Peter,
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I used to make tapes for the car to, I used to like the normal bias TDK & Maxell tapes that used to be made, can't remember what they called the now. This weekend we're going to take a box load of cassettes to the dump!
Bloody sacrilege! :eyebrows:
The tapes you're referring to are the likes of TDK D or AD, AD-X, etc, and the Maxell eqivalent, which escapes me. I much prefer good chrome tapes as there seems to be less hiss with Dolby B HX-Pro engaged, and they give a clearer more precise sound which helps cut through the noise floor when driving. I'm not a huge fan of metal tapes, except on the Nakamichi at home, as they have the tendency to be somewhat bright on car stereos without proper equalisation. You can still buy all the classic blank tapes on the site below. This is where I get mine from:
http://stores.ebay.com/RealDeals-Steals
I don't buy new blank cassettes because the quality is shit, and there are very few being made now, so I stockpile some nice NOS ones instead :)
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Wot, no CD player in the car ?
LOL. No - because the bog standard ones sound truly diabolical and are horrible cheap plastic things. Even the best separate ones are nothing special and simply aren't worth the money. My set-up in the car is nothing fancy: just a fairly cheap but decent quality tape deck and two fairly basic speakers on the doors, but if you keep the tape heads clean and regularly demagnetise them, and use good quality tapes with superbly recorded music on them, then the results are quite surprising and easily better than any factory fitted car CDP or bloody iPod! ;)
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To be honest, I'm not immune to marketing.
As far as hi-fi goes, I'm completely immune from marketing. That's why the 'terrible twosome' with their godawful computer speakers got short shrift here. Quite simply, unless I can see the sonic advantages of any new technology, and it results in superior sound quality compared to what I'd normally use, I'm just not interested.
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Apple got me with the 5G iPod, and I thought up ways to use it. Up to that point, because I had a noisy commute i'd been using custom earplugs, because I couldn't stand the sound leakage from the crappy earplug 'phones and the crappy music played too loudly on public transport by the great unwashed. I'd tried asking peeople to turn them down, but I got ignored at best. So I joined them, but was careful to avoid sound leakage.
I think that's a big part of why I've never really 'got into' iPods. I very, very rarely use public transport of any description. I think the last time I was on a bus was about 6 or 7 years ago and a train about 4 or 5 years ago. I live in a fairly rural area, not a city, so I can use the convenience of a car very quickly and easily. I also hate having to wait and be reliant on other people to get from A to B. I just like jumping in the car and going out at the times which suit me, where my super-duper tape deck and music awaits... :lol:
All this probably makes me sound somewhat of an anachrophile - I'm not, far from it. I just don't see the point in replacing something I consider as excellent for something that I consider worse simply to have the 'latest toy'. Also, I *hate* 'following the herd'. I like to be different - I always have been and I always will be.
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I don't hear my iPods as compressed and compromised, but I never heard your references either, I'll find out one day.
Jump over to the UK anytime you fancy, Peter. It would be a pleasure to entertain you with some fine Amarone :smoking:
Marco.
