First listen to cassette for donkey's years

[Gordon Steadman]

My wife's cassette deck was on Alan's (Firebottle) list of things to fix when he visited last weekend:rolleyes:. he took one look and pointed out that the drive belt was looking a bit second hand.

Ordered a set off the bay and it arrived this morning. After a few swears about needing much longer, thinner fingers, the belts were changed - did both whilst it was open - and sat and listened to Under Milk Wood and then Gary Moore's After the War. Surprisingly good actually. Like so many things, its been rubbished because newer, 'better' things come along. OK, its a bit wall of sound but the basic noise is very nice indeed. I got lost in Richard Burton's dulcet tones perfectly well.

It no doubt helps that the Pioneer is a fairly decent machine but I'm tempted to raid the loft and see whats hidden in the tape box.

[walpurgis]

Not much likelihood of me going back to cassette Gordon. I never thought much of it, despite having had a couple of decent Teac and Tandberg decks years ago (when they were still being made) . My Pioneer MJ-D707 MiniDisc deck still surprises me with it's remarkably good sound quality and meets all my needs for recording of material.

[Gordon Steadman]

Not much likelihood of me going back to cassette Gordon. I never thought much of it, despite having had a couple of decent Teac and Tandberg decks years ago (when they were still being made) . My Pioneer MJ-D707 MiniDisc deck still surprises me with it's remarkably good sound quality and meets all my needs for recording of material.
Nor me but it sounded much better than I expected. I record direct to the Mac these days and the cassette is very unlikely to be used. Its nice to get things working though.

[Audio Al]

Nice one Gordon

I enjoy cassettes along with other medium , Just integrate it into your system and enjoy ;)

[Gordon Steadman]

Nice one Gordon

I enjoy cassettes along with other medium , Just integrate it into your system and enjoy ;)


Suitably integrated but in Ronnie's system, not mine. I don't keep interlockers under mine!!

[Firebottle]

Excellent news there Gordon, glad I could be of help :)

[Macca]

There was a Nakamichi Dragon at Scalford in 2012 that sounded better than any of the CD players that were offered up. It could do cymbals properly for one. The real problem is that the tapes themselves degrade over time. I gave all my tapes and tape decks away years ago and replaced with CD. I still regret it a bit, purely from the nostalgia point of view.

[Gordon Steadman]

The real problem is that the tapes themselves degrade over time..
Ain't that the truth. I had to clean the heads after three sides. Using pre-recorded stuff is a definite no-no as its 'orrible cheap stuff. I'm not sure if I can find any of my recordings on decent tape - might make a difference.

However, it was only as a matter of interest. Not having instant hopping about when I need it is just too much for my present level of laziness.

[Gordon Steadman]

Excellent news there Gordon, glad I could be of help :)
:cool::youtheman:

[The Barbarian]

The old Barbarian loves his cassettes

[The Barbarian]

Just fer yew guys

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w425/ELPFAN1968/Techy-2.jpg (http://s1075.photobucket.com/user/ELPFAN1968/media/Techy-2.jpg.html)

:carrot:

[Gordon Steadman]

'OO' no you cannot record your own.. :nono:

I used to find funny the 'Home Taping Kills Music & It's Illegal' was it? It was quite an odd statement as they already killed it using cack qwality audio tape. so how worse could they expect?

However the old Barbarian still has hundreds of his Audio cassettes..
It was nonsense.

I had ten years of concerts off Radio 3 taped. I'm sure my nephew had them to store for me in his loft but he says they are not there and doesn't remember them!! Some of those live broadcasts contained the most wonderful performances. Wish I had them now:(

[topoxforddoc]

My Nak Dragon sounds fab. It cost me £500 a few years ago - much better than the average CD player - oh and it can record too!

[The Barbarian]

much better than the average CD player

Peeps keeps saying this but it's not exactly hard, Even that 70's Techy that i use sounds better than any of the CD i own.

I think it's a case of people judging Audio cassette in the past by poor quality pre-recorded's imho..

[Beobloke]

Just fer yew guys

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w425/ELPFAN1968/Techy-2.jpg (http://s1075.photobucket.com/user/ELPFAN1968/media/Techy-2.jpg.html)

:carrot:

Is that an RS-273 Andre? Brings back memories - my first deck inherited from my father was a Technisc RS-263US. It made recordings that sounded stunning when played back on it, but were slow and muffled on any other machines. It was only years later I realised it was clearly running fast and the azimuth was way out!

[The Barbarian]

'RS273USD' Which is different to the 'US' Sounds great, no technical issues even when playing cassettes back on other machines!

[.mus]

Couldn't resist...
These days - in terms of units - I get more new music on tape than I do any other format. Arrived home today after a week in the Lakes to a fresh batch - here's particularly fine example:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28198906/AoS/TD.JPG

For experimental/underground music, the format never really went away, and has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity - ironically aided by more contemporary delivery systems like bandcamp - with new labels springing up all over the place; a good time to be an analogue fetishist :)

[thinker10]

With good machine and say some TDK SA-X or AD-X and ,,,

A great Technics Sl-1200 Mk2 upgraded to a say an Origin live Onyx tonearm and every thing else lol

Don't forget a vintage cart and stylus like a Stanton 881S

It would make awesome tapes

Oh a good phono section or preamps

And transformers if using a moving coil cartridge

Thanks

[nat8808]

Couldn't resist...
These days - in terms of units - I get more new music on tape than I do any other format. Arrived home today after a week in the Lakes to a fresh batch - here's particularly fine example:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28198906/AoS/TD.JPG

For experimental/underground music, the format never really went away, and has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity - ironically aided by more contemporary delivery systems like bandcamp - with new labels springing up all over the place; a good time to be an analogue fetishist :)

That's a music scene I kind of like but never seem to get around to setting up a deck I like. Resonance FM have had some shows playing only cassette label new music - a show run by The Wire magazine.

I wanted to get some T-shirts printed for Cassette Day last Sept but didn't get my arse into gear, perhaps this time around...

[Gordon Steadman]

Couldn't resist...
These days - in terms of units - I get more new music on tape than I do any other format. Arrived home today after a week in the Lakes to a fresh batch - here's particularly fine example:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28198906/AoS/TD.JPG

For experimental/underground music, the format never really went away, and has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity - ironically aided by more contemporary delivery systems like bandcamp - with new labels springing up all over the place; a good time to be an analogue fetishist :)

I had no idea that music was still available on tape. I saw a tape on eBay last week and they were asking about £100 for it - just one cassette!. I thought metal was a high as it got. I can't remember what type this one was. All our tapes have been MacOsised along with the Cds, struggled to find any to test the Pioneer with.

[nat8808]

There are quite a few cassette only labels out there - kind of an arty undergound scene, people doing things for themselves.

There's even a Cassette Store Day, which took off starting as a little joke.. http://www.thewire.co.uk/news/25874/cassette-store-day_inaugurated-by-volcanic-tongue-in-2012

We might not be talking about absolute best fidelity here but it's closer to the music than many things commercial, re-issued, re-packaged, Re-evaluate the songs Double-pack with a photograph Extra Track (and a tacky badge) ..

(if that reads funny - the sentence morphs into a Smiths lyric)

[The Barbarian]

Formats only dissapear from the commercial eye if you let them, in fact your letting the industry control you imho. Because they don't sell them in your local record shop anymore & because a new format disappears does not mean you have to switch & forget about them. One problem in this world is idle eye tus, if summert new is easier they will go with it, if you can get more interupted play without getting off your arse too often, they will go with it & on & on..

I aint complaining picking up Audio cassettes & machines for peanuts.

[nat8808]

Formats only dissapear from the commercial eye if you let them, in fact your letting the industry control you imho.

I'm not sure... to prevent a format from disappearing would mean spending more money to make sure it's commercially viable for them. To me that is letting the industry control you AND take your money!

I say stick two fingers up completely and indulge in anti-industry small labels, buy lots of secondhand stuff and of course buy direct from the artist who've perhaps funded their own favoured format production runs.

[The Barbarian]

Believe me i do stick two fingers up to it all, infact i can safely say there aint no one on AOS worse than me for this. I get in the bad book a lot aswell for it. Some might think i do it on a purpose but i dont..

Long live the 8-Cartridge

:D

[.mus]

That's a music scene I kind of like but never seem to get around to setting up a deck I like.

It's well worth doing if you think you might enjoy the stuff that's out there - some of the most enjoyable moments that I've had with my system recently have been whilst listening to tapes. There's a lot of interesting stuff out there - like this (http://www.tapeworm.org.uk/ttw54.html), for instance, totally bonkers! - that really makes the investment pay off.
As for fidelity, there is a noticeable, but not gargantuan, difference between the tape deck and both my digital source and turntable, but that contrast doesn't detract from the listening experience at all, and - when done right - the results can be very pleasant indeed (aside: when I initially set the deck up, the contrast between it and the digital source actually helped to highlight some shortcomings with the latter).


I had no idea that music was still available on tape.

Sure is! Here are a few UK labels that put out consistently interesting/excellent stuff:

http://fortevilfruit.bandcamp.com/
http://jehuandchinaman.bandcamp.com/
https://opaltapes.bandcamp.com/
http://www.tapeworm.org.uk/ <--- the benchmark.

And this one appeared quite recently

https://postpoprecords.bandcamp.com/

Not so much my thing - singing, bands, etc. - but perhaps more to the taste of folks here.

[User211]

Many pre-recorded tapes were naff - poor quality tape. Dolby was the biggest problem as it really muffled the sound HF wise. I couldn't listen to tapes recorded using it, or record with it on.

With no Dolby, on pop/rock music etc, and not classical where S/N ratio was important, I thought it could be really very good, especially with John Peel radio shows:) If you couldn't afford a very good record player, and you can't when you're young, recording from FM really gave pretty good playback quality given a good budget deck. If you had the money for a Nak, well, you were just a rich bastard:D

[nat8808]

It's well worth doing if you think you might enjoy the stuff that's out there - some of the most enjoyable moments that I've had with my system recently have been whilst listening to tapes. There's a lot of interesting stuff out there - like this (http://www.tapeworm.org.uk/ttw54.html), for instance, totally bonkers! - that really makes the investment pay off.

The blub sounds good anyway - will hunt for a brief snipet to listen to.

I should get out one of my decks! Got an Aiwa F770 which I think actually works so should set it up.. My others all need something sorting out (First got an Aiwa AD6900 from Loot - needs new belts, then an Aiwa 3800 which needs setting up as it chews tapes, but best of all have a Tandberg 3004 which needs a complete overhaul most likely!)

[nat8808]

Look at this beast:

http://www.hi-fi.ru/upload/iblock/ff0/ff0480c1f6b7421643e0001be40cae77.jpg

Yum yum.. I need a photo like this to motivate myself to save money to send mine off for an overhaul.

[The Barbarian]

O yes Nat that Tandberg '3004' has always been my dream to own.

[.mus]

Yeah, they're lovely machines. Dangerously addictive though; I have absolutely no need for a second deck, but still I've had to restrain myself a few times from picking up a Nak BX-300, simply because I like the design.

[The Barbarian]

A 'Dragon' looks like a toy compared to a '3004'

:sofa:

[Yomanze]

There was a Nakamichi Dragon at Scalford in 2012 that sounded better than any of the CD players that were offered up. It could do cymbals properly for one. The real problem is that the tapes themselves degrade over time. I gave all my tapes and tape decks away years ago and replaced with CD. I still regret it a bit, purely from the nostalgia point of view.

Ah cymbals, readily messed up by oversampling / upsampling and digital filters...