Cassette tapes revived in Japan

Only way Cassettes & 8-Tracks could honestly be making a comeback is for collectors.

 

Cassettes generally have a lusher, sweeter sound than digital, and therefore, like vinyl, offer a different aural experience. As long as the tape itself and the playback equipment are OK, you won't feel the need to switch off or stop listening after 10-15 minutes, unlike Mp3s. You can even erase the program and record something else on it!
Unlike vinyl, they are portable and can be played on walkmans, car stereos and hi-fi decks. They don't make the hardware any more, but there are thousands of tape players to be had very cheaply on eBay and in Cash Converters type stores everywhere.

The 50% of vinyl buyers purchasing LPs and not listening to them, and half of the remaining 50% who are playing them on Crosley or similar garbage are obviously not supporting arguments about sound quality either. Even the visual aspect of vinyl - the novelty may well wear off sooner than we think (I hope not).

CDs being valued again by the general public would have to mean there being a price hike to around the prices that they originally went for, if not more. Then the arguments against them would start in earnest - they scratch, they stick, they skip, you can't get players anymore...audiophiles will bitch about the limitations of 16/44.1, those with hard drives/cloud storage will think you are insane, etc. etc. etc.

 

That about covers most of what I was going to say. Even the best CDs give me fatigue, a dull headache, something. Some cassettes are a bit better. Just thinking about it, CDs, MP3 probably do some better most of the time? But I don't enjoy listening to them as much. Vinyl is the best though.

 

Are people honestly suggesting that cassette tapes are superior to CDs?

 

Superior? No.

Do I value my Cassettes more than my CDs? Yep.


You can have my CDs. You can't have anything but copies of my tapes.

 

When Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs first released their cassettes they tested a bunch of listeners at a University and found that they preferred the cassette to the MFSL vinyl record of the same album. The MoFi cassettes were quite special and recorded in real time from the master tapes.

 

I don't think so, maybe due to the lack of frequency response some may 'sound' less harsh than it's compact disc counterpart, I recently noticed this on the US Warner A-ha Scoundrel Days
One test I still want to check out, a couple times it was mentioned here that Peter Murphy's Deep sounded better on cassette.
Two I have yet to compare, probably tomorrow I'll get to it-Duran Duran US Rio to the US K. mix lp, they carry the same mixes and Pet Shop Boys-Nightlife (which I find way compressed)

 

It's not a revival yet when you can still only buy new software. When you can buy a brand new, high quality cassette deck, then I'll consider it.

 

Yes let us know about 'Nightlife' as I have the pre-recorded cassette and CD as well.

 

That is the BIG problem, as well all the inherent problems and limitations of tapes generally.

The current portable tape players I see in stores are worse than the ****ty knockoff GPX players we used in the 80s and 90s.

As for cassette decks there is this:

Amazon.com: Pyle Home PT649D Dual Cassette Deck: Home Audio & Theater »

Yeah, not great.

 

how much do you think they will charge when they bring out all the beatles albums in mono and stereo

 

I was surprised to see the Force Awakens soundtrack on cassette at my local HMV, though I suspect that it's really just a misguided marketing thing.

However, a friend works at a very savvy brick and mortar music store where many local bands stock their releases on consignment, and I've noticed a definite increase in the number of cassette-only releases over the past few years. The bands seem to be millennials and younger, and my guess is that they don't favour cassettes in spite of all the aforementioned reasons (mediocre sound quality, not as convenient, aging hardware issues, limited audience, and all the other reasons that mostly middle-aged fuddy-duddies like us roll our eyes and pish-posh at), but BECAUSE of them.

It's a playful flip of the bird to all of us "establishment types" whose first reaction to a news story like this is, "wait, did he just say 'cassettes'?"

I can see why it's fun for them. It's proper for the younger generation to do what they're not supposed to; to flout convention. After all, there's more to music than sound quality or convenience. The experience plays a vital role as well, and no-one can say that cassettes don't possess their own unique experience.

 

Amoba in Hollywood has a bunch for sale at crazy prices, locked in in a glass case in the back room. Kinda sad.

 

What I have been noticing at various swap meets, record shops, thrift stores, etc. is that young people are now exploring other media format besides vinyl. I have seen them with (new) cassettes and believe it or not, 4 and 8 track tape cartridges. Stuff that they couldn't give away a couple of years ago and now seeing new interest. Vinyl is beginning to calm down a little bit as of late. We will see if this trend continues.

 

New albums, both from major modern artists and local bands.

 

About 15 years ago I bought a Nakamichi LX5 and made copies of some CDs onto tape. The Nakamichi copies of the CDs sounded better. More natural, sweeter, still having a fully extended frequency range and dynamics and a more natural sense of air. Is anyone here going to argue digital sounds better than analogue? If you've never owned a good Nakamichi, you don't know what cassettes are capable of. They make other tape decks look sick. And I owned a lot over the years. I was very surprised by the results of my experiment.

 

You don't have to stick a pencil through the hole in a CD to wind the music source back into place.

 

CDs also support artistic presentation. You don't have to consider time limits for the two sides.

 

I was a big home taper and had some good Sony decks. I had an Aiwa 3500 (?) with Dolby C way back in 1982. I bought blank tapes in packs of 10- bright orange BASF 's 90 mins long. Never went for ultra thin 120min tapes that always got snagged in your deck. I stayed with it right through to Dolby S, though I wasn't crazy about the processed sound it produced. It was satisfying until I got my hands on CD and then MD for dubbing. I was a fan but things moved on, majorly.

 

Well, I hooked it up and played this! It didn't sound half as bad as I thought it was going to. It was probably one of the latest produced cassettes before they became virtually defunct though. God alone knows where it came from, I'm guessing it was my wife's before we got together.

 

This one didn't fare so well but had a certain nostalgic charm, i.e. it sounded like it did on the mono cassette recorder it used to get played on when I was a kid (placed under my bed, right in the middle, so I got pseudo-'stereo' coming out from each side of the bed!)

 

That's the problem with mini disc; they didn't have the initial popularity to warrant an actual "comeback".

 

Fair dues. Minidisc did better than DAT.

 

I sometimes like to listen to these ... Pepper sounds really quite good. Planet Waves, not so ...

 

I had an MD Walkman for all of 6 months before I got rid of it!