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Resurgence of cassette media

W

waynechou

New Member
Any opinions of whether there is, or not, a resurgence of music cassette media, pre-recorded, or new master original recordings, and why that is? Comparison with CD and digital storage media?
 
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Well I used to do cassettes for years and years. I even got a Dragon cheap from some guy but never got it to work real good. Actually an old Akai with glass heads was my standard for a long time. Did about as good as you could ask. But I myself would never go back to that medium, it was basically IMO an adaptation of a dictation media to use for music. Just did a fair job, with the high end rolloff and frankly audible dropouts with even the best tapes you could buy. I do not see myself using that media ever again for much in the way of music listening. Well there is a throwback interest in 8 tracks out there so I suppose my old cassettes might be useful to someone. It was the mpeg of its day I suppose so you took it on the chin for convenience. Wait till your car deck eats some and you will go back to CDs! I can see only using a deck to recover music that is unavailable or stuff like that. Lot of people corresponded by cassettes in the 60s or 70s and recorded family events. Those ought to be recovered ASAP and burned to disc!
 
I don't see the point of the resurgence of cassette. Digital media is far superior in decent uncompressed resolution.
 
Some Indie bands are releasing limited edition cassettes with eye catching graphics. I saw several at Ameoba in Berkeley in the 15 to 20 dollar range. I think one of the reasons they are doing it is to make their anti-digital product stand out on the shelves.
 
I've never bought a "new" pre-recorded cassette, 8-track, or any other tape format. I probably never will.

But, I just started picking up some of the cassettes you folks are dumping (see my thread here). I get them for 25 to 50 cents at my local thrift.

Thanks for suppling me with cheap new music. :banana:
:guitar:
 
Some new bands permote themselves by putting out a cassette or even 8 track (!) of their new album and some people collect them, but it will never be a resurgence.

I still have cassettes because I have 100+ of radio shows, old time radio shows, music mix tapes and pre-recorded cassettes that have stood the test of time. A lot of radio shows are very rare. I'm making MP3 copies on CD to be donated to the Musuem of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.
 
I dont think there is much of a resurgence, but i am really enjoying the cassette medium lately. With a high quality chrome cassette recorded on my Nakamichi LX5 or My Kyocera deck, its hard to tell much difference between it and the source. I dont know if its coloration or what but a well recorded tape is more pleasant to listen to on my system than the CD/player I recorded them from. They just sound more musical, or real, or something.
 
The fun of analog is the 'hand's on' experience. It's completely different to the double click on your computer, a bit like being able to service your own car. Who can do that these days?
Whether it sounds better or not is subjective.
Resurgence? Nope!
 
There's a small resurgence but it's a deliberately retro thing mostly limited to underground bands. There will almost certainly be no large-scale re-opening of cassette production plants for main-stream artists (there, got to use 3 hyphenated words in 1 sentence!).
 
The cassette medium has much more personality than the CDr medium. I've had fun taping LP's with my new decks and tape.
 
Good cassette decks are beyond cool. They are "Boss". I am partial to Tandberg's myself.

I don't think I've ever purchased a pre-recorded cassette either. For my 16th birthday (1968), I bought myself a cassette deck. My dad had a "friend" with an audio store in Toms River. I ended up with a Vivitar stereo cassette deck. It lasted a couple years, not much more than that. My dad bought me 6 pre-recorded cassettes for my birthday to go with my new deck. Now some of those I still have, including The Electric Prunes. I don't think he knew WTF to buy, so he just winged it. He didn't do too bad cause I remember The Stones "Between the Buttons" and a couple good Motown also. The Electric Prunes.

I don't know about a resurgence/renaissance, but why not? I have a lot of good/okay cassette decks.

I like to use cassettes in my vehicle instead of cd's.
 
These past few months I've bought about 400 pre-recorded cassette tapes for ten cents each at Goodwill. I'm in tape bliss, for forty bucks, listening on either my Marantz 5420, Marantz 5220 or Sony TC-K44 decks.
 
I got back into tapes after a long absense. I've collected well over 600 NOS blanks. Spent thousands getting them. I like analog sound better so this is why Im using tape. Cassettes are more convenient then reel to reel, and cheaper. All I had to do was buy a tapedeck that can compete in quality with reel to reel and I'd be set. Cassettes can sound rather good on a decent deck. Good enough to stop playing CDs.
 
FYI. The tapes i recently dumped were all early 70's, mostly European, Grateful Dead shows. Got more than enough live Good ol' Grateful Dead on mp3 cdr's now. ENTIRE 200+ MINUTE SHOWS on one cdr @ 192kbps is "good enough" for me!! :banana:
 
I have used Tapes in one form or another since the early 60's.Since that time I have never bought any prerecorded tape at all just recorded my own on whatever Format I chose.I have had through most of these yrs a Reel to Reel Deck,Cassette Deck,2 Speed Cassette Deck,8 Track Deck and continue to these almost every day much the same as using TT for music as well as CD's!Use this for only home use recording and listening and for the vehicles Cd's/FM/USB only.Yes tapes for the most part are an outdated Media form as well as Vinyl but to me it's part of the whole Vintage Stereo enjoyment besides it's a hell of a lot of FUN for me personally...........:)
 
New Tape Blanks:

BOUXY said:
I have used Tapes in one form or another since the early 60's.Since that time I have never bought any prerecorded tape at all just recorded my own on whatever Format I chose.I have had through most of these yrs a Reel to Reel Deck,Cassette Deck,2 Speed Cassette Deck,8 Track Deck and continue to these almost every day much the same as using TT for music as well as CD's!Use this for only home use recording and listening and for the vehicles Cd's/FM/USB only.Yes tapes for the most part are an outdated Media form as well as Vinyl but to me it's part of the whole Vintage Stereo enjoyment besides it's a hell of a lot of FUN for me personally...........:)
Click to expand...

I can still buy new unused tapes of any format fairly cheap out here in Canada, so that is not a problem!:thmbsp:
 
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