Cassette Tapes
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Other music related lounges
Forum Name: Tech Talk
Forum Description: Discuss musical instruments, equipment, hi-fi, speakers, vinyl, gadgets,etc.
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=21747
Printed Date: November 24 2024 at 17:13
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Cassette Tapes
Posted By: Abstrakt
Subject: Cassette Tapes
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 06:54
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some say that the cassettes are long gone, or "stone age"... I don't have anything serious to talk about now, but i'll write it down when i do. |
Replies:
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 07:31
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Well for the last two months with the new used car, I have a cassette deck installed so I have taken out my old collection of Maxell XL-IIS that I made during the 80's (until 93 I gather ) and have been listening to them again . Cannot say I miss them a great deal, but I am happy to still have them I still have a walkman, soI can tape conversation during lectures and such, though. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
. I must have some 400 of them of which 395 are XL-II S, and some still sound quite good. But some have not aged that well and playing cassettes in the car was certainly not good for them tapes. But I will not care for them anymore than that as they are bound to oblivion in the coming decade. Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 08:12
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Tape is superior to CD, as long as you use a good tapedeck and good quality blank tapes, such as
Maxell XL-IIS ot TDK SA-X for example. A big tapedeck like the Nakamichi 1000 and 1000 ZXL explodes any digital setup on a musicality level: far more dynamic, much more sound matter, highs goes further and low is deeper, in one word like in 100, it's analog! Moreover, it has the "magic" ability to enhance digital: recording a CD to a tape "analogizes" the CD, removes a lot of harshness (thanks to bandwidth limitation, it removes digital supersonic noise). The absolute best tape deck ever: Nakamichi 1000 ZXL gold (it costs about 7000 € in good condition, very rare): 
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Posted By: PROGMAN
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 08:21
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I think the cassette is just as good as a CD.
------------- CYMRU AM BYTH 
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 08:48
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When i switch from my big digital set up (which works great) to my Naka1000, the difference is obvious and you realize how thin digital is. Simply cause it's analog.
And this tapedeck is from 1973!!! (The first version), designed for studio. 
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 09:08
| And yes, i've made the test recently to compare a little 40 dollars Sony Walkman with a MP3 player , not surprisingly, the walkman easily win! (using a sennheiser px100 walkman headphones) |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 11:26
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Nice stuff! Sadly, the casette's today are a bit boring, i think. All i've got is like Maxell 90 and DR 60... And then again, it's sad that car stereos with casette players hardly sells anymore  I've got about 50 tapes with black sabbath, deep purple, pink floyd, jean michelle jearre... |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 11:28
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i sure want one of thease... how much for it??? like 100-500 dollars? LOL |
oliverstoned wrote:
Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 14 2006 at 11:43
It's an incredible source. Better count 600 to 1000 dollars in good condition...
Wikipedia: "Nakamichi is a historic high end audio audio company. It is now owned by the Grande Group, a conglomerate based in Singapore. Nakamichi was founded in 1948, manufacturing portable radios, tone arms, speakers, and communications equipment, then in 1972 launched its first Nakamichi-brand products, home audio gear that included the world's first three-head cassette deck." "In the 1970s Nakamichi created stereo cassette decks that eventually made reel-to-reel tape recorders obsolete for consumers. The Nakamichi 1000 was regarded as one of the finest cassette recorder made in the mid-1970s. It had three heads, high quality motors that reduced wow and flutter to new low levels, and had Dolby noise reduction to increase the signal to noise ratio. Most audiophiles wanted, but few could afford the Nakamichi 1000, so Nakamichi came out with lesser models such as the Nakamichi 700, a silver instead of black version of the 1000, and the silver wedge-shaped 600." |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 02:55
| INCREDIBLY AMAZING! |
Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 03:35
| What? |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 03:51
| your tape equipment! |
Posted By: JayDee
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 04:17
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Have lots of tape actually, but i havent been using them since i bought a Cd player... some tapes give you a blurry sound after repetetive plays... so i think CDs are better... ------------- 
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 05:18
As you enjoy, here are others incredible tapedecks: 
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Posted By: mystic fred
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 06:59
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i wouldn't be without my good ol' DENON DR-M34HR cassette decks - i'm often recording live concerts and events from my DAB receiver, or mixing down my own efforts at creating music!. -------------  Prog Archives Tour Van 
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 07:02
| So you enjoy radio too? |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 08:43
| The Last one is the coolest! is it from the 80's? it sure looks like it |
Posted By: Guzzman
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 08:55
The sad thing is that cassettes really wear out after some time, depending on the conditions under which they're stored. Cassettes don't like to be driven around in cars - they get too hot in the summer and to cold in the winter. But the sound of a good cassette really is something to long for. Though I never could afford  one of those high-tech-things above , I love taping my own compilations of my favourite bands or Best-Ofs that were much better than what you could get in stores (either on vinyl or CD)  .
------------- "We've got to get in to get out" |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 09:15
| ok, how many taps do you people have? i have like 40-50 |
Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 10:04
Yes, the 1000 zxl is from 1982, it's simply the best tape deck ever in the world (1000 zxl "gold" is even better, but very rare and expensive (see up)). 700 ZXL come just after, with a little colder sound, precise, more "goldmund" like. Excellent also! 1000(what i own)  is on the same aesthetic sound's family than the 1000zxl: warm and analog sounding, extremely musical and incredebly dynamic, etc...
Build like a tank, it's studio device as long as an exception source for audiophiles. And that's very big and heavy! As says Wikipedia, these tapedecks were so good that it made big tape devices obsolete... Top Naka decks were used by the great artists in studio. I.E Pink floyd, (we can see a naka1000 on a 70's PF in studio pic in Nick Mason's last book.) |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 10:07
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None. I haven't been using tapes or vinyl for more than 10 years now. ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/users/Mike" rel="nofollow">Recently listened to: 
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 10:17
...and after come the Studer...
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Posted By: mystic fred
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 17:12
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yep, on the odd occasion there is something good on, like a robert plant concert last year. ------------- Prog Archives Tour Van
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Posted By: Dick Heath
Date Posted: April 15 2006 at 19:53
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I prefer my old cylinders and the shellac 78s.... I reading some of the above with disbelieve. The cassette itself was/is the problem, especially with: a) contacting surfaces (ergo suffering wear), b) a polymer tape that creeps under tension especially in players that run hot (giving permanent aural distortion), c) debatable long term adhesion between polymer tape and magnetic surface (therefore problems with drop out). Further the bloody Phillips/Sony patents meant for anybody licensing the technology, to manaufacture cassette players (or the tapes), for 2 decades could not operate at speeds faster than 1 7/8 ips - exaggerating tape noise. Did any cassette deck match the signal to noise ratio of CD players. Bad day when I switch from reel to reel to cassette - besides 8 tracks gave better sound quality........................ BTW on a serious note: noticed how few MD portables on sale nowadays - another fad? |
Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 16 2006 at 03:46
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"Did any cassette deck match the signal to noise ratio of CD players. Bad day when I switch from reel to reel to cassette - besides 8 tracks gave better sound quality.."
Any good analog device explodes CD signal/noise ratio!! And modern blank tapes are far better...tape (metal) is still used for the professional current numeric DAT format... 
Top Naka pictured up goes to 30khz easily and more important, it does it far better than any CD. Moreover, it beats any digital set up on a musicality level. Now, between tape, vynil and CD, tape is the more fragile, and the more subject to wear, i agree. |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 16 2006 at 04:40
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Oliver, that's bullsh*t. if you take aside technical "trickery" like Dolby, any cassette system is limited to about 70dB ... that's a little bit more than vinyl, but VERY far away from the 96dB of CDs/DAT, and even further away from modern digital equipment (like my soundcard) which goes to 109dB. Remember that this is a thread about tape decks, not professional studio equipment. And you're again confusing signal/noise ratio with frequency bandwidth. ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/users/Mike" rel="nofollow">Recently listened to:
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 16 2006 at 04:53
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No, digital devices such as your crappy sound card doesn't goes at 107 db. These are not true measures!
Top Naka tape decks are both studio and audiophile equipment. Talking about digital: http://happybob.com/marc/digital_sucks/index.htm - http://happybob.com/marc/digital_sucks/index.htm |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 16 2006 at 05:14
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Of course you can ignore facts, that's your own decision.
Nice article. Doesn't say anything about signal/noise ratio though. ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/users/Mike" rel="nofollow">Recently listened to:
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Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: April 16 2006 at 05:24
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I still hAVE LOADS OF OLD CASETTED oops, but Cd is Much better though. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 16 2006 at 06:30
The same facts that ther's more distorsion with tubes than solid state and that digital is more precise than anolog...facts from experience are something else! |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 16 2006 at 09:37
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"facts from experience" are not really facts. "fact" is something that can be easily verified by anybody, or something on which there's a real consensus among experts. Signal/Noise ratio can be easily measured, and there are no differing opinions/theories about how to measure it. And about the two "facts" you mentioned: - "tubes have more distortion than solid state": Why, of course that's true. Whether you can hear that distortion, and whether it diminishes your listening experience, and that there are many different kinds of distortion ... all these factors make this a far more complicated matter than the signal/noise ratio. - "digital is more precise than analog": That's wrong. A digital signal is always less precise than the analog source, because information is lost in the analog/digital conversion (=sampling). But - as the article you linked to also admitted - the new standards in digital recording (sampling rate of 96khz) move those inaccuracies well above the bandwidth of the human ear. And considering that most adults can't hear anything above 16khz, the usual examples with frequencies in that area are academic at best. Sure, on a really good system you will hear a difference sometimes. But it's not at all like another level of listening pleasure. ------------- https://awesomeprog.com/users/Mike" rel="nofollow">Recently listened to:
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Posted By: goose
Date Posted: April 16 2006 at 09:43
I remember reading something about this a couple of months ago; apparently they're still going strong in some Asian countries, but elsewhere people seem to have forgotten about them. And I can understand why, too  . |
Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: April 17 2006 at 03:08
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"and whether it diminishes your listening experience,"
You don't know what you're saying, or saying that to get me on nerves..well tried! You're talking about something you've never heard, as usual! |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: April 21 2006 at 15:19
| do you like fuji DR-90??? that's like the olny thing i have... i like older tapes |
Posted By: MikeEnRegalia
Date Posted: April 21 2006 at 15:52
Sorry, but I was listening to cassettes and vinyl for more than 5 years on different systems. As usual you are patronizing me ... you're pathetic.
------------- https://awesomeprog.com/users/Mike" rel="nofollow">Recently listened to:
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Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: May 03 2006 at 11:39
My Mum just found some old tapes with GENESIS on them... 
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: May 03 2006 at 11:42
| If it's pure analog (released before 1982) and in good condition (not been used in cars or nasty players), it's like gold... |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: May 03 2006 at 11:43
| Think it's from 1974 - 1984 |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: May 03 2006 at 11:44
My mum finally found the old Penthouse and Playboys I had stashed away as a teen ager so she would not find them and throw them away
That cache last almost 30 years
 Eermmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....................
 Sorry!! I thought that would be funny ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: May 03 2006 at 12:20
So, some may be analog! |
Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: May 03 2006 at 12:22
Vintage Penthouse and Playboys are better than today ones! More artistic and featuring some very good articles. |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: May 05 2006 at 12:18
| let's not get off topic |
Posted By: the man machine
Date Posted: May 06 2006 at 06:57
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oliver , you crack me up!
i quite liked using tapes for a while but i had a crap tape player so for me cds are far superior |
Posted By: tdreamer
Date Posted: May 07 2006 at 07:25
| I gave most of my tapes away over the last while. I don't cre for them much anymore. I do like making up compilations though. |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: May 07 2006 at 07:35
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I must say I am thankful to have kept them tapes, because my new second hand car still has a tape player and I have been re-listening top them for the last four months
Until I find the courage to instal the Cd player that was in my previous car
As far as Penthouse andplayboys I tend to think the best period was in the 80's because before that the piccies were to shy after they became to crass
>> just a question of equilibrium >> as for thearticles I never read them >> the odd one maybe , but those telling me they bought Penthouse and Playboys for other reasons than to slobber on the naked piccies were full of crap
Never did buy much of them anyway >> the live stuff from girlfriend is so much better >> had a girlfriend who actually read the letters >> the following few hours were much fun ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: Abstrakt
Date Posted: May 10 2006 at 11:50
| DONT TALK PLAYBOY IN THIS TOPIC! SHAME ON YOU!!! |
Posted By: aapatsos
Date Posted: May 10 2006 at 18:07
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I have loads of tapes, about 500 and I still enjoy them...
only few of them are not in a very good shape...
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Posted By: Bob Greece
Date Posted: August 10 2006 at 04:58
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I have an affection for cassette tapes as I grew up with them. I still have a small collection. What I like about cassette tapes is the chunky boxes. Cassette boxes look good on your shelves as you can read the labels from 5 metres away - you can't do that with CDs! ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/BobGreece/?chartstyle=basicrt10"> 
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Posted By: oliverstoned
Date Posted: August 10 2006 at 05:04
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Moreover, it's more compact than CD. |