So, do you think a new cassette deck will be made again?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Jerry Garcia Jr, Jan 19, 2021.

  1. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    You get what you pay for. You're comparing decks that cost $300-$500 30 to 40 years ago with new decks that cost $300-$500 in today's money. As long as there are enough vintage decks out there in working or serviceable condition to satisfy the demand of those wanting higher-end cassette decks, there will be insufficient demand to make new ones, especially when they would cost $1000+.

    Die-hard cassette enthusiasts would likely reject them anyway even if they did exist, unless Dolby can be convinced to start licensing their analog noise reduction systems again, or for someone to come up with a 100% compatible workalike system.
    In real-world tests its wow & flutter measures around 0.08% WRMS:

     
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  2. Grower of Mushrooms

    Grower of Mushrooms Omnivorous mammalian bipedal entity.

    Location:
    Glasgow
    It'd be great if George Foreman would launch a version of his Grill with a cassette deck built in.

    On second thoughts though, maybe if you consumed stuff that had been cooked on such a contrapion you might end up with tapeworm.
     
  3. Mike Rivera

    Mike Rivera Senior Member

    Location:
    Northeast Florida
    I read on another board that the patents on Dolby B and C have expired and anybody can manufacture new chips, but there's no demand ...
     
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  4. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    There are a still "better to best" category cassette tapes manufactured today. No need to even look for the old ones. In fact I hardly even buy the old blank tapes unless if I can assure that it was stored correctly.
    I'm almost finished recording on 150 NAC blank tapes and I'm ready to order another 200 anytime now. They sound really good on my old JVC and Pioneer tape deck. The thing about these cassettes is just like a vinyl. There is listening pleasure addiction. After 1 90 minute tape, I don't even wanna listen to any streamed or digital audio. "Nothing about better or best sound of format." Its just a matter of personal preference.:tiphat:
     
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  5. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Innocent Bystander

    Anyone remember JVC's ANRS system? Can't remember the details, but I had a deck with that format years ago, and I remember it working well, before Dolby overcame it.
     
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  6. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    Sounds like you got it goin' on dude... :laugh::agree::righton:
     
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  7. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    I got one and the sound is outstanding!:-popcorn:
     
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  8. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Innocent Bystander

    .....annnnd - even before Dolby and ANRS, wasn't there some kind of single-ended noise reduction from somebody, so old it predated front-loader decks? Perhaps late '70s?
     
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  9. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Again, I am not expecting the $300-$500 level cassette deck of 1975-1985 to sell for the same price today. I am saying NOBODY TODAY makes a cassette deck of that quality level today for ANY PRICE brand new (even with inflation and the smaller volume market considered). The Tascam you mention is not even adequate for many here in terms of frequency response, durability and reliability. This new one is barely good enough for non critical use. Like church sermons. It's not a suitable machine for music use.

    And it's specification when new, is one thing, how it does with a year of moderate use is entirely another thing. I deal with broadcast engineering situations with a few religious formats where cassettes are still used on occasion. I have had three of these new Tascams fail under relatively light production room use inside of 6-7 months. The previous older model Tascam auto reverse machines we had before these, were much better, they had Dolby B and were reasonable performers. And they lasted about 6-7 years before they were worn out. Those were very good and some of the last Teac built ones. 10 years ago, I'd call a Tascam cassette deck to be reasonably good quality.
     
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  10. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Lot's of features here to get awesome results with any tape formulation, and while it can create tapes sounding on par to LPs, not so much CDs.[​IMG]
     
  11. aphexacid

    aphexacid It’s not Hip Hop, it’s Electro.

    Location:
    Illinois
    I got luck with a couple cassette decks. They sound excellent, and if they ever give me any trouble, I’ll happily get them serviced. I have a ton of cassettes that I’ve had since I was very young that I cherish. I grew up on cassettes, although we had records as well, cassettes were my jam.

    It’s be great if someone made tape decks again though, why not!
     
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  12. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    American, german, british, other europeans and japanese are really good in designing cassette decks especially with a reliable transport. I truly hope they make a new a new one again. But they have to manufacture it in a different country. I bought a brand new jensen fly-by-night ala walkman last month, its like a cheap am radio from the 60's. sounds so flat..
    Just like what you guys just said earlier, what do you expect for $15.00? :biglaugh:
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2021
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  13. captwillard

    captwillard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nashville
    I’m not sure many could have the vinyl resurgence, although it’s sales don’t compare to streaming. It can be argued that certain things sound better on vinyl and fidelity certainly helped its comeback. I don’t see those arguments with cassette, especially pre recorded ones. Granted, there are folks with large Dead and Phish show collections who are always going to need high quality cassette playback, but cassette tape isn’t good enough, overall. Reel to reel is a different story, but I don’t recall that ever being big in its heyday. It will continue as a specialized market.
     
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  14. Dart56

    Dart56 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oshawa, ON
    If that Tascam/Teac deck still had legitimate Dolby B/C I'd probably buy one. It'd be fun to play some cassettes again. Surprised "licencing" is standing in the way of having that feature, I have to admit I don't quite understand that situation. One would think if there's money to be made off something developed and paid for almost half a century ago, why not keep it going? Oh well.
     
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  15. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Innocent Bystander

    I found it. It was the Norelco 2100, top-loader, with "DNL". Early, not late '70s.

    Norelco 2100 Cassette Deck
     
  16. Richard Austen

    Richard Austen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hong Kong
    I made tapes that no one could tell apart from the CD they were recorded from. But I too liked my tape deck and one of the few pieces I regret selling. It was one of the sleeper decks in the early 1990s.


    I would just go to various thrift shops and you can probably buy them for $20. If you end up buying 10 of them for a total of $200 - you're bound to find a good one in the lot.
     
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  17. fretter

    fretter Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    If people can build classic car replicas from scratch, somebody should be able to make cassette decks.
     
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  18. elaterium

    elaterium Forum Resident

    I just bought a Nakamichi Cr-2a off of eBay. New belts, heads cleaned, demagnetised and aligned and parts lubed. $150. Haven’t received it yet but praying it works well.
     
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  19. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Innocent Bystander

    That's exactly what I have, although mine is sidelined at the moment, and I'm using an Onkyo. Price is not out of line at all for that deck. Hope it works well for you.
     
  20. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    congrats... should be a happy deck!
     
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  21. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    Is it true that when you record on the later decks, youre in better luck using the later cassettes for their newer formulas?
    I never tried using mid 90's and up decks on recordings.
     
  22. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    I had a nice late 70's Marantz cassette deck. Damn that deck sounds so good and looks new. I ended up selling it for I don't have any use for that category....:faint:
     
  23. Richard Austen

    Richard Austen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hong Kong
    I am not sure - I just use the tapes being sold at the time - TDK Chrome II or whatever they were called and some fancy (and expensive) metal tapes. I forget what they were called. The TDK were the better ones they made then though.

    If sound quality is important you could also consider recording music to VHS tape. Beta had better picture quality but VHS was very very good for sound quality. Machines are available and so are the tapes so it may be worth trying.

    Back in the day I had a laserdisc player but the discs were sooo expensive so we all rented the LD's and recorded them to tape. Mainly because LD had wide screen and the tapes of the movies were pan and scan. With a good tape and recording one movie only the picture quality was quite good but the sound quality was pretty much spot on.

    And of course you can get a helluva lot more on your mix tape with VHS than a cassette tape. Something to consider if you want to rethink the nostalgia and cross contaminate with VHS :)
     
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  24. slovell

    slovell Retired Mudshark

    Location:
    Chesnee, SC, USA
    No.
     
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  25. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    In the early 80's Sony introduced Stereo Betamax and for sure those decks could be used to record as would a compact cassette recorder or a reel to reel; however, rotary head delay precluded satisfactory editing. Also, the unit needed to be synchronized as I recall to an incoming video signal. At any rate, while compact cassettes were convenient, Beta and VHS not so much.
     

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