Cassette Tapes

[davidscott]

Looks like Tascam might be getting back in the cassette manufacturing business.

Tascam is making brand new cassettes for its ancient four-track recorders

 

[davidscott]

Wow no interest on cassettes these days? I don't really have any interest either.

 

[3db]

Wow no interest on cassettes these days? I don't really have any interest either.

I just saw this. Stay away from these David. They are junk as well as the new Tascam cassette deck being made.

Here's a thread in Tapeheads.net discussing the new tape.

TASCAM releases NEW type II c-60 cassette

https://tascam.com/us/product/424/top

www.tapeheads.net

 

[afterlife2]

I'm interested. Too bad the prices have gone too high on chrome and metal Cassettes. I did get some on ebay last year for a good deal. Haven't had a chance to open them yet.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

This conversation is analogous (pun intended) to the benefits of one steam engine design over another, while ICE engines beginning to be depreciated and EV cars are raging full steam ahead (again pun intended)

 

[3db]

This conversation is analogous (pun intended) to the benefits of one steam engine design over another, while ICE engines beginning to be depreciated and EV cars are raging full steam ahead (again pun intended)

It may seem that way to you but I'd rather inform people to stay away from junk then to get hooked into it. People still buy and drive vintage cars. Not much difference.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

It may seem that way to you but I'd rather inform people to stay away from junk then to get hooked into it. People still buy and drive vintage cars. Not much difference.

Fair enough. But to my point, vintage cars which people buy and drive are 99.99% ICE based. Sure, there are some SOME antique steam cars, but they are more like museum pieces, not daily driving cars for all purposes.
CDs have been around since 1982, that's 40 years ago. It's long even for cars, but this is as ancient as dinosaurs for technology timeframe.
I think your post was helpful, but I can't help to feel amused that people still use vinyl and cassette tapes at all.
I guess I guess I shouldn't underestimate the power of nostalgia.

 

[3db]

Fair enough. But to my point, vintage cars which people buy and drive are 99.99% ICE based. Sure, there are some SOME antique steam cars, but they are more like museum pieces, not daily driving cars for all purposes.
CDs have been around since 1982, that's 40 years ago. It's long even for cars, but this is as ancient as dinosaurs for technology timeframe.
I think your post was helpful, but I can't help to feel amused that people still use vinyl and cassette tapes at all.
I guess I guess I shouldn't underestimate the power of nostalgia.

Vinyl record sales are continuing to grow as are the choices of new turntables. There are more manufacturer of quality turntables these days then there was in the hay day of vinyl. Its not nostalgia that you are over estimating, its involvement, ritual and people wanting something tangible. Vinyl is considerably older than tape media so I would put cassette into the roaring 20s.

 

[SithZedi]

Agree with 3db. I have a few hundred cassettes, more than that in vinyl, as well as some left over 8 tracks! Vinyl and CDs will stand the test of time better. Have been trying to convert many of the cassettes to CDs and USBs over the last few years and about a quarter of them are too worn for good sound or break out right in the cassette player. Granted they are over 30 years old but I remember a fairshare of cassettes would break on me while they were new.

 

[little wing]

I had some valuable recordings on cassette I made, maybe 20 or 30 years ago. I found someone to convert them to CD. It worked out great! The functionality of having to rewind or fast forward, plus the sound quality caused me to move away from this format though. I still have an Onkyo cassette player from back in the day that was well made and still works like a charm.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

..ritual and people wanting something tangible.

Imho music playing "ritual" and nostalgia are roughly related. Speaking of something tangible - CDs are tangible, they even have pretty printed paper covers in jewel cases.

 

[Mikado463]

I have relegated my old cassette deck to the garage system, it works and plays just fine .......

 

[MR.MAGOO]

I bought a TASCAM CD-A580 deck in 2019 , it can play CD's, Cassettes, USB drives and record to cassette or USB. Thought I'd try to copy some old tapes to USB.

 

[davidscott]

I just saw this. Stay away from these David. They are junk as well as the new Tascam cassette deck being made.

Here's a thread in Tapeheads.net discussing the new tape.

TASCAM releases NEW type II c-60 cassette

https://tascam.com/us/product/424/top

www.tapeheads.net

Thanks for the heads up but I ditched my last deck (an AIWA of some sort) back in 2012. I have no prerecorded tapes and am not interested in making any. But man, I used to make mix tapes for my car back in the 80s and 90s.

 

[3db]

Imho music playing "ritual" and nostalgia are roughly related. Speaking of something tangible - CDs are tangible, they even have pretty printed paper covers in jewel cases.

IHO, you are still missing two factors, involvement and the physical media. More too it then simple nostalgia.

 

[davidscott]

Vinyl record sales are continuing to grow as are the choices of new turntables. There are more manufacturer of quality turntables these days then there was in the hay day of vinyl. Its not nostalgia that you are over estimating, its involvement, ritual and people wanting something tangible. Vinyl is considerably older than tape media so I would put cassette into the roaring 20s.

I still have a REGA P3 with about 100 LPs. Still, I play CDs about 95% of the time but it is nice to listen to Vinyl once in a while.

 

[3db]

I still have a REGA P3 with about 100 LPs. Still, I play CDs about 95% of the time but it is nice to listen to Vinyl once in a while.

I'm media agnostic as long as the music is good.

 

[davidscott]

I'm media agnostic as long as the music is good.

Agreed.

 

[rjharle]

I have been digitizing my cassettes recorded in the 70s - 80s. I recorded a lot of vinyl using a Nakamichi 680ZX, DBX and Maxell Metaxial (metal) C90 tape, and they still sound a good as the day I recorded them.

I'm converting them because I still have the vinyl, but I'm not sure if it sounds the same. Furthermore, I played the vinyl a lot and through wear the vinyl my not sound the same. So I would record all my vinyl as I purchased it ... new. I considered it a way of archiving my collection. I know no tape system will compare to vinyl, but it was the best I had at the time.

To bring the music back, I'm digitizing the tape with the Nakamichi 680ZX, DBX and a Korg DS-DAC-R10 with Audiogate software. Store them all on a flash drive and play them back on a Nvidia Shield Pro TV using the Kodi App.

Why not just hook the Nakamichi/DBX into my AVR and play the tapes, you may ask. Well, the one thing I didn't like about tapes was I couldn't listen to a selection of songs. I had to play the tape linearly or fast-forward to the tune I wanted to hear.

 

[3db]

When I play vinyl, I let it play through and rarely lift the tone arm half way through a song. I can honestly say that there is very little difference if any between my cassette recordings and the vinyl source.