What is the "thing" that stop cassette, to became like reel to reel?

I stumbled across this format on a Techmoan video on YouTube and it looked like it would be a great format for home use and could have be a companion, if not a replacement, for the turntable.

To me, the one thing that hinders any tape format is the issue of duplication. With vinyl and CD, you can create a disc in either format in the matter of a few seconds. However, with tape to create a copy in the same amount of time you have to duplicate it at high speed which reduces the sound quality. If I've calculated correctly:

• 40 minute album on cassette contains 20 minutes of tape.
• To duplicate it in 30 seconds requires duplication at around 32 times normal speed.

 

True, high speed duplication was always one of the bane's of tape's existence. But there were a handful of audiophile labels which made real-time duplicates which did sound very good. But these weren't cheap!

And I'm not sure if there was every any pre-recorded media available for Elcaset. I'm guessing that the extend of this was probably just a handful of Sony Demo tapes.

 

They (RCA) did in 1958.

It flopped.

 

I have to think the swing back to analog will be more tape rather than vinyl.

 

I'd never seen one of those side by side a Cassette before. That sucker is way bigger than even an Elcaset!

But back then 3.75 ips tape's performance was quite poor. Most R2Rs of that era only had bandwidth to about 15kHz at 7.5 ips. So I'd be willing to bet that this format didn't get past about 12kHz.

 

Although I hope that I'm wrong, I personally suspect that the swing back to analog has probably already past it peak. From a purely technological perspective, analog media is pretty hard to justify with the quality of some of today's digital.

 

Would it (or a modernized version) still flop today, given advances in technology?

 

I prefer the sound of Beatles via VHS vs. DVD.

 

Likewise, I've heard very good sound from good quality cassette decks. Certainly, dubs of CDs made on the JVC dual capstan deck I have are usually indistinguishable from the original CD (granted, on quality tape I can't get anymore).

 

I'm a big fan of JVC cassette decks.

 

Cassettes are, by far, my preferred way to listen to music these days.

 

The player would not fit in cars, and it would make portables even heavier.

. . . plus the uphill battle to sell anything physical in a streaming/download culture.

 

i belive is the bass and deep sound that makes analoge specialt

 

All true, but one of the things that made the MFSL cassettes sound so fabulous was the totally re-engineered cassette mechanism they created.

Another outlandish expense but it gave their cassettes a rock solid sound - playback devices were able to achieve lower flutter because of the very high quality cassette mechanism. Their cassettes were so good that in blind listening tests at a University in Florida between the MFSL cassette and the MFSL vinyl, listeners preferred the cassette.

 

i would like to listen a mono cassette with a mono amp and a big mono speaker




i guess for now it is youtube listen to mono and cassette then

 

Seems counter-intuitive to me. Vinyl is simpler, less reliant on adjustments and wear (head alignment, etc.).
Plus records are popular for the art friendly format (album cover...)

 

Thank you. Great interview.

"As we slogged through the re-engineering of the candidate decks we started feeling a bit overwhelmed. The task looked hopeless. Then, one day, I opened up a KD A77 JVC deck. It was a mid priced unit but lo and behold. It had a 15V power supply. Whoooopeeee. It could drive full swing from the wider bandwidth LF353 op amps we were replacing 4558's with and could punch the bias where it needed to be. Those changes and a few other little things and we had the ultra hotrod recorder of our dreams. They weren't super at playback but man oh man, could they print a mean signal."

 

And that machine is awesome. Could lay one heck of a signal down on a cassette. Radio station I engineered for at one time had one in the production room. It recorded really well, and it's tapes played back better on the Tascams in the building. My CE at the time hotrodded that JVC.

 

3 Head Deck JVC KD-A77 Super ANRS. | eBay

 

It would unless it had more than two companies behind it supporting it. RCA and Bel Canto were the main supporters of the format.

 

Seems like if the ‘want’ and money were there it could have been more.