Remember how we said cassettes weren't coming back?

I'll admit, and it's just my personal opinion, and not meant to get anyone all riled up.. I never really liked cassettes - and I grew up in their day.

Records I liked, and had all through my childhood and teens. Cassettes I had too, because my cars had cassette players until I installed CD players. CDs I had(have) because of sound quality, durability, and ease of use/track access.

Cassettes, to me, were never all that convenient, even though quite portable. Having to fast forward, then rewind back a bit, just to get to the songs you really liked was kindof a PITA. I didn't have one of those fancy cassette players in my car like mom did that was able to sense the next track when FFW or REV a cassette - it was all just luck and guesswork. I don't recall ever even liking the sound of them all that much because of that shhhhhhhhh sound they all made, even when using the DNR. And then they'd get stretched out, tangled up in the mechanisms, or whatever. CDs pretty much fixed all that (at least for me). And now we have the latest versions of digital and streaming - IMHO the best format for use in a car. (And I don't have a stereo in either of my vehicles now LOL!)

But, to each his own. And if there's a market out there for them, good. Hope those that want 'em enjoy them. :thumbsup:
 
ggregg said:
Naks and Tandbergs have been discovered by many although deals can still be found. But there are plenty of sleeper decks out there going for little or nothing. Look for a Yamaha K960. Also even low end Nakamichis are surprisingly good.

The bane of all old decks is they usually need belts, which is NOT a 10 second job, like a turntable. Plus idler tires.
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I think cassettes.. tape in general... is fun to use. Recording is much more hands on, it involves one in the process from the handling of the tape and machine to setting and monitoring record levels... watching the tape pack as it plays or fast winds. The thing about tape machines though besides belts is the wear on the head and that's very difficult if not impossible to deal with. If the head is worn it affects everything, especially record, and even if a new head is available it will require skill and knowledge to replace it and readjust levels and bias. I've picked up a few nice machines for ten to twenty dollars with a tape path that appears to have never seen tape. If the head has visible signs of wear...or if you can sense change in the surface with your finger nail... you might want to pass on it. Most anything else you can fix. Those higher end decks can be quite complicated though. Especially Tandbergs.. and I think the Tandbergs are the most attractive of all. Tandberg heads... thinking the 300,310 machines... they had to be adjusted like an object in free space, like a big reel to reel... it took time, tools and patience.
 
twiiii said:
My Dodge Diesel Pick-up has a cassette player so I have kept my Nakamichi decks and DBX 119. I use the 119 as a compesser limiter when making cassette tapes for the truck to reduce the dynamic range and cut off the peaks which allow comfortable listening levels with out wild changes in dynamics. I still have my portable Nakamichi, too. I still use it from time to time with a battery pack to power my Neumann mics for recording railroad sounds. I use to have video set up, but its been retired. All my tapes are Maxell UD chrome and when used with Dolby S set a very high standard . I still have some of the old standard UD tapes I made way back when. I only owned a few pre-recorded commercial tapes. They have all failed over the years and have been replaced by dubs of CD reissues. As good as Cassette was it never competed with my HS Revoxs, Ampexs or Crowns. The Revox was the best 7 1/2 ips machine. But nothing could touch the dynamic range of my Ampexs, be they tube or SS. I used a MR-70-2 a few times, but never got to put my hands on the ultimate Analog recorder. The ATR Ampex series.
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I had a DBX 119. Neat affects unit, every stereo should have one. I used it with tapes the way you do. The 119 would also do a great job of adding a touch of dynamic range to a record while lowering the noise floor. I agree about Ampex.. they were a different world.
 
i only wish my sony 3head deck with dolby s hadn't broken an unobtaniium part. i may just wait until a great deck at a low price is manufactured again. i won't go with a nak as the parts are gone for the most part.

i have MANY cassettes with wondeerful music that i have on no other format.
 
I think a lot depends on how cassettes were stored. I never went for pre-recorded tapes, always rolled my own, using UD-XL II and TDK SA90 blanks, recorded on a higher-end TEAC deck, with dbx encoding. I recently played a cassette recorded in 1986 (Fleetwood Mac`s "Then Play On", w/ Bryan Ferry`s "Boys and Girls" on the B side), I was kinda shocked at how good it still sounded.
Cassettes may reside at the bottom of the food chain, but they shouldn`t be tossed into the dumpster just yet....
 
MaxxVolume said:
I think a lot depends on how cassettes were stored. I never went for pre-recorded tapes, always rolled my own, using UD-XL II and TDK SA90 blanks, recorded on a higher-end TEAC deck, with dbx encoding. I recently played a cassette recorded in 1986 (Fleetwood Mac`s "Then Play On", w/ Bryan Ferry`s "Boys and Girls" on the B side), I was kinda shocked at how good it still sounded.
Cassettes may reside at the bottom of the food chain, but they shouldn`t be tossed into the dumpster just yet....
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Nothing that houses music should ever be discarded. Heck, not just music but any old recordings should be preserved. They are a like wormhole that goes back in time. I recently found one of those records people used to make to send a message to a loved one or just fool around and got to hear a bunch of teenage girls goofing around and saying hello to their friends fighting overseas. It was the coolest thing ever. There are many cassettes just like that with messages, ideas, etc. that offer us a look into a time gone by. Yeah, most of us can remember that time, but in 30 years, 40 or 50, they will be as cool as that record.
 
I was listening to some cassettes the other day.Some mix tapes I made for a party I had about 20 years ago.Still sounded great and brought back a lot of memories.
 
I have three Tascam 124 AV professional 4 track cassette recorders if anyone knows how to use them anymore. I picked them up cheap from a guy who cleans out properties, he said they came out of a recording studio. Anyone know how to use them?
 
Marine. I didn't see any youtube videos on the 124 but there were some for other models that you might be able to glean some general instructions from.
 
Marine0811 said:
I have three Tascam 124 AV professional 4 track cassette recorders if anyone knows how to use them anymore. I picked them up cheap from a guy who cleans out properties, he said they came out of a recording studio. Anyone know how to use them?
Click to expand...
Someone over on Tapeheads.net might be able to advise you.
 
Drugolf said:
Marine. I didn't see any youtube videos on the 124 but there were some for other models that you might be able to glean some general instructions from.
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with that model, but I don't think they're significantly different from any other cassette deck of that era as far as functionality is concerned. They're not multitrack recorders like the 234.
 
I was in Newbury Comics (a popular music place around these parts) this past weekend, they had brand new cassettes for sale. The ones I happen to see were Eminem but they were brand spanking new sealed tapes.
I was surprised.
 
Tape media for long term storage is never a good idea. All magnetic tapes will deteriorate over time and become stiff, brittle and sticky, as in the tape literally becoming stuck to itself. Also, any cassette over 60 minutes in recording time has the tendency to break. I can remember many long playing cassettes I had back in the 70's breaking on me while they were being played or rewound. Some brands had a really bad reputation for quality, so do your internet research on this. If you want to go back to playing cassettes, then make your own recordings or copy the old ones you find to a new cassette.
 
I have dozens of 90 minute cassette tapes from the late seventies to the late eighties, many played in the last year, and none of them have broken and over 90% sound fine with no dropout. Of course they were not stored out in the shed either. I've never ever broken a cassette tape that wasn't eaten by the player first. Of course I've always used TDK, Maxell, and Denon, which was TDK made. BASF was well regarded but I didn't use it so have no experience with it. Memorex was pushed hard then, but wasn't as good as those three. Any cheaper tape wasn't worth it.
 
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