Cassette tapes revived in Japan

I wish I could go back in time. I wish that all the money I spent on cassettes would have been spent on the lp versions instead.

 

Just a basic Panasonic model. The problem was digital television. I think it had something to do with the input to the VCR. Here's the guide to recording digital TV.
Converting a TV and Video Recorder for Freeview »
Personally, it was easier to get a box to record the TV onto a hard drive.

 

Just about right. Disk Union are now selling about 30 titles in their Jazz Tokyo shop where before they might have had half a dozen. I recall seeing a Japanese HiFi mag nearby with maybe a Nakamichi Dragon plastered on the front to help the newbie understand all the fuss. And yes, you won't find anything but a small corner of Yodobashi Camera with a tiny selection of FeCr C90's. This 'revival' is going nowhere...

 

I like the look of the Japanese version, although it's pricey.

 

Princey and pricey. ( I'm here all week...)

 

Original late 60's to early 70's US and UK Beatles cassettes with paper labels sold in very small amounts. Now they are pretty rare and collectible. Some are bringing good money........even though they sound mediocre. The best sounding Beatles cassettes were the MoFi and early 90's UK XDR issues.
.

 

My 2 grandsons, 7 & 4, are coming for a sleep over New Years Eve and I'm pretty sure they've never experienced cassettes. So,we're getting out a mini boom box and have some fun! Hopefully it'll keep those grimy little hands from messing with my vinyl and CD's and still serve the main objective of listening to music but from a different POV formatically speaking.

Please don't throw out your cassettes if they are still in good condition....donate them. I know lots of people who still use them. Music can bring comfort and joy no matter what the format and cassettes are the most affordable means to some folks.

 

I did just discover that my Yamaha deck goes for between £30 and £80 on eBay though...so it'll be going on tomorrow! It's in mint condition and I'm fairly sure the original box is in the loft.

 

It's not just that, it's basically any indie artist that records on their laptop and operates on a small scale. The genre doesn't matter. Hip hop DJ mixes are also making a comeback on cassettes.

For ~$200 a small scale hipster indie band can have 100 tapes professionally made. Much of the time fanbases for this kind of thing won't buy CDs period, and tapes are "cool" again so it makes sense. Vinyl is simply too expensive for an artist of the scale to do. Bandcamp is flooded with artists like this. I wouldn't be surprised if many people are buying the tapes as a tchochkey and then listening to the download that Bandcamp provides. Many people do the same thing with vinyl.

I lived on tapes for years so I'm not ga-ga over the format like some are. I much prefer a CD or LP, or even a FLAC download.

That said, I will buy the occasional tape if I can't get the music on another format. About eight years ago I bought a bunch of tapes along with an NOS Sony Walkman from eBay.

A friend recently sent me an old cassette deck, so I've got it hooked up to my stereo now.

I made this tape for him as a thank you. My first homemade cassette comp in over 15 years:

 

I take it you no longer wear pants. What have you replaced them with?

 

I guess that will have to do until the technology gets to the point that it is possible to actually record audio to that newfangled "digital compact disc" format. One can only dream...

 

I own Nakamichi Dragon and still play cassettes all the time.

 

Had 450. Kept 60 'special' ones in a nicely finished wood cassette rack. That's it.

Cassettes were big FUN!

& it's analog!

 

Statements like these were common place in the 80s and 90s, as a comment on the demise of vinyl...

 

Same here -ot, a few of mine escaped the 'big dump' in the early 90's I had about 200 or so. It's fun re-visiting and if I find an oddball title at the thrift I'll grab it. Duran Duran Rio US has the K mixes as found on the lp, kinda neat

 

I still collect and buy pre recorded tapes with good sound quality, but I only have less than 100 total. Early prerecorded cassettes had terrible sound quality and record companies used the cheapest quality tapes they could find. However, in the late 1980's and 1990's, cassettes had improved tremendously. Those are what I am interested in. CD's became a much more convenient user friendly media and cassettes sort of fell out of favor. I really like the small collection of tapes that I still have.

 

I agree! What's worse is that they are playing prerecorded tapes.

I think this revival is on two levels:
1) Nostalgia, and a reaction to a digital world
2) Millennials who never knew a world with analog. First it was vinyl, now it's cassettes. Can an 8-track cartridge revival be next? Can reel-to-reel ever come down in price?

 

Oh man, apparently I didn't throw all the cassettes, my wife's just found about 200 at the back of one of her wardrobes...I'm now sorely tempted to hook up that deck and have a listen. Queen cassettes from the 70's that I'd even ticked the songs I liked on the insert, Neil Young - Freedom, Prince - Purple Rain, Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits (the Peter Green version)...

 

Yep, I know - I was there. Despite all logical arguments I could never let go of vinyl but as for cassettes, I've never looked back...

 

Ah, but wait: back in the late 70s and 80s, recording your own cassettes was just one step below reel-to-reel, and the format was considered the best alternative. Elaborate decks, such as the Nakamichi dragon were created to get the absolute best out of them because that deck moved the pressure pad out of the way and created the correct tension, and I think it self-adjusted the heads for optimum playback. Anyway, my point is that cassettes, if you rolled your own on a quality deck and knew what you were doing, produced a satisfying sound. It's just a shame that Dolby S came out too late, and that the labels didn't upgrade the quality before digital downloads and CD-R replaces it. But, Dolby S with Dolby HX Pro, and a good tape, was the best you could get before the format's demise.

 

Oh, that's right! See, we didn't go all-digital here in the states until starting around eight years ago.

 

I have 5 working decks.
Among them a Dragon and several other 3 Head Units.

Nothing wrong with cassette tapes when they are done right.

Maintenance is key. Clean decks are happy decks.

Hell, I have 2 Reel to Reel Machines I still use regularly...
Never understood the Tape Bashers.

 

Oh, Dear God.. Not this again!

Cassettes are useless, end of story! (The pre-recorded ones at least.)

 

Back in the 80s, a lot of guys told me they would never go digital until we could record our own CD-R. That became possible on the consumer level in the early 90s, but not truly affordable until the late-90s. It's the main reason I got into computers. I created my first CD-Rs at the local college. My friend's dad ran the computer lab there, and was into making his own music CD-Rs. Back then, the best consumer Windows program was Adaptec CD Creator. There was Sound Forge, but I didn't know about that yet.

 

Some gird their loins with strategically placed vinyl mostly because of the warmth.