[HN Gopher] As Cassettes Come Back, the Dilemma Is Finding a Tap...
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As Cassettes Come Back, the Dilemma Is Finding a Tape Deck
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 8 points
Date : 2024-10-03 19:41 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| bookofjoe wrote:
| https://archive.ph/ETIxC
| PaulHoule wrote:
| I thought about getting into tapes about two years ago when I
| discovered Techmoan but I got into minidiscs instead. Then my son
| got his '96 Buick which had a busted CD and Tape player, he made
| a few tries and finally got an OEM stereo with tape.
|
| Prerecorded tapes are easy to find and cheap but I have struggled
| to find a record deck, I think they are harder to find than just
| a few years ago. I've made several attempts locally and on Ebay
| and I haven't found one that works 100% but I do have an unusual
| dual-deck three-head model that has one deck that seems to be OK
| so long as I don't reverse direction. Prerecorded Chrome tapes
| sound really great on it and I got a 10-pack of deadstock tapes
| to record on, I might give it a try tonight.
|
| It's disgusting though to see this thing sell for a price that
| could have gotten you a decent three-head deck back in the day
|
| https://teacusa.com/products/w-1200-dual-cassette-deck
|
| which has the same mechanism as all the other tape decks made
| today
|
| https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-last-cassette-pl...
|
| which is simple and reliable but sounds awful.
| DN9THK wrote:
| Its not hard to find a good deck. Keep in mind the devices are 40
| and more years old. Cleaning and replacing belts are neccessary,
| also demagnetizing and calibration. There are tons of advisories
| and videos about that on the net. Also a lot of service manuals
| are still available. I got 4 usable decks here, bought on ebay
| for some bucks. Sure, some models are overpriced or rare, like
| the Nakamichi Dragon which is a ultra high end model that brings
| no trade-off to modern made music on such cassettes. Other models
| are expensive because there are collectors like me that want to
| complete their rack with a deck or record player. If you got a
| deck, forget about purchasing newly made cassettes, i bought some
| of them, all crap. The reason behind is that the materials gotten
| rare and industry tried to replace it. I buy old TDK SA90 or so
| on the flea market. Those folks survive years of glovebox heat
| and rucksack-storage of teenagers. And dont buy them on ebay, the
| same overpriced bingo-bongo there.
| geophile wrote:
| You kids. Stop it with the crappy audio formats. What next,
| 8-track?
|
| I bought hundreds of records in my younger days, when that was
| the only choice. I bought good equipment (subject to a student's
| budget), to get good sound, and not destroy the records with a
| bad needle. I took good care of my records, and used record
| cleaning equipment to keep them clean. The sound can be quite
| good, at least before the record wears out. But hisses are
| unavoidable. Pops develop, and you get so used to them that they
| seem to be part of the music. You have to change the record every
| 20 minutes. Scratches can ruin a record permanently. They are
| delicate. Records just totally suck, and the only good thing
| about them was the album cover.
|
| Cassettes are even worse. Bad sound, bad durability, the
| mechanics are horrendous, with clicking of the mechanism often
| being audible, no album cover. And no ability to determine where
| a track starts. Even worse, hunting for the start of a track
| increases wear on the medium.
|
| I don't understand the hatred of CDs. A truly excellent format.
| Crystal clear sound, orders of magnitude better resistance to
| physical decay and damage, longer-playing without intervention.
| And it is easy to rip them without DRM getting in the way! It
| bypasses streaming services, so hopefully the artist does a bit
| better. And in any case, I buy them at my local music store, so I
| support them (local musicians who run a record store on the
| side). (And after a purchase, I rip the CD and give it back to
| the store.)
| PaulHoule wrote:
| Two things.
|
| (1) Pre-recorded tapes are cheap and abundant. Quality really
| varies. My son gets any music he likes to play in his car, I
| collect anything prerecorded on metal or chrome for the
| audiophile value. (There are some recordings I listen to
| because I like the recording, like a tape of Tibetan chanting
| that sounds like instrumental Frank Zappa)
|
| (2) Tape peaked around 1990 as CD encroached on it. The best
| tapes and tape equipment sound better than most people who
| lived through the period remember and certainly better than the
| mediocre mechanisms and terrible tapes (e.g. 'type zero') that
| are made today. Good chrome tapes don't have particularly
| offensive hiss even without noise reduction and are somewhat
| affordable although metals are out of reach for most people
| today.
| Clamchop wrote:
| I feel like the essential property of the resurgence of tapes
| and records is simple joy and fascination with the technology
| and its aesthetics. As such, it bypasses any tests of
| practicality or superiority.
|
| We don't need to talk about audiophiles since they've always
| been insane.
|
| 8 track sucks butt for other reasons. Shit durability and not
| reliable at all. Cassette tape but worse in every way, there's
| nothing really to look at, and frankly a brief blip in the
| story of home media.
|
| But reaching back even further, reel to reel is now prized and
| expensive. Simple, reliable, and visually stunning.
|
| These things aren't competing with Spotify or whatever at all.
| They're enjoyed alongside.
|
| I don't know who you're thinking of that hates CDs. They're
| maybe not catching as much interest, but hate? Not seeing it.
| dartos wrote:
| Hey old person. Stop it with the complaining.
|
| I like my vinyl records because I think the tech is neat and
| like them. That's all you need.
| nineteen999 wrote:
| I'm nearing 50 and I recently bought a record player and a
| handful of records together with a multi-tier display stand for
| my home, after not using one since about the advent of CD. I
| don't use it much, but when I do its a pure nostalgia moment;
| it takes me back to my teenage years, flipping over records in
| my room, the "warmer" sound, carefully removing and replacing
| records from their covers trying not to scratch them, slowing
| down the whole process of listening to music rather than just
| picking a music playlist on my phone and over-consuming.
|
| CD's are much less nostalgic for me, even though the quality is
| good, they feel not only charmless but obsolelete, much in the
| way that DVD/BluRay do in the age of streaming.
|
| Cassette tape is just a bridge too far; rapidly degrading sound
| quality, tape de-spooling and getting chewed up and having to
| yank it out of the player. It was handy in the age of Walkmans
| if you wanted to listen to music on the go.
|
| I guess the point I am making is that ones level of nostalgia
| for these older formats is probably highly dependent on your
| age, memories etc.
| lsllc wrote:
| Most pre-recorded tapes were as cheap as possible and if you
| left them in the car player on a hot day, the tape would
| stretch -- I used to buy the record version and tape it to a
| TDK SA-90 (chrome) tape which was of much higher quality and
| thus more resilient and I could usually get 2 records on it
| (one album per side). If the tape ever got damaged, it could be
| re-taped from the record (plus the artwork/booklet was always
| far better on the record than a pre-recorded tape).
|
| Did the same thing with CDs until MP3 players became prevalent.
| anfractuosity wrote:
| Has anyone used something like the FiiO CP13, I'm looking to play
| back and digitise some old cassette recordings.
|
| I've tried buying some old cassette decks from ebay before, but
| had problems with it starting to chew the tapes, so would prefer
| to buy something new.
|
| It looks like with the FiiO you can tweak the speed/azimuth.
| olyjohn wrote:
| Just go get an old car tape deck from the junk yard. A lot of
| them will have a built in amp, RCA output, and run on 12v, and is
| very compact. My garage stereo for years was an old Blaupunkt CD
| player with an aux in. I mounted it on the bottom of a shelf and
| it took up no space. I just used an old wall wart to feed it 12v.
| It put out lots of volume, even though the wall wart was like 12v
| 1a. This whole setup will cost you like $5-10. I've seen yards
| that have piles of aftermarket decks just sitting on a shelf.
| You'll be able to find even more tape decks if you look for OEM
| units.
| JojoFatsani wrote:
| Maybe vinyl will get cheaper.
| jakedata wrote:
| I have a 1994 Jeep Wrangler. I have a fancy (for 1994) Sony
| cassette deck that was sitting in my basement for actual decades.
| My plan was to install the fab 90s tape deck in the fab 90s Jeep.
|
| Unfortunately rubber doesn't do well sitting around for decades,
| Jeep or Sony. Lucky for me I was able to locate a new-old-stock
| tape transport on ebay and swap out the mechanical bits.
|
| Result - all the $0.50 thrift store tapes I want to play stashed
| in the center console where nobody wants to steal them any more.
| Favorites are the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, Eiffel 95 and The
| Doors movie soundtrack.
|
| I was a tape guy, I couldn't afford vinyl so taping records and
| the radio was my thing. The shortcomings of the Compact Cassette
| format are not particularly bothersome in an old Jeep, but I also
| strapped a Bluetooth receiver on the back so I can stream audio
| like a not-luddite.
|
| </old>
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