Show us your vintage cassettes!

[solderdude]

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.

 

[raistlin65]

where can you sell vintage cassettes?

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

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

 

[House de Kris]

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.

And an AD-Xbox

 

[restorer-john]

Here's some TDK AD tapes

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.

 

[mhardy6647]

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...

 

[House de Kris]

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.

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:

 

[Blumlein 88]

where can you sell vintage cassettes?

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

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.

 

[mhardy6647]

not mine ... but... I was just leaving through the 8 April 1967 issue of Billboard (as one does*) and this ad happened to catch my eye (apropos of this thread)

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/60s/1967/Billboard 1967-04-08.pdf
(this issue has a whole section on cassettes, as it happens)

_____________
* that's not unusual, is it?

 

[laudio]

I like deadstock

 

[StevenEleven]

Shshsh. Minidiscs.

 

[mcgo]

Ahh cassettes. Enjoy my ZTT “unobtainiums”...

 

[Hypnotoad]

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.

 

[bigx5murf]

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.

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.

 

[Wes]

where did you buy the new idler part?

 

[House de Kris]

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.

 

[Werner]

where did you buy the new idler part?

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.

 

[Sal1950]

Ya know, in 50 some years of doing hifi I never owned a cassette deck ???

 

[restorer-john]

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.

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...

 

[Wes]

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.

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

 

[Werner]

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

Sankyo-based Nakamichis almost always can be resurrected. Visit tapeheads.net if you run into problems.