Retro Cassette Joy, Denon DRS-810

The Denon DRS-810 cassette deck is unique as it uses a CD tray like drawer to load, rather than a standard cassette well

In the late 80's till sometime in the mid 90's cassette decks with a CD tray design for cassette loading was all the rage. I even had one from Sony installed in my car! So when I saw pictures of this Denon DRS-810 on the www, I was all smitten! Better yet, this Denon DRS-810 is a top spec deck too!

It comes with 3 heads, closed loop dual capstan 3 motor transport & non-slip reel drive. As with most  CD drawer design decks, the casing is premium slim line, but I didn't quite like the smallish fluorescent display for time elapse, status & db meter, especially that cyan/red tone graphics color. What I really like though is the CD drawer like tray in which you have to press the Open/Close button on the right side of the tray to load a cassette! My, my......... after 30 years or so in service, the cassette tray still glides in & out smoothly & reliably. My unit came finished in typical Japanese satin black face plate, but the DRS-810 does have a version in Champaign gold color scheme that also comes with wood side cheeks as option. Now that would really desirable, and that's called the Denon DRS-810 G as pictured below.

The back panel

The back panel of the Denon DRS-810 is pretty standard cassette deck, with one pair of RCA in & out for recording & playback on the left, followed by power cord on the right. Build quality is decent & sturdy enough, but not battleship quality like as my Akai GX-95 MKII. The Denon weights in at 6.6kgs, not too shabby for a cassette deck, after all this unit lasted at least 30 years or so, and still very much alive & kicking. Like most hi-end cassette decks of the time, it comes with a remote too, but that was missing with my unit, but our resourceful Mr Oh did managed to get the remote codes and cloned an after market remote for my use.

With the drawer opened for cassette loading

I was happy man when I brought this unit home, hook it up to my system and just let there be sound! The sound took a while to bloom, as I think the previous owner seldom used it as he had too many decks to play with. However once the sound start to come together, I got a very stable, super low wow & flutter quality playback, the Denon has a chocolaty dark tonality, however that darkness doesn't mean rich or sugary sweetness either, and if compared to most entry level hi-end deck like my Teac V-670, would not disappoint but the Teac does sound way more open, less closed in. The Denon claws back points for having a more stable transport though. However, as I was coming in from the Akai GX-95 MKII, and it immediately shown the Denon to have limited dynamic range. The Denon can kick & rock hard, mind you, but the whole presentation just felt somewhat compressed by comparison. Otherwise, the Denon DRS-810 sounds pretty decent and enjoyable even. 

Like all tape decks, the sound quality depended a lot on the cassette type & recording quality. With the Denon, the playback quality of normal type I tapes was decent, and naturally chrome type II tapes sounds way better, but the sound quality gap between chrome type II vs metal type IV tapes is somewhat limited. However, insert a well recorded chrome type II tape made from my Teac V-670 and the Denon does sound very nice indeed, with smooth highs, a prominent mid range and kick ass bass to boot.

The Denon DRS-810 G version shown here, minus the wood cheeks, seen here with the bottom flap opened to reveal the Dolby NR selection buttons and bias fine tuning knobs with headphone jack & volume control

The insides of the Denon DRS-810, like the CD transport, once the cassette is loaded inside, there is a ceramic clamp that locks & stabilizes the cassette during playback. The most un-appealing aspect of this design is when one needs to clean the tape heads & pinch rollers, one has to remove the top cover to do so, unless one is using a cassette tape head cleaner. The PCB used is typical 80's - 90's thru hole type which for me is much preferred, especially if repairs are needed

My verdict of this deck, is the top quality transport, somewhat let down by the audio output circuit which could be better implemented coming from a company of Denon's stature, which is a bit disappointing. I wonder if there's anything I could do to make it sound better on the audio board side?Only a long hard look will tell if some thing is possible at this point. However, this is what it is, an entry level hi-end deck with 3 heads for superior recording function and decent playback quality. And this Denon does it all with some unique style and flair typical of it's era. Worthy keeper for nostalgic reasons.