Toshiba Aurex - New "Hi Res" Cassette Deck

[watchnerd]

It up-converts cassettes to high resolution digital.....

I just...wait, what?

Okay, maybe it's not as insane as I thought, given how many audiophiles listening to "high resolution" remasters of recordings that were originally made in analog.

But but...cassettes?

Aren't they like 10 bit?

P.S. Guest appearance by all-analog vintage Nakamichi which blows it away

 

[solderdude]

darn it, can't do MQA so it does not deserve the hi-res logo.
Well.. maybe in a few years of playing music tapes it has learned to 'fold' the tape properly.

edit: vid gets more interesting from 23:20

 

[bennetng]

darn it, can't do MQA so it does not deserve the hi-res logo.

There is an official guide about using that hi-res logo:
http://ws.sel.sony.com/PIPWebServices/RetrievePublicAsset/StepID/SEL-asset-459151

 

[JJB70]

I don't think the industry can help itself, high res is just as much a devalued term as "digital" or "turbo" despite efforts to give it some meaning. There has been the issue of selling upsampled files as high res for a while now at a hefty price premium and now this. Most (almost all) of the music I listen to was recorded before the high res era (a lot of it predates digital) and although I am very interested in improving the quality of the remastered copies to undo the damage done by rubbish remastering I think repackaging these old recordings as high res is a bit disingenuous. I honestly thought this high res cassette tape was a joke but I guess it is consistent with high res vinyl ideas, MQA CD etc. And people wonder why there is so much cynicism about the audio industry.

 

[Thomas savage]

I don't think the industry can help itself, high res is just as much a devalued term as "digital" or "turbo" despite efforts to give it some meaning. There has been the issue of selling upsampled files as high res for a while now at a hefty price premium and now this. Most (almost all) of the music I listen to was recorded before the high res era (a lot of it predates digital) and although I am very interested in improving the quality of the remastered copies to undo the damage done by rubbish remastering I think repackaging these old recordings as high res is a bit disingenuous. I honestly thought this high res cassette tape was a joke but I guess it is consistent with high res vinyl ideas, MQA CD etc. And people wonder why there is so much cynicism about the audio industry.

They spent all that money on making that shinny sticker, now it’s time to whore it out night and day. Flog it till it means less than nothing, then you have a facelift and send it out in a fresh guise.

It’s the oldest profession.

 

[Timbo2]

Sorry I only use Type III cassettes not the mere Type II as shown in the video.

 

[solderdude]

Damned ... I really liked the type IV but also would have liked to see type V, but then equipped with with dolby C, S, SR, HX, HXPro, dBX and HighCom all combined.. can't use those either on this miraculous machine... Bah ... it does not even have DNL, dolby B was sooooo old school so don't need that.
Can't play my beloved DCC with it either... another disappointment.
The good news is I can up-sample all my tapes to 192/24 so I can profit from its full 7kHz bandwidth.... or did the testers forget to properly allign the playback head ? Must be it .... can't fault the lovely machine with the nice logo (because it can play files via USB)

hmm.. well back to MQA I guess. I wonder why it does not support that ... there was room for another light on that machine.

 

[JJB70]

Many years ago I had a Nakamichi CR7, it was probably the one bit of very expensive hi-fi I bought that really did sort of justify the price on the basis of engineering and build quality. That probably got nearer to my old Contax RTS3 camera in terms of depth of engineering and quality. I regret selling it.

 

[solderdude]

Still have my Nakamichi 482 around but still need to fix the Dolby B on one side. Have no idea if the deck still works but suspect it will.
Also for me one of the biggest purchases I did (2nd hand even).
Used it a lot back then.

 

[restorer-john]

Well.. maybe in a few years of playing music tapes it has learned to 'fold' the tape properly.

There was plenty of unintended 'folding' of tape around pinch rollers and capstans back in the day. Do you remember when you'd see discarded cassette tape streamed down the highways back in the day? When frustrated drivers tore that chewed cassette out of the car head unit and threw the bastard out the window?

I miss that. The first instance of streaming music.

 

[amirm]

Looks like a junk boombox. Very strange...

 

[Sal1950]

Looks like a junk boombox. Very strange...

It never ceases to amaze me how low the marketers of HiFi gear will sink. The truth is much of what goes on in the High End makes the majority of the folks involved look like they're mentally challenged so anything will fly.
I'm not sure I'm aware of any other industry that is so full of snake-oil and con artist maneuvers as this one.
Half million dollar builds of 40 year obsolete record players, magic dots that remove a thousand veils, 5 $ digit wires., it just goes on and on till I want to vomit. Now a cassette player that will generate High Resolution playback from a 1/8" tape running at 1 7/8 ips.
As a 50 year enthusiast it just plain embarrassing.
With each year that passes it becomes even more of a reverberating question that Peter asked some years back,

"The gullibility of audiophiles is what astonishes me the most, even after all these years. How is it possible, how did it ever happen, that they trust fairy-tale purveyors and mystic gurus more than reliable sources of scientific information?"

 

[Grave]

It's not like hi-res actually means anything anyway.

 

[watchnerd]

There was plenty of unintended 'folding' of tape around pinch rollers and capstans back in the day. Do you remember when you'd see discarded cassette tape streamed down the highways back in the day? When frustrated drivers tore that chewed cassette out of the car head unit and threw the bastard out the window?

I miss that. The first instance of streaming music.

Folding?

Don't you guys mean 'analog origami'?

 

[restorer-john]

...magic dots that remove a thousand veils...

7 veils removed and Rita Hayworth's magic dots sure impressed me, Sal-ome. (1953)

 

[Wombat]

It never ceases to amaze me how low the marketers of HiFi gear will sink. The truth is much of what goes on in the High End makes the majority of the folks involved look like they're mentally challenged so anything will fly.
I'm not sure I'm aware of any other industry that is so full of snake-oil and con artist maneuvers as this one.
Half million dollar builds of 40 year obsolete record players, magic dots that remove a thousand veils, 5 $ digit wires., it just goes on and on till I want to vomit. Now a cassette player that will generate High Resolution playback from a 1/8" tape running at 1 7/8 ips.
As a 50 year enthusiast it just plain embarrassing.
With each year that passes it becomes even more of a reverberating question that Peter asked some years back,

"The gullibility of audiophiles is what astonishes me the most, even after all these years. How is it possible, how did it ever happen, that they trust fairy-tale purveyors and mystic gurus more than reliable sources of scientific information?"

It will probably continue as long as there are 'baby-boomers' retiring with their end-of-career lump-sum payouts.

For the very high-price stuff I wonder how the buyers can be so stupid and yet make enough money to afford it.

 

[watchnerd]

So if I can enhance a cassette by turning it into high resolution digital, can I do the reverse?

I other words, can I enhance high resolution digital by turning it into high resolution analog?

Step 1: 24bit/192khz "digital master"
Step 2: Record to 10" 2-track 15 IPS studio master quality analog tape
Step 3: Profit

Suck that, Tape Project.....

 

[restorer-john]

I'm not sure I'm aware of any other industry that is so full of snake-oil and con artist maneuvers as this one.

The 'Wellness' industry's level of snake-oil is on another scale altogether. Think of globally, everything from Paleo diets, to reiki therapy, crystals, health retreats where they rub Himalayan salt on you, organic beauty products, bottles of whatever the latest 'miracle' super-food found deep in a lost civilization's jungle etc. Acai is the latest isn't it?

 

[watchnerd]

The 'Wellness' industry's level of snake-oil is on another scale altogether. Think of globally, everything from Paleo diets, to reiki therapy, crystals, health retreats where they rub Himalayan salt on you, organic beauty products, bottles of whatever the latest 'miracle' super-food found deep in a lost civilization's jungle etc. Acai is the latest isn't it?

"Male enhancement" products are slightly less scammy than audio.

 

[restorer-john]

"Male enhancement" products are slightly less scammy than audio.

Speaking from experience?

upsampling = enhancment.

Apparently it doesn't actually work or last. I wouldn't know of course.