Huge comeback??? I must have missed that memo :)
What's In Your Tape Cassette Deck Tonight?
With cassette tape making a HUGE comeback in todays ultra-lame-digital-world - what's in your cassette decks these days?
Today, cassette tapes that are cool again are:
O.L.V. - Old Light Variations by Old Light
Problems by Wooden Indian Burial Ground
Rock on curlycassettes.com! So easily you make us smile
Today, cassette tapes that are cool again are:
O.L.V. - Old Light Variations by Old Light
Problems by Wooden Indian Burial Ground
Rock on curlycassettes.com! So easily you make us smile
27 responses Add your response
I just bought a really really nice Harmon Kardon CD391 cassette deck for a song. Once I cleaned the heads and capstains and reconditioned the pinch rollers and demaged it, I played: Donald Fagan-"The Nightfly" Amazing Rhythm Aces-"Too Stuffed To Jump" Charlie-"Lines" Sounds GREAT! Love that analog sound! |
my best pal and owner of a great hi if shop makes me awesome tapes. That's awesome Donjr! (Viva La Mixtape). We have an independent record shop here in Potland that not only have a series of their own AMAZING cassette tape compilations but also a home made mixtape trading spot. Bring one, take one. Great way to find and enjoy new music |
This post reminds me how much I miss my Onkyo TA-2090. Anyone (in the world) have a NIB 120V laying around? I paid $500 around 1986 (Wisconsin Discount Audio in Madison, WI). It gave flawless service until I fed it 240 volts after mis-installing a new ceiling fan (my bad!). I got it working again for a few years but it finally gave out. |
My most recent equipment purchase was a Nakamichi BX-300 deck, mainly to have something decent to play the 50-odd cassettes I made off-air in the Jazz Alive series during the late 1970s and 1980s. I have been flat-out amazed at the sonic quality of these things via the Nak deck. Then I picked up some commercial cassette tapes, knowing how throughly they were dismissed at the time, and found some of them t as good as the better-sounding LPs and CDs. Couple of examples: "Oracle" by Michael Hedges, "Times Like These" by a Gary Burton group with Michael Brecker and John Scofield. |
Back in the 70's and 80's, you would make cassette versions of your LPs to listen to as you had to preserve your LPs for special listening occasions. US LP production quality had become very mediocre. Extremely warped records with noisy surfaces were just so prevalent. It is not like pre-recorded cassettes were much better quality wise ... cheap, glued poorly made products with the noisiest type of tape available. When you purchased blank cassettes, you would seek out the chrome tape cassettes held together with screws that could handle Type II bias. With all this though, cassettes were a good thing ... it made being an audiophile more of a real hobby, as opposed to listening in the digital age where it is just a pastime. I don't miss cassettes at all, but I do miss the hours I spent making mix tapes for my walkman, thinking about what songs flowed well together. Every weekend was a deep dive into the music. Trashed the tape deck about 15 years ago. Can't be bothered putting together a mix playlist for my iPod. Rich |
When I got back into vinyl, I was surprised how few pops and clicks got through to the speakers with a good turntable,arm and phono amp. Having given away my 1000 or so cassettes to Good Will, because I could not handle tape hiss and the wobble in sound, Are these areas which drove me crazy handled better today, or just tolerated better by others? I did keep my Yamaha CK 720 deck. So if there is a resurgence I will sell it, so someone else can enjoy. |
Wow, Rar1, I think we musta been twin sons separated at birth! I used to make some *killer* tapes using the hi-end gear (Tandberg, B&O, Revox, etc.) in the shop I worked for. If you used a top-quality deck like the B&O 9000 and the very best tapes - TDK, Maxell, or Denon metal - and employed Dolby B HxPro to encode, the resultant sound quality was astonishing. I probably made 200 - 300 tapes back in the day and sure wish I could find them now - many good memories to be found in that 1/4 inch tape.... -RW- PS: And I, too, cannot be bothered to make up playlists nowadays, don't know why that is... |
I gave away my cassette tape machine twenty years ago. Zero plans to buy one again. And I would not want one even if given to me for free. LOL I know a few folks who still enjoy thier 8 tracks.. And VHS machiines too. Cassette is in the same boat. No problem with it. Living retro is cool in it's own way... My Lps and turntable fit that. |
I spent may an hour lovingly copying entire albums and making mixed tapes (yesterdays version of a playlist). I gave them as gifts but mostly I made them to be listened to in the car. They're in boxes in the garage. Time to donate them but I wonder if anyone would care enough to listen. The only reason why I still have them is for the sentimental value they hold. |
I have over 300 cassettes and someone wants to give me a bunch more. Recently picked up a Harman Kardon TX392 and an Aiwa ADF660 both 3 head decks and I think as good sounding as my old NAK BX125. I still have about 6 or 8 nice blank tapes so I guess I'll do some recording... So in my cassette decks tonight are: Side A: Chick Corea / Friends Side B: Freddie Hubbard / Sky Dive Side A: Greg Allman / Laid Back Side B: Genesis / Trick of the Tale 90 minute cassettes, 1 album per side, gotta love it :) |
Cassettes had their day and the ones you made yourself were better than the pre-recorded ones. I have a friend who that's all he listens to. I gave him all of mine and he is very happy. I myself would rather burn a cd from my cd library, whatever songs I want, takes a few minutes. When I want analog I play an LP, still have a a few hundred and buy some used occasionally. I have zero interest in paying 30-50 bucks for new vinyl, much of which is digital based. |
Save the date because Saturday September 27th, 2014 marks the return of Cassette Store Day to the music loving public! |
