Huh? Now a cassette resurgence? Fascinating WSJ article

I prefer not using noise reduction.

To me, it dampens the sound.

I'd rather hear slight hiss and an open air sound.

 

I am one of those cavemen who never abandoned cassettes because I always enjoyed the process of making mix tapes instead of flipping vinyl every cut. I finally graduated to a Teac 8030S which I recalibrate for every tape because I like doing things. I make mix tapes from MoFi discs now . I'm going to send my deck to Partsconnexion for a circuit update because it is time. Having started with AM through FM then vinyl and cassette I don't mind that it is labour intensive versus files etc. Life in a cave can be good.

 

I have a 20 year old son in college and cassette tapes are the "New Thing" he even asked me for the old Sony Walkman sitting in our closet for the last 10 years...It seems that new and local college bands like the cassette since they are cheaper to make, easy record their music on and duplicate as well as being small and light weight enough to schlep to concerts and clubs where they can sell them cheaply and still bring some money home. Now I see even big well known recording artists are making tapes available for sale just like LP's. You can order new releases on cassette....

What's old is new again...keep your old bell bottom jeans, soon enough your kids will ask you for them.....

 

On the other hand, I asked my college freshman son if anyone he knew used cassettes and he said no. It's hardly a full-fledged movement. I'll report back if anything changes. Still have that Walkman to give him if he asks....

 

I've read that Dolby no longer licenses type B/C/S noise reduction, which is one of the reasons why it's completely absent on new equipment. So unless that changes, I can't see anything even remotely half decent being manufactured today.

 

Nobody makes Dolby NR encoding/decoding chips anymore. That's the real reason.

I'm sure someone could restart production, but only if they saw sufficient demand for it. Also anyone can make a clone of Dolby, just like JVC did with ANRS, but at this point it would probably be implemented via digital signal processing, so the purists who demand all-analog sound would be disappointed.

 

Yes, if we eliminated (never to be spoken of again) every subject brought up it would soon be completely silent around here. Also revisiting old subjects can bring new information and ideas to light. Rock on.