Cassette?

[JSmith]

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History... in a case.



JSmith

 

[mhardy6647]

Really? That's a thing?

It is, apparently, a thing.
Worse yet, since it is on the internet... it is a given that, somewhere in cyberspace, there is p-0-r-N involving it.

 

[mhardy6647]

Wollensak 2551 Cassette Recorder N5329 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Wollensak 2551 Cassette Recorder N5329 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

History... in a case.



JSmith

That's a funny place to use a TDK SA tape.

That rugged and well-proven Wollensak transport has its own little place in history, thanks to Henry Kloss, in his Advent days.

Advent, of course, used its own R/P electronics and added Dolby B NR. It was/is a stereo deck; Kloss figured one VU meter was plenty. I never owned one* so I never bothered to figure out why/how. That said, I am (fairly) sure that hifiengine has the manual.

... and also Heathkit.

Heathkit, bless their hearts, also used their own R/P electronics (and also included Dolby B NR)... and sprang for two VU meters.
___________
* Well -- actually -- I did "own" one, briefly. A dump find (of course). All of its internal rubber bits had turned to goo over the decades. I hate working on cassette decks, so I simply recycled it back to the freebie table at one of the NEARC (now NEVEC) antique radio fleamarkets.
www.nearc.net

 

[mhardy6647]

Oh, and one valedictory (for now ) cassette-related comment.
My Dicscover credit card is literally disintegrating, so I ordered a replacement card last week. They now offer myriad choices of card designs... so I chose this one.

(stock image)

It just came in the mail today, in fact.

 

[bravomail]

I've been ordering new music recently and noticed an odd trend. Every site I've visited recently is offering cassette tapes alongside LPs, CDs and downloads.

Some examples:

• https://shop.aurora-music.com/
• https://shop.adele.com/
• https://usstore.edsheeran.com/music-1.html
• https://store.billieeilish.com/collections/music

Who is buying cassette tapes and why?

Martin

well well. A preferred media of "old pirates". I for one welcome such a developement!

 

[mhardy6647]

well well. A preferred media of "old pirates". I for one welcome such a developement!

ahem

avast, ye scurvy hit records!

 

[KellenVancouver]

If there was a scene in a hit movie where a hipster is playing an Edison cylinder, you can bet your ass cylinders and the phonographs to play them would be making a comeback. Only now they would have a USB jack.

My best friend bought a beautiful antique Silvertone hand-cranked vinyl player from the 1920s. Bunch of 78s came with it. Though it worked, he mainly bought it as a beautiful and unique piece of furniture. Perhaps comically, he got into playing all those records during a severe snow storm last year when power was out for three days and that was all he had for audio entertainment. Now he's a fan. I guess you could call that a comeback of sorts...

 

[Martin]

My best friend bought a beautiful antique Silvertone hand-cranked vinyl player from the 1920s. Bunch of 78s came with it. Though it worked, he mainly bought it as a beautiful and unique piece of furniture. Perhaps comically, he got into playing all those records during a severe snow storm last year when power was out for three days and that was all he had for audio entertainment. Now he's a fan. I guess you could call that a comeback of sorts...

My father passed away earlier this year. He had 6 boxes full of 78s; hundreds of them. There were also dozens of early 10" 33 rpm records. Lots of popular big band music, vocals, classical and opera. We tried selling them at an estate sale and online. No luck. They went in a dumpster and are now in the Western Kane County Special Service District landfill.

 

[KellenVancouver]

My father passed away earlier this year. He had 6 boxes full of 78s; hundreds of them. There were also dozens of early 10" 33 rpm records. Lots of popular big band music, vocals, classical and opera. We tried selling them at an estate sale and online. No luck. They went in a dumpster and are now in the Western Kane County Special Service District landfill.

Sorry to hear about your father, Martin. Surprised to hear that there was little to no market for 78s. I got the impression from watching the movie Ghost World that, at least in larger cities, there would likely be a small but intense interest group of 78 collectors. Guess I was duped by Hollywood (once again).

 

[Robin L]

Sorry to hear about your father, Martin. Surprised to hear that there was little to no market for 78s. I got the impression from watching the movie Ghost World that, at least in larger cities, there would likely be a small but intense interest group of 78 collectors. Guess I was duped by Hollywood (once again).

Yep. I collected 78's. The ones that were collectible happened to be the Be-Bop 78's, Charlie Parker on various labels. Managed to sell them for a little money. But, 20 years later, couldn't find any takers for Aunt Vi's collection of dance 78's from the 1940's. I gave the copy of "Earth Angel" to my step-brother, in a nice black frame. Don't know who wound up with "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?". Some good Nat "King" Cole discs in there too.

 

[Sombreuil]

Along with that tape, the company also duplicates and packages cassettes for all the major music labels and over 5,000 independent labels worldwide. The NAC (National Audio Company) isn’t just dabbling in a medium for hobby collectors and nostalgists: according to the entertainment data tracker Luminate, the sales of cassette tapes almost doubled in 2021 from a year prior. “During the pandemic, one of the miraculous things that happened was we returned to a point where the audio cassette and the vinyl record both outsold CDs and the commercial music market,” Stepp says. “And that is something nobody would have ever bet would have happened 15 or 20 years ago.”

Some of the highest selling cassettes in the last few years were tapes made right here in Springfield, including the famous mixtape from the Guardians of the Galaxy film, the soundtrack for the television series Stranger Things, and the soundtrack cassette for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, one of Stepp’s personal favorite projects. They are made on the same equipment, and at the same time as cassettes for small independent labels and musicians selling their tapes on Bandcamp or giving them out to friends.

Unspooling the Cassette Tape in Springfield, Missouri - Belt Magazine

The National Audio Company is keeping the cassette tape —and tape culture —alive in the Midwest and around the world. By Avery Gregurich There’s a modern weather station on top of an old brick factory building near downtown Springfield, Missouri. At all times it calculates the relative air...

beltmag.com