Cassette tape resurgence ?
lico
Super Member
Probably plays fine, no belt issues since it's pretty new.
https://www.vintagecassette.com/tascam/202mkv
Lavane
Lunatic Member
Ya, that's what i think.. I haven't tried it yet though.
Taketheflame
Super Member
A new 3 head deck would definitely be the telling sign of a true revival of the format. I'd imagine w/today's technology that they could squeeze some very impressive performance out of cassettes with a good new deck - but there has to be a market for it of course.
IIRC, it is indeed environmental regulations that prevent the manufacturing of both type IV (basically everywhere) and type II (In the US - I believe it can still be made elsewhere). Any "new" type II being sold is leftover/NOS tape being put into new shells. Once that supply has been sold, the only way to get Type II will be through private sellers/eBay and such.
Luckily, it looks like NAC is finally starting to roll out their new super-ferric type 1 tapes (only available in bulk cartons for now). Sounds like it might be time to be a guinea pig and give some a shot!
Last month I went through a similar box from the 1980s. Of particular interest was a 1983 tape of OMD album borrowed from schools radio station. This last month I had difficulty finding the exact same album or cd so I digitized this tape I had made years ago playing it back through my restored BIC T-4 deck into an A/D converter.
I was very impressed listening to this on my current system (which was nothing like my JCPenny system I had in college). More so impressed by the lack of deterioration. Even more so impressed that many of my albums from 1983 had deteriorated. Either warped or some kind of fungus on them. Making me think that if I had "forgotten" to return the OMD LP to the radio station, my tape of it would have survived the years better.
Why digitize it to play? I also found many of my cassette tapes weak where the tape enters the spool. About 10% of them broke there when I was playing them. Maybe there will be a market for 'salvage' empty cassette shells.
Last edited:
yonder
Active Member
Been picking up cassettes in the thrift stores for years. 25 cents, 5 for a dollar. Good music so cheap I couldn't help it. After a couple hundred tapes I started looking for a player and just the other day found an Nakamichi Lx-5 needing belts. It was cheap. Sprayed the belts with belt dressing, cleaned/demagnetized the tape path and now listening to tapes. Again!
Josh Smith
Member
It’s fun to play around with. I picked up a deck for free from a friend for helping with home improvenments and before I know it I’m making all kinds of mix tapes. I have a connection for blank tapes though through a estate auction junkie who gives me all the cassettes he finds if I feed him some goodies for his booth every now and then. Just recently scored a 12 pack of Maxwell ur 90 tapes from this fella. Called me up and said he left them on the front desk of the thrift store. I’m having fun converting some vinyl over to these tapes and with Dolby b they sound fantastic. Best part is I can play these and save some wear in my collectible albums.
Attachments
There are couple of sites online that offer vinyl rips of impossibly rare lps for download. Once downloaded, I record and play them on my Nak ZX-7. Great sound, and nice way to simultaneously have backups and analog physical media of lp's that I may never own.
MaxxVolume
Lunatic Member
Another good possible source for ALL SORTS of stuff: FREECYCLE.... most counties have a program. I belonged for several years, and was amazed at the stuff that folks were giving away for free (FREE ! What a concept ! 
) Scored many cassettes, and a few pieces of equipment, most of which I gifted to the youngsters that worked with me, so they would know there was something besides MP3 players in the world....
) Scored many cassettes, and a few pieces of equipment, most of which I gifted to the youngsters that worked with me, so they would know there was something besides MP3 players in the world....
lorne
Sonic Lizard
It was a long time ago. A friend demonstrated what he could do with a Nakamichi Dragon after carefully tuning bias and signal levels. He recorded something like a piano sonata using a Linn turntable and Naim stuff as line gear. He did not tell me he was recording on Normal Type 1 tape until I had finished listening to the audition. Then my jaw dropped. A good machine and some cheap Type-1 tape is still viable.; maybe not for the dynamic range of symphony orchestra, but for some genres .... And for broadcast MP-3? ... well WTH!?
Fortunately, the tape era lasted longer here in Japan than in other places. I saw what was happening across the oceans. So I bought up a LOT of stock — especially when retailers were finally trying to unload it. I have a crate of unused, decent Type II in wrappers. (Metal vanished pretty quickly.)
There must be warehouses full of this stuff around somewhere. And there must be tons of the stuff being trotted off to the dumps every year!
BTW: Parts of the African continent continued using cassette tape for much longer than anywhere else. Illiteracy in the countryside, as well the remoteness and lack of modern communications in so many areas of the continent assured the use of elementary, battery powered recording devices. Cassettes could be mailed and distributed as voice communication. The market and production kept pace with the demand, just as it ignored more developed regions of the world.
AN ASIDE: The first time I ever heard real African music — from Tanzania — was in Vancouver on an R to R machine ... recorded in nightclubs by the owner of the machine. She had been a nightclub entertainer. (I wish I had that music now!! Raw and infectious music I've tried to find ever since.)
Fortunately, the tape era lasted longer here in Japan than in other places. I saw what was happening across the oceans. So I bought up a LOT of stock — especially when retailers were finally trying to unload it. I have a crate of unused, decent Type II in wrappers. (Metal vanished pretty quickly.)
There must be warehouses full of this stuff around somewhere. And there must be tons of the stuff being trotted off to the dumps every year!
BTW: Parts of the African continent continued using cassette tape for much longer than anywhere else. Illiteracy in the countryside, as well the remoteness and lack of modern communications in so many areas of the continent assured the use of elementary, battery powered recording devices. Cassettes could be mailed and distributed as voice communication. The market and production kept pace with the demand, just as it ignored more developed regions of the world.
AN ASIDE: The first time I ever heard real African music — from Tanzania — was in Vancouver on an R to R machine ... recorded in nightclubs by the owner of the machine. She had been a nightclub entertainer. (I wish I had that music now!! Raw and infectious music I've tried to find ever since.)
Last edited:
I am thinking the revival isn't about us, the enthusiasts. We're this type right here 
:
I think it's the hipsters. You know, because vinyl got so popular, and they can't be associated with anything popular. Plus they can carry it to the coffee house to play it on a thrift store Walkman.
:I think it's the hipsters. You know, because vinyl got so popular, and they can't be associated with anything popular. Plus they can carry it to the coffee house to play it on a thrift store Walkman.
infullview
Super Member
I never liked cassettes. In order to get them to perform well you have to futz with the bias for every brand of tape you use, head alignment has to be perfect, and you're relying on a shell that will ultimately wear out and cause the tape to stretch and deform. I wasted too much of my life trying to get these to work and lost a lot of good music because the tape ultimately deforms and causes high end drop out. In comparison, I had good reel to reels that had much better sound quality, and the music that I archived with these is still viable to this day. I see these decks all the time at goodwill for $10 - and as far as I'm concerned, they just take up a lot of shelf space.
Lots of people said(say) the same thing about vinyl when that "resurgence" took place. I learned that a lot of the folks who didn't want to get involved with vinyl and loved the idea of cd never had good experiences with vinyl mostly because they never took the time in the first place to do it right. Cheap tables, lousy electronics, poor record care, etc. So of course the end result was crap. Same with folks who dismiss cassettes. Most who had poor experiences like this did so by using cheap players, cheap cassettes, caring for them poorly, etc. Maybe not everyone, but many. I had various Nak's and other fairly high end machines back in the 70's/80's, used high quality tape and cared for the tapes made by storing them properly. So I still own many great tapes from that era that play well and have not disintegrated. I currently own a Nak ZX-7 that allows for manually setting bias and azimuth before every recording. Takes me about as long to do that as it does to prepare a record for playing. IE, a minute or less.
I have no issues with people that just want to pop a cd in a player and press a button, or people that love the idea of just streaming a file. I do both of those things often. But I love physical media, and therefore I love to make tapes, mostly of downloaded vinyl rips these days. It's fun, they sound great, and they last and serve as one form of back up in the event something happens to the file. It just depends on how you go about all of this, how much you're willing to put in, as to how much success you with it you will have.
My .02, anyway.
infullview
Super Member
I'm old. I grew up with vinyl and still have an extensive collection. I had a good cassette deck and did try to make the best of it, but now here I am a couple of years away from retirement and I still have all of my vinyl and reel to reel tapes- can't say the same for my cassettes.
Like I said, not everyone. 2 out of 3 ain't bad. I never got into reel to reel. Not sure why, maybe the cost.
I have a Tascam 122 and a collection of pre-recorded tapes purchased at thrift stores lately (probably average 25 cents each) which I use for background music.
I save my records and R/R tape tapes for the times when I sit down specifically to listen.
Back in the day I didn't have the funds for a Nak deck and metal tape, so my recording results with a top-load Pioneer and bargain tape were less than stellar.
Seems to me though, that that Pioneer deck was in the neighborhood of 300 1970's dollars which was a lot of money for me at the time. (High School).
So, I guess there is a resurgence in this household and I'm always happy to see younger people appreciate our "old stuff". Always room for old and newer formats.
I save my records and R/R tape tapes for the times when I sit down specifically to listen.
Back in the day I didn't have the funds for a Nak deck and metal tape, so my recording results with a top-load Pioneer and bargain tape were less than stellar.
Seems to me though, that that Pioneer deck was in the neighborhood of 300 1970's dollars which was a lot of money for me at the time. (High School).
So, I guess there is a resurgence in this household and I'm always happy to see younger people appreciate our "old stuff". Always room for old and newer formats.