The Last Of A Kind, Teac V-7010 Cassette Deck

The Teac V-7010 finished in Champaign gold, and dark colored wood cheeks, tape counter window & transport buttons on the left, peak level meter display with recording level knobs and selector on the right! The whole fascia design is very elegant with this nice Champaign finish.

Teac was probably the last of the cassette deck manufacturers to issue Dolby S noise reduction system in their product line up, by 1993 in the V-8000 series. That makes the 1992 Teac V-7010 the last of the Dolby C equipped TOTL deck by then, which itself is a facelifted model of the V-7000 series launched in 1990. By the time of the Teac V-7010, ten years has passed since the Kenwood KX-1100G that I last reviewed. The newer Teac has broadly similar specs to the Kenwood, except for the motorized tape well door & remote control capabilities. By this time in 1992, the CD format already reigns supreme at home hifi front, but in the car audio world, CD players were still a novelty, as manufacturers were finding ways to isolate the CD transport from the car's suspension movements which adversely affected the playback smoothness of the CD transport. CD players in cars would only start become the mainstream just before year 2000. Hence the market for cassette deck at this stage, was shrinking fast.

  

The Teac V-7010 is a nice weighty machine at almost 10kg, thanks to it's real wood cheeks & multi compartment for rigidity chassis, which is distinctively divided in to 3 unequal areas, on the left is power supply & regulation board, the front middle section is where the 3 head, dual capstan, direct drive transport remains isolated in it's own compartment, and the rest of the area behind the transport compartment & right side of box is dedicated to audio recording & playback circuitry. While some people may comment that the Teac V=7010 looks very spartan inside, I think that was possibly in the design brief to make things as simple as possible for shorter audio signal path to good sound.   

Inside the copper shielded chassis, the Teac V-7010 was the last to get this premium treatment, as the Dolby S equipped V-8000 series released in 1993 no longer have this treatment. 

As I have just taken delivery of the Kenwood KX-1100G about 2 months ago, along came this Teac V-7010 in which I was offered first right of refusal by a buddy who no longer sees the need for it. It was a hard decision for me as I am still warming up to my new toy, and I had secretly harbored to someday get a Teac V-970X which is another TOTL cassette deck from another by gone era. So the Teac V-7010 didn't exactly fit in to my plans, but I went to see it any way, how could I not?

At first glance, I have fallen head over heels for the Teac V-7010, this example in mint condition, finished Champaign gold, dark wood cheeks & a look behind the back panel which still has the importer(Auvi Malaysia Sdn Bhd) warrantee sticker on it, really just blew my mind! I could remember I was just a young adult at the time, just starting my first job, marveling at what was possibly this very unit on display at Auvi's showroom in SS2(which later became the iconic Mungo Jerry BKT shop), which I could not afford it's grand asking price back then. The icing on cake was that my buddy said, "this unit just came back from service by Mr Oh!" and that statement, sealed my fate! I was a happy dandy walking out from my buddy's house, with the Teac V-7010 in my arms.

This remote is from the same vintage but made for the model Teac V-5000, which has a belt driven 4 DC motor transport supplied by Sankyo.  The V-7000 is a direct drive transport supplied by the same manufacturer.

I went straight home, unplugged the Kenwood from my system, swapped the Teac in with high anticipation, and from the first time I pressed the play button, heavenly sound was coming from the tape format. Coming from the Kenwood, The Teac immediately impressed with it's quiet transport, no clunky noise here or there. Next the high frequencies were well extended with good refinement, the mid range has a lower bloom, which makes vocals sound like it has more meat compared to the Kenwood, and the bass is as solid & as tuneful as the Kenwood. Speed stability is impressive as well , just like the Kenwood, is direct driven. I am beginning to see that direct drive transport designs do have their advantages over belt drive designs. Being direct drive doesn't mean there are no pesky transport rubber belts to deal with, but just lesser only.  However, in terms of sound stage, the Kenwood does throw a wider & deeper, plus more layered picture. For the Teac, this was was a slight downer, but it's OK, the V-7010 still sounds very good by the way.

An official photo release of the Teac V-7010 cassette deck. 

Due to the unit didn't come with the originally issued remote control as my buddy had lost it during his last home move, I felt the unit was some how incomplete. So I scour the www in search of hopping to find one for sale, and after 2 weeks, found at remote specimen for sale at Yahoo Auction Japan. While this was not the exact original, which has a few more buttons, it was close enough and the asking price was sensible, unlike those Sony ES series remotes. About a month later the remote arrived and works! I later found out the remote unit I bought was for the Teac V-5000/5010 was has the missing open/close function for the tape well.

In a way, getting this Teac V-7010 cassette deck made me forget about the Teac V-970X as an idea, as I am blissfully enjoying what I got now. Some times, I guess fate does not give you what you wanted, but even then when you've being given something else, you'd be thankful with the end result. For me, I am enjoying my cassette deck collection journey to the max now!