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Denon
DR-M4
(1983 - 1984)
Flat surfaces and Hi-Tech functions. I've owned one for about 10
years and it was a great sounding deck. Like Sony with the earlier
TC-FX1010
(which I now own as well), or
Pioneer in '81, Denon went all out on design&technology with
the M series. Seemingly the audience wasn't yet ready for that kind
of looks for the next lineup (DR-M44/44HX)
sported quite conventional controls, knobs and panel layout - modernism
is a fleeting thought.
This
deck was filled with all the niceties that had started to appear
on consumer decks: C
Dolby, Quartz Lock, Direct
Drive Closed Loop Capstans, Computer
Servo Mechanism, digital counter,
remote-control (wired),
separate power supplies
for the motors and audio stages etc. However, it was made of plastic
for the most part ... The
big thing, though, was the Computer
Tuning
System: it could adapt the deck's bias & eq for each individual
tape inserted, with a capacity of 100.000
possibilities! The lower DR-M3
featured the same CTS but none of the capstans/motors/Quartz features
; the DR-M2
was a 3 without the CTS but a 3Head design just the same. The DR-M1
finally gives up with only 2 heads.
My DR-M4
recently celebrated its 20th birthday... it had (very well) recorded
many a cassette but it is just too bad the chassis wasn't
on par with the mechanism.
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