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Tapes making comeback - Guardians of the Galaxy credited

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Slightly off topic but when we had a moving company move us, they lost a box containing about 100 favorite cassette tapes that I had saved after weeding down my years and years of tapes. So, now I've got two tape decks with nothing to play on them.
 
darkblue94 said:
Vinyl doesn't "deteriorate" at all, it can and does physically wear out from longterm use, especially when a shitty stylus is used. I have plenty of vinyl records that are in excess of fifty years old and are as fresh as they were when new. :)
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Unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said about tape. I remember my tape days, where my favorite song(s) always went bad faster, because I played them much more often than other songs recorded in the same cassette. Not to mention the ritual of head cleaning. Frankly, audio cassette isn't something that I miss.
 
Kreshna said:
Unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said about tape. I remember my tape days, where my favorite song(s) always went bad faster, because I played them much more often than other songs recorded in the same cassette. Not to mention the ritual of head cleaning. Frankly, audio cassette isn't something that I miss.
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I don't miss it either.
 
Last line of the article mentions 'digging out an old Walkman', as that was used in the film to play the cassettes.
Online sale of similar ones have proved profitable. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-TPS-L...485176?hash=item1a27a836b8:g:HwgAAOSwhQhYx5l6

We have one hanging around here that collapses down to the same size as the cassette it plays. Close enough to put in the case with the cassettes, if they're in cases themselves.

Although I have several decks, I never really liked the format. Portable, but substandard.

Chip
 
Chip Chester said:
Last line of the article mentions 'digging out an old Walkman', as that was used in the film to play the cassettes.
Online sale of similar ones have proved profitable. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-TPS-L...485176?hash=item1a27a836b8:g:HwgAAOSwhQhYx5l6

We have one hanging around here that collapses down to the same size as the cassette it plays. Close enough to put in the case with the cassettes, if they're in cases themselves.

Although I have several decks, I never really liked the format. Portable, but substandard.

Chip
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Woa $1199 is crazy coin for that :eek2:
 
Kreshna said:
Unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said about tape. I remember my tape days, where my favorite song(s) always went bad faster, because I played them much more often than other songs recorded in the same cassette. Not to mention the ritual of head cleaning. Frankly, audio cassette isn't something that I miss.
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Pick up a nice Nakamichi or Aiwa AD-F series and you'll eat your hat! Head cleaning = 2 q-tips and 3 drops of ISO alcohol (easy).
 
  1. Check this out. http://www.nationalaudiocompany.com Sorry I need someone to educate me on how to copy a clickable link. Anyway I live in Springfield Mo. and National Audio is a very thriving business. I became acquainted with the owner about 15 years ago. They record all the music for Metellica as far as cassettes go. I was told they get new contracts weekly for other artist. On the forth floor of there building they have a small makeshift museum that is packed with old vintage recording machines and vinyl pressing machines that they purchased from old recording studios. They actually plan on getting into vinyl pressing within a year or so. He offered to give me a tour of the place and said to allow a half a day, one of these days I'm going to take him up on it.
 
Not a huge cassette fan -- but, in terms of the "tape wear" issue perception (FWIW), I do have numerous cassette dubs I made as long ago as 1977 (on TDK AD, SA and Maxell UD-XLII) that still sound very fine.
 
I have read that cassettes can last years and years when stored properly. One of the interesting things about cassettes is many people are recording their valued vinyls using high bias cassettes and a high quality deck. In this way, they don't wear the vinyls playing them every time they want to listen that music. Instead, and the most important, they are still listening to analog audio when playing cassettes, a thing that you don't get if you transfer vinyls to CDs.! By the way, If you look at Ebay, you will find that good cassette decks are selling for a good money now. Some years back, you could find the same decks for nothing.!
 
DVjorge said:
Instead, and the most important, they are still listening to analog audio when playing cassettes, a thing that you don't get if you transfer vinyls to CDs.!
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You wouldn't be able to hear the difference if you listen to a record I played and recorded at the same time to 24 bit WAV and played the digital file back for you. In fact subsequently if I did the same thing with tape you would hear the tape copy not sounding as clear and clean as the record or digital file. So the all analog myth as better sound quality is just that.
 
Properly stored, tape can last a lifetime. I have cassettes from the early 1970s that still play fine. "Sticky shed" is a known problem with old reel-to-reel tapes, but they mostly got that sorted out by the cassette era. As for tapes getting worn out due to repeated playings, there are samples online of department store background music tapes that were played repeatedly day after day all the time the store was open for an entire month. Of course those were never meant to be high-fidelity to begin with, but they don't seem to sound any worse after all that use.

As for the new GOTG cassettes -- I have "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" and it actually sounds pretty decent. The music was clearly subjected to the "loudness war" treatment, but for a Type I tape with no Dolby NR, that is actually beneficial because it allows them to get a hotter signal on the tape to increase the S/N ratio.

I've bought ten new music cassettes within the past year. All were far cheaper than buying the same albums on vinyl, and none have any quality problems, unlike some of the new records I've bought which arrived warped or scratched. Some even were recorded onto chrome tape.
 
4-2-7 said:
You wouldn't be able to hear the difference if you listen to a record I played and recorded at the same time to 24 bit WAV and played the digital file back for you. In fact subsequently if I did the same thing with tape you would hear the tape copy not sounding as clear and clean as the record or digital file. So the all analog myth as better sound quality is just that.
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I don't want to open a debate about it but you will find thousands who agrees analog is better than any digital format.
 
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