Does anyone still use cassettes?

[Geoff Millar]

Hello

I'm interested to know if anyone on this Forum still uses cassettes, either for recording or playback. At one time we had about 100 tapes, mostly home made compilations but about 40 commercial offerings. Some, such as Hendrix at the BBC, sounded great; others such as Beatles Rarities, sounded rather dull.

However, I still have my deck connected up and sometimes use it to record FM radio broadcasts, then transfer the tape to digital. However, no retail stores in Australia still sell blank cassettes and it's been many years since music was commercially released in that way.

Any thoughts please?

Thanks

Geoff

[dcibel]

Cassettes are the worst. High noise floor, poor frequency response and channel seperation. I don't even listen to CDs anymore, it's all in a computer now.

[fpitas]

Cassettes are the worst. High noise floor, poor frequency response and channel seperation. I don't even listen to CDs anymore, it's all in a computer now.

I'll add, they lose high frequency response with time, so it's even worse than it started out.

[jclin4]

I still listen but they do sound like...tapes ⛅️. I don't mind so much if the music is good. I'm still building the collection, picking up interesting finds on the cheap at garage sales (including blank tapes sometimes). I've done some recording recently, backing up SACD discs which had no red book CD layer (rare but they exist). My player is a Nakamichi CR 1A which I picked up a few years ago for $20 USD.

[300Z]

I still have a few bootleg tapes and a Technics RS-TR 575 deck but it hasn't been used in over 15 years. One of these days I should test it to see if it still works.

[Æ]

I hope not! I picked up a used Cassette Deck a few years ago just so that I could transfer a few books on tape to digital.
My friend Marvin swears by cassettes, well his bipolar brain is locked into thinking certain ways, he has trouble moving forward, stuck in the past.

[Sydney]

...However, I still have my deck connected up and sometimes use it to record FM radio broadcasts, then transfer the tape to digital....

Use to do that...
Eliminate the tape by getting a Soundcard/Interface that will accept the line level and digitize; many stations have an internet stream as well.

However, no retail stores in Australia still sell blank cassettes

They still make and sell them.

[Squidspeak]

I saw a youtube video of a high-end audio store that was selling the MBL speakers, what was interesting that the source were custom built
reel to reel machines that were $10K to start. I don't know what was special about them other than extremely well built. Another kind of funny
thing they had these wood discs on poles around the listening area that were so called tuned made out of some exotic wood like that turntable
LP holder from the same Japanese designer.

[Paul Carmody]

During the 80s and 90s, my whole life revolved around cassettes. I have a TON of stuff on cassettes, from 4-track recordings, to radio shows I did in college, to unreleased music when I worked at Verve Records. I've only transferred small amount of it to digital. The rest sits in bankers boxes. Sounds like time will not be gracious to them. :-(

Back in high school and college, I pretty much always had at least one mixtape in my pocket, and half a dozen in my car. Good times.

[fpitas]

I saw a youtube video of a high-end audio store that was selling the MBL speakers, what was interesting that the source were custom built
reel to reel machines that were $10K to start. I don't know what was special about them other than extremely well built. Another kind of funny
thing they had these wood discs on poles around the listening area that were so called tuned made out of some exotic wood like that turntable
LP holder from the same Japanese designer.

Not...Shun Mook? Oh my...

[Wolf]

I have maybe a dozen tapes or so. When I got into collecting my own music I started with CDs, so I only had a few from before then, and a few dubs and mix tapes.

I still have the Sanyo boombox I started with, which was AM/FM/CD/Tape, and it has a dual auto-reverse/continuous cassette deck. It was a $300+ unit when new, so it was not a cheapie.



This is just an internet photo I found of the same unit I have.

I also have a single-well Akai that I refuse to get rid of....
Later,
Wolf

[jclin4]

I also have a single-well Akai that I refuse to get rid of....

Maybe this is why I'm still attached to tapes. My first piece of audio gear was an Akai tape deck, a gift from my parents and intended to be used with the family stereo system. They also wanted me to record myself at the piano, as a tool for improvement. (This is also an internet photo)

[Wolf]

Mine is a CS-703D:



Internet photo...

The reason the Reel-to-Reel is coming back in, is with MQA, they are using the old master tapes to make authentic copies of the original. They are also dubbing hi-res music onto old reel-to-reel because the medium can support it. Several units at AXPONA et al have been playing hi-res on R2R decks.

My friend Matt (RIP) was also a tape and minidisc aficionado, because he loved making mix-tapes or mix-minidiscs. His favorite was using Denon metal-tapes and high bias. You could get a great dub, and it still will likely sound the same as it did when it was made. He had a Sony Discman with an optical toslink out, and a minidisc with the optical input, and made some dubs that way.

Later,
Wolf

[Sydney]

RE: Recording yourself
Old tapes are subject to print-through.
The newest portable recorders are great ( like Zooms & Tascams, etc )
Every sound provider I know has one.
http://www.wirerealm.com/guides/top-...able-recorders

[djg]

Pfft, poseurs.

Not internet photos.