Well, the main point of the high end decks were the ability to make recordings sound as close as possible to the source, not to add their own sound to the mix. Though with that being said, the joy of recording to tape is the fact that you do get a bit of tape saturation, which can be a good thing.
This is also true. There were very few prerecorded cassettes that actually sounded good.
The one I noticed was the one under the dbx encoder (or what ever that thing is) Iāve had several of Naks over the years - being a fan of the Grateful Dead since the 70ās, trading concert tapes has always been a big thing; you always had to have at least two decksā¦ The last surviving deck I have is a DR2
lolā¦ it was hard to see the branding, but I could tell it was a NAK from the metersā¦The 700 if I recall correctly, looked more like a toaster oven than a cassette deck, but it was such an amazing piece of equipmentā¦!
Haha! 
Letās be honest : tape decks always sounded better than LP decks, even the mid-priced cassette ones. It was enough to choose a good tape, which was not so hard. Let alone the fact that most cassette listeners were headphone listeners.
I had a tape recorder since the age of 15 (at the beginning of 70s), and I managed to have a vinyl setup that matched my tape setup only when I was 30 or soā¦
The Pianosa is how I ended up with the Mediterraneo, right decision all the way. Hope you enjoy your decision as much as I have mine.
Charlesā¦yes I know you can click on the pictures, but that did not make them large enough for me to see much better than the originals. Itās just really hard to get good fidelity at 1 3/8 IPS. When they used Analog Reel to Reel (Studer) they would record at 30 IPS for the master tapes.
Anyway Roon provides all the fidelity and convenience I need as I listen to way more music than I ever have. Also I can instantly change my music, from anywhere in the house, renders any other listening format to be almost useless.
But itās not really hard to achieve good fidelity with cassette.
Anyway, not going to argue.
how do you like the GN tonearms?
I thought this was a āshow your roon setupā? 
The ugliest cassette deck ever made is 100 years ahead of any computer based modern box (pleasure for the eye wise) 
I also have the SOtM sMS-200ultra neo, tX-USBultra, sPS-500 and I am running Supra CAT8 ethernet cables and have been looking at getting the sNH-10G, so you are a good person to ask about it. Can you recall if it made any difference or improvement in the sound quality? Or is it one of the items that gave you more pleasure unboxing and admiring? I appreciate it!
Hey there!
I added the sms-200ultra + sps-500 first, and then added the snh-10g and txusbultra about 2 weeks later. There was an audible improvement (but yes, diminishing returns for sureā¦), but I canāt say for sure if it was the snh10g or txusbultra.
One thing though, I am using a fiber connection between the snh-10g and an EtherRegen and I much prefer this over an ethernet cable. I usually donāt like listening to music upsampled to DSD because I feel it sounds less dynamic and somewhat lean on the mids and bass, but with this setup, it sounds like Iām getting back the mids and bass which went missing, with the added benefit of the smoother and more pleasing highs of DSD.
The other thing I wanted to add was Iām powering the txusbultra and 200ultra with Farad Super 3 lps, and am waiting for a third super 3 to use with the snh-10g. Swapping out the sps500 for the farad super 3 (to use with the 200ultra) is another audible improvement; the soundstage and 3d imaging improved and the clarity and transparency went up a notch too. My farad super 3 are the fully loaded version.
Anyways, sorry for your wallet in advance!
Lastest edition. My homemade rack for bedroom setup. Bottom shelf temporarily has the battery on it but itās reserved for a Schiit Magni Heresy whenever they come available again over here. Quite pleased with it. 3x ikea chopping boards, M6 threaded rods, nuts, washers. Will look to build one for downstairs headphone rig when my dining room returns from being an office.
My babies are here
hey!
Thanks for the reply! lol, yeah my wallet definitely hates me. I appreciate your honesty. I had never heard of those power supplies you mentioned and they look nice. I tried a few high end LPS with my SOTM gear but I thought the SPS-500 sounded best, so I may have to try one of those power supplies.
The Super 3 are nice and worth a try. I hesitated to buy the Super 3 at first (as I already had the ultracaps lps 1.2, sps-500 and keces P3 and P8), and now I have three of themā¦! Iāll be using a super 3 for each of the sotm items, and the Keces P8 for the singxer su-6 and etherregen.
Am fortunate one of the local shops has become a Farad distributor, so I actually save some money on shipping and import tax, as well as the added assurance of local warranty.
If you do decide to get a super 3, I am using Ghent Audio Gotham cables with them (they have a specific connector option for the super 3). I think theyāre priced nicely and do the job really well.
The sps-500 is a versatile unit for sure and I do like the form factor that goes along with the other sotm gear. I found out that it caused a slight low level hum on my tube amp when placed on the same āgroupā on my AudioQuest 1200 block. When I moved the sps 500 to another section on the block, the hum disappeared. Oddly, I didnāt experience this when using the PS Audio Dectet block.
Roon Nucleus+ feeding multiple endpoints. Main listening room is LUMIN X1 direct to Parasound Halo JC-1 monoblocks feeding Revel Salon 2ās. Others are Lumin T1 feeding Control4 Amp to multiple zones; a CXN V2 with Marantz receiver feeding Revel Performa F30, and odds and ends stuff with Sonore endpoints.
As a result of all this audio optimization I can never move which is complicating the future retirement dreams of the Mrs.
Excellent work CGā¦looks excellent.
Very cheap less than Ā£20.
