Tascam Preamps

A friend acquired an old Tascam 4 track cassette recording setup, consisting of an EX-20 mixer, a PE-20 EQ Insert, and a 234 4 track cassette recorder. Research online indicates the cassette deck will probably need new rubber (belts and capstan), and probably won't be worth the effort, but I'm wondering about the quality of the preamps.
 
Both the cassette deck and mixer have 4 mic pres, and since Tascam had a rep for solid electronics  back in the day, I wonder if the preamps will bring anything to the table that I can't already approximate.
 
Currently in the arsenal here I have low end Behringer mixer pres, Behringer ADA-8000 pres, M-Audio Octanes in a C600, 2626, and Fast Track Ultra, and a Focusrite ISA Two.
 
Can anyone with experience on this Tascam dinosaur tell me if its worth cleaning up the pots and wiring it into an audio chain to try out the preamps?
 
 

I think you will find the pre-amps more hard and edgy than most post-digital age stuff. (a good thing).
I remember moving from my old Tascam Model5 board to a newer hip Mackie and really not liking the sound. the mackie just seemed soft to me. same way i feel about Neve boards (soft) vs. like Trident (hard).
anyway that's my nutshell...  
Also, the tascam's probably pretty noisy.

mike_mccue
1) Grab some sends from SONAR on an extra hardware output.

2) Plug em into the Cassette Deck.

3) Check out your new desktop VU meters.


:-)

3rd best post by McQ EVAH!!!!