[net.audio] deck

daved (12/09/82)

	I'm looking for a reasonably( <= $250 ) priced FM/cassette deck to replace
my last car deck( recently "borrowed" by unknown persons!).  Looking at catal[logs, I find myself hopelessly confused by the number of possibilities. Any
recommendations or helpful info would be greatly appreciated. The following
features, or a subset thereof, would be nice:
			Auto Reverse and/or Auto Replay
			Seperate bass and volume
			Dolby B
			Preset tuning buttons
			Balance and Fader (if only one, balance)
			FM muting
			
	... not really expecting everything, just a subset.  An amp will 
probably be required but a >15 w/channel deck would get some serious scrutiny.
Also, the price above is list, in other words, flexible because I'll probably
be paying closer to wholesale.

... as they say, Thanks in Advance
									Please Mail,
									Dave Dorocke
									Genrad Inc. 
									Concord, MA
									(...decvax!genradbolton!grkermit!daved)

tests (12/10/82)

My favorite car deck in the under $250 price range is the Clarion 5550 or
5550R.  The 5550 is a standard size, the "R" model is the same thing but
fits in a smaller hole in the dash.  FM reception is very good.  No Dolby,
but an effective(!) tone control, and a 70/120 microsecond equalization
switch.  Autoreverse, locking fast-forward and rewind, balance, fader, and
a "music search" switch which lets you fast-forward/rewind just to the 
next/last song.  The music-search feature is something you can get hooked
on very easily.  Power output is 6 watts/channel, which is 50% more than
most cheap decks and which fills a scirocco quite well.  It goes for $180-
$225.