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Cassette Revival (again)

Late Boomer said:
I never have understood the concept of "critical listening" unless one is an orchestra director or a recording studio engineer. I cannot imagine a regular music lover thinking, "today I am going to critically listen to that piece, in the best quality I can obtain" or "today I don't give a crap for the quality, I want all the pops and clicks and wobble and hiss, just in the mood for it". Thankfully, with digital I can have my cake and eat it too.

It was cool only because everything else was less cooler, like daddy's vinyl records, looking like something straight from 1920s, non-portable and non-recordable. Reel to reel tape was slightly better, recordable and somewhat portable, but nowhere near the size of a walkman. If I had digital audio on solid state media back then, I would never have touched cassettes with a ten foot pole.
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When I say critical listening, I mean that I'm going to sit and give my undivided attention to the music. I'm not gonna be thinking about the job, my honey do list or any of life's distractions. I guess you can do that any of the play back gear but I usually only do it with my vinyl or cd's. I'm enjoying listening to some Massive Attack on cd while I type, but I'm not critically listening to the music or system. From your statement I gather your not a vinyl fan. I have many records that are dead silent. If you didn't know it was a record, you would swear it was a really well produced cd!
 
gizzyman47 said:
I have many records that are dead silent. If you didn't know it was a record, you would swear it was a really well produced cd!
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I second that. When I had vinyl, I never found "noise" to be objectionable. Sure, I had some old LPs that someone roller skated on, but stuff I bought new or from premium used shops was just fine. I guess you could "listen for noise" and maybe if you focus on that you hear it, but I never counted noise as a negative for LPs. I wish I still had them. But, at my age too late to start up with TTs again - my wife would brain me!
 
gizzyman47 said:
From your statement I gather your not a vinyl fan.
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A couple of days ago yet another of my camcorders died. Well, not completely, but it would not lace tape and eats it instead. I torn apart one tape while trying to get it out of the camcorder. In moments like this you realise how all this mechanical stuff is unreliable and requires constant atention and service. F$!# that sh!# including CDs.
 
"Camcorder" is a word that hasn't exited my mouth since 1993 when I traded my camcorder for a Canon Hi8 digital (I think that's what it was called. It was $1400 and in the sh!tcan a mere 2 years later. ARGHHHH!
 
DesertRatt said:
"Camcorder" is a word that hasn't exited my mouth since 1993 when I traded my camcorder for a Canon Hi8 digital (I think that's what it was called. It was $1400 and in the sh!tcan a mere 2 years later. ARGHHHH!
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Digital did not hit the consumer market until 1995. Hi8 was analog. The one that crapped out on me is also analog, VHS-C. Just imagine, all this intricate mechanics for 30 minutes of blurry video. But I managed to digitize a twenty year old cassette for my friend and to shoot a test video before it died. Hence, the moral of the story: digitize your precious stuff while your machines still work :) For music, pre-recorded albums are not one of a kind, so no biggie if a deck dies.
 
Comeback vs revival. I see them different, myself. There is a revival, but not a real comeback, IMHO.

When I moved here in 1985 the best non chain record store was called Plan 9 Records & Tapes. By 2000, the name had changed to Plan 9 Records, and they basically sold used & new records, 100:1 and CDs were the dominant media in the store. Tower & Sam Goody were pretty much gone. Last week I visited there, and while browsing, ran in to the owner. We had a pleasant chat and he gave me this info (which he says he is asked about pretty regularly.) everything is approximate, of course.

Today, Plan 9 does 20:1 records to CD, (about 20:1 used to new) and this year they started carrying prerecorded cassettes again, new and used, and had on display about 650. Sales of used cassettes are good he said, but still less than used CDs. There were perhaps 30 people in the store while I was there, a busy time, (Sat eve @5:30) and only myself and one other were looking through the cassettes. Almost everyone else was looking at records. At 64, I was one of, if not the oldest person there. The owner was about my same age.

The most expensive tape was the new Taylor Swift “Midnights” at $20. Most new releases were between $8-$12. There were about 50 new tapes and 600 used, ranging from $2 to $7, depending on commonness, and sales appeal. I found it amusing that the QUALITY of the tape, say a Record Club tape would be as much or more expensive if it was a more desirable title vs a higher quality but more common title, say REM albums (except what looked like a new sealed release “Chronic Town” listed for $15).
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I should mention that I own at least 75% of the cassettes I saw there, and my inventory is easily double what they had on display. I also own about 40 tape decks, mostly Nakamichi, from the 1000zxl to the 600, and everything in between, but also Revox, Sony, Tandberg, & Yamaha, so my interest is more pronounced than your average AKer.
 
Bosphrous said:
I don't care what others are doing. I think cassettes and cassette decks is one of the coolest things in the world.
If others can groove on cassettes too, then all the better, but LP's are too much bother and CD's sound like broken glass. View attachment 2712209
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CDs sound like broken glass, not that I necessarily agree but that is a colorful comparison.
 
DesertRatt said:
"Camcorder" is a word that hasn't exited my mouth since 1993 when I traded my camcorder for a Canon Hi8 digital (I think that's what it was called. It was $1400 and in the sh!tcan a mere 2 years later. ARGHHHH!
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Most late '80s to mid '90s camcorders have died due to bad surface-mount capacitors, not problems with the tape mechanism. In fact I've encountered quite a few which can still play a tape, but the picture and/or audio is unusable due to the bad capacitors.

Same thing with the first-generation Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) decks. A lot of them are mechanically perfect, but you get no audio or just noise, because the surface-mount electrolytic capacitors have failed and leaked corrosive electrolyte onto the circuit boards.
 
Every single cassette thread turns annoying to me for the same reasons.

First, it is the detractors who come in and spout off all their perceived negatives. They inevitably insert their priorities into the conversation, oblivious that maybe people have different priorities. They come off sounding snobby to me.

The second source of irritation is the replies to the detractors. There is often a qualifying statement such as "cassettes may not be audiophile, but". Who cares if something is considered good to the "cogniscenti"? It comes back to priorities, something is only good to you if it satisfies your priorities. Because priorities are differing, the concept of what's good is also differing.

The difference is that the detractors never offer qualifying statements. They have dogma on their side, so speak from a position of confidence and authority. I say screw dogma and screw qualifying statements. If you love the sound of cassettes over digital then cassettes are better than digital, no need to justify your position to anyone.

Ok, rant over. I feel better now ;).
 
likebike23 said:
Every single cassette thread turns annoying to me for the same reasons.

First, it is the detractors who come in and spout off all their perceived negatives. They inevitably insert their priorities into the conversation, oblivious that maybe people have different priorities. They come off sounding snobby to me.

The second source of irritation is the replies to the detractors. There is often a qualifying statement such as "cassettes may not be audiophile, but". Who cares if something is considered good to the "cogniscenti"? It comes back to priorities, something is only good to you if it satisfies your priorities. Because priorities are differing, the concept of what's good is also differing.

The difference is that the detractors never offer qualifying statements. They have dogma on their side, so speak from a position of confidence and authority. I say screw dogma and screw qualifying statements. If you love the sound of cassettes over digital then cassettes are better than digital, no need to justify your position to anyone.

Ok, rant over. I feel better now ;).
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Well, let’s just ban people from discussion who disagree with you, all these other opinions are just stupid anyway. I’ll ask the mods if they can do it for you. :rolleyes:
 
I play cassettes, prerecorded and self recorded more than any other media. I have about 1000 LPs and 7 turntables set up and I listen to them, and can definitely hear the better overall fidelity in pretty much every album I have dups of. Cassettes are more fun for me though. I don’t have to justify it.
 
titanstats said:
Well, let’s just ban people from discussion who disagree with you, all these other opinions are just stupid anyway. I’ll ask the mods if they can do it for you. :rolleyes:
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You don't get the gist of what I'm saying. I don't care if someone wants to post up another opinion if it's constructive and respectful. Instead cassette threads get this:

"Cassettes always sucked more than vinyl ever did."

"I can understand the comeback of records, but the comeback of cassette is the height of ridiculousness"

I don't know, I don't waltz into a thread on watches and tell everyone that watches are stupid and your phone will keep better time (just a fictional example, watch lovers :)). To me that is a jerk move. But hey, I guess some people just relate differently. :dunno:
 
And I still say that "I can understand the comeback of records, but the comeback of cassette is the height of ridiculousness".
 
And you are entitled to your completely non contributing to the thread opinion, of course. My opinion is you have no clue how good a cassette can sound with the right gear, and you overestimate the number of people that buy/use cassettes for whatever your criteria are.
 
perryinva said:
And you are entitled to your completely non contributing to the thread opinion, of course. My opinion is you have no clue how good a cassette can sound with the right gear, and you overestimate the number of people that buy/use cassettes for whatever your criteria are.
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There you go. It amazes me how narrow minded people can be about our hobby. The only thing I attribute it to is a kind of group think mentality or dogma concerning what is "good". The absolutism they deliver their opinions with insults my intelligence and experience. It's as if nobody knows anything but them.
 
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