Time to break that old Sony Walkman and/or boom box out from the back of the closet. Don't know about y'all, but I still have cassette tapes I listen to. Now, I await the reel to reel comeback. I have a number of r2r tapes and a Sony r2r deck packed away.

[www.theday.com]

Broke my last cassette player one week ago.

I am bidding on ebay to get a new one.

Have a load of albums on tape only that I still like to listen once in a while, but not so much to re-buy in digital format.

C

They never went away in my world - I have tons of them and play them all the time.
Not only originals, but mix tapes I made - some dating back 40 years ago - like mini time capsules of where I was at and what I was doing.
While I probably wouldn't buy a new one from a band over a vinyl or cd, I did buy Crosseyed Heart to accompany the vinyl and cd copies I already had.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Cassettes were always there for me and I’m going through my cassettes archive at the moment: lots of radio broadcasts of live concerts and interviews and I still use my walkman on my racingbike!

"Cassette tapes...they're back" - that was the opinion of the German Musikexpress-Magazine (April 2018) too:



18-pages Special about Cassette-Tapes - [www.Musikexpress.de]

New Cassette-Tapes as part of a Deluxe-Boxset, released 14-Sep-2018 by Sony Music:



[www.Amazon.co.uk]

Also:

The Reel-to-Reel Deal - Why analog-obsessed audiophiles are returning to reel-to-reel

Cassettes saved me much money back in the days. Recorded LP:s and hits from the radio. Mixed cassettes (where you were your own producer/DJ) has a cult status in Sweden.
And Walkmans were a blessing when they came out. Two hours on the bus were nothing if you had your Walkman with you. You had to remember to carry fresh AA batteries with you though...

I play a few old ones in my car stereo (it's a 2000 model), once in a while. I can't see the point of buying new ones. It's not a good format, other than being more portable than vinyl. They can also become unplayable over time.

So I wonder now that earlier this year Best Buy stopped stocking and selling artist and band CD's if Best Buy begins selling Cassette tapes ?

Oh brother. Another Hipster fad. I was at Amoeba in L.A. in the Vinyl section out of curiosity. (And to buy presents for other people. I don't buy Vinyl.) There were these two teen age girls looking at Vinyl albums for $30 dollars, I bought for $5.98 in the 70s. I had some fun with them. I told them, "Vinyl is old hat. I'm into cassettes now." They appeared deflated that they weren't on to the newest thing.

sound quality was poor, recording onto cassette produced poor recordings and other noises from the house, doors shutting, dugs barking and hiss. cassettes got chewed up and you had to fast forward or rewind to the song you wanted, and you had to have a pencil handy to do some winding, and its making a comeback. why.

i did like the producing own recordings and playlists and being the dj and walkmans were good when they first came out, i got rid of my cassette collection when i was moving my stuff out of the marital home. i just didnt have the inclination, had a great collection which has never been replaced, might never will, with youtube being around, also liked the fact cassettes didnt take up much space but cd,s made them obsolete

i bought a record player cd combo 2 years ago and have not played it much, dont have many vinyls and only buy cd or dvd now.

….still got boxes and boxes of
sealed, high quality blank cassette tapes …. stored in a dark place



ROCKMAN

I never thought sound quality was poor on cassettes.

The sound quality of cassettes is hindered due to tape hiss, or trading off sound quality by using Dolby on decks that have it. It also has a small tape surface area and a speed that reduces sound quality compared to reel to reel decks. The tape housing also sometimes wears out.

One thing I do miss is the double artist tapes that labels used to sometimes release at cheap prices, I had a tape that had BTO on one side, and Grand Funk Railroad on the other. That was a good combination that was never released on CD or vinyl. I could do without Blue Swede being on the other side of the Raspberries' greatest hits.

i have always thought the fidelity of cassettes good.
DAT tape was magnetic and did use digital 'digital audio tape'
...and a super storage medium; never had an issue w them
as far as consumer cassettes they varied in quality.
essentially four tracks (Springsteen recorded the Atlantic City lp on
one of those Sony 4 track cassette recorders)...tho I'm sure there
was serious processional mastering etc... but still...
very impressive.
that machine was double the normal cassette speed of 1 7/8 inches per second. ips.
those sony 4 track recorders ran at 3 3/4 ips which made a difference in the audio quality as well.
i guess every consumer cassette was a 4 track. a stereo track left and right ...
and then flip it over for the other side...a stereo track left and right.

i liked them a lot; do still have some including commercially released
12 X 5 and quite a few others than sound Great.

I liked tapes a lot!

I remember in the late 70's I had a massive store purchased collection of artist and band cassettes including super rare and out of print material and as often in those days of carousing and partying and such I would get home late /early morning and if there was no parking on my street I would park across the street in the park . I kept my cassettes in a box on the floor on the passenger side of my car and one morning I walk out to the car and the passenger side window was smashed out the tapes stolen along with my 6 by 9 tri axel speakers which were mounted from the top of the back dash for lack of the correct term instead of having them mounted from inside the trunk . The cassette player and the equalizer/amp were left untouched .I was so bummed and lesson learned . The thievery did not stop there because after that I never parked overnight in the park again but in the early to mid 2000's I was on holiday in Vegas and the car was parked out in front of the house and the expletives broke in thru the passenger side door lock and stole my CD player which was a great unit .So after that I got a new and better one with a detachable faceplate and enjoyed that until I got a new vehicle which I have left just a basic radio in it .I marvel at all of the folks that leave there phones , wallets ,cash and coins and other assorted valuables in there vehicles and always hear on the news about car brake ins and thefts and just shake my head .

I still have loads of cassettes in good order plus 3 players at home, 2 of which are good quality. My car, almost 25 years old, also has a cassette player which works well but I rarely use.

In the Summer of 1990 when Urban Jungle was in full swing, there was a massive over-production run of the Stones' back catalogue in all available formats : CDs, Vinyl and cassettes. They ended up selling loads at a big discount so I bought several up.

I remember being in Tower Records in Glasgow and buying Dirty Work and Satanic Majesties. I don't think I ever bothered to get the latter in any format other than cassette. I listened to both on my way back down the road to where I lived then and now - Oxfordshire.

8-Tracks anybody?

"I'll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon."

Tapes were/are crap. I can't count the number of times the tape got eaten up by my various players and I had to rewind the reel back in using a pencil. And then with every subsequent play, the sound would be all @#$%& up in that one spot where the tape had been eaten by my player.

I can understand the resurgence of vinyl, but NOT cassettes!

I think they're waning now though..

Record stores and online were selling used ones like hotcakes the past couple years, but stores aren't paying as much now and I've seen many of them stop taking them altogether (we drive around the country for wife's gig).. I did see old punk tapes going for $20 to $30 briefly, but the biggest problem with tapes is once that pressure pad comes off the tape is done (unless you want to do some serious tape disassembly!)

oooowww yeah serious tape disassembly...
tell me about it snoopy.... did that many-A-time
... casssete/VCR tape tangled threw theeee fingers ....



ROCKMAN

Quote
FrogSugar
Tapes were/are crap. I can't count the number of times the tape got eaten up by my various players and I had to rewind the reel back in using a pencil. And then with every subsequent play, the sound would be all @#$%& up in that one spot where the tape had been eaten by my player.

I can understand the resurgence of vinyl, but NOT cassettes!

This problem only occurs when playing cassettes is the car when you place a cassette that wasn't wind up tight......thanks to the vibration of the car ;o) the cassettes. Can't remember a tape is eaten up at my home.

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NICOS

Quote
FrogSugar
Tapes were/are crap. I can't count the number of times the tape got eaten up by my various players and I had to rewind the reel back in using a pencil. And then with every subsequent play, the sound would be all @#$%& up in that one spot where the tape had been eaten by my player.

I can understand the resurgence of vinyl, but NOT cassettes!

This problem only occurs when playing cassettes is the car when you place a cassette that wasn't wind up tight......thanks to the vibration of the car ;o) the cassettes. Can't remember a tape is eaten up at my home.

The problem was especially with the longer albums. The more tape you had in there, the more likely that it would eventually encounter resistance from the plastic shell; I remember having to slap certain cassettes down on a table to loosen up the inside!

And unlike vinyl or CDs, you can't skip over that occasional crappy track!

Quote
24FPS
Oh brother. Another Hipster fad. I was at Amoeba in L.A. in the Vinyl section out of curiosity. (And to buy presents for other people. I don't buy Vinyl.) There were these two teen age girls looking at Vinyl albums for $30 dollars, I bought for $5.98 in the 70s. I had some fun with them. I told them, "Vinyl is old hat. I'm into cassettes now." They appeared deflated that they weren't on to the newest thing.

Yeah, I'm sure the middle-aged guy that was schooling them on to the 'next thing' completely deflated them.

Quote
treaclefingers

Quote
24FPS
Oh brother. Another Hipster fad. I was at Amoeba in L.A. in the Vinyl section out of curiosity. (And to buy presents for other people. I don't buy Vinyl.) There were these two teen age girls looking at Vinyl albums for $30 dollars, I bought for $5.98 in the 70s. I had some fun with them. I told them, "Vinyl is old hat. I'm into cassettes now." They appeared deflated that they weren't on to the newest thing.

Yeah, I'm sure the middle-aged guy that was schooling them on to the 'next thing' completely deflated them.

And I'm sure the lame attempt at sarcasm deflated the middle-aged guy.

Quote
FrogSugar
Tapes were/are crap. I can't count the number of times the tape got eaten up by my various players and I had to rewind the reel back in using a pencil. And then with every subsequent play, the sound would be all @#$%& up in that one spot where the tape had been eaten by my player.

I can understand the resurgence of vinyl, but NOT cassettes!

CDs is the way to go. You can go forward skip a track and sound is clearer than tapes. I still got lots including Stones thinking of giving away to thrift store



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-03-08 08:21 by babyblue.