A Post Modernist? Kenwood KX-5010 Cassette Deck

The Kenwood KX-5010 with it's accompanying original remote at press photo

What does one do after making possibly the best sounding product of an era? Well, Kenwood like so many other companies, started introducing convenience features. You see, the Kenwood KX-880G and all it's others in the series managed to stay in production from 1982 to 1989, in any industry especially consumer products, 7 years product life span is a mighty long............ time. In 1990, a new decade, Kenwood introduced the new generation of KX series cassette decks, now modelled as 5010 & 9010.

Both KX-5010(a 2 head, single capstan transport) and it's top of the line model, the KX-9010(3 head, dual capstan transport), now comes with remote control, a large horizontal FL display, neatly integrating the tape counter, tape type & L/R peak level meters, in an attractive yet easy to read from a far design. Styling wise, this is the biggest improvement over the KX-880 & 1100 series design, while novelty was nice when it lasted, now seems so very dated, especially that vertical L/R peak level meter in which the fonts used were too small to be seen from a far. Most transport control buttons were carried over to save cost as by the 1990's CD players have began to dominate the music format as source & cassette starts to lose it's dominance. So new models with carry over parts bin was a logical and clever move, costing wise when launching a new product. Car manufacturers do it all the time!

The back panel also has system remote trigger jacks, if you're into an all singing & dancing Kenwood stack system

Extra features are always welcomed, and that includes the ability to make a one touch test recording of about 30 seconds after blank tape is inserted, then automatically rewinds and playback the result for your sound quality evaluation. one can repeat the process several times at a touch of the "Record" button, until satisfactory sound recording setting is achieved, before goin for the full tape recording. It's like having a 3 head tape deck feature with 2 heads only! Another feature which I absolutely love about the Kenwood KX-5010 is the Direct Drive transport, despite being a single capstan transport design, wow & flutter spec is only 0.25% low, which many dual capstan design transport probably also cannot match. I now find Direct Drive transport very good with pulling power, especially during playback of old and sometimes slightly sticky tapes. When other decks are struggling, the Kenwood continue to play with stable speed. By the way, the Direct Drive feature is not new, but carried over from the previous KX-880 series.

I think Kenwood KX-5010 had a strong foundation to build upon, being based loosely around it's very capable predecessor of KX-880HX. Will it sound as good, with added features?

The internals also looking very similar to the older KX-880G!

Opening the cassette door reveals the single capstan, 2 head transport

Let's find out! From the first tape playback, the performance similarity to it's predecessor, the KX-880G is obvious. Crystalline clear tonality, speed stability, punchy bass and highly extended treble all shines through. However, I have 2 doubts started developing after a few tape playback. First was bandwidth, with familiarity, I just felt that perhaps the band width of the KX-880 series was still better in the regards, because the highs were more liquid, had less white noise. Next, another area the predecessor also did better in terms of micro dynamics, especially in tracks where double bass, or bass guitar plucks & piano pings were prominent, the older model certainly offered much more clarity on the proceedings.  In other areas of the performance of the KX-5010, the sound was clearly cut from the same cloth as the KX-880 series, just with a few more rough edges only. Both shared a similar tonal quality, stable speed & dynamic overall sound. Maybe in some cases, if remote control, post modern styling & recording feature is your thing, then the Kenwood KX-5010 cassette deck is up your alley. 

This Kenwood KX-5010 unit is in great cosmetic condition and comes with per-programed after market remote, supplied by mu buddy, Oh. Please contact him if one is interested in purchase of this deck. His asking price is not high, for a fully reconditioned unit which looks & sounds good!

However, if one priorities cassette playback sound above all else, then the KX-880G in which I previously reviewed, is the much better defacto choice of the two. I have made my choice the moment I heard the KX-1100G, in which playback sound performance wise, opens up a whole new level of performance over both the KX-5010 or KX-880G. The 3 head machine just cost much more, that's all!

I am now really starting to believe a folklore amongst cassette deck communities, that the best golden age for really great sounding decks were made from 1978-1982!  This due to the fact that as I narrow down my to keep cassette decks to last 5 surviving, despite the many I have written about here, I just realized 2 out of 5 in my collection are from the 1982 year,  That's kinda significant. Don't you agree?