What New Stuff Have You Bought? If You Care To Share Thead! :)

[j_garcia]

I don't see it as slimey to charge a premium for an item that is no longer produced. Simple supply and demand.

Now, doing the same for basic human needs is a completely different story.

I never had a problem with tape. I used metal tapes at the time too and dad had a quality tape deck too, so as with most analog gear, that quality can vary. I used to buy 10 and 20 packs of tapes whenever I could and immediately record to tape because I obviously couldn't listen to an LP in the car lol. I think I ended up tossing some maxell blanks because I had no use for them because I don't own a working tape deck anymore.

Side note, the 04 WRX I bought still had the original deck in it, it had a combo 6-disc CD and cassette deck in it! It was intermittently dying and I had to pull it out a week ago.

 

[slipperybidness]

I never had a problem with tape. I used metal tapes at the time too and dad had a quality tape deck too, so as with most analog gear, that quality can vary. I used to buy 10 and 20 packs of tapes whenever I could and immediately record to tape because I obviously couldn't listen to an LP in the car lol. I think I ended up tossing some maxell blanks because I had no use for them because I don't own a working tape deck anymore.

Side note, the 04 WRX I bought still had the original deck in it, it had a combo 6-disc CD and cassette deck in it! It was intermittently dying and I had to pull it out a week ago.

I was never really satisfied with cassettes, I was glad to see them go.

I have exactly 2 cassette tapes, but no way to play them. 1 of them is a punk band that is hard to find on CD and/or LP, so usually commands a premium. I was actually able to find the CD on ebay a year of so ago for maybe $25 which was a good deal on that CD. The other one is a punk band out of Houston, my good friends, but that band broke up in the early 2000s and that cassette would be just about irreplaceable, only a few hundred were ever produced.

 

[j_garcia]

I was never really satisfied with cassettes, I was glad to see them go.

I have exactly 2 cassette tapes, but no way to play them. 1 of them is a punk band that is hard to find on CD and/or LP, so usually commands a premium. I was actually able to find the CD on ebay a year of so ago for maybe $25 which was a good deal on that CD. The other one is a punk band out of Houston, my good friends, but that band broke up in the early 2000s and that cassette would be just about irreplaceable, only a few hundred were ever produced.

Tape was not the best sound, but it was what we had at the time. Once CD became widely used, I moved to it. I still have some old cassettes that I recorded, but also now have no way to play them.

I still have my vinyl though (even if I don't listen to them lately)

 

[John Parks]

I have albums that I cannot find digitally or are prohibitively expensive to replace with CDs. I have 3 highly capable Yamaha decks with onboard dbx2 capabilitis that achieves a S/N ratio of greater than 95db; ie no tape hiss. Even with normal bias bias tape, the frequency response is 20 to 20Khz. My friend was of the same opinion that tapes could never reach the quality of the source. So for shits-n-giggles, I recorded a CD on to a Chrome tape. My friend's jaw dropped when he heard the taped version and didn't realize it was the tape and not the CD I was playing. Upper tier decks like the ones I own reach easily reach the source in recording quality.

As far as tape prices go, Chromes and Metal tapes are no longer being produced so there are people there that are asking the moon in prices for these tapes, especially the metals. Its as slimey as store owners that jack the prices up for food and water after a disaster. Going rate for Chrome tapes are about $10

One of my next purchases will be a cassette deck because I have a couple hundred self-recorded cassettes that represent my long gone (not my fault!) LP collection (I would record and never play them again). I had a Denon deck back in the day - I can't remember the model number, but I remember it had HX Pro and it beat out a Nakamichi unit when I was comparing for purchase. Hmm, time for some research!

 

[John Parks]

I just received a Bluesound Node 2i:

I have not opened it up yet as I am moving into my new digs next week. The reason for the purchase is that I will not have a direct link via USB from my computer to integrated amp due to my new apartment's layout. I've heard great things about the Node 2i and am anxious to get it up and running. The only thing it does not have is DSD support, but have read it will convert to PCM - we'll see about that and how it sounds. And yes, I ordered it in white!

 

[3db]

I just purchased these 4 vinyls used...

 

[VonMagnum]

I have albums that I cannot find digitally or are prohibitively expensive to replace with CDs. I have 3 highly capable Yamaha decks with onboard dbx2 capabilitis that achieves a S/N ratio of greater than 95db; ie no tape hiss. Even with normal bias bias tape, the frequency response is 20 to 20Khz. My friend was of the same opinion that tapes could never reach the quality of the source. So for shits-n-giggles, I recorded a CD on to a Chrome tape. My friend's jaw dropped when he heard the taped version and didn't realize it was the tape and not the CD I was playing. Upper tier decks like the ones I own easily reach the source in recording quality.

As far as tape prices go, Chromes and Metal tapes are no longer being produced so there are people there that are asking the moon in prices for these tapes, especially the metals. Its as slimey as store owners that jack the prices up for food and water after a disaster. Going rate for Chrome tapes are about $10

I can understand the desire to have a good tape deck to transfer tapes you cannot easily replace, but that doesn't really explain the need for "blank" tapes by itself. I moved my LPs to digital (yeah I play Dark Side of the Moon off the LP once in awhile directly, but honestly I can't tell the difference between it and the recording of it and the recording never generates a hiss/pops).

Side note, the 04 WRX I bought still had the original deck in it, it had a combo 6-disc CD and cassette deck in it! It was intermittently dying and I had to pull it out a week ago.

My first WRX was an '04. I eventually clogged up the 6-disc changer with a CD-R that had one of those glued labels on it peel up slightly and jam the mechanism. I put a JVC single CD + USB deck in and once I saw how well the USB stick worked, I never used a CD again. My next WRX (2011) had a USB in the glove compartment built-in. I think I used the in-dash CD player twice (when I bought a new CD and didn't want to wait to hear it). My 2015 Turbo Forester has the same setup (without the sub under the seat as the door panels have quite large woofers).

I still miss my '93 Probe GT setup, though. I had all Alpine speakers with a 12" 300 watt sub in the trunk with a Mini-Disc head unit and CD changer. Oh YEAH, fantastic sound for a car! The sub and changer took up half the trunk, though....

 

[j_garcia]

I can understand the desire to have a good tape deck to transfer tapes you cannot easily replace, but that doesn't really explain the need for "blank" tapes by itself. I moved my LPs to digital (yeah I play Dark Side of the Moon off the LP once in awhile directly, but honestly I can't tell the difference between it and the recording of it and the recording never generates a hiss/pops).



My first WRX was an '04. I eventually clogged up the 6-disc changer with a CD-R that had one of those glued labels on it peel up slightly and jam the mechanism. I put a JVC single CD + USB deck in and once I saw how well the USB stick worked, I never used a CD again. My next WRX (2011) had a USB in the glove compartment built-in. I think I used the in-dash CD player twice (when I bought a new CD and didn't want to wait to hear it). My 2015 Turbo Forester has the same setup (without the sub under the seat as the door panels have quite large woofers).

I still miss my '93 Probe GT setup, though. I had all Alpine speakers with a 12" 300 watt sub in the trunk with a Mini-Disc head unit and CD changer. Oh YEAH, fantastic sound for a car! The sub and changer took up half the trunk, though....

My 2011 STI has the embedded Nav system so I left the head unit and it has direct usb as well, so I pretty much just use that in there, especially since it is just a single CD/DVD (which is cool because it supports DTS). The WRX is older and I'd prefer the ability to use USB too, but I already had another OEM 6 disc changer that I pulled out of one of my former Subarus that I swapped in at zero cost to me I have a lot of CDs but had to go digging them out to put them in the car.

My old fun audio car was my 95 Integra GSR with a dual sealed 10" sub I built w/450w. It was capable of vibrating your eyeballs

I just ordered some 17rd magazines for my M&P9 while that window in Ca. law is open

 

[John Parks]

I can understand the desire to have a good tape deck to transfer tapes you cannot easily replace, but that doesn't really explain the need for "blank" tapes by itself.

Um, because it's fun? Isn't that why we are all here? I certainly know that if it was not fun, I would not be doing it (that applies to just about everything in life for me ).

 

[VonMagnum]

Um, because it's fun? Isn't that why we are all here? I certainly know that if it was not fun, I would not be doing it (that applies to just about everything in life for me ).

Hey, whatever floats your boat man. I never found cassettes fun, but more power to you.

 

[davidscott]

Um, because it's fun? Isn't that why we are all here? I certainly know that if it was not fun, I would not be doing it (that applies to just about everything in life for me ).

And who didn't create their own "mix cassettes" back in the day? I know I did for the car and the home decks.

 

[3db]

I can understand the desire to have a good tape deck to transfer tapes you cannot easily replace, but that doesn't really explain the need for "blank" tapes by itself. I moved my LPs to digital (yeah I play Dark Side of the Moon off the LP once in awhile directly, but honestly I can't tell the difference between it and the recording of it and the recording never generates a hiss/pops).

I havent come across a USB turntable I like or that comes close to what I achieve with the turntable I have. My cassette recordings with dbx easily match the source in fidelity and are more "hifi" than what can be achieved by going through a digital transfer with a mediocre USB equipped turntable. Blank cassettes are required to record the album.

 

[Darenwh]

And who didn't create their own "mix cassettes" back in the day? I know I did for the car and the home decks.

The biggest issue with cassette tape was that they suffered from two issues, noise and 'Wow and Flutter'. Noise issues were resolved in some decks but even some expensive decks had unacceptable wow and flutter, which is the speed of the tape varying slightly as it spun. A good deck that controlled this plus had good noise control could make cassette sound very close to the quality of a good CD. Mix cassettes made on a good deck were very nice to listen to in the car...

 

[3db]

The biggest issue with cassette tape was that they suffered from two issues, noise and 'Wow and Flutter'. Noise issues were resolved in some decks but even some expensive decks had unacceptable wow and flutter, which is the speed of the tape varying slightly as it spun. A good deck that controlled this plus had good noise control could make cassette sound very close to the quality of a good CD. Mix cassettes made on a good deck were very nice to listen to in the car...

I dont have any wow and flutter issues with any of my cassette decks and with dbx, SNR are greater than 95 db..

 

[VonMagnum]

I havent come across a USB turntable I like or that comes close to what I achieve with the turntable I have. My cassette recordings with dbx easily match the source in fidelity and are more "hifi" than what can be achieved by going through a digital transfer with a mediocre USB equipped turntable. Blank cassettes are required to record the album.

Who said anything about USB? I'm using a modified Audio Technica table (USB board removed and table damped with clay) with a Nagaoka MP-110 cartridge. I used a Presonus 24/96 firewire interface connected to my Carver preamp with Izotope RX editing software (click/hiss removal). I wanted a Technics table, but they were out of production at the time and used ones doubled in price. The new one is ridiculous for my needs. I barely use this one now that my collection is transferred.

 

[j_garcia]

I dont have any wow and flutter issues with any of my cassette decks and with dbx, SNR are greater than 95 db..

I never had any wow and flutter either, but it was also in a car at ear bleed levels lol. I would play back the vinyl first, with the tape on pause to see what my peak levels (dad's deck had VU meters) were and tweak each recording to that to sort of optimize each tape.

The Technics deck he had looked like this

 

[John Parks]

2015 Volkswagen Sportwagen TDI (diesel) - picked it up this weekend. I was unsure about the whole thing, but when I found out that it came with that sweet Thule roof basket thrown in for free, I was sold!

Of course, the most crucial item is the Fender audio system (which I really, really like!):

 

[John Parks]

And since my new ride does not have navigation, I got my first phone mount. It has a wireless charger, motorized "clamps" and several mounting options (I have it mounted to an air vent for now).

 

[KEW]

"JBL Soundgear, huh, yeah. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again!"

When I first saw one of these, I thought "Well, there's a solution without a problem!"
Now ~2 years later, I'm buying one!
I think I may have found an appropriate problem, but we'll see. Should have it in the next couple of days. I'll try to get in a review by the end of the weekend.

 

[CB22]

https://www.upliftdesk.com/uplift-v2-standing-desk-v2-or-v2-commercial/

perhaps, one of the best things I've bought since the new year with the exceptions of the X-13s of course. Lower back problems gone . I'm sure my back will be grateful in 20+ years.