• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Back into cassettes- Great tunes for dirt cheap

aabottom

aabottom

Swing
Well, I think I'm getting back into cassettes. I've never bought pre-recorded tapes until this summer. At the thrift, my last batch of 11 cassettes were 25 cent each (half price day). Add that to the 8 I bought at 50 cent makes 19 cassette tapes for $6.75 plus tax. Figuring about 10 songs per tape makes it about 4 cents per song- WAY CHEAPER THAN iTunes.

At 25-50 cents an "album", I willing to buy stuff outside of my comfort zone. I've been venturing into artists such as: Pat Benatar, Sting, Huey Lewis, Pearl Jam, Madonna, The Pretenders, Herb Albert, Eurhythmics, R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs, even one labeled as "Party Hits". Eurhythmics-"Sweet Dreams" is playing now. Wow! It's fantastic.

I finally got one of my cassette decks working properly. Most of the tapes sound great. The ones with the Dolby trade mark seem to sound better. One or two of the tapes sound a little muddy. Some of them I had to repair the felt pressure pad (see thread here).

Here's the list of cassette decks in my stable.

JVC TD-W709 dual cassette recorder- This is the one I finally got working right. I bought this unit years ago new, but never used it much. It’s now back in rotation. I cleaned and demagnetized the heads. This may be my main unit for recording LP, CD, SACD, and DVD-Audio to cassettes for use in the 4Runner.

Toyota OEM AM/FM cassette in my 4Runner- I use it all the time.

AIWA HS-J470 AM/FM cassette recorder/ walkman size. I don't use it much, but I may have to check out my new tapes on it.

BSR MCD8050 CD/cassette recorder- It still works but the tapes sound muddy. Maybe I’ll try to align the heads.

Superscope by Marantz CD-320 cassette recorder- It’s no longer working. The cassettes don't turn. I suspect the issue is broken belts.

Wish me luck.

Thanks for listening.
 
Register to hide this ad
Good luck! However, you don't have to go to either iTunes or thrifts to get music on the cheap because practically everything you want is available for free online, if you know where to look (not that I do!!). Therefore, use cassettes if you want them, and you should because a collection is not really a collection if it's just a load of files on a computer :)
 
fortycoats said:
Good luck! However, you don't have to go to either iTunes or thrifts to get music on the cheap because practically everything you want is available for free online, if you know where to look (not that I do!!). Therefore, use cassettes if you want them, and you should because a collection is not really a collection if it's just a load of files on a computer :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for your support.

I'm buying pre-recorded cassettes (at thrifts & GW only) for several reasons.

1. It's fun.
2. I'm getting bored with my 30 year old stock of copies-of-stuff-I-have-in-other-formats.
3. I'm diving into new, different kinds of music that I don't own.
4. I don't have to make a cassette copy of it to play in in my 4Runner.
5. I can play it in my cassette deck in my 4Runner. (I don't listen to commercial radio anymore.)
6. It sounds great.
7. It's cheap.

Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
fortycoats said:
Good luck! However, you don't have to go to either iTunes or thrifts to get music on the cheap because practically everything you want is available for free online, if you know where to look (not that I do!!). Therefore, use cassettes if you want them, and you should because a collection is not really a collection if it's just a load of files on a computer :)
Click to expand...


Are you referring to legal music downloads or downloads of questionable means?

I strive to keep my music collection 100% legit and have also discovered buying very cheap cassettes. Love them, what memories of the 80s.
 
Cassettes are nice. I always pull out some of my old mix tapes and prerecorded tapes once in awhile. A lot are over 30 years old and they still play great.
 
Most here probably know I'm a Nak nut, but what started it a few yeas back was exactly that. Cheap albums that I wouldn't have bought in the day when they came out, plus the loads of classical that I would have no idea what to even look for. At $0.25 to .50 an album, who cares? I've literally got about 700 prerecorded tapes now, most music that I have no other version of. And years ago, you could get a Nak RX-505 for $125 that only need belts and a little TLC. And let me tell you, until you hear a bunch of those tapes on on a Nak (especially a Dragon), poo-pooing them as not audiophile worthy is just plain ignorant. Sure many, maybe 30%, even sound only OK, better than FM, but not vinyl or CD quality. But many just knock your socks off. Of course, I'm 52, so I have built in Dolby..I can barely hear a 15kHz tone, but there is aton of great music out there for cheap, legally on cassette, and with the right gear, it's amazing. Of course, there's no logical reason for me to have gone overboard and buy 16 Naks, most of which need work, and 9 other decks, except that the whole cassette experience is very cool to me and I really enjoy returning this once magnificent gear to it's former glory, and recording...though my wife and most others think I'm crazy...
 
FM must be crap in the States, judging by the things I hear people saying. 'Round my way, there are several stations that could be considered reference quality, i.e. better than vinyl, CD or tape (OK, couldn't be better than the source but what I call "pristine" nonetheless). I'm currently listening to Pink Floyd's "Money" on FM and it's as good as I've ever heard it (and the signal is only coming in at 50% on the meter).
 
perryinva said:
...
Of course, I'm 52, so I have built in Dolby..I can barely hear a 15kHz tone, but there is aton of great music out there for cheap, legally on cassette, and with the right gear, it's amazing.
...
Click to expand...
I'm with ya. Maybe that's why I'm OK with listening to tapes. I can't hear above 15 KHz anyway.

Though, on quite passages, I do hear the tape hiss. That's why prefer the cassettes with Dolby NR.

NEWS UPDATE: My local thrift cleaned out their shelves today. All the LPs and cassettes that were there last week are GONE. :tears: There were a few cassettes there last week that I was going to get this week, but too late!
 
Fortycoats, where is "round your way" that FM is so good?

I have to agree about the prerecorded cassette sound quality on a Nak. I have a 582Z that I have been using Tag Sale and GW purchased cassettes on.

For example, I bought an Elvis Golden Hits cassette for 50 cents recently at GW that really surprised me. I could hear the hand claps in Hound Dog with clarity that I hadn't experienced before. It even sounded good on my car cassette player.

This is not the first time I heard the songs from this collection. This is the first hit package released of Elvis RCA hit recordings. It was originally released in the 50's. I had the LP and later the cd. I can't remember either having the sound quality of this cassette.

Printed on the case insert, "From original master recordings". Also, they are all in mono.
 
Yea, where are you Forty? GW here eliminated most cassettes at the local stores (no interest) to their warehouse store, which is a bit farther from me. Tapes are tossed in bins with videos and LPs, but they are cheaper.
 
The HX Pro cassettes have very decent sound. I've found some wonderful condition classical tapes that sound wonderful on a Tascam 122 MK III I just got.
 
I actually bought some NOS tapes a couple days ago...I am into vinyl too, I bought one album about 3 times but every copy seems to have ticks and pops so I found a NOS tape and it's case closed...or opened as it were
 
EPI-Center said:
I actually bought some NOS tapes a couple days ago...I am into vinyl too, I bought one album about 3 times but every copy seems to have ticks and pops so I found a NOS tape and it's case closed...or opened as it were
Click to expand...
That's what I noticed with my thrift store pre-recorded cassettes, no SNAP, CRACKLE, POP! :banana:
 
Come-clean time, is it? OK, OK, Dublin Ireland : )
Fortycoats was a character on childrens TV here from the late '60s to the early '80s.
 
True. Vinyl has had it's 15 minutes. Not to mention it's alot cheaper to produce and harder to screw up a cassette tape.
 
Yep, i've got back into cassettes in a big way too. Pre-recorded ones in particular - just because they are so damn cheap. I'm looking out for collections being sold online - I cherry pick the ones I want, then give the rest to charity shops. I'm in the UK and often picking up collections of a couple hundred titles for less than 5 bucks from a well known auction site. Okay, the delivery bumps it up a bit but it's still peanuts....

They still sound pretty good too - I have two Pioneer decks - a vintage CT-F850 & a newer CT-S670D and i'm pleased with the results... Particularly considering the tapes are working about to about $0.02 each!

Oh, and your post about the little felt pads was interesting as i've had a few of these myself, in particular, vintage pre-recorded tapes (paper label era).

All the best
 
I've got a 1995 Honda Civic and a 1998 Mazda B3000 truck with cassette decks. I never threw mine away. Instead up upgrading the radios, I play cassettes. I also like checking thrifts for cheap tapes.
 
I've been having a blast picking up tapes recently--hard to be 10 for a dollar at Goodwill.
Gotten some really nice stuff--Szell/Cleveland Orchestra doing Beethoven symphonies, some nice Bach...and "best" of all, a brand-new copy of the Top Gun soundtrack ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom