Retro Giant Slayer, Kenwood KX-880G Cassette Deck

The Kenwood KX-880 G's unique & unmistakable 2 display styling feature! Looks a little weird at first, but with a little use, I certainly have learned to appreciate the separated peak recording meter from the other display parameters

While rather heavy for a 2 head spec deck, other than a high spec Sankyo direct drive transport, and a bigger than usual power supply tranny on the left, nothing on the inside would give a clue to it's build quality & sound performance! On the middle is the power supply regulator & control board, while partitioned on the right is the audio PCB board. The Dolby B & C noise reduction board is seen standing as an attachment board. That's smart design actually as the same audio board can accommodate a Dolby noise reduction board that incorporates HX Pro in the last of the KX-880 series 

Kenwood Corporation had a healthy reputation in the hifi industry in the 70's & 80's. Like many Japanese audio giants of the era, the late 90's was the start of the dark era. However 1985 was still fine vintage as far as Kenwood is concerned. The KX-880 series cassette deck started life in 1982, and had a seven year production run in various guises until 1989. It started as the KX-880, then as the KX-880 SR, followed by the KX-880 SRII, and the mid point evolution of KX-880 G as featured here, superseded by the KX-880 D  and lastly the KX-880 HX. Being a design from 1982, the Kenwood makes no concessions for an optional remote control feature, much like the Denon DRS-810 has.

The Kenwood KX-880 series was positioned as the top spec 2 head cassette deck, with the same unique 2 display styling as the top range KX-1100 3 head deck. Of the 2 display windows, 1 horizontal displays the tape counter, tape type & status. The other vertical display is for the wide range peak recording meter. As per it's high spec 2 head deck status, the transport is direct drive type from Sankyo, which is later adopted by Nakamichi for the CR-1 & DR-1 series. The back panel is standard cassette deck, with input & output RCA and a fixed power cord. The Kenwood being nicely, but not luxuriously built weights a decently hefty 5.9kg. However, once on the inside, nothing would indicate of it's heft or sound quality potential. 

I plug the Kenwood KX-880 G in to my system, in place of the Denon DRS-810 3 head deck, and upon pressing play, the sound just blew me away! Gone were that slightly muffled mid range sound typical of cassettes, the Kenwood sounded fresh, crystal clear like a wide open window, detailed(as much as the cassette format will allow), large scaling & wide dynamic range.  The Kenwood sounds like nothing of any 2 head spec deck(and probably some 3 headers too) can ever be! I never heard any wow & flutter during it's time here, perhaps due to it's direct drive tape mechanism, but the funny thing is that very same transport used in my previous Nakamichi DR-1 had some degree of wow & flutter, even if it's just every now & then. I also thought the Kenwood in comparo, sounded much better than the much more up market Nakamichi.

This is a highly recommended buy or keeper if one just wants to listen to the best possible sound quality cassette tapes has to offer. I am sure the recording quality is equally fine, sans the off tape monitoring feature, meaning you don't know what you'll get until the end. However, should one be very familiar with tape bias settings and type types, then the results can be predictable too, caveat being this for experienced users only. For the Kenwood KX-880 series asking price of sub MYR1k, it's really a retro giant slayer!