What Cassette Recorder to get?

recently i needed to digitalize few tapes.
i contact old local tape repair guy
he recommended the Nakamichi or Marantz (but he didn't have one)
i ended up with Yamaha KX-382, more cheaper, but in great condition and work fine.

yet i'm still looking for Nakamitchi

so you gonna record everything 2 track into the tape?

type 2 (chrome) and type 4 (metal) cassettes are preferable for better recording quality, but apparently type 4 seems to wear out heads faster? not sure about this, but the manual for my fostex cassette multitrack strictly prohibits them for some reason. which doesn't really bother me since type 4 cassettes seem much harder to find.

Schmotlz, the Fostex isn't set up for type IV tapes, it requires a certain bias to erase the tape. A lot of the Teac's / Tascam also are not suited for metal, as well as any old (70s) deck. Head wear is more liekly cause of the roughness of the particles, it's like sandpaper. Metal tapes are also very expensive and hard to get nowadays, so you'd best stick to type II (Chrome). For producion, that's probably best anyway.

As for what deck: get on that's good. A badly maintained Nakamichi with worn heads can sound worse than a well maintained Teac. Look for headwear, and demagnetize the heads before testing (or during, just to see the huge difference it can make on badly maintained machines). There's a lot of high roll off on tape, and it get's worser and worser if the machine isn't clean and demagnetized, the sound gets duller and duller. Also you can wonder; what is a 'good' sound? A lot of what we appreciate in analog tape, is something most deck manufacturers tried to avoid (saturation and noise) with tape formulations and noise reduction. A deck that can record on different speeds like the Tascam 122 or Teac C3x (not the C3) is probably nicer.

Just record straight to tape, ghetto bedroom style 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvReNRq2CqE[/youtube]

well now i have tape. my mailman just brought me a sixpack of basf!

I don't think the 112mkII has it. The 122 did have it, but only on the mkI. Still, I personally wouldn't mind grabbing a 112 myself, even if it's just for having owned one. If the price is right, why not just get it? See what the Tascam (and cassette tape in general) does and then decide whether you'll keep it or not.

Found some info on the net about Portishead using a 112 for their LP 'Third', not too sure how much truth is in that.

The Portishead story can be true, as far as cassette recorders go the Tascam's have been a bit of a studio standard for a long time so chances are it was used for something by somebody.
Prices I don't know, 150 seems too much I could be wrong. I wouldn't pay much more than 100, 125 euro. Maybe 150 if it's in a really good shape. A 122 would go for more, no doubt. Have you checked ebay?