Pre-Recorded Cassette Tape Albums are rising in prices!!!

iPods aren't just havens for mp3's though. They can handle ALAC. Still, your point is well-taken.

Ed

 

MP3 is becoming increasingly pointless as storage space increases, allowing people to save their music in at least 16/44 lossless files. And I certainly understand the opposition to lossy formats. But the idea that all analog beats anything digital is just silliness. There's bad analog and great digital, and vice versa. Anyone who chooses to listen to mediocre analog to make some philosophical stand is doing themselves a disservice, but there's no accounting for taste.

 

Oh, it is.

 

Sony made some very solid Walkmans too, with Quartz Locked, Direct Drive motors, such as the WM DD series or the legendary WM D6C recorder.

 

Cassettes were only good for two things: Record a copy of your LP when it was still pristine and new, and making mix tapes. I never bothered to purchase a single pre-recorded cassette of an album - they were always inferior to vinyl and cds.

 

Well...no, i'd say 256kbps.

I have three high-end cassette decks, and they sounded mighty good, almost matching the CD sources they were made from, but even then, i'd say 320 mp3 is their best equivalent, and even that was after painstakingly tweaking the bias to the best tape that worked best on the machine.

 

I have been able to create some mighty good digital transfers of prerecorded cassettes, that is, after adjusting the heads/using the best deck, or using software to correct phase.

 

Indeed they did - I've got a WM D6C. And great as it is, it doesn't sound as good as a well-encoded MP3 at 256kbps or higher.

 

Mmm...well OK. No doubt that in technical terms you are correct and for casual listening Mp3s are fine (I've got hundreds stored on my HTC phone for when I'm out and about), but for many of us, that Sony Walkie Pro is pretty darn special - really as good as a Revox at 7.5ips with the right tape.

FWIW, several years ago I made a live recording of my rehearsal on both a WM D6C and a Tascam DR100, both sourced the same way from the same microphone preamp.

The Tascam was obviously good, but I preferred the Sony cassette for it's deep, rich harmonics, 'immediate' musicality and true-to-life "vivid" sound. It didn't need a whole host of plug-ins/effects/VSTs to sound good, the pitch was pretty rock solid (no wow/flutter) and there was no problems with hiss.

Here's the recording:
Rehearsal at The Joint, London, 2011, by Shak Cohen »

 

For those who are claiming azimuth issues with pre-recorded cassettes, the Technics RSAZ6/7 has the same tiny playback head as was used on DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) recorders - it doesn't require demagnitizing, and is very consistent and accurate sounding.

Technics RS-AZ7 - Manual - Stereo Cassette Deck - HiFi Engine »

 

Like I am going to hunt down that deck and pay a lot of money for it?

 

Pre-recorded cassettes on ebay are on the rise. I highly doubt many are buying cassettes to replace vinyl and cd's. The demand for the product is more as a collectable item.

 

The millennials are fueling the current cassette craze. They were born into a world where downloaded files were the norm for obtaining and listening to music. Like the vinyl record, many of them have had no previous experience with tape.

 

About $50 or $60 on eBay.

 

Well, I jumped back in time. I ordered a pack of blank cassette tapes and I'm now contemplating just what I'm going to use them for?

Back in the tape recording days, I didn't mind jumping track to track on an LP so I could make a personalized "best of" cassette tape. Now I don't like jumping tracks. Then the question would be, when would I play it? It can only be at home, apparently.

I know this thread wasn't created for this sort of discussion, but in the realm of playing cassette recordings, who do it and what do they listen to?

 

There is something about recorded tape that has always been intriguing to me. If one wants to dabble into cassettes, r2r, or even 8 track cartridges, I say "why not"! These media were good enough for millions in their heyday, why not those who currently share an interest in collecting a few.

Although I would never compare them to the sonic benefits of vinyl LP's or CD's, they do have their own charm. I have small collections of both cassette tapes and 8 tracks where I kept the best examples from previous collections pretty much as a conversation piece. I recently played a few to realize that some still sound pretty good after almost 50 years. I still have some reel tapes, but no player to play them on.

To go hog wild in collecting cassette tapes or 8 tracks as a mainstay music collection is pretty silly in my opinion,but to check out a few along the way doesn't hurt a thing. It gives newbie's an insight how many of us bought our records in the past. Who knows? Maybe there will be a tape recording resurgence sometime in the future. No one ever thought vinyl would make a comeback either.

 

I was in my local HMV yesterday and was surprised to see a cassette of Nirvana 'Montage' for £9.99!

 

Quite possibly.

As a former cassette listener, the fact that his mix tape was still playing fine after all those years, without ever jamming up and getting eaten, was a bit harder for me to believe than it was to believe in a talking raccoon !

 

You could remake 'classic' 2 on 1 tapes from your past, maybe use period tapes for good measure and play back in the spirit of simpler times on a decent walkman. You'll be surprised just how good they can sound.

 

I'd look for one with more metal in the mechanism even if it feels more chunky in your hand. I remember buying a Sony with auto reverse and dolby in 1991 and that thing wasn't as well made nor sounded as good as my 1987 Aiwa 'brick'.

 

Bring on prerecorded MiniDiscs!!

 

So many memories...
"And she's buying a stairway to..........chung.........ka-chung......heaven."



As Graham Parker sang : "The past ain't even worth livin' in..."

D.D.

 

I usually use them for either one of two things.

Sometimes I will record two albums (from a CD or LP source) on each side of a 90 minute blank cassette, for the car or on the go. ANYTHING but an MP3 or downloaded file will do.

The other thing I use them for, (this is my favorite!) Every Saturday night at 10, my hobby for the past few years has been recording old Coast to Coast AM airings from the 90's with Art Bell hosting. The program is called "Art Bell: Somewhere In Time" The old broadcasts make for a very interesting listen. Much better than modern day CTC, since Art would always touch on much more interesting and thought provoking subjects. which is why I record it! And after recorded, I have an entire wall/shelf of cassettes dedicated to Art Bell broadcasts where I store them all, and pull one out about every night to listen! (Just recorded another one tonight, actually.) Brings back a lot of memories of playing the old CTC many nights of my youth, listening in the dark before bed! Fun times, those 90's were.

 

I have tapes of radio shows from the past that I like to replay.

 

Oh yes! Those were the days.