi fi in the nineties, the day 21 October 2015 we would have seen Marty McFly landing somewhere on a flying De Lorean.

Keep in mind an mid o high end SVHS HiFi VCR has superior sound reproduction specs than any tape deck made including the Dragon ! In some cases even superior to a 2" Studer !!!

Sounds Great! sounds like some Freestyle dance music on there.

HX Pro only affects recording. And Dolby S you have to record with it and play the same tape. Must be very good, but the very full sound you can get only without Dolby

Hi, Nice review (goed gedan ) Do not forget that: 1st place is won by the Germans long time ago- Telefunken, Grundig... then the rest!

Nice cassette player ' especially in Pioneer you get thumbs up from me . Do you still have and will you sale it ? Also Mr. Vintage Sound what do you think of the Pioneer VSX - D1S believe the receiver is from early 90's . I ask you as I am looking for one . Like very much your video and reviews have learned from watching videos . Thank you keep them coming. 👌😉

Are you also doing calibration for this CT-95?

While many of the famed Japanese brands certainly made fabulous decks that you are going to enjoy listening to, Nakamichi is considered top of the food chain for a number of reasons: 1) Naks used only absolute top rated components. They do have reliability issues, because it was such a small company with such low production numbers, a lot of the assembly was hand work, lacking the level of precision of procedure based assembly that a company like Pioneer would have but generally the components inside a Nakamichi were of (spear no expense) superior quality . 2) Cassettes progressed in quality over the years in steps marked by technological developments that made major improvements to the sound, such as Dolby, as an example. Nakamichi was the first, or the developer or at the forefront of many of the developments that were responsible for the quality of sound improvements in the cassette world. In a way, they earned the status of the best. Another (surprising) company that developed major improvements in cassettes was B&O. 3) In this video "vintage stereo" points out some specs on some decks that are important ones to determine sound quality. He omits one hugely important one however, one that frankly many of the Hi-Fi publications omitted for a long time as well, and that is Head azimuth alignment. And that is where Nakamichi sets itself apart from the rest, reproducing sound profoundly better than any other machine. As we neared the 90's more and more of the machine's functionality was becoming processor controlled (also an area that Nakamichi pioneered), the overall quality of all cassette decks improved and the difference between decks narrowed to the point that there were many Japanese machines such as the Pioneers that were really close in quality, often undetectable when listening and it became questionable if Nakamichi was worth the price difference. It is surprising to see such high ratings (The Pioneer), being that it is a combination head deck. The Heads of a tape recorder/player have a physical gap in them to create a magnetic loop/range (this is the core principle of tape info storage). The optimal/ideal size of this gap is a different size for recording than it is for playback. Therefor combination Head machine are never ideal or optimal for sound quality but some in between compromise to facilitate reasonable results in both modes. Absolute top rated machine are not combination head ones. Separate heads for recording and playback for cassette tape format are incidentally also another Nakamichi first development.

What a beautiful masterpiece!!!!!!

Did this Tapedeck come without a backlight? Pioneer Tapedecks of a higher quality most likely came with a Tape backlight if I remember correctly.

Hi, great review , I see it's been 5 years since this video. Did you get rid of the tape cassettes ? Thanks !

What’s the name of the euro DJs he mentioned? Is there a site where they can be heard? Love nineties mixtapes!

I have one of those decks and they sounded really great, but how can you get them repaired and adjusted nowadays?

The copper raised my eye brows. Didnt expect that.

I like the look of cassette tapes and I like how cheap they are. I know they are coming back, but I really hope the price for them never gets higher. I also hope there will be more cassette tape players and accessories made. BTW you should get a demagnetizing thing for your cassettes if you have some and want them to stay the best. I really hope that Cassette tapes come back and more bands put albums on them and that they stay the stay low priced like they already are. Cassette tapes in good condition on a good tape player can sound just as good as Vynil in good condition on a good record player. Vynil and cassettes in good condition and High Quality MP3 booth sound good to me even though they can sound pretty different.

Beautiful machine. You would never use the MPX Filter unless you are recording off FM as a result of the 19khz pilot signal that can cause the dolby circuits to mistrack. So you would leave it out of circuit on any other source you record from.

Don't show Dolby on a cassette that was recorded without Dolby on! It will give you very bad results. How can you even say Dolby is bad when you're clearly not understanding what Dolby is about? Dolby S on your deck is the best version of the Dolby algorithms available. Recording something with Dolby S and playing it back with Dolby S wil give you almost CD quality sound without noise or tape hiss.... Read a bit, learn something. Otherwise it's a nice deck you have there, just learn to enjoy it to the fullest!!

The Pioneer CT-95's sell for 1500€ now (2021)... That is IF you find one.

What about the Dual C-844? I like the look of that deck, with VU meters

Love the tape deck, How much did you sell the system for?

I've had my denon drs810 since release it never chewed a tape and sounds great with a good metal tape even the shitty Tdk-sa90 tapes sound good.

Aiwa made a similarly high-end Dolby-S deck with the XK-S9000. As far as "classic" decks, the Dragon is not bad but Pioneer made their own really great deck in the CT-A1 aka the Phase Linear 7000 here in the US.

Just to clarify: Technics RS M95 was the first compact cassette deck which has been won the Reference deck title :) and still rocks !

best ever deck :), i got low model 820 :(

after pioneer made that deck series ,i had one then i sell it to buy a bmw.afterwards i bought a good deck but after having a ct-95 i had to buy another again just because i need it to playback old well recorded tapes and it has the flex function in other pioneer lower quality decks the flex function is not so good ,and by the time it come out people were lefting to use tapes so it was hard to find anotrher, just for curiosity i only have one sony device is the amplifier you show that works perfectly with old celestion speakers but i tried the cerwinwega and that´s all ,have a nice life

I remember That's - pretty good as I recall.

what songs are u playing

Back in the cassette days i spent big bucks on , and thoroughly enjoyed the Nakamichi Dragon ... I think i payed over $1,000 USD for it ( at employee discount)

Love my Revox B 215.

Que opinas de la Technis RS B 100 vs Pioneer CT 95?

Nice deck indeed ;-)

Hi, for me the best deck is between Tandberg 3014A MK II or Tandberg 910 or Nakamichi ZX-9 but not Nakamichi Dragon. Is the Pioneer CT-95 better than Tandberg o Nakamichi ZX-9?

When i find technics or Pioneer is never take them home, should i do that? i only restore tech that people love, the Sony ST-88 Quad sets, or Pre Amp on BOSE 301 /501 systems, replacing the rubbers only. Technics or Pioneer, i do have iconic gear made by them, anyone interested? i'm willing to give them to people that need them badly

Finally some tape decks! 30kHz! Only issue is the type IV cc cost. I stil listen mostly to DAT but if I had CT95 and some type IV cc for free then for sure I would move my collection to CC.

I don't think that you now how Dolby noise reduction works. If it is recorded with the Dolby NR on it than it will work good. And your tapes are not recorded with it I think! One of the only decks that don't need noise reduction is the pioneer ct-w616dr. Look for it online if you want to now what made it so good

The "World's Best" claim might bring some lively debate... Regardless, this CT-95 is a very feature rich and attractive unit.

I also never used Dolby..not necessary when you have quality equipment.. groetjes.. ;)

Well, I guess there would be NAK owners that would say "nada", but I'm inclined to believe you. At one time the NAK heads were superior as was their transports. This edge faded as companies like Nortronics decided the future in tape heads, at least in the consumer market, were more cassette and less reel to reel. The Japanese competition learned to build credible Hi-Fi decks. Most stopped somewhat short of what NAK had already accomplished however as they felt a certain level was good enough. Pioneer built plenty of really good tape decks at affordable prices, but here we have a no holds barred attempt at a late date to realize the fullest potential with the latest technology. Pioneer integrated proprietary digital technologies along with the very latest Dolby advancements in consumer noise reduction ( S ) combining it with the variable bias system called HX Pro developed jointly (so I've been told) by Dolby and Bang & Olufsen. As far as I can tell this Pioneer is the finest deck to combine all of these technologies with a high-end transport. One thing NAK did that, as far as I know, wasn't done by any other manufacturer was to separate the tape enough from the cassette housing as to isolate the tape from the shell's pressure pad. Pressure pads were not standardized and for an important part in the tape/head interface they were rather cheaply made. I wonder if this deck had any proprietary method of tape/head isolation that did something like the high-end NAKs? I have a Sony deck with Dolby S and 3-heads, but it is a bargain model and would not be welcome in the same room as this deck. It's dead right now due to the belts too. Pioneer decks usually had longer lasting belts than Sony and that's just for starters. I'm pretty amazed at this Pioneer cassette deck. I would simply be happy as a clam to be fortunate to own one.

So you don't actually have the SX-D7000 pictured beneath it at the beginning? I have TWO! I also have a CT-F1250 now, all I lack to complete my personal Pioneer cassette deck collection if the CT-F950. I'm glad you can afford the best audio equipment you can find.

HX Pro is used ro gain extra headroom while recording. It is not a noise reduction system.

I'm thinking of selling my ct-95. How much would it sell for?

Max is the signal that carries stereo for a vhf transmission.

22:06 Rick Astley "Together Forever" (1988)

Technics RS-b85?

TEAC V-8030 is trully monster

I'm curious how the CT95 stood up to the Nak 1000ZXL

Very nice deck, and I like your videos. Especially those about Sony ES lineup because I'm also a Sony fan :) I have two sets: - a titan colored in my bedroom: TA-F550ES amplifier, TC-K750ES deck and a ST-S550ES FM tuner - black colored in my living room: TA-F690ES amplifier, TC-K770ES deck, a ST-S730ES FM tuner. CDP-X222ES cd player and a PS-T22 record player (silver colored) Everything in near mint condinion.I have the luck of having a friend who used to fix and sell them and he supplied all the stuff I now own. It's funny how my friends when they visit are amazed when I play self recorded chrome tapes (new music from digital tracks, I like to make mix tapes so I don't have to turn on the PC everytime) and they think its from the CD :)

It doesn't matter if you have a $50 or $2000 tape deck, if the video sound is recorded with a microphone....

Cassettes are coming back. There is a company in the US that is now producing brand new cassettes.

if you record with dolby s then you also play it with dolby s. and the purpose is of course the maximum dynamic. you may not hear noise when listening to disco but maybe if you listen to music with quiet passages or music with low sounding instruments

Well, ct-95 was top of Pioneer line in 1994. But is it the best? Some say king is Nakamichi Dragon, some Technics RS-B100...

Klinkt veeeel beter dan mijn take radio lol

Ha when I had a night club in 1994 News Years Eve 12 midnight we dropped ' S Express by S Express ' as we went into 1995 , everyone went crazy then " Was that all it Was " by Kim Mazelle ( Def Mix ).....

Great deck and looks cool however no pad lifter in the mech and especially the lack of azimuth control mean it will lose treble/clarity same as any number of (lesser) decks regardless of all the very nice copper internals etc. Get a deck with azimuth if you have old tapes you "taped" on friends/various decks over the years as I did, perhaps not so important if you only have pre- recorded stuff.

I was trying to find what Japanese model was the same as that Sony TA-F707ES, and I think it's the same as the TA-F333ESJ made in 1993. Sony did make a matching cassette deck, the Sony TC-K333ESJ or what's called the TC-K707ES in Europe and I think the US. It's not as good as this pioneer but it just what matches up. Now as for a Pioneer integrated amplifiers that match up with the CT-95, you'd want to go with an A-07 or even the A-09 class A beast if it was released there in Europe, but they are hard to come by even in Japan.

But what is better? Pioneer CT-95 or Yamaha KX-930?

Thanks for doing the review! Great deck (I'd love to have one) but don't pay too much attention to the specs. Pioneer quotes the frequency response at -6dB whereas most other manufacturers specify at -3dB. We'd have to look at a graph to make a meaningful comparison. The flatness of the curve is more important than an arbitrary HF cutoff. Also the Dragon has automatic azimuth control, a feature found on only one other deck. People talking about "Dragon Slayers" often forget about this.

The best deck is the one you can afford without loosing your wife

ok i love more cassete player Nakamichi and Teac, but Pionier have the most beatifull cassete player of all time!!!

Beautiful device really compliments! Beautiful device really compliments! Too bad it doesn't have the dbx

deffo better dec than the nac

50 years plus of doing taping to professional levels. Reel to Reel and Cassette decks. Too many to count. Specs and someone else's opinion is not where it stops. To say world's best anything is a bold statement that bares investigation. Firstly, be careful how you qualify that statement. So you know I can take anything apart and make it great or poor. I have extensive experience with Pioneer and Pioneer Elite electronics. Sold them for years too. I own a few Pioneer decks as well. I enjoy them sure, but, I look for more than the mere sum of their parts and specs. Transport. Wow and Flutter. Tape handling. Head design and more. Electronics. Are they phase compensated and fully discrete, and Fully Differential at least partially since most decks are summed and run unbalanced input output. Construction of the cabinet and base plate. Pioneer does well with the honeycomb chassis made from copper by the way. Ease of service and maintenance. Reliability. What are the strengths and pain points of the cassette deck. Every deck has them. My measure is how difficult is it to rectify it. Parts, documentation, manufacturer's support if any. Most tape machines today are without manufacturers support as tape has left their business model years ago. Just try to get Pioneer to support that Cassette deck today. Not happening. Pioneer in the USA is practically dead. Unlike the glorious days past. Poor management and financials got them this way. As a user and listener what are your criteria. Experts in a magazine don't live with you everyday. It's a good start but far from proving your case. Users of the machine you assert is the best and other sources. What is their feedback. Magazines are paid by editorial. German ones included, besides the specs, will they be impartial? Really weigh the strengths and weaknesses of said make and model dispassionately? Many are paid by the manufacturer who advertises there and will not bite the hand that feeds them. Unless it is independent and not paid by editorial. So as you can see, we only scraped the surface of this. The rabbit hole and the claim of the world's finest anything can go very deep. Your case is interesting, but the best advise is the one you share from your experience as the pros and cons and demonstration, and your final thoughts. I don't really care what a magazine says as my soul criteria. I care about what YOU think. Way more valuable than anything I have already read, and have in my files gathered from all manner of sources. But your thoughts, experiences and opinions are unique. Far more valuable. Cheers.

it´s great, some years after i started working i bought that deck and amplifier to(the first one you show ,the other is not good ) ,you can not say you prefer one deck because it´s beautifull for you, should give top prioritty to quality of sound and nakamishi decks were expensive because it was the only thing they sell and you can not compare the dragon with ct-95 because they were built in almost 10 years difference ,i have lots of equipment from pioneer because they sound great not because a crazy german guy thinks he has the best set of ears in all human specie and those numbers you´re comparing in reality to human ear they make no diference there are more brands with really good decks,you say 300 € is very high for a dragon ,they were sold new around 2.500€(maybe more because my exchange is made based on the price of u.s.dollars at the time)and let me tell you i only bought this ct-95 because i have hundreds of recorded cassettes in diferent decks and the FLEX function only available on pioneer decks and works better in the high-end deck ct-95.

CORRECTION : One of the best

QUESTO È UN REGISTRATORE.questa è una di quelle piastre che fanno sentire senza tante storie di che pasta è fatta la cassetta.altro che cassetta dcc o dat,a cosa servono di fronte a tanta perfezione?.a cosa serve la dcc o la dat,visto che la cassetta standard ha un suono praticamente perfetto?.come ho sempre detto.

Do not forget Teac master series (z-5000, z-6000, z-7000) ....where is the Alpina AL-80 , AL-90 ? It is difficult to say, who is the"best of the best"

Belt driven tape deck is number 5 at best. First is a direct drive dual capstan sx head. At least technics

Sounds almost as good as the CT-606DR

The tape has to be recorded in DOLBY B or DOLBY C at a certain level. You can't Play a Tape with DOLBY if it's not recorded with it, otherwise it will sound terrible . DOLBY B is crap by the way. Tapes recorded with DOLBY C at +3 db - +4 dB will definitely sound better, without noise. If a tape sounds worse with either to DOLBY B or DOLBY C enabled, it was certainly not recorded with B or C anyway.

i know someone who has a CT-93, and it's pretty close in specs, but of course, the CT-95 is a better model

I'm still not sure why you claim this is the best in the world. Be interested in a side by side with a Studer (revox) and nak dragon