I collect all audio formats - records, cassettes, 8-tracks, and CDs. Records are by far my favorite, but I have a special nostalgia for tapes because I was in high school in the 80s. I love cassettes and now is a great time to buy them. The prices aren't too inflated yet (as with records). Average cost is .50 cents to $3 depending on the artist. And you can get old cassette players for $20 at Goodwill. Learn how to replace a few belts and you're in business. It's not really that easy and some cassette deck refurbishments have truly tested my patients, but's it's a fun hobby.
Why do I love cassettes? Obviously the nostalgia, they look cool, like records the inserts with cassettes vary from country to country, you have all different types to play with (Normal, Chrome, Metal) and then there's the different noise reductions (Dolby, DBX). I have DBX tapes! All right, DBX is not my favorite, but still fun. And then there's the availability of bootleg live concerts - some are really high quality soundboard recordings. I just bought a bootleg 1989 The Who, Live at Radio City Music Hall, Tommy - for $1 on a Chrome tape at a local record store. It sounded great!
Whenever I tell anyone I collect cassette tapes the first thing they say is, "Oh cassettes were terrible, aren't they always getting jammed up and aren't you always rolling the tape back in with a pencil...." No, practically never, unless it's on a cassette deck I'm in the middle of rebuilding and testing. And no because I play tapes on high quality decks, not cheap Walkmans. And when it did happen, it was usually because I stuck a tape into a car player after it had been sitting in a car at the beach and was 110 degrees inside the car. Rare, not common.
Here's a fun game. Go into a Goodwill or any thrift store or used music store and buy 20 records, 20 tapes, 20 CDs, and 20 8-tracks (if you can find them). Go home and test them out and I'm willing to bet here's what you'll find:
20 records - They'll all play, some will have a lot of surface noise, some will be great after a good cleaning, you'll probably have no skips, and again, all will be playable.
20 cassettes - They'll all be playable too, though you may have to replace or glue back on a few felt pressure pads, But all will play. In my experience, on average, 1 out of every 50 cassettes is hopeless and will not turn, or will squeak loudly, or will sound garbled and distorted (more likely). That's a pretty good failure rate on obsolete magnetic tape. And that's for tapes that were probably mis-handled and stored in extreme cold and heat, thrown on car seats, and in back packs. And the cassette deck matters, too. Play a very poor condition tape in a late 90s Technics deck and it might not work. Try it out in an early 80s Technics M-series or RS-B100 and it will likely play just fine. Same with my budget Nak - it can play just about anything.
20 CDs - "digital will last forever" somehow falls short. You buy 20 used CDs and I guarantee you'll have problems with a lot of them, unless you have a polishing kit to fix scratches and even that won't save everything. Probably the second worst failure rate because they were semi-portable, we left them in our cars, we didn't store them properly when not in use, and we treated them roughly.
20 8 tracks - Ok, they often won't work as they'll almost always need to have the pressure pads replaced and they're not easy to open (often required to properly replace a foam pad). Once you replace the pads, it will probably play (provided you didn't mess it up taking the case apart). Worst failure rate, but again, due to the pads.
