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Will Cassette Tape ever return

As someone who is a fan of the format, there is no and will never be a real cassette comeback. As mentioned, lack of good, new decks is huge. CDs are hardly a thing any more, now that people can put literally 1000s of songs on their phone, I can't see the average person wanting to spend 2 hours making a mix tape and carrying that around. Not to mention for home listening for the casual user there are streaming services to bring up almost any song they would want. Tape is a fun, niche hobby and I don't expect it to be anything beyond that.
 
I think the collecting thing and use among the very few will continue but it will never be a full blown fad where everyone has a deck and tapes. All the people that really love the format will die off myself included. Good old tape decks will still be available, but no one to fix them,restore them so that will hit a rock bottom. Another reason... Manufacturing tapes now is pretty much a deal breaker. Many restrictions (chemicals) in the manufacturing process are no longer viable. I think type 1 you can still manufacture possibly, but type 2 and 4 no go. Of course used tapes and NOS will still be available from private sales. You can still buy newly manufactured tapes but i think those are using NOS pancakes dug up from somewhere. And then there are the heads in the decks that read the tape. Once those are worn out its Sienora Muchacho.
 
Analog tape like vinyl records never completly disapeared in north america were I live in EU and Taiwan Japan and India, were still brand new mostly Sony type 1 and IV and maxell type 1 and 2 tapes are being made and production expanded. New, not NOS thus. That aside smaller lesser known manufacturers brand who offer new blanck cassette tapes, 8-track and reel. Also brand pre-recorded retail music title releases and re-releases on compact cassette tape and new reels and 8-track cardridge tape. available online retail and manufacturer direct Consumer sales and music retail brick and mortar stores (Atleast over here in BC.
Hi-Fi component Cassettedecks including for proffesional Audio (PA and broadcast use) are being made brand new including for portable and automotive, And brand new consumer home audio R2R decks like from Thorens UK and a few Germany and Poland based manufacturers / brands.
Good tape machines consumer or proffesional use of any format were never cheap bye the way! The tech is not very suited for roboticed production you see. And smaller production quantities then before does keep the retail price firm!
 
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zedex said:
I think the collecting thing and use among the very few will continue
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It may not be big, but it is certainly more than just a very few when big name music stars like Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney release their latest albums on cassette (see thread in General Discussion), not to mention many smaller independent acts.
 
intro6 said:
It may not be big, but it is certainly more than just a very few when big name music stars like Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney release their latest albums on cassette (see thread in General Discussion), not to mention many smaller independent acts.
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And lots of other s BB King Tina Turner, Simple Minds, Dolly Parton, R. Stones, Kiss, lots of friends folk Disco Dance and country. And also lots of Soul, R&B Jazz and Rap brand new and re-released tittles over here.
As far as cassettes concerned it's getting bigger and bigger. Coming , growing out of the sub culture and tape fanatics like most of us are. Its getting mainstream again. Ok not as big as way back then 30 years ago when it hit it's peak, but that's also die to competition of recording formats and tech, that didn't existed or were affordable for everybody back then. Cassette is cool again. And young folks discover aside the everything vintage is cool, that it also sounds very good on brand new $500 600 dollar consumer hifi cassette decks. And there is a lot of it old in media and players recorders. Let s face it. Without a turntable cassette Deck Am / FM stereo analog tuner and cd player reel to reel for some, your hifi setup is extremely boring gear at any price range / wallet! Payed downloads and music streaming is very dead already. Its to easy , no resale value, often bad quality, and you can't hold / keep / collect it. No album art etc like with tapes, cd's vinyl. Its something fysical. And that's what sells. Course if I told you 15 years ago vinyl would be big again every household with a hifi setup would also have a used or brand new turntable hooked up and even buying new records for sometimes $40,+ dollars USA or more, you would have called an ambulance to take me away to an old fashioned loonatic asylum. But now we arrived here! And CD is the better sounding more practical medium and you can even record lossless on a recordable or RW cd or from cd to blanc or RW cd. Periot! But still folks buy ' non recordable ' vinyl records again, which wear way faster then cd's never will, including the young masses who never had vinyl before, grew up in 100% digital households.
But I am also a little biased, I do like tape!
 
Schanz said:
Maxell's dying gasp. Record your CD's.View attachment 2186285
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I recorded cd's before the general public even knew what a CD / optical disc was. But I only make compulation cd's now based on music content I received ghtfully own, (in CDA format only) , or for mobile cd on the go use , or to safe an already fysically damaged cd / content . But I like my tape of every format! 8-track especially , then cassette then reel. From pure sound quality standpoint it's the wrong order I know. But sane satisfying music and gear emotion is prohibited priceless. And yes high and lesser resz streaming and ripping compressing sounds great also on your flatscreen tv Bluetooth speaker or smartphone. But I only do ony hifi set up retail cd's, Analog on air Tuner listening, and analog tape and vinyl. In that order! And I love it. I do me and you do you sotospeak.
 
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It has it's charms, especially if you;re already invested and got some build-up in the format.
But for me, after giving it a try again I'd say "Only in the reruns".. But reruns I like too!..
 
Max77 said:
As someone who is a fan of the format, there is no and will never be a real cassette comeback. As mentioned, lack of good, new decks is huge. CDs are hardly a thing any more, now that people can put literally 1000s of songs on their phone, I can't see the average person wanting to spend 2 hours making a mix tape and carrying that around. Not to mention for home listening for the casual user there are streaming services to bring up almost any song they would want. Tape is a fun, niche hobby and I don't expect it to be anything beyond that.
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Cd's are not a thing anymore? We're do you live. I'm sorry but if there is one real media format spike it's cd's and not even vinyl. New cd's are everywhere. Everyday more fysical music format stores open. With new cd titles. Every supermarket drugstore general store jumbo Walmart type stores sells tons and tons of them daily. Cd players sell ike cupcakes. And like in the old day the average music enthusiast consumer doesn't spend a monthly mortgage on hifi gear or cd players. Every household buys almost anually a new music cd player which they do buy pre recorded new and used retail music cd for. Its called blueray players game consoles or PC's or laptops with optical drives hooked up to a all in one red care two channel or surround receiver .or indeed an affordable dedicated cd player (the latter they renew every 4 or 5 years or so!
Its just hard industry sales statistics! Not my mere opinion!
 
TX-9100 said:
Cd's are not a thing anymore? We're do you live. I'm sorry but if there is one real media format spike it's cd's and not even vinyl. New cd's are everywhere. Everyday more fysical music format stores open. With new cd titles. Every supermarket drugstore general store jumbo Walmart type stores sells tons and tons of them daily. Cd players sell ike cupcakes.
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Your message from 2005 just made it to the board.
gkimeng said:
CDs may have a decent share of owner-sale formats compared to digital downloads and vinyl, but streaming is turning everything else into niches.
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Yep. But maybe it is a good thing? Canned music has been a thing for just a hundred years or so, before that people would play an instrument or sing.
 
Late Boomer said:
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Yep. But maybe it is a good thing? Canned music has been a thing for just a hundred years or so, before that people would play an instrument or sing.
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I expect that a lot of die hard analog fans will think it's the end of civilization as we know it. :)

Canned music used to be handicapped by the fact that you had to accept whatever programming was being fed to you, but now you can subscribe to a streaming service and still select single songs and/or whole albums as if they were on your own shelves. Soon shelves may become obsolete as well!
 
Who knows, maybe the latest nostalgia wave and the continuous fetishization of the 1980s could CPR tapes back into the interest of the "oh look at me im quirky and special" crowds.
As for quality tapes, no. Not a chance. Its is being like the resurgence of Vinyl and the Crosley/Victrola... "things" (to not call them record players, that would be disrespectful to the rest of them). They care about the aesthetics and the "oh look at me im so weird, im listening to a vinyl!" instead of the sound quality and actually enjoying the format.
 
zedex said:
I think the collecting thing and use among the very few will continue but it will never be a full blown fad where everyone has a deck and tapes. All the people that really love the format will die off myself included. Good old tape decks will still be available, but no one to fix them,restore them so that will hit a rock bottom.
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You're right in many aspects. Good decks have skyrocketed in value recently. There are still a handful of competent techs around, but many people just learn to replace the belts and idler themselves. No access to torque tools or test tapes, so really it's just an effort to keep them running and not performing at the highest standard (which is ok for many). We all know that when there's money to be made that someone will go to no end to teach themselves to correctly keep these running.
 
ic-racer said:
The Super-8 cassette is still made because of the demand for LO-FI movie imagery. But who actually wants the LO-FI audio from an audio cassette???
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Take or Audio cassette Low FI? Huh?
The first cassette deck that was a professional reel to reel killer , makes 100% copies of cd's on metal and you can not hear the difference were available to consumers from 1978 and onwards 20 till 23.000 hrz . That's already full later digital cd format redbook specs!
In the early 80's the 20 till 33.000 hrz zero noise on metal dynamic range like redbook CD and higher came out available for the public starting at then $1100,- dollars USA!
Last gen type one Ferro cassette tapes have a cd signal to noise noise ratio are 22 Hz low and reach almost 19700 Hz high. Metal is not necesay anymore course layer chrome types are as good. To 30 thousand hrz high sane signal to noise ratio as metal cassette tape or higher!!
But don't get me wrong I love redbook cd recordings / format. I bought my cd player the day on the Firato in Amsterdam audio video expositions the first day cd players were available for the public and dumped my turntable and Sony hifi set from 1980 for something more cd frequency and dynamic range capable gear the day after I bought my first Philips cd 100 on the before mention Firato exposition. And I still use the updated version slightly better fault correction, Philips CD 101. A 65 dollar cad local thrifstore find from last year lol.
I still got 3 gigs of legally purchased downloaded digital stored music. Till date I never listen to it anymore. But I did when I was 7 years traveling uninterrupted a over the world, on my laptop. More then halve of it lossless / WAF 4 / CDA format even.
I don't use remotes neither, except for my tv and Xbox.
For me it's the music and the gear! Both and both together are hobbies of mine. Nothing to do with investment. Course it is none. You spend a hundred grand in no time on new hifi gear. I have spend that amount the last 4 years filling a whole room full with vintage early and late 70's and some very early 80's high end / ish audio gear. If I want to sell it tomorrow, I probably get 6 or 7 grand for it. If I'm Lucky that is! Who cares. It is what it is! Same with new gear. Its a hobby! That's all!
Sane with tube audio. Nothing for me. Often I like the looks of it , but that's it I'm a solid state groupy. But that's me! So folks enjoy there tube audio. Good for them! !!!!
 
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