Cassettes are making a small comeback, why?

[N9R]

In 2002 or so I threw my TEAC 8030S straight into a trash bin.

You threw it away?

That model is now highly sought after, and sells for as much as $1,000

 

[Newman]

But he knew it was audiophile junk in terms of performance being outdated. Its being audiophool treasure 22 years later does not refute that.

 

[Balle Clorin]

My Pentel P205 is always at my desk.

View attachment 375475

View attachment 375476

Never new it had a name..

 

[N9R]

But he knew it was audiophile junk in terms of performance being outdated. Its being audiophool treasure 22 years later does not refute that.

To be fair, the reasons behind the desirability of these old hi-spec machines go a little beyond audiophool territory.

They are in demand with archivists/transcribers and mastering engineers, who occasionally need to work with the format as part of their professional service.

Musicians also use these machines for the effect they have on sound.

I wear all the above hats, and retain a Tascam 688 (pretty much the pinnacle of cassette technology), a late-model Sony stereo deck, and a Revox B77 in my studio. They get used very often, at the insistence of artists I work with as well as for my own work.

 

[pablolie]

You threw it away?

That model is now highly sought after, and sells for as much as $1,000

I know, but OTOH it was worthless at the time. I listed in on craigslist for $150 for 3 months, zero takers... such is the story of historical stuff

 

[DMill]

I know, but OTOH it was worthless at the time. I listed in on craigslist for $150 for 3 months, zero takers... such is the story of historical stuff

There is no way you could‘ve known. Cassettes sucked even back in the day. The only thing you could ever like was that you could curate your own mix tapes to give to friends and the one girl in the entire 9th grade that appreciated Rush 2112.

 

[JSmith]

Would you say that a tape, that leaves the rollers altogether and goes wandering around the innards of the car dashboard, has ‘mis-tracked’? I sure would, and it was a depressingly common occurrence.

Well yeah... it was annoying when a tape got stuck inside, I agree. But it didn't happen constantly like the early car CD players, which is what I was making the comparison to. I wasn't really floating it as a reason why there may be a audio cassette tape comeback.

Every tried to get stuck CD's out of a jammed car CD stacker?


JSmith

 

[Doodski]

Every tried to get stuck CD's out of a jammed car CD stacker?

Hehehe... I repaired so many of those things my head was spinning... LoL. Sometimes it was operator error but usually it was too many Gs and that overcomes the suspension gel packs by tearing the rubber, then the gel leaks out and runs into stuff and makes a mess and then that overcomes any suspension at the CD mechanism and laser assembly and stuff actually gets bent and misaligned or broken gears from not being in proper time/alignment with each other. The load rollers would get dusty and sandy and dirty and worn out too and then the owner had a couple of jammed discs and damaged the mechanism and finally decided to bring it in for service but he's not sure what's wrong with it... LoL. There where many lasers replaced and disc motors replaced and MODs and blah blah. They where very challenging at times.

 

[jayapple]

When I was young, I listened to music on tapes, and I could carry a tape player around to play music wherever I went.

Now, it's rare to see music stores that sell audio and video products.

I don't know where the tape trend has resurfaced, and it may only be a small group of people reminiscing about the past.
You can't carry a tape player around anymore, as it doesn't fit with the current times.

So I don't think there's a tape revival.

 

[Newman]

Every (sic) tried to get stuck CD's out of a jammed car CD stacker?

Actually it never once happened to me in 20-odd years of rolling car CD players, including a 6-stacker for 10 years.

But the frikkin' car radio cassette munchers....another story.

cheers

 

[JSmith]

Actually it never once happened to me in 20-odd years of rolling car CD players, including a 6-stacker for 10 years.

Oh I wasn't saying that was regular/common, just more difficult to resolve and certainly tapes got jammed much more often that's for sure. Car CD players (especially the early models) just skipped all the time over bumps or rough road. Some roads in Aus are quite rough, especially out in the sticks, so these didn't work well at all.

I remember I got quite good at splicing tapes back together... sometimes even just with a bit of sticky tape/sellotape as a quick repair.


JSmith

 

[Newman]

It didn't help that I tended to live in hot climes. I can't imagine what temperatures the tapes were enduring, with the sun belting through the windows onto the non-air-conditioned dash.

 

[JSmith]

hot climes (sic) ; )

Very hot in summer here too in most places... one didn't want to leave a tape out, but even very hot in the glove compartment. Tapes left out on the dash were no more... especially on a not flat surface;

JSmith

 

[pads]

I like cassettes, many of the artists who put them out are small time, easier to produce, cheaper and can be done from home. New age and ambient artists were some of the first to jump onto this in the 70’s and 80’s and some of those can be pricey these days. Some great music can be found on cassettes and from a consumer point are far less expensive than vinyl (for those who prefer physical formats)

 

[Bland_username42069]

If you buy from bandcamp for example then you can get the Flacs or for a few $$ more the Flacs + a physical copy on CD or sometimes cassette.

Cassettes are just there as collectibles or to trade/sell down the line.

Musical pokemon cards.

Old 80s cassettes are a different matter though as there were whole musical scenes / genres that were heavily represented on cassette abd not on other formats.

 

[ferrellms]

It seems that cassettes are making a small comeback. There have been some new portable cassette players that have been released. In addition people like You Tuber Mary Spender just released some of her own music on cassette which is just one example of younger people being interested in cassettes.

I used to have a Nakamichi CR3A cassette player in my stereo. Cassettes were inferior to CD's and records. Dolby B removed the high's, though Dolby C was better. The other thing was every time you play the cassette, the quality of the music degrades by a tiny bit.

What made cassettes so appealing was it was a good format if you wanted to copy your favorite records or if your borrow friends records and you wanted a copy of it to play in your cassette player including Sony Walkman, or car stereo In addition, we used to record music off the radio like King Biscuit Flower Hour where they had some cool live recording of the Rollings Stones or some other band. Back in the day, I took my Sanyo cassette player (their version of the Sony Walkman) to Madison Square Garden and recorded The ARMS concert with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. This is why they were so popular in their day. To get better quality recordings I used to buy metal tapes and then record my records or a friend's records onto cassettes. Then to play it on a portable device including boom boxes. However, when you compare the quality of the music with CD's or good streaming services, the music clearly sounds better on them vs cassettes.

Now records with a good phonograph player, stylus, and phono preamp sound better than cassettes. Not to mention the album was fun to look at along with the information on the back or inner sleeve while listening to the music. I can see the appeal for records as many records I actually found better than CD's or streaming services though this is subjective.

What do you see about cassettes that are attracting people today?

Cute YouTubers looking for a gimmick, and boomer nostalgia, maybe, although cassettes are so bad maybe anyone that has used them knows that.

 

[pads]

Cute YouTubers looking for a gimmick, and boomer nostalgia, maybe, although cassettes are so bad maybe anyone that has used them knows that.

respectably disagree

 

[USER]

cassettes are so bad maybe anyone that has used them knows that.

I'm not making any statement regarding quality. But I encourage people to try out these samples.

One track is a CD version
Another is that track recorded onto a cassette
The third is that recorded track EQed to better match the original

These were recorded on a Sony TC-WA8ESA I was restoring. On a TDK SA-X90 Type II tape. So a very normal cassette set-up back in the day, nothing crazy. The track is what I had on hand at the time. Again, this is one example. It was not made with any AB intentions, I could have used a better deck and cassette, and the track may not be the best for comparison. But it is still better to actually hear a cassette.

Cassette Comparison - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[Blake Klondike]

i think it is an exclusionary hipness factor for kids-- they collect vhs tapes too. i have heard the lead singer from the yeah, yeah, yeahs say that it is cool marketing and they like the way they look on display. i even had a kid at a chain record shop about five years ago compliment me on how vintage my i-pod was.

 

[Blake Klondike]

You threw it away?

That model is now highly sought after, and sells for as much as $1,000

also possible that the reason they are so expensive is that they are hard to find in good working condition, so maybe the one OP pitched wasn't worth a nickel