Cassette's Not Dead, Apparently!

[Beechwoods]

I came across this article in the Telegraph trumpeting the resurgence of cassette. Some great comments from our friend David Price (HI-Fi World editor, and occasional contributor to this fine forum )...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5261...-comeback.html

Internet search engine Yahoo has reported "a bump in searches" for 'blank cassette tapes' (up 210 per cent) and 'music cassette tapes' (up 110 per cent).

I'm sure that's not all down to me!

"There has been a resurgence, partly driven by the high-end music purists market and partly because of what you might call the 'silent majority' of people who still have a cassette player in their kitchen or their car," said David Price, editor of Hi-Fi World magazine.

'High-end music purists' eh? I like that

[The Grand Wazoo]

There has been a resurgence, partly driven by the high-end music purists market and partly because of what you might call the 'silent majority' of people who still have a cassette player in their kitchen or their car," said David Price, editor of Hi-Fi World magazine

So................do the silent majority listen to blank cassettes?


.............sounds a bit boring to me. Still I guess when CD was released they told us to listen to the silent background.........maybe they're just taking that to it's logical conclusion!

[Marco]

High-end purists? Of course, Nicky-boy, I've always said that cassette done well is better than CD!!

The problem is, not many people have heard it 'done well'...

And David has always been a man of some taste and discernment

Marco.

[Spod]

Ooh, I'm officially a member of the silent majority! 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!

[Barry]

So................do the silent majority listen to blank cassettes?


.............sounds a bit boring to me. Still I guess when CD was released they told us to listen to the silent background.........maybe they're just taking that to it's logical conclusion!

They're probably listening to John Cage's '4:33', or maybe to recordings of the sound of 'one hand clapping'.

Barry

[Spectral Morn]

Nice article...I still use tapes and I love putting compilations together, not that I have done this for awhile mind you.


Regards D S D L

[DSJR]

High-end purists? Of course, Nicky-boy, I've always said that cassette done well is better than CD!!

The problem is, not many people have heard it 'done well'...

And David has always been a man of some taste and discernment

Marco.

Why thank you dear boy... Oh, wrong David....

Please define, "Cassette done well?" I think I've owned or sold many of the very best machines out there...

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..

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).

[niklasthedolphin]

I am one of those with a lot of tapes well done and they beat the CD at any time on any CD player.
I also have R2R and sure they are unbeatable.

My tape decks have been playing faultless for decades.
Even my old tapes still remain bright and crisp after 100's of plays and noise floor is very low and only there as the compromise to bring that micro dynamics out of the closet that digital encoding can't.

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"

[Marco]

Goodness me, Dolph, for once we're in agreement - get out the flags!

Dave, I'll come back to you later. I'm having a wee 'choon session' at the moment

Marco.

[darth_vader]

Just bought myself a nice sony sports walkman with original headphones still in the box for a tenner off ebay to play the suitcase full of cassette"s that i found in my loft,

Most of them date from the 80"s and they sound pretty good! a tiny bit of tape hiss in the background but enjoyable,

Not used my ipod for nearly a week now!!