Teac V-5000 Cassette Deck Review

The new Teac V-5000 provides an unusually attractive combination of features and performance in a midprice cassette deck. Starting with a solid dual-capstan, three-head design, Dolby B and Dolby C noise-reduction systems, and Dolby HX Pro headroom-extension circuitry, the V-5000 adds such graces as a really accurate method of optimizing bias and tape-sensitivity adjustments, a fifteen-selection playback search facility, and a wireless remote control.

The V-5000 employs no fewer than four DC motors to handle its mechanical functions. The dual capstans, used to minimize wow and flutter, are driven by a servomotor; a second DC motor turns the reel hubs. The third motor operates the mechanism that pulls the tape heads and rubber pinch-rollers into place, and the fourth provides a power assist for opening and closing the cassette-well door. The separate record and erase head elements, mounted within a single unit, permit direct comparison between the signal source and the recorded result.

As in a number of recently designed decks, in the V-5000 a spring-loaded stabilizer platform is attached to the rear of the cassette-well door. Its intent is presumably to absorb any mechanical vibrations that might otherwise be transmitted to the tape through the cassette shell. The cassette well also contains the usual sensors that detect the type of cassette inserted so that the equalization and bias can be set accordingly. An illuminated fluorescent-orange tab in the rear of the well makes it easy to determine the relative amount of tape on each reel hub of the cassette, though label visibility is slightly restricted. The door of the well is easily removable for the usual head-cleaning and demagnetizing chores.

Signal levels are registered on two sixteen-segment-per-channel fluorescent peak-indicating displays. These are calibrated from -40 to +10 dB, and in designing the V-5000 Teac had the good sense to set the 0-dB marking on its display scale at the IEC-recog-nized 0 level, 250 nanowebers per meter. This means that you can actually use the 0-dB reading (with occasional peaks a little higher) as your guide in setting the proper recording level.

A four-digit electronic readout displays elapsed tape time in minutes and seconds, though to maintain reasonable accuracy you must select the appropriate tape length from a list of four choices: C-60, C-90, C-46, and the large-hub C-46L. A handy RTZ (return to zero) button fast-winds the tape to 00:00. You can skip to recorded selections in either direction by pressing the appropriate Computomatic Program Search button. The usual record-mute button inserts the necessary 4-second blank spaces between selections.

Although the center-detent positions of the bias and sensitivity controls usually produce satisfactory results, slight brand-to-brand differences between tapes can dictate user adjustment of these parameters. The tape-calibration system in the Teac V-5000 lets the user optimize both bias and sensitivity settings with a minimum of effort. You simply put the deck into record, press the Cal. Start button (first for level, using a 410-Hz test tone, then for bias, using an 8,750-Hz tone), and adjust the knobs for each channel to produce a reading at the marked calibration point on the level display. The whole procedure takes less than 20 seconds, during which the output from the deck is muted. Then just rewind to where you started (so the test tones will be erased when you begin recording), and you’re set.

The single record-level control for the V-5000 is calibrated as an attenuator, complete with markings from 0 dB (full clockwise) to ∞. (Teac has long been involved in making professional recorders, and this is the way things are done in the studio.) The level knob is supplemented with the usual small channel-balance control. The front-panel headphone jack has its own level control, but playback level at the normal outputs is not adjustable. There are the usual line inputs and a switch-selectable CD Direct input (for recording straight from a CD player).

A three-position slide switch selects no Dolby, Dolby B, or Dolby C noise reduction. The Dolby HX Pro system, which extends the treble storage capability of all cassettes by momentarily lowering the bias in the presence of high-level high-frequency signals, is not switch-defeatable. The FM multiplex filter can be switched off—and should be, unless you’re recording a stereo FM broadcast, as it cuts off response above 16,000 Hz. The usual timer-activation switch is provided, as are buttons that facilitate dubbing from specific Teac CD players.

The Teac V-5000 measures 17-1/8 x 5-7/8 x 14 inches, and it weighs 17-1/2 pounds. Price: $650, including wireless remote control.

Lab Test

The V-5000’s playback response, measured with our calibrated IEC (BASF) test tapes, was commendably flat. As is shown in the graph, the response with 70-microsecond equalization (chrome/metal tape) was within + 0.6, -0.7 dB from 31.5 to 18,000 Hz, and with 120-/xs EQ (ferric tape) it showed only a very slight additional rolloff, to — 1.7 dB, at 20,000 Hz. Few prerecorded cassettes come close to that accuracy.

On an overall record-playback basis, using our standard samples of TDK AD (ferric), TDK SA (chrome-equivalent), and TDK MA (metal), frequency response was also very good. At the bass end, response went down to 24 Hz (- 3 dB) with all of the tapes. At the customary -20-dB test level, response extended to 20,000 Hz (— 1.5 dB) with the metal tape and was down by only 3 dB at 18,500 and 18,700 Hz with the SA and AD tapes, respectively. When we used TDK MA with Dolby C noise reduction, response went out to 20,000 Hz ( — 1.7 dB) even at a 0-dB input level. A-weighted signal-to-noise ratios for the three tapes were very good.

The wow-and-flutter of the V-5000 measured 0.033 percent WRMS and 0.056 percent on the more stringent IEC/DIN peak-weighted basis. These figures approach those of the most expensive decks. High-speed winding time for a C-60 cassette was a rapid 87 seconds in either direction. The speed error of +0.36 percent will be of concern only to those possessed of absolute pitch or who need to match playback from the deck against fixed-pitch musical instruments. Sensitivity and output levels were entirely normal, as was the Dolby tracking accuracy.

Comments

An examination of the inside of the V-5000 disclosed that Teac paid an unusually high degree of attention to proper parts layout and (expensive) shielding. No fewer than four of the front-panel controls and switches, for example, are operated through long extension shafts so that the components they control can be mounted at the rear of the unit, where they are shielded and well away from hum fields, without using long wire runs.

Moreover, while the measured performance of the Teac V-5000 was impressive—especially for a midprice unit—it did not prepare us for the transparency, clarity, and superb imaging we found when we began dubbing our favorite CD’s. In this respect the deck ranked with the finest we have tested. Again and again I found the copy audibly indistinguishable from the original, and even in passages where a difference could be detected, it was so slight that I have no hesitancy in recommending the Teac V-5000 cassette deck for consideration by the most serious audiophiles.

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