Huh? Now a cassette resurgence? Fascinating WSJ article

My vintage cars have cassette decks. I make mixed tapes all the time.

 

I knew about it. Have gotten into arguments with hipsters at the bars about the merits of them. I'll concede that USED cassettes are cheap and relatively portable, that's about it. So if a high school or college kid wants Purple Rain and $3 is the cheapest path to that without downloading illegally....fine. But the increasingly common buying/pre-ordering new album on cassette thing? I can't really support that.

 

Cassette players are starting to reappear in stores, although they're usually flimsy and tinny-sounding, just like the Crosley record players that all the teenagers love...

 

No, not everybody knows that. I'm fairly new here, and I have no knowledge that this has "been repeatedly discussed". It was a new article, and I just thought it was a very interesting read that some others might like to see.

 

I'll never understand this. Cassettes were poor in their day: They get damaged too easily with crimps and players eating them, every tape has a different head alignment so if you want to best quality you have to adjust your head to each tape, fidelity was questionable at best. BUT, you will be able to tell that they are just using the same squashed master as they did for the CD when you see the LEDS hovering solidly towards the end without the back and forth that dynamics will give you. I don't expect this last gasp of cassettes will be as vast or as long lasting as the vinyl resurgence.

 

If you'd read just a little bit further, you would have noticed that I suggested that a bit of repetition is a good thing. Basically, it sometimes gets other members to think of familiar subjects in new ways. In any case, I wasn't quoting you.

The point is that if more new members spent a moment using the forum search function, they'd find a lot of threads on a lot of subjects. That's a good way to find out what sort of discussions have already taken place about a particular subject. More important, it's also a good way of quickly digging up enough information to help new members frame their topics/subjects in ways that are more engaging, less wide-eyed and less repetitious.

I'm guilty of not doing searches before posting too. Nobody is immune for sure, so don't take it personally because it wasn't intended that way.

 

As with vinyl, the increasing popularity of cassettes today has little to do with sound quality, price, or convenience.

First, with music having largely moved to an intangible delivery, there's nothing to show for one's emotional connection to the music. Physical formats like vinyl and cassette provide a tangible representation of the music. The more physical, the better. And thus the seemingly absurd statistic that half of all new records sold don't actually get played, or are played only a couple of times, with people listening primarily to the included download or streaming it instead. It's not about listening to the item itself, but having a tangible, physical representation of the emotional experience. You can't collect streams, and a hard drive full of downloads doesn't feel any more substantial than an empty one.

Second, for anyone born after the mid-90s or so, cassettes are a novelty. For those who have never known anything but digital formats, the idea of music coming from plastic ribbon coated in powdered metal would seem incredibly novel. (I'm a bit this way with 8-tracks, which I never had back when they were around, but I'm delighted by for their sheer daftness).

Third, for those who do actually listen, the fact that decent decks and blanks are no longer manufactured is irrelevant. The hiss, transient smearing, azimuth issues etc are all part of the experience. All the types of distortion we tried so hard to mitigate back in the day are now seen as enhancing qualities. Which again makes sense for people who have only known digital formats.

 

Ok, fine, but I suspect that most any poster would have taken your comment as somewhat of a rebuke. And even if the topic of a cassette "revival" HAD been previously posted and discussed, does that mean that a new article should not be posted? I'm just making sure so that, if that is frowned upon here, I won't post any new articles that have in any way been touched on before.

 

I need to stand up for @Agitater . He made a real effort to be kind and I don't think you're hearing that. He was balancing his advice about searching topics with a sincere understanding for wanting to post something of immediate interest. I think it's a mistake to take further umbrage from that kind of response.

I've enjoyed this topic and have taken my tape player out again. I just cleaned the heads (and ordered a new cleaning cartridge on eBay). Davy Spillane's Shadow Hunter and Dervish's Playing With Fire made for a great morning music experience while I got some work done. So thanks for the opportunity to revisit this topic! No sarcasm, pal.

 

I mean real cassette decks.

 

OK, well, then I will defer to your judgement and knowledge of him, although that still leaves the question of what you think he needed to "be kind" about in the first place. Did I do something improper, or not? Rest assured, I'll certainly be more careful about posting any more new topics here for sure.

 

I don't know about cassettes, but I think the vinyl resurgence is mostly to do with sound quality.

 

No it's not. It's about being "cool". Do you think the average vinyl listener actually has a good turntable that's set up well? I doubt it.
As for cassettes, just walk into any store that sells t-shirts with something printed on them, and you'll find one with cassettes on the front. I still can't find much in the way of actual blank cassettes, though. I'm sure Maxell, or TDK will re-launch them at some ridiculously high price as soon as they realize people will buy them for the cool factor.

 

According to the data linked below, the average selling price of new turntables in the USA in 2016 was $74.53. Sound quality is one of the last objectives of any turntable that cheap.

Some Groovy Data

 

That can't be possible. It has nothing to do SQ as I see it. It's just in line with being cool.

 

It constantly amazes me how people make judgements without consideration for varying circumstances. The ultimate in self-absorption.

I spent most of my working life as a manufacturer's rep, on the road with only my own music to keep me going. I made hundreds of cassettes from my own LPs and CDs (and others), and I still have a few hundred. They're not the be-all and end-all of fidelity, but even tapes recorded years ago still sound more then listenable at home.

I disposed of the tapes that were duplicates, but still enjoy the others.

Just remember Steven Wright's line, "Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes. Then you'll be a mile away from him - and you'll have his shoes!"

Cheers,
Larry B.

 

No doubt, there is probably more in the way of those lacking knowledge being manipulated by a sense of 'belonging' to some hip movement than a bona fide increase in knowledgeable consumers suddenly discovering vinyl as a sound phenomena. I don't disagree. Yet, there have got to be quite a few people who at least think they're getting into something of an improvement to their listening situation. In that sense, the journey starts with this kind of market opportunity. The availability of online forums like the one we have here means that some of those folk will seek out and discover the limitations of what they have bought at first blush.

When it comes to cassettes, I think it unlikely you'll see a truly quality-based resurrection of the medium. There are so many advantages to hi-rez digital capture that you're much better off purchasing a quality soundcard for your pc and going from there. Tapes are a romantic and nostalgic notion at best. I'm enjoying a sudden renewal of interest in my equipment/collection, but I'm not about to make anything new that isn't a mix tape with the benefits I posted about earlier - essentially a more on-the-fly approach to composing a mix that allows for goofy analog moments like blending songs together that is just more spontaneous than planning and executing the same thing in a pro-style sound editor. Otherwise, I'm loving how good the old stuff sounds after all these years. And my equipment is low/mid-grade as per usual.

Still, what's wrong with wanting to be cool by listening to old formats? I never would have discovered old time radio if I didn't think it was cool to be into something nostalgic during my teens. Wanting to be cool isn't so bad. It's a phase of immaturity like many others. It doesn't make people good or bad or any more ridiculous than the rest of us.

God bless Steven Wright!

 

You speak in very absolute terms, but it doesn't change my opinion.

At least in the small circle in which I travel, I'm constantly noticing how people perceive vinyl as having better sound quality than CDs.

I collect both formats about equally, so I have no dog in any "race". But it seems clear that the perception of vinyl collectors and often even people who are more casual music listeners out there is that vinyl sounds better than CD.

Anyway, I absolutely believe that the vinyl resurgence is first and foremost about sound. To suggest that all of these people are trying to be "cool" is assumptive at best, and quite patronizing at worst.

In answer to your last question? Yes. I do believe the average vinyl listener probably has a good turntable that's set up well. It's not rocket science. And these days there are many good turntables even for people on a budget. I find your line of thinking here to be condescending nonsense, actually.

 

Younger people and the "Crosley" users out there are numerous. I didn't say ALL vinyl enthusiasts don't collect for the sound, but I do believe that the majority of newcomers to buying vinyl do not have any idea how to setup a turntable, or even have a good turntable in the first place. To many, the crackles and pops make it trendy and cool to listen to vinyl. It's actually the lack of sound quality for people like that. It's trendy like living in a tiny house.

 

It is for me

 

This is just weird. I strive to have vinyl as free from crackles and pops as possible -- in order to more completely enjoy the superior sound quality of my vinyl in my system.

 

Thats cool, i thought I was the only one who did that LOL

 

Superior compared to what? Back when vinyl records were the common plebian music format, audiophiles enjoyed the superior sound quality of reel-to-reel tapes. On a good-quality 7½ IPS tape, it was as close to the original master tape as you could get.

 

Any other source I've tried in comparison including CD and SACD digital, tuner, cassette... I confess however to have concentrated mostly on vinyl playback improvement for many years now.