MaxxVolume
Lunatic Member
Yeah, there were two formats which I never delved into....MiniDisc, and Elcaset. At the time, I was tempted to get involved, but at the end of the day, decided I needed another format like JFK needed that trip to Dallas....
Cassette tape resurgence ?
Late Boomer
Super Member
Sony produced a well-formed baby (MD, that is) then tore a leg and and arm with its intrusive copy-protection scheme and check-out / check-in idiocy. The fact that the first gen devices did not support MP3 natively did not help either. I always liked how they were high quality metal clamshells with counterbalanced springs, Sony managed not to cheapen the devices like they cheapened cassette players. There were some cassette players with metal body and counterbalanced mechanism, they are sold on ebay for $200 and up, all the way up to $500 - crazy.
vwestlife
Super Member
That was mandated by Congress. Maybe Sony could've argued that MiniDisc's lossy compression would be enough of a deterrent against piracy, since it couldn't make perfect CD-quality copies like DAT could, but after having DAT nearly killed by the "Copy Code" system that the music industry wanted to impose on it, I guess they didn't want to take any unnecessary risks regarding music copyrights.
Late Boomer
Super Member
Was not it DAT that was crippled by the Congress, not MiniDisc? If MiniDisc protection was mandated by Congress, why no one cared about copying CDs and then MP3s? I was thinking about buying a MiniCD player on eBay just for fun: 210 MB vs 150 MB on MiniDisc, although most devices are much uglier and need a computer to burn disc - they cannot record off analog input with a press of a button.
Ah... Old tech. Just found a Pink Floyd's cassette recorded for me off a CD by my friend quarter century ago: it is a chrome BASF tape, no Dolby. I put it into a 40-year old deck I recently acquired, it sounds great. I forgot what is it to sit on a couch in front of a deck with two large floor-standing speakers on the sides, just listening and looking at the dials... Cassettes are dead for all purposes except for nostalgia. Moreover, even CDs are almost dead. My son does not care for any things physical, he did not bother with Pokemon cards. Baseball cards? What is it? Cassettes? CDs? Physical media? All this stuff on the inlay, the photos, the lyrics, the bio can be found on the Net if needed. On a second thought, maybe it is not Gen Z who are aberration, but all the 20th century generations, who had too much stuff, the "consumers". Virtualization, streaming, cloud - all these technologies bring us back to the centuries of existence, when people had only a home at best, and in this home they would have a table, a bed, a pot, and some wooden spoons. Now if we stop using plastic cutlery, that would be just lovely.
vwestlife
Super Member
DAT was the target of the legislation, but it ended up affecting all recordable digital media, including MiniDisc and DCC. On all of these formats, you're only allowed to make one digital copy of a digital source -- you're not allowed to copy a copy, unless you go through the "analog hole".
Sooopa
Active Member
DesertRatt
All Bark, No Bite!
I’ve spent all of December in my den recording on my 4 track. I love cassette. I love old cars. I just started using the Reaper DAW, and as my front end, I feed it from the 4 track! Old and new technology mixed.
Cassettes are gaining in price. Pre-recorded cassettes, especially 80-90s stuff on discogs are ridiculous.
Bosphrous
Well-Known Member
Even empty cassette boxes or j-cards aren't cheap!
MaxxVolume
Lunatic Member
MaxxVolume
Lunatic Member
I had this Pioneer CT-F1250 completely restored about a year ago. It will take The Pepsi Challenge against most of the top-rated decks out there....
Never bought any cassettes on Discogs-obviously, shipping cost can be more than the tape is worth.
I can say, that my local used music shop, has raised prices from perhaps 25 cents for a common title, to $1.00. That comes out to a 400% increase in a year or two. The local GW's don't sell cassettes anymore. I guess that if they get them in, they just trash them. Just the normal life cycle-once desired items fall out of favor, prices plummet, no one wants to bother with them-to the landfill they go. Later, they become desired again, and they supply is limited, so, up go the prices.
Old mainframe computers, built in the 70's, were taken off line, and sold for basically scrap metal (after perhaps sitting out in the weather in the parking lot of some university...). Now, they are cool again to some, and finding ones in restorable condition is very hard, and expensive.
Sooopa
Active Member
I just sorted cassettes by price. Jesus!!! I need to go through my stuff. I might be sitting on gold and don't even know it
Taketheflame
Super Member
Nice stash! I have about 40-ish Type II blanks of my own, but have been thinking of grabbing a couple or few more boxes worth, as the decent deals on them seem to be disappearing.I know....I`m glad that I stocked up on NOS Type IIs when I did....
Taketheflame
Super Member
In my experience, the most pricey cassettes tend to be sought after titles where either no vinyl versions exist, or if they do, they're prohibitively rare and expensive. So mostly 90's music, but some 80's stuff too.
Late Boomer
Super Member
What will you do with the recorded cassettes? Give them away? Record over? What is the end-game? Are you going to make mixtapes to listen in a walkman or in a car that has no CD player, no SD card slot, no Bluetooth and no 3.5 mm AUX input?
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AK'er Boatdrinks77, last time I was at his house, was up to 350 sealed Type II blanks, probably a 100 Type IV's. Great person to know!
MaxxVolume
Lunatic Member
Yes, I have given away quite a few tapes (usually Type Is though), along with various tape decks obtained gratis via Freecycle, to people I worked with, who expressed an interest in vintage gear. That modest effort has motivated a couple of them to delve into the hobby a bit further.
I`ve been fooling around with various tape formats for over 50 years now, and still enjoy making a good recording.