Cassette's Not Dead, Apparently!

I've not had any personal experience of the Nagra D, but assume they designed it to very tight operating tolerances, and it needs regular fettling to keep in good order! Forum member Lodgesound has a Nagra D if I remember correctly, and may be able to shed some authoritative light on the subject...

Hi Nick;

The Nagra D is a specific digital format and is extremely rugged and reliable just as all Nagra's were because they were designed for field use in highly varied conditions.

The thing that most struck me about the D was just how good it actually sounds - whether you record tapes and play them back or just use it as a standalone D/A converter.

Apart from a software system that takes a little getting used to they are a joy to use and to hear - there will be one in the speakers room at the bake-off show on Sunday week being used to drive a pair of BBC/Rogers LS 5/8 speakers if anyone wants to hear it in action...

I feel guilty that I did a deal to buy my mate Dave's Yamaha KX580 off him for £20 while we were trolleyed at a festival a little while back. More Dolby NR types than you can shake a stick at and perfect for copying off cassette via PC to FLAC. Suddenly I'm listening to John Peel's 1979 Festive Fifty all over again... :)

Pete

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Originally Posted by Spod

Still use cassettes in the car occasionally - less fiddly than the mp3 player, never need recharging and in my rust-bucket sound quality doesn't really come into it!

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Hope it's not built-in, and if so, then at least something that's easily detachable, what a PITA to demag and clean the heads if not and hope it doesn't break.

Btw. for that reason, I got myself, a nice vintage portable cassette deck from ********, amazingly good sound, considering it was from the more 'primitive' era of cassette decks.

Mods, and Marco, please forgive me if I am resurrecting a 'dead' thread, I am a wannabee cassette fanatic, and I've had a lot of fun reading this thread.

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Originally Posted by DSJR

What I CAN tell you is that cassettes are noisy, unreliable and even well stored, anything but metal (type IV formulations) will lose treble output after a few plays and especially after a few decades in storage. Still got a box full as proof..

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Did you demag and clean the heads 'frequently' enough?

I used to have that problem myself till I learned to demag and clean the heads religiously 'frequently' enough. Never had that problem again ever since.

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Originally Posted by DSJR

Give me a decent high-speed reel to reel, DAT and, better still, a decent CDR anyday (accepting that even some of those can be unreliable if you're unlucky).

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Actually, I was interested in DAT for a while till some very learned and informed people warned me about unreliability of DAT tapes.

I couldn't agree more re. DAT... not a great archive medium by any stretch. I had / have a player, but use a hi-res file-based recorder for digitally archiving stuff now. Providing you keep backups, this is way to go...

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Originally Posted by niklasthedolphin

....only there as the compromise to bring that micro dynamics out of the closet that digital encoding can't.[/b]

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I call that 'magic'. Please Marco, I didn't mean it as an insult. A term of endearment.

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Originally Posted by niklasthedolphin

Sorry to read about people who never understood how to record and treat tapes and what machines to go for to get the best out of them.

"dolph"

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You wouldn't believe how many people who used the tapes don't even know the importance of demag and cleaning the heads, and even worse, those who do know don't demag and clean them.

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Originally Posted by darth_vader

a tiny bit of tape hiss in the background but enjoyable,

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Actually, hiss doesn't bother me (within reason), actually I kinda 'like' it. What bothers me is the 'pop and crackle' from LP, which drives me nuts.

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Originally Posted by DSJR

How old are you guys?

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43

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Originally Posted by DSJR

I have CDR's going back around 15 years so far and don't have any failures as yet.

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What was your secret?

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Originally Posted by DSJR

All my cassettes not recorded on metal tape have Dolby B mistracking errors - Ah:doh: I've just realised that you purists didn't use Dolby,....

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No, I don't. Sucks the 'magic' out of music.

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Originally Posted by DSJR

....
so if the treble gets shaved off it won't be as noticeable :ner:.....

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I'm sorry, I don't understand your implication. My experience has been that music without dolby has more treble than music with dolby on. So how could music without dolby be less sensitive to treble loss than music with dolby on?

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Originally Posted by DSJR

But what about the hiss I ask?

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Oh, I don't mind it at all (within reason), I actually kinda 'like' it. I've personally never had problem with hiss, only exception being, a cheapo deck that has been beaten to death playing cheapo pre-recorded cassette that's been beaten to death.

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Originally Posted by DSJR

Well, if you don't think vinyl has a problem, then a noisy cassette won't be too much of a problem I suppose :lolsign::smoking::cool:

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Well, actually, I do have problem with LP 'pop' and 'crackle', drives me nuts. Which is one reason I was really neven taken up with LPs.

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Originally Posted by Barry

TDK metal tape with die cast aluminium housing, Type MA-R

These are cassettes of TDK MA metal tape housed in a cast-aluminium body. These tapes run more smoothly than versions using the conventional housing, and are thus very good for copying piano, where the slightest trace of wow and flutter can be intrusive. Barry

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Would cast-aluminium body be better than ceramics used in TOTL Sony cassettes?