Show us your vintage cassettes!

[Chrispy]

Yes, digital has convenience, easy of use, reproducibility in its favor. Although, people call it soulless probably because of not having to work to get it and nostalgia? I don't care, many times I go with digital but sometimes I take my scope/Sig gen out and make a good mixtape.

Has plenty of soul. Trying to assign soul is kinda sketchy IMO. Nostalgia works, that's why I still have my vinyl (which was much more reliable long term than cassette tech).

 

[pollock0424]

Has plenty of soul. Trying to assign soul is kinda sketchy IMO. Nostalgia works, that's why I still have my vinyl (which was much more reliable long term than cassette tech).

I wonder how many times one can play a record before it deteriorates!

I have read and studied some experiments where they played cassette about 100 times and still no audible difference.

 

[Phantomuser]

Wow what an mazing collections of tapes!
Decades ago I ..allegedly.. worked in record retail and used to love copying records and making my own greatest hits tapes .I had an Aiwa ad6900 that worked hard , filling hundreds of TDK sa 90s . then I moved up / sideways to a nakamichi 600 , I remember I missed the 3 heads of the Aiwa machine but it sounded great.
Sadly those tapes I made are long gone now but 95% of the music is available online.
Here is my little collection ,
those Denon hd8s sound very very good so I stocked up!
If WW3 breaks out and the net goes down I will still have my playlists on tape...well that's my excuse anyway .

 

[Chrispy]

I wonder how many times one can play a record before it deteriorates!

I have read and studied some experiments where they played cassette about 100 times and still no audible difference.

I think with both mediums you have some sort of loss each time. The degree of loss would depend on maintenance of gear to a good extent I'd think, and any audibility would depend on a few things just like any other good comparison (blinded, level matched, etc). Why bother compared to keeping a pristine digital file, tho?

 

[Hiten]

Cassette tape played over 1000 times.

Though checking material recorded on cd on computer (Audacity) would have been better.

addition :
Record played 100 times

 

[pollock0424]

I think with both mediums you have some sort of loss each time. The degree of loss would depend on maintenance of gear to a good extent I'd think, and any audibility would depend on a few things just like any other good comparison (blinded, level matched, etc). Why bother compared to keeping a pristine digital file, tho?

Why bother?
I want to add it to my "Extinct Media Museum ".

Tapes are fussy about temperature and humidity...

 

[Golf]

There’s sort of a barn find in my hands now called »Pioneer CT-333«. Seems to run quite nicely, at its age. It features Dolby B and C, Metal and Dolby HX Pro.

Any brand/make of today music cassettes you would recommend for this unit?

Thanks!

 

[mhardy6647]

There’s sort of a barn find in my hands now called »Pioneer CT-333«. Seems to run quite nicely, at its age. It features Dolby B and C, Metal and Dolby HX Pro.

Any brand/make of today music cassettes you would recommend for this unit?

Thanks!

When you say "music cassettes" do you mean commercial pre-recorded cassettes... or commercial blank cassettes for recording?

AFAIK, there are currently no particularly good blank cassettes being produced.
On the other hand, even very vintage Maxell UD XL-II and TDK SA chrome-equivalent cassettes have held up very well and will still make a good recording. I used both and slightly prefer TDK.
Well-recorded (i.e., amateur) tapes on these media that have been stored reasonably carefully (no direct sun, high humidity, or dirt) should still sound pretty good, too.

The TDK metal tapes (type MA, if memory serves) were good (requiring a metal tape capable deck for recording, of course) but are extremely expensive today whether used or "NOS" (new old stock, i.e., sealed, never used tapes). I know nothing of Maxell's or other brands' metal tape formulations, unfortunately.

There are some companies edging back towards good-quality blank cassette tape production, but I don't keep abreast of that "industry" at all.
EDIT: I do see this company, which seems to have three tape formulations including a chrome-equivalent ("Type II" bias) tape:

National Audio Company

Audio cassette tapes. NAC manufactures and sells blank cassette tapes. Cassette duplication for music releases and books on tape. Magnetic tape manufacture both type 1 and type 2.

www.nationalaudiocompany.com

 

[Golf]

When you say "music cassettes" do you mean commercial pre-recorded cassettes... or commercial blank cassettes for recording?

Thanks for your input. I mean the latter. The correct english term seems to be audio cassettes.

 

[Joe Smith]

Best new production cassettes being made now are the Recording the Masters "Fox" Type I cassettes, available in 60 and 90 minute lengths. Superior to the National Audio Company tapes, hands down. NAC has been trying for years but the tape coatings are still just so-so.

 

[mhardy6647]

^^^ good information. I have no experience with either, but most of what I've read on both suppliers isn't terribly complimentary.
One thing I don't have around here is a collection of good quality cassette decks in good working condition, so I haven't invested much effort in latter day cassette recording.

 

[Golf]

Wow ... That CT-F1000 image is quite a treat. Funny to imaging those times, when machines like that were really projected.

 

[mhardy6647]

Wow ... That CT-F1000 image is quite a treat. Funny to imaging those times, when machines like that were really projected.

That one works but has some issues.
I also have a couple of CT-F900s, in the same condition.

 

[pollock0424]

Here are some bode plots.

Here is data and code: https://github.com/ruthvik92/somerandomplots/blob/master/Nak582_bode_plot.ipynb

Note: I wouldn't bet my life on this data and plots, I would probably bet yours .. jokes aside, this was an exercise purely for fun... and not meant to be taken as a serious scientific one.

In future, I will try to plot distortion vs frequency at 0db and -5db. I don't want to plot Noise vs Frequency...you know cassettes have hiss...I could use dolby but I don't want to use dolby. With TDK MA, hiss is at below the acceptable level with Thiel CS3.6 speakers (84 dB sensitivity).