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Show us your vintage cassettes!

The name of an obscure and unknown band I was doing the sound engineering for (when I was a young lad).
Later on they changed the name to 'Defect'. Didn't help in any way ... :)
Still have some of their music from a single they made, ripped it a few years ago.
 
Wes said:
where can you sell vintage cassettes?

I've got hundreds and hate to just toss them in a landfill
Click to expand...

I was just thinking about this. Interesting to see people so excited about collecting something that many of us gladly threw away in the transition to digital :D
 
Here's some TDK AD tapes not included in Restorer-John's opener. Alas, I have very few tapes with the shrink wrap still in place.

TDK AD 45.jpg


TDK AD 46.jpg


TDK AD 50.jpg


And an AD-Xbox

TDK AD-X 50.jpg
 
House de Kris said:
Here's some TDK AD tapes
Click to expand...

Interesting, you liked the ~45 minute tapes- was the tape that much thicker? I can't remember- used to pore over the tape thickness specs back in the day. Coating would be the same, just a stronger binder?

Great old 70s Acoustic Dynamic (IIRC) AD-C45 in the original livery.
 
DSC_0737.JPG

all of the cassettes in this photo (and the storage thingy that they're in - and on) were dump finds (i.e., from the "Take it or Leave it" (or "Yankee Swap") pile at the Harvard, MA town "transfer station")... I selected some of the more amusing albums for this photo.
There are so many cassettes in the basement... :(
 
restorer-john said:
Interesting, you liked the ~45 minute tapes- was the tape that much thicker? I can't remember- used to pore over the tape thickness specs back in the day. Coating would be the same, just a stronger binder?

Great old 70s Acoustic Dynamic (IIRC) AD-C45 in the original livery.
Click to expand...
I used to have a stockpile of all lengths to facilitate copying CDs. Oh wait, I didn't just admit to a felony, did I? 46, 50, 54, 60, 64, 70, 74, 80, 90, and 100. Those less than 64 often had thicker binders, but not always. I liked 46 and 50 the most for a while, since they were most likely to have the larger sized reels.

Here's an AR and AR-X:

TDK AR 90.jpg


TDK AR-X 46.jpg
 
Wes said:
where can you sell vintage cassettes?

I've got hundreds and hate to just toss them in a landfill
Click to expand...
Ebay sells them pretty well. Don't know if there are any cassette oriented forums, maybe there. Unopened quality tapes go for pretty good money on ebay right now.
 
I used to buy many blank cassettes to use in the car back in the day, mainly the TDK D-90's, and would type the details on the inserts. I always lusted over owning a Nakamichi 3 head deck. I bought one a while back, recorded one record on it, didn't see the value in it anymore and sold it for what I paid. At least I can say I owned one.
 
Hypnotoad said:
I used to buy many blank cassettes to use in the car back in the day, mainly the TDK D-90's, and would type the details on the inserts. I always lusted over owning a Nakamichi 3 head deck. I bought one a while back, recorded one record on it, didn't see the value in it anymore and sold it for what I paid. At least I can say I owned one.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised you didn't like your Nak. I recently got my first Nak, a BX1, which was as BOTL as you could get. I got it cheap, non working condition. Replaced the idler tire, and it worked flawlessly. I've only owned a couple other low end decks (Technics m227x, Teac R-435x). But the Nak was noticeably better than them in both playback and recording within the first use.
 
where did you buy the new idler part?
 
In restorer-john's initial post he had an SF tape. Dang-it, I don't have any SF's. Now I've got cassette envy. I do have some SR tapes, though. According to two j-cards, it would appear that SF and SR are of similar quality, or at least similar ranking in the TDK line up.

20200212_125058~2.jpg


20200212_125156~2.jpg


TDK SR 70.jpg


TDK SR-X 64.jpg
 
Wes said:
where did you buy the new idler part?
Click to expand...

You can try this https://eslabs.com/parts.htm.

Study before you do the exchange, because the plastic idler arm is weak and may break.
Support it from below while working on the assembly.

Oh, and while the old idler is still in it, let the machine FF for a couple of hours. That is good for the
reel motor.
 
Ya know, in 50 some years of doing hifi I never owned a cassette deck ???
 
House de Kris said:
In restorer-john's initial post he had an SF tape. Dang-it, I don't have any SF's. Now I've got cassette envy.
Click to expand...

Don't envy the SF. :) I was never very impressed with it to be honest. The ARX was such a fantastic Type I, you really needed to leapfrog the SF and SA straight to the SAX to gain an improvement, and even then, the SAX didn't have the MOL of the ADX/ARX IIRC.

I'll have to dig out some TDK catalogues...
 
Werner said:
You can try this https://eslabs.com/parts.htm.

Study before you do the exchange, because the plastic idler arm is weak and may break.
Support it from below while working on the assembly.

Oh, and while the old idler is still in it, let the machine FF for a couple of hours. That is good for the
reel motor.
Click to expand...

Thanks much - I'll try that - hopefully it isn't something else.
 
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