I have both a 330 (with Rosewood side panels) and a 310 MKII. I have also owned Nak decks as well. I don't know that I would put the 330 in the same stratosphere as the Dragon, but I would put it up against anything else Nak produced. If your interested I might be willing to part with one of them. The 330 is in great shape, might need a tuneup considering it's age, and it hasn't seen much use of late. It's cosmetics are gorgeous. The 310 is working very well, only flaw is a cracked glass on a level meter. Email me in private if you would like to persue this further...
Tandberg tape decks
Does anyone know them well? I have a question about the model 330.Who owns or used to own one?How does it sound?Compared to Nak decks?I heard that owners of 3014As and 3004s laugh at Dragon owners, but this Tandberg is not that advanced.I am thinking about buying one in,I hope,excellent condition.Would really appreciate your help.
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Never heard a Tandberg deck, but i always thought that they looked good on paper. One of my friends, who used to work on audio gear many, many moons ago, told me that they were very cheaply built and a pain to work on. I think the model that he had was a 3014 if i remember correctly. I never heard his unit when it was working as the damn thing was always breaking. Then again, maybe he was just a knucklehead and didn't know the "in's & out's" of setting this unit up properly. Sean > |
My first Tandberg was a 330. Later I traded up to a 3014, then a 3014A. The 3014A is, without question, the best cassette deck ever produced. (I A/B'd it with the Dragon for hours - no comparison.) The 330 is not as good as either the 3014 or Dragon, though it's a wonderful deck and certainly built well. If you can get a good price on one, you won't be sorry. Be sure to test the unit before buying, or get return priveleges, as there are many things that can go wrong in a mechanical unit such as this (belts, pinch roller and bearing wear, head wear, etc. and repair of an older unit can be difficult and expensive. Have fun! |
I.m lloking at a restored Tandberg 3034. I am not familiar with it but it appears to be a high quality deck. Does anyone have some thought on this unit. I sort of collect tape machines and have some fine Revox, Naks, Aiwa, Onkyo, Denon, and Teac. Never have had a Tandberg but they always appeared to be high quality on a par with the Revox. |
i have a tandberg 3014, i originally heard on e against a 1000 zxl at an audio exhibition and was surprised to hear a machine beat the nakamichi, which i considered to be the best available, the tcd 910 studio deck is very similar in sound quality and that deck was sold to a gentleman last year in the states, whom is exstatic about it! the 3014 performs flawlessly and the best thing about it...you cannot tell if it is the recording or the source material you are listening to, bit of time taken in record azimuth on both sides and it is perfect. |
Actually the Tandberg is more reliable of the 2 contested here. The Dragon has a tendency to have motor failures. I have had my 3014 and besides changing those awful orange drive belts and azimuth adjustment belt, couldn't have been happier with the machine. 3014 will always out do a Dragon every time. |
Well my vote is for Tandbergs all the way. The Naks sound too "tinny" and have too much high end as do most japanese decks and electronic equipment. Tandberg's best decks were the TCD-910 for recording, TCD-911 for playback (has playback azimuth adjustment that is manual and much more rugged that the NAAC of the Dragon). Following that would be the TCD-3004 - nice deck, best all around but had tons of issues. A working one makes flawless tapes. Then would be the 3014A, much more available and similar to the TCD-910 (the 3014A has no playback azimuth correction). There were only 35 911s ever made for the professional recording industry and only 400 of the 910s. There were thousands of the 3004 and 3014s made, so they are easier to find. I wonder how many of those 911s are still in existance? One for sure, and that one is mine :) |
I own an NAD Monitor Series 6100 cassette deck built in the late '80's and read somewhere it's basically a "re-branded" Tandberg. Any truth to that? It has some of the features mentioned above such as manual bias trim adjustment (called "play trim") and it has both Dolby HX-Pro and the DYNEQ circuits. If so, which Tandberg model would be the equivalent? Just curious.. |
I had A Tandberg TCD- 300, their first cassette deck of the series. It had 3 motors, ferrite (glass) heads, and wood end plates. I really liked the option of operating it vertically or horizontally. I fell in love with it after seeing it on the wall at the late Pacific Stereo chain store here in California in the early 70's. This deck handled tape so well due to 3 motors. I would send it to the local Tandberg service center every 2 years for new belts , pinch roller, etc. Worked every time. It is in Brooks Berdan Ltd. Audio museum now after serving me very well. |
Jlhopes to answer your question. I see a Tandberg 3014 selling on Ebay now for 2500$. This is one of the early ones (3014 without "A") http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultra-Rare-Tandberg-3014-4-Motors-3-Heads-Cassette-Tape-Deck-Dragon-Slayer-/351582899316?hash=item51dbf94c74%3Ag%3ASrwAAOSwKIpWByXL |
Here is some info from another forum on the differences in 3014-3014A decks: "If the literature Tandberg produced is accurate, there are considerable differences between the two. When they applied the design changes is probably harder to pinpoint as the company had some history of continuous design improvements over the life of a particular model, but here's what they said about the 3014A in 1985: "The electronics of the TCD 3014A are totally upgraded from the original highly regarded TCD 3014. All audio circuits have been redesigned to offer better sound with less noise. Circuits based on the incredible TCD 910 Professional Cassette Deck have been included to optimize tape handling, real time counter accuracy, phase response and imaging, as well as RF rejection." There are also some electrical changes mentioned in the service manual based on serial #, but they don't clarify whether those coincide with a model change. One is the record amplifier following serial 01578, another one is the DC offset adjustment which only exists from 02500 and up, which coincides with changes with the playback amplifier circuit. Effectively, the main board has three versions 01578 and earlier, 01579 through 02499, and 02500 and newer. The Dolby circuitry also changes at serial 02500, and there's a note that the power supply was modified in approximately January 1985. That coincides with the date of the literature describing the new 3014A version. I would read this as there being three distinct versions; the earliest through serial 01578, then a smaller run of units from 01579 until 02499, then the revised model being 02500 and on. Whether that last group of units represents the 3014A model and whether there was a clean split vs. model marking, or the factory made some 3014 with the 3014A spec, I can't say. All of this seems fairly definitive to me... but I will be interested in what you observe from comparing your deck to your friend's "A" version, having just acquired a 3014A myself. What is the serial of your unit? Will help pin down which of the two earlier designs you have... " and "That said, my friend (electrical engineer) who just repaired my deck has the A version and the 920. His first obversion was that there is little difference between the A and non-A. But, being an engineer he decided we should put the two side by side on his test bench (we should have done that before I took my deck home but we got to talkng about something else). Of interest he recalled the boards in his A are marked 3014A/920 (not so on the 3014) so maybe there is a discernible difference. Then again, is is possible that the 920 isn't that much better than the A. The specs are pretty close as I recall. Anyway, when we get the A and non A side by side I will take some closeups of the boards and publish them on this site. Then we can start on 3014A vs 920! There is one difference between A and non A versions of the 3000 series that we are all aware of, the A's will always bring more money." |