Cassettes Are Back, and It’s Not About the Music

[restorer-john]

I used to have a Nakamichi CR7E, it was easily the best engineered piece of audio equipment I've ever owned.

Pretty much the finest measuring cassette deck on the face of the earth.

I've got some absolute classic decks, but not a CR-7E. Always wanted one. One you'd also like is the Pioneer CT-91 and CT-93. My Sony TCK-333ESRs are lovely too. There's a NIB one here in my ES collection. They are quartz locked direct drive closed loop dual capstan 3 head B/C. I have a few of the top Yamahas of days gone by too, the K-1000 and K-2000 along with some newer ones with B/C.

Some of Akai's tope decks in the early 80s are ball-snappingly good too. Glass crystal heads and beautiful mechanisms.

I guess when I see that cheap-ass Tascam earlier in the thread and people get excited, I realize there's a whole generation or two that don't know good build quality in mechanical tape decks...

 

[Wombat]

Which brand would you buy?

View attachment 30560 View attachment 30564

I had the L100s, the tapes and the Nakamichi. The Maxell effect never happened. Can I sue?

 

[Thomas savage]

@Thomas savage You win the ASR prize for the most pitiful looking avatar of the year.

Amazingly im just seeing this now while sat on the loo in the gym..

Oh and thanks @Sal1950 , for making me feel special like only you can .

 

[restorer-john]

I had the L100s, the tapes and the Nakamichi. The Maxell effect never happened. Can I sue?

Maybe you needed to turn them upside down like they did in the advertisement and face the tweeters into the floor in order to obtain the full effect.

Note the position of the speaker wire- the terminals were actually about a third of the way up from the bottom...

 

[Wombat]

Maybe you needed to turn them upside down like they did in the advertisement and face the tweeters into the floor in order to obtain the full effect.

View attachment 30582

View attachment 30581

Note the position of the speaker wire- the terminals were actually about a third of the way up from the bottom...

Silly me.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Amazingly im just seeing this now while sat on the loo in the gym..

Oh and thanks @Sal1950 , for making me feel special like only you can .

I thought you bore a likeness to the real life version of this in your avatar.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I had the chance to use one of these some. Surprisingly good machine. Especially when used in double speed. Anyone remember the BIC Venturi Speakers of the time?

 

[makinao]

I got a Nakamichi 582 in 1980, which was a fabulous deck and about as good as you could get at the time. I used it in the studio for daily rushes to take home. But I stopped using it when CD-Rs showed up. Then someone at home plugged it into the wrong voltage and it went up in smoke. I eventually sold it for parts.

 

[restorer-john]

Anyone remember the BIC Venturi Speakers of the time?

I have a small pair of BIC venturi two ways which aren't bad at all.

 

[Sal1950]

Anyone remember the BIC Venturi Speakers of the time?

Sure but had I forgot about BIC. Mention them today and all I think about is cigarette lighters. Flic Your BIC

I have a small pair of BIC venturi two ways which aren't bad at all.

Of course you do. LOL

 

[restorer-john]

Of course you do. LOL

They are the American made, older version of these:

V62 IIRC, I sent them to Dad's to play with.

 

[Wombat]

I got a Nakamichi 582 in 1980, which was a fabulous deck and about as good as you could get at the time. I used it in the studio for daily rushes to take home. But I stopped using it when CD-Rs showed up. Then someone at home plugged it into the wrong voltage and it went up in smoke. I eventually sold it for parts.

I still have mine. I don't know if it will still work.

 

[watchnerd]

I honestly believe that the humble cassette tape was the most maligned format in audio. Magazines, reviewers, turntable fans etc used to deride it at the time as a lesser format, and it is undeniable that its technical performance is completely outclassed by digital formats (although so is that of vinyl, yet plenty tried to deny that). However, it was the cassette tape that made home recording accessible to anybody, created the mix tape, made decent music mobile without having to rely on radio stations deciding what you would listen to, these are all things we take for granted now (these days nobody would even notice the fact that they can carry their music with them or record things) but at the time it was hugely liberating. And the audio performance of cassette tapes was a lot better than some opinions might indicate, it was more than acceptable and could serve as a decent hifi source. I used to have a Nakamichi CR7E, it was easily the best engineered piece of audio equipment I've ever owned. Sometimes I see reviewers wax lyrical about engineering and quality of stuff today and when I look at it I can't help thinking that in their prime Nakamichi wouldn't have got out of bed to make stuff we see today. The CR7E delivered genuinely good performance and was a wonderful piece of equipment, I really regret selling in. Note that I'm not interested in a return to the cassette tape, it had its day and its day is past, but I do have very fond memories and a high regard for the contribution it made to audio.

I never owned a Nakamichi, but when I was in college I worked in the student media library (which meant I got to sit around and listen to music all day) and it was stacked with these:

 

[MattHooper]

I honestly believe that the humble cassette tape was the most maligned format in audio. Magazines, reviewers, turntable fans etc used to deride it at the time as a lesser format, and it is undeniable that its technical performance is completely outclassed by digital formats (although so is that of vinyl, yet plenty tried to deny that). However, it was the cassette tape that made home recording accessible to anybody, created the mix tape, made decent music mobile without having to rely on radio stations deciding what you would listen to, these are all things we take for granted now (these days nobody would even notice the fact that they can carry their music with them or record things) but at the time it was hugely liberating. And the audio performance of cassette tapes was a lot better than some opinions might indicate, it was more than acceptable and could serve as a decent hifi source. I used to have a Nakamichi CR7E, it was easily the best engineered piece of audio equipment I've ever owned. Sometimes I see reviewers wax lyrical about engineering and quality of stuff today and when I look at it I can't help thinking that in their prime Nakamichi wouldn't have got out of bed to make stuff we see today. The CR7E delivered genuinely good performance and was a wonderful piece of equipment, I really regret selling in. Note that I'm not interested in a return to the cassette tape, it had its day and its day is past, but I do have very fond memories and a high regard for the contribution it made to audio.

Very true.

I grew up with good sound, my Dad's Technics turntable, Kef 105.2 speakers, carver amps etc. But when cassettes came they truly were a liberation - especially making mixed tapes. The reduction in sound quality (even though we had a good deck) was far outweighed by the new oportunities. I used to tape hours of WBLK from Buffalo (I'm in Toronto), playing R&B and Funk/Dance that no one was playing here, and then select the best for mixed tapes. Especially great for cruising in the car listening, or bringing to parties. There was something so personal, sort of putting one's own creative "DJ-skills" thumbprint on any mixed tape.

Which in a way makes it seem odd that even though creating personalized "playlists" from streaming is essentially doing the same selective, personal process, it doesn't seem to carry at all the kind of cache or appeal of mixed tapes.

 

[watchnerd]

Very true.

I grew up with good sound, my Dad's Technics turntable, Kef 105.2 speakers, carver amps etc. But when cassettes came they truly were a liberation - especially making mixed tapes. The reduction in sound quality (even though we had a good deck) was far outweighed by the new oportunities. I used to tape hours of WBLK from Buffalo (I'm in Toronto), playing R&B and Funk/Dance that no one was playing here, and then select the best for mixed tapes. Especially great for cruising in the car listening, or bringing to parties. There was something so personal, sort of putting one's own creative "DJ-skills" thumbprint on any mixed tape.

Which in a way makes it seem odd that even though creating personalized "playlists" from streaming is essentially doing the same selective, personal process, it doesn't seem to carry at all the kind of cache or appeal of mixed tapes.

There is far less labor involved in making a playlist.

Making a good mix tape took a lot of time, as it had to be done real time, and to do it well, a lot of babying of the input levels. It took a combination of artistic taste, a bit of technical skill, a little bit of capital (potentially expensive tape), and at least as much real time effort as the tape was long, and probably more to cue up all the sources.

I think people recognized the effort, which gave it cachet.

Any numbnut can make a playlist in 5 minutes.

 

[MattHooper]

Well, yeah, there is that

 

[Zerimas]

Just do it.

A mate of mine turned up in a Honda Prelude SI (90/91?) recently because he'd always wanted one back in the day. We used to call them hairdresser's cars as they didn't really go hard, but looked good. They did go around corners like they were on rails however.

The Preludes 4-wheel steering! Apparently in 1987 slalom test performed by Road & Track the Prelude did the best. I apparently bested entries from Ferrari, Porsche, et cetera.

But yeah. They are lacking in the power department. Only 140hp or so. Still I bet they'd be fun to drive.

 

[Paianis]

From 2012-2015 I was a total tapehead and amassed a decent selection of blanks with CD and vinyl dubs. Soon after I sold off nearly all of it, probably at a loss. My car still has a factory cassette player, my Fuji ZII's still sound transparent on it when I'm driving.

 

[Sal1950]

That little JBL is just there for testing stuff while I finish the restoration work on the right side model.
There is a whole set of snake cables behind the Ikea Kallax that pipe back to my RME/DAW/monitor speaker set up.

I've been looking online at that exact Kallax shelving unit for storage in the back room.
Is it OK or got any complaints? Cost is really reasonable.

 

[watchnerd]

I've been looking online at that exact Kallax shelving unit for storage in the back room.
Is it OK or got any complaints? Cost is really reasonable.

It's waaaay better than the Wal-Mart and Target knockoffs...both of which broke while I was building them.

The only negatives I would say are:

1. If you get the optional casters / wheels add-on, realize there is a weight limit to the way they hook up. For the one in my living room (I have two), I have ~400 LPs, a turntable, and an amp sitting in / on mine, and it was enough to make the caster assembly pop off when I tried to wheel it around. You might have the same problem if it was loaded with books or something similarly heavy.

2. It has no back. I nailed some slats to the back to provide things from sliding out the back. Minor issue.

On the upside, there is a whole community of 'Kallax hacks' that people have posted online to make interesting mods.