Cassette?

[JSmith]

I had an Akai tape deck many years ago

I still have a lovely one made in 1976 as part of a rack with separate tuner and integrated amp... has been "fixed" a number of times and just doesn't work now to play tapes. It powers up though and everything... tuner and amp still work ok, all original.

I still have 2 others though, one which plays in mono only and another that makes a high pitch squeal from the deck. I wouldn't have even tried to play a tape for 5 years or so though.



JSmith

 

[Tatr76]

I still run a couple of Nakamichi tape decks and have a technics, most new tapes come from bandcamp artists as usually not much more than digital download by itself and you get that with with any physical media purchase anyways. Agree most old commercial tapes not always the best dubbing but have built up sizable stock off old sealed blank tapes from 80's and 90's and find you can make great recordings. Also like rummaging in charity shops and flea markets so something extra to look out for along with cd's and records. Have noticed prices rising unfortunately, especially good type ii old/new blanks so glad had built up stock of them 100+ and am more conscious when unwrapping one that it is a finite supply. As stated elsewhere no new tapedecks so won't get too popular but annoyingly enough to drive up prices and reduce spare parts and blanks. Bloody bandcamp also does a lot of minidiscs which has made me dust that off too .

 

[mhardy6647]

When it comes to cassette... things are... kind of weird at my house.

DSC_0367 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
DSC_0368 (3) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

DSC_0397 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[rdenney]

Mass produced cassettes were pretty poor Firstly, they were bulk copied at 32x or even 64x speed, so levels and frequency responses were 'variable' as results depended entirely on how well maintained the duplicators were. My first job after university involved designing electronics for high speed tape duplicators, so I'm familiar with their limitations. Dolby tracking was especially difficult.
Secondly, the tape used was ordinary ferric and cheap, as were the C0 cassette blanks.
There were a few specialist labels that used real-time duplication on chrome or metal cassettes, one I knew of used a bank of Nakamichi recorders, and their tapes were very good, if expensive. However, CD put an end to all that.

S

Yes, we forget that about vinyl, which attained a much higher percentage of its capability in delivered goods for the consumer market.

To the topic:

Cassettes back in the day were used exactly as we now use thumb drives and smart phones--and what we used CDR's for two decades ago--a way to carry our music with us into "hostile" environments. Part of this is that our "original" media were quite fragile. Cassettes weren't particularly less fragile than vinyl albums, but they were disposable. Most audio geeks didn't buy pre-recorded cassettes, but made them routinely for playback.

But there is a solid, if tiny, minority of us whose libraries include privately recorded stuff that is only available on cassette, and for us maintaining a playback capability, at least for some period of time, becomes useful. Making new cassettes for use? Only as a check of equipment, for me, for the sheer fun of messing with those neat old machines. (And, also, as yet another demonstration that--for most of us, at least--our ears aren't as picky about noise and distortion as are our eyes, when looking at equipment, specs, and test reports.)

Rick "cassettes can actually sound pretty good, but they don't have to" Denney

 

[rdenney]

True and yes I remember doing this often.

You may want to get one of these if your car CD player has bit the dust and you still have a cassette option;

The Unsung Hero of the Digital Age: The Car Cassette Adapter

Any child of the 1990s will fondly remember the car cassette adapter. In hindsight, it is one of the unsung heroes of the digital age.

interestingengineering.com

JSmith

Yeah, that, plus a Car Discman, which I still have around here somewhere.

But I can't get the cassette player in my 90's Toyota truck to load a cassette any more.

Rick "on the fixit list" Denney

 

[dlaloum]

I still have my Revox B215 cassette deck.... (but am trying to find someone to service it, in Melbourne... Australia) - recordings I made on it 30 years ago, are still superb... would I use it today that way... probably not - we have digital now... and decent digital is damn good, on the other hand the Revox is a great recording machine, pure analogue... maybe some time when I have the deck back in running order, I will try some simultaneous recordings live, and see what the difference is. For Audiophiles, it will come back to pure analogue vs digital.

With a good enough cassette deck, Reel to Reel like performance is possible... (which means ignoring 99%+ of the cassette decks ever made!)

Still, new high quality cassettes are now available, and for those who have the rare decks capable of it, this is an option... (Nak 1000 & Dragon, Revox B215, Tandberg 3014... )

I kept mine mostly to be able to playback and digitise my older material.

 

[beefkabob]

Once again, the fetish is for the mechanism instead of for the music. Sigh.

 

[rdenney]

Once again, the fetish is for the mechanism instead of for the music. Sigh.

Your sigh is much more about you than anyone else in this thread.

This is a hobby. Playing with the apparatus has as much validity as listening to music. If you think the music become unlistenable or that we can't appreciate it fully using a well-recorded cassette, then I think you underestimate the power of music to speak for itself. That would make you more focused on the apparatus, now wouldn't it?

Rick "look down your nose in some other direction" Denney

 

[Sombreuil]

Once again, the fetish is for the mechanism instead of for the music. Sigh.

That's why people still make and buy cassettes.

 

[nerdstrike]

I think the only positive that remains is the mix-tape. Or playlist as it's now known. Don't know if people carefully curated playlists for each other though.

 

[JSmith]

the fetish is for the mechanism

In this case though it is for nostalgia reasons, to appreciate and respect the past... without the past we would not be where we are today.

We used to even get singles released on short run tapes.

JSmith

 

[mhardy6647]

Once again, the fetish is for the mechanism instead of for the music. Sigh.

Which is, of course, why the denizens of this august website and its forum(s) eschew fancy mechanical Switch watches, opting instead for $10 USD Casios that, of course, keep and represent time much more precisely and accurately -- not to mention, of course, that they do it with a far lower noise floor. That tick-tick-tick of mechanical analog watches is analogous to the snap, crackle, pop of vinyl records (or the hiss of cassettes).

Of course.



EDIT: ...and not that I'm bitter. Of course.

 

[Chrispy]

I think the only positive that remains is the mix-tape. Or playlist as it's now known. Don't know if people carefully curated playlists for each other though.

That was the one thing I did like using cassettes for, making mixtapes from my vinyl so I could play them elsewhere easily. Once digital capabilities for doing so arrived (replacing both vinyl and cassette), didn't look back. I do carefully create playlists if I am going to make one at all.....

 

[beefkabob]

Which is, of course, why the denizens of this august website and its forum(s) eschew fancy mechanical Switch watches, opting instead for $10 USD Casios that, of course, keep and represent time much more precisely and accurately -- not to mention, of course, that they do it with a far lower noise floor. That tick-tick-tick of mechanical analog watches is analogous to the snap, crackle, pop of vinyl records (or the hiss of cassettes).

Of course.



EDIT: ...and not that I'm bitter. Of course.

I just use my phone for time. I do have a smart watch that also takes my heart rate and shows phone messages, but I tend to find watches uncomfortable.

I appreciate the intricacy of a watch. I appreciate the fascination with electronics. The nakimichis have been super cool ever since "The Way That You Love Me". I haven't thrown away all my cassettes. I just have the ones made for my friend's band. I just find that, if I'm going to listen to music, I want to hear it loud and clear. I don't want to hear pops and clicks and go through extra effort of loading and such.

Interestingly, there's a song I heard recently that has pops and clicks added in. I actually find it distracting. It's also sad to me that so much great music was recorded so poorly due to technology of the times. Again, i find the recording quality distracting.

Because it is about the music.

But to each their own.

 

[mhardy6647]

... and I like the intricacy of a vacuum tube -- particularly a direct-heated power output triode.
(oops, did I just say that out loud?)

DSC_0463 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[Chrispy]

... and I like the intricacy of a vacuum tube -- particularly a direct-heated power output triode.
(oops, did I just say that out loud?)

DSC_0463 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

That makes a cassette sing....

 

[mhardy6647]

That makes a cassette sing....

and hiss


Actually the big problem with the cassette standard is poor headroom in the treble -- which compander type NR (e.g., Dolby) just exacerbates.
Metal tape, Dolby HX Pro, and (nonstandard) higher tape speed will help, but all of them test the limits of the Philips standard for cassettes.
... and, yeah, the best of the decks were... pretty good -- and very expensive.

Dolby C and HX pro frequency response by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Sorry, I just like my tapes... umm... bigger... and... faster.


Otari MX5050 010215 2 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

ReVox WHRB Dead aircheck by Mark Hardy, on Flickr


casettebirthday_v2-lrg by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[Chrispy]

and hiss


Actually the big problem with the cassette standard is poor headroom in the treble -- which compander type NR (e.g., Dolby) just exacerbates.
Metal tape, Dolby HX Pro, and (nonstandard) higher tape speed will help, but all of them test the limits of the Philips standard for cassettes.
... and, yeah, the best of the decks were... pretty good -- and very expensive.

Dolby C and HX pro frequency response by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Sorry, I just like my tapes... umm... bigger... and... faster.


Otari MX5050 010215 2 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

ReVox WHRB Dead aircheck by Mark Hardy, on Flickr


casettebirthday_v2-lrg by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Uh huh.

 

[Berwhale]

This is the only cassette i'm likely to buy...

ORICO Tool-free USB 3.0 Hard Drive SSD Enclosure for 2.5 Inch SATA III HDD Disk - Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Smart TV and More - Cassette Case: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

ORICO Tool-free USB 3.0 Hard Drive SSD Enclosure for 2.5 Inch SATA III HDD Disk - Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Smart TV and More - Cassette Case: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

This is the only cassette i'm likely to buy...

ORICO Tool-free USB 3.0 Hard Drive SSD Enclosure for 2.5 Inch SATA III HDD Disk - Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Smart TV and More - Cassette Case: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

ORICO Tool-free USB 3.0 Hard Drive SSD Enclosure for 2.5 Inch SATA III HDD Disk - Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Smart TV and More - Cassette Case: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

www.amazon.co.uk

Really? That's a thing?