Cassette's Not Dead, Apparently!

[Marco]

Thing is that so very few people ever had the chance to listen to a good cassette machine and even fewer had the chance to listen to a recording made by someone who knew what he was dealing with on this same great cassette machine.

Only a handful or two of brands and specific models of cassette machines qualify for being great.
The rest was merely mediocre or entry level machines.
In the latter case, I'm not surprised that people prefer CD.

Nicely written, Dolph. That's it in a nutshell, particularly the last bit!

Marco.

[Beechwoods]

Here is a fragment from a recording, made in 1964, digitized (without any processing) in 24 bit 88.2 kHz from a cassette tape recorded in 1989 - I've got it from ebay for a fiver. The file is 60 Mb zipped (2 min long).

44.1 kHz 16 bit - "CD quality" is simply not good enough compared with a quality cassette recording. 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz 24 bit is required.

Alex

That is a fantastic transfer, Alex. It destroys the idea that cassette is necessarily a noisy medium. Can you say something about what you used to play the tape back on? Did you use Dolby NR on playback - if so, it was very well matched to the recording - no signs of the dynamics or top end being affected by any NR mis-alignment.

I'm very impressed.

[Marco]

I've got it now... I had to click on 'Save', rather than 'Open' when downloading the requested file. When I clicked before on 'Open', my comp just 'hung' and went nowhere...

Impressive, undoubtedly, but what a large file to save and store on my hard-drive - it took about 3 minutes to download!

Did you have to do the same thing, Beechy?

Marco.

[Alex Nikitin]

That is a fantastic transfer, Alex. It destroys the idea that cassette is necessarily a noisy medium. Can you say something about what you used to play the tape back on? Did you use Dolby NR on playback - if so, it was very well matched to the recording - no signs of the dynamics or top end being affected by any NR mis-alignment.

I'm very impressed.

Thank you!

The playback deck was well serviced, aligned and slightly modified Technics RS-M85 (like this one) , Dolby NR was not used, EQ - 120us, recorded directly into my (again modified ) RME DIGI 96/8 PAD .

Alex

[Beechwoods]

Blimey! I'm even more impressed now! Thanks Alex

That looks like a very nice deck too. What kind of mods did you do? Something similar to your phono stages?

[Beechwoods]

Did you have to do the same thing, Beechy?

Marco - I've got a Mac, so it knows intuitively what I want to do and gets on with it without bothering me I just clicked it and it started to download

Big files = Patience = Quality

[DSJR]

Hi Alex,

Apart from your link not working for me (so, sorry, can't listen to the fragment), I'm with you 100% and am in no doubt whatsoever that cassette done well completely outperforms CD done well, much as does vinyl with the latter. Basically, analogue (tape or vinyl) done well is invariably superior to most of what digital has to offer. After all, that's why master tape exists...

Quite simply, analogue is the format which offers the more faithful carrier of music for human ears (not measurement apparatus). I'd rather suffer a few clicks and pops and a little tape hiss than listen to 'crystal clear' music which has been mangled in its transfer to CD.

Dave,

You need to get those 'ol cloth lugs of yours syringed some day soon!

Nice tapes, btw. I use those sometimes with my CR-7.

Marco.

P.S Oh, and I'm 43.

You two talk the most amazing bollix I've ever read

If the music has been mangled in transfer to CD, then it's the mastering engineer's fault. I've heard it, before and after, using real live analogue master tapes! you haven't, obviously In no way does vinyl come anywhere near the fidelity of the master-tape, even on a proper turntable, although the best ones (if not refining all the energy out in the process of £refining) do a great job, the limiting bits being the sh*tty black plastic played (most of the time) on them. This isn't "just" an opinion Marco, I have had and still have good friends on the pro/mastering side who actually had ears and LISTENED....... Perhaps your speakers or stands (I hate the Mana things I believe you use, having heard similar anihilate some equally big ATC's once or twice) remove all the bass, so you need an SPU or M3D to attempt to put it back........ No wonder CD diesn't sound any good in your system (oh what's the point............................ )

TDK MA's were very good indeed and do retain most of what was originally recorded on them, but your NAK will alter the azimuth from beginning to end of the tape, mine did a bit (better than the CR4 I had before) - ALL those mechs did to a degree (heard myself and confirmed by a Nakamichi engineer). Try playing back a tape done on a CR7 on a different make of machine and you'll find all sorts of errors. This was sorted by Dolby S, where I understand a Dragon was used as a reference for frequency response accuracy from maker to maker, but by then it was too late.......................................

[Alex Nikitin]

Blimey! I'm even more impressed now! Thanks Alex

That looks like a very nice deck too. What kind of mods did you do? Something similar to your phono stages?

A little bit of that . However I am working on a full playback amp based on my phono stage circuit. It should be very interesting, extremely low noise and good sound. RS-M85 is a very good deck. I now have 3 of these - one will be modified for making alignment tapes and another one will be used as a base for a modified electronics tests and general playback duties.

Alex

[Marco]

Dave,

Perhaps your speakers or stands (I hate the Mana things I believe you use, having heard similar anihilate some equally big ATC's once or twice) remove all the bass, so you need an SPU or M3D to attempt to put it back........

LOL! That's so far off the mark it's beyond funny

You are *SO* going to cry into your soup when you hear my system after spouting that nonsense!!

No wonder CD diesn't sound any good in your system (oh what's the point............................ )

Who said CD doesn't sound good on my system? It sounds excellent - it's just that the Techy (with M3D or 103SA) sounds even more, erm, excellent!

I'll come back and deal with the rest of your "bollix" later, shweety

Marco.

P.S Have you listened to Alex's recording?

[Spectral Morn]

Ladies and Gentleman....BIG FIGHT,



Regards D S D L

PS I have wanted an excuse to use the above Gif's....