Cassette Tapes..Dolby B or C?

It rounds the CDs and softens the high frequency fatigue?

And throws in the tiniest amount of tape hiss - enough to get sentimetal about analogue?

I can't tell if this is a serious question, or one written tongue in check, but I'll answer honestly.

In my opinion, analog cassette recordings do round out the CD sound and slightly soften the high frequency fatigue. I like the results.

With my Yamaha deck, and using Dolby C encoding and TDK SA tape, there was VERY little tape hiss. In fact, I'd say nothing more than one can hear on almost any above average quality CD made from original analog source tape.

In the generation of master tapes DBX processing beat out Dolby. The DBX processors available to amateurs at a reasonable price were less sophisticated, and comparable to Dolby. I used one for a while. In the world of master tapes it was also noticed that running a recording made by other means through an analog tape recorder made it sound better. About 30 years ago I could give you the reason, but those gray cells are gone.

Isn't it funny that recording CDs on casette tape seems to give 'better' or more satisfying sound, yet digital 'dissers' claim that the reason for digital's poorer sound is the LACK of information (overtones, microdynamics, etc.) contained in that medium. Are we saying that analogue recordings of digital recordings restore information or just introduce distortions that are pleasing?!! 'Rounding off' the highs seems like losing even more information.
Bob P.

Tvad

I was not being tongue in cheek.

Bob P

I think both of those statements can be true.

To my ears (as a digital "disser") CDs

1) accentuate frequencies - or add information? - that I find fatiguing.

But at the same time, digital often has

2) an absence of certain spatial cues, harmonic overtones, richness and depth.

In the case of a CD archived on a tape, I see no reason why the tape can't improve on point 1) and perhaps sound better.

Obviously, it can't create the missing info from point 2.
One audio writer, years ago, described the low noise of CDs as a silence of absence, not a silence of presence.

Nonetheless, perhaps the noise of analogue is in some way creates a better illusion of that, even with the information that was "missing" from the CD.

Cwlondon, you might enjoy experimenting with recording your CDs to cassette tape using a good Dolby B/C cassette deck and high quality tape (like the TDK SA). Cassette decks are dirt cheap these days...probably less than a jar of contact enhancer.

:)