Does anyone use their cassette deck anymore?

[styler]

rest in peace

for me cassetes are dead... i love vinyl and convenience of digital media to invest in something that deteriorates as fast as cassettes. i wish DAT would have caught on more, i see that as a more durable alternative. still have my Nakamichi Dragon though. its hidden far away for the resurgence of cassettes bound to occur within the next 50 years!
:thmbsp:

 

[Rob Babcock]

On a nostalgic whim I bought a cassette deck off Ebay a few months back. I'm not sure why I did, just a goof I suppose. My folks and a few technologically-challenged web aquaintances still use tapes so I thought it'd be nice to be able to make tapes for them. And it's another gadget!

At any rate, beyone powering it up to be sure it worked, I've not used it. As many have said before, tape doesn't sound as good and it's a real PITA. You don't realize how good we have it now til you look back at the "good old days."

 

[melofelo]

tapes

i still make tapes for the car on my two marantz decks ( circa early 90's budget models)..and i still prefer tapes for recording from the radio... sound quality can be good with TDK AD, TDK SA or Maxell XLII...i gave away around 100 tapes a few years back and wished i hadn't...that included a few early 'reel to reel' type cassettes that look the business in any tape deck with a clear window cassete compartment..i wish i could still find those old 'reel' cassettes...anyone know who made them originally ?..they looked like reel to reels but within the cassette housing...
anyone remember Basf CrO2 ? ..long as you kept the needles out of the red ..they gave a lovely sound to anything you cared to record on them... :yes:
possibly the best thing about tapes is the soft clipping when the meters go slightly over the tapes saturation point..much more forgiving :yes: when drummer paul desmond on dave brubeck's classic 'take five' tune catches your meters out by a couple of dB's as he goes into his solo 'thang' near the end of the track...
as for background hiss...life is full of background noise...
i went to a few classical concerts a few years back and could hardly hear the concert for the amount of backgrond noise :lmao: perhaps classical sounds better on tape than cd when it comes to recreating 'true to performance' background noise ???

 

[Rob Babcock]

Tape does overload gracefully. That's great for rock music in a way, but I also think the attack and dynamics are a bit flat compared to making a CD-R. I should play with my "new" deck a bit more, but I really don't need it very bad.

 

[analogman]

Cassette Cures Man With Audio Neurosis

Bought an Aiwa ADF-810 in the early 1990s. Worked, and still does, extremely well. Used it primarily to record music for others, to turn them on to stuff they wouldn't buy themselves. Sound quality was very good, especially when taping LPs, but nothing to write home about. After the novelty had worn off, used it less and less, the machine has been sitting virtually unused for the past 6 or 7 years. I had quite a few pre-recorded tapes from the 80s and early 90s that I bought for the car and the "boom box" that was my "system" when I first got married, but for the most part they sounded like SH!T on the Aiwa but OK in the car. Fast Forward: About six months ago I picked up a Nakamichi BX-1 at a thrift for ten bucks. As everyone here knows, thrifts are a good place to fulfill those audio fantasies we couldn't afford in our youth. The Nak was in good shape but dirty with scratches on the top from stacking. Did my cosmetic thing, complete diassembly clean and lube, new idler and capstan belt and fresh flat black lacquer on the lid after a wet sanding. Now the deck presents as NEW. But to get to the point: Made some test run tapes off the wife's portable CD player and WOW you got to be FU$K!&G kidding me! Full, deep, analog with good highs. Grabbed the most worn out pre-recorded stuff I could find and even that sounded good. I think that has something to do with Nakamichi's head design, where it "reads". Anyway, out with the Aiwa and in with the BX-1! It has put new life back into tapes that have been nothing but decoration for the past 10 plus years! A lot of good memories there, can't bring myself to throw them away and not the kind of stuff I would buy again, you know the sound track of the youthful 80s! My wife and son thought it was a CD or LP playing when they heard it! I have not done any serious taping with it as of yet, but what I have done sounds great in the car. I was concerned about this as I had heard tapes made on Naks only sound well on Naks, because of the head alighment scheme. So far NO problems and cassette is enjoying a "re-birth" at least at my house! :yes: I know there are better machines in Nakamichi's line-up, but I am very happy with this one, even twenty years late The transport is very smooth and fast and unbelieveably quiet compared to the clunky Aiwas'. A simple thrift store find and I'm in the mood to tape LPs again for the car. It's funny how we become detached from the music at times and simple things like this can bring us back! :yes: Sorry for gushing all over you people, please forgive me.
As always,
Analogman

 

[melofelo]

i've been watching a few naks on the 'bay that i wished i could have afforded back in the late 80's..i quite like tape as a format even though its digi-everything nowadays..great for the car and pretty good for casual listening..what i dislike most about equipment nowadays is the lack of dancin' leds....theres nothing quite like pair of backlit meters or multi segment led's jumping cautiously into the red for late night listening...

 

[Andyman]

I've been playing a couple Naks I just redid the idlers on and they sound very nice. I'm going to keep the BX-2 in the garage shop because of a missing button cap, but probably will move the BX-100. Although they are only 2 head decks, my 20-30 year old tapes still sound fresh on them. They record nice too, but I haven't talken the test tapes out to the car or my main deck to see if the suffer from the "Nak effect"

I know they aren't the greatest for true hi fi, but they certainly are very listenable for casual listening and often go for pittances. A great way to get back into those old cassettes :yes: