Do you still listen to cassettes?

I do! Mostly out of nostalgia more than anything. In the last year I've acquired 3 cassette decks for $37. Two were hardly used and work beautifully (for now). It's been a lot of fun tinkering with it and revisting my old tapes. There is just something cool about listening to the original version of the album I bought when I was a teen.

 

I have a lot of stuff on cassette, mostly taken from fm radio. It's a small library of music and other stuff I return to occasionally .

 

I haven’t really been into cassettes since CD players in cars became affordable. Not too long ago I did take a look at the cassette deck from my rack system from about 1984 and found the belts were shot. Only have 2 other decks in boom boxes. 1 is a cheap Sony I’m not sure of and somehow the one in my JVC Kaboom still works. It sat for close to 20 years with a tape of spooky sounds in it I used years ago on my front porch for Halloween and it still played, fast forward and rewind.

I used to record LPs and later CDs on to cassettes for portable and car use. Pretty much used exclusively TDK MA90 type IV Metal tapes to record an album on each side. Actually had a fairly decent sized collection. I honestly don’t know where they are or if they got pitched.

 

I have thousands of cassettes but I never listen to them... leftovers from the 70s & 80s but haven't had a player in 15 years... so, can't participate in poll...

 

Cassettes are like 45s and EPs for me.
When the mood strikes I start playing all or sides or some of ...

Picked up the first Black Sabbath for free.

NP: The Steve Miller Band 'Abracadabra' made in Japan ZR25-727

Next up; Robert Fripp 'Exposure'

Ran up to the closet. I have about 30 cassettes that I recorded.
Stuff from the library, my radio show, ect

I'm back up to 14 pre-recorded...

 

I have too many cassettes for a minimalist. I love my cassettes and mainly purchase them through Bandcamp. I also personally enjoy creating mixtapes and would eventually like to start making custom sleeves for them.

 

I recently decided it would be fun to listen to some mix tapes I made long ago. Dug my Harman Kardon TD202 out of the closet where it's sat for over 8 years (and it got minimal use in my last residence where I also lived several years). Unfortunately the play function does not work and I was unable to find anyone who would work on it for what I deemed to be a reasonable fee (some shops just said no, and one quoted me $300 at a minimum). Because I got it in my head that I wanted to listen to my old cassettes, I kept scouring eBay until I found a reasonable quality deck that clearly works (seller even said he recently replaced all of the belts) that should arrive tomorrow.

It's truly sad that all of the decks currently available are of such poor quality. I get that there isn't a big market for cassette decks any more, but I'm not sure why all currently available models have unacceptably high levels of wow & flutter.

 

There's been a nice but still really small resurgence of cassette tapes so I do agree it is sad to not see someone step in and create a quality deck to match. Quality old decks tend to climb in price very fast too.

 

I have a few left, and still have my cassette deck. It's not hooked up at the moment but I may change that tomorrow, just to do it. I do wish that I had kept some more of them, but I've replaced every one that I still listened to back when I got rid of them. Traded some for cds in the early 90's when CD shops were still buying them, gave the rest to a friend. I still have about 10, and will buy a handful of my favorite bands stuff when I see them out.

 

Nice tapes! Those bring back memories from when I was a kid. My older brother almost exclusively recorded on UDXL IIs back in the 70s. Although I always had a preference for the TDK tapes back then.

 

Got rid of my cassettes years ago (mostly my own mixes and vinyl rips - I could count the number of prerecorded cassettes I owned on both my hands), but just started tinkering again during the age of COVID-19 and more free time on my hands due to work stoppage. Got a Pioneer CT-F500 and a Tascam 302 gifted to me from a couple of friends and have been recording custom playlists I create on Tidal. Whatever floats your boat...

 

In as much as I'm working through the cassette collection, transferring it to digital before the last of my cassette decks expire, then yes, I am still listening to cassettes.

However, given the lack of any brand-new cassette decks with mechanisms to match those I currently have, once they're all digitised, I'll only be listening to the files....

 

I still have a couple of hundred cassette tapes. Stored in boxes. Pretty much all of them are recordings of radio or LPs. Many of them mixed tapes listened to when cruising around town in your car as you did in the 70's.

I still listen to the music I recorded, but using my Squeezebox as they have been digitized. Not the best quality, but the radio programs and mixed tapes are fun to listen to now, 40 years later. The digitized tapes of LPs I really like have been replaced with CDs.

 

I still at times listen to cassette. I recently recorded steely dan flacs and they sound pretty good! Using a Rotel RD965-BX. I gotta source a belt for it, sometimes the headstack doesn't fully drop down. I cleaned and lubed. I think It's a FRW 7.3 belt. Any help with that would be fully appreciated.

 

I wish there are still Type II or IV C-46 cassettes around, as I prefer making tapes based on LP running time.

 

I preferred to use Type II C90 tapes because I could fit one regular LP on each side of the tape, and I liked the way that Type II tapes colors the sound.

 

Actually I do this, too. Sometimes it's more nice not to switch the side after every 22 minutes.

 

I just sold my Nakamichi MR-1, so no.

 

Our fellow member, Josquin de Prez, has a box of sealed Maxell XL-II/XL-IIs tapes that I suspect he would part with for a reasonable offer. Those of you that record might want to chat him up...he's very straightforward and fair.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I have them listed in the Misc classifieds.

 

Yup, listen to them everyday in the S-10. Probably still have about a 100 or so.

 

Part of the reason is that I'm not a fan of auto reverse (partially because I dislike the heads moving, I'm distrustful of it because of the effect on the sound quality, and also because the deck becomes much more complicated to use), and like you I like being able to listen to an entire album at one listen. Plus C-90 is a good all-purpose length the lends itself to many uses, and the tape is not too thin unlike with C-120s (which I have never used).

 

I remember those clearly when they came out. Maxell (and the other tape companies) were like Coca-Cola. Always changing the 2-pack packaging to hype it up and seem new. "Special offer" etc.

Funny to see this style of Maxell as it still had the UD-XLII name, before these were changed to XLII, like they used in most of the other countries.

Good tape. Probably have a few lying around.

 

Just got the Nakamichi MR-1 in that was purchased from an unidentified source (LOL),
Fabulous deck in like new condition! What are the chances...
SO..have been listening to some of my cassette hoard from the 1970-80s. They sound analog superb with the tonal accuracy of vinyl and most of the quiet of a CD. What's not to like?
This unit came with a remote that is surprisingly useful. Allows you to repeat and select track easily.
Let's bring back Nakamichi! How can we do this?

 

I've still got most of my cassettes from when I was a kid, but I rarely listen to them anymore. All the good ones, I wound up rebuying on CD or LP, so there's just a small stack of tapes I keep around in case I want to give 'em another listen. Do keep a lot of blanks though, my younger friends really like getting copies of albums on tape for some reason. (I don't get it. )