Compact cassette is back!(?)

[HiWire]

Indie bands have been releasing cassettes for a few years, but now a new cassette player has been released.

I was cleaning my place and stumbled on some old cassettes... taking some time to listen through all of them (especially since many of them are unlabeled/mislabeled) on my ancient Walkman.

Unfortunately, this new player doesn't measure or perform very well, but perhaps it will stir the big players into producing something better.

https://www.wearerewind.com

 

 

[HiWire]

On the subject of compact cassettes... everything I watch and read about the cassette revival makes me love digital music more:

 

[Augsburger]

Great!  My vast library of eight track cassettes will make me awesome again.

[swt61]

If you haven't had a song stop and start again on the next track, you're too privileged. 

If you haven't owned a Craig 8 track player, you're too young.

If you don't want to revive those old mediums, you're too smart.

[HiWire]

I was excited to fire up my portable cassette player (not a treasured high-end relic) a few weeks ago, only to discover it doesn't work any more.

I doubt I can summon the wherewithal to get into cassettes again... my dad has several cassette decks, so I might bring my small bunch of cassettes (fewer than 15) back at some point and try to digitize them. It's not worth the effort, though, as most of the cassettes are purchased (Dolby B ) and the few I recorded came off AM radio and they were recorded badly.

Edited February 17, 2023 by HiWire

[swt61]

I had several Nakamichi cassette decks, including the Dragon. But even the greatest decks made still can't do a thing about tape dropouts. It's just not a good longterm medium.

[HiWire]

You can get superior quality and easier file handling for practically free with digital music. That's why I think the people evangelizing cassettes are nostalgic above everything.

Cassette decks take so much maintenance and the parts are getting hard to find... all for inferior performance and deteriorating quality. I get that cassette has that analog sound, but it was never that good at the budget level.

I thought were cassettes were fun as a kid, but that is because I didn't have my own stuff. I recorded stuff on a boom box or my mom's radio/cassette player. No hi-fi stuff.

Edited February 17, 2023 by HiWire

[robm321]

^ Agreed. The vinyl revival makes sense regarding sounds quality. Tapes are just inferior in every way. Nastalgia would be the only motivation. 

I'm old enough to remember the one thing that made tapes worthwhile other than portability, to make copies. That usefulness went away with burnable CDs. Fuck I'm old. That's my point. 

[HiWire]

Perfect sound forever!

I do like the ability to make perfect digital copies. It's subjective whether digital sounds "better" than analog, but it certainly is easier, faster, and cheaper.

[grawk]

I can say that 20 year old cassettes sound a WHOLE LOT better than 20 year old dats.

[jamesmking]

1 hour ago, grawk said:

I can say that 20 year old cassettes sound a WHOLE LOT better than 20 year old dats.

DAT stands for Data All Trashed

 

[HiWire]

Getting Audiocrazy... Chinese company mods Chinese boombox... things are getting very meta in here.

Does it meta? "Japenese" tape mechanism to avoid it never eating tapes... my takeaway? Don't get mono. 🚮

 

[HiWire]

Boomers rejoice! AM radio wants in on the nostalgia boom:

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by HiWire

[MexicanDragon]

If anyone is looking to get rid of any vintage portable tape players, or *cough* one of those tempermental-ass, shitty Nakamichi Dragons, ping me. Thx.

[jpelg]

This person builds some crazy stuff:

EL TALLER pino (@eltallerpino) • Instagram photos and videos

[HiWire]

Comparing the new compact cassette players - I think I'll get new belts for my Panasonic instead:

 

[Grahame]

 

 

[blessingx]

#minidiscin2025

[MexicanDragon]

8 years ago today the guy who runs The Absolute Sound tried to liberate my stuff.

[MexicanDragon]

14 minutes ago, blessingx said:

#minidiscin2025

I’m in multiple MD groups. I had a 5 MD changer growing up. I loved it. 

[Grahame]

 

[Grahame]

P.s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music

https://www.openculture.com/2023/07/home-taping-is-killing-music-when-the-music-industry-waged-war-on-the-cassette-tape.html

MmmmKay.

[dsavitsk]

P.p.s.

 

[garageboy]

Man I like the idea of playing with tapes and as a kid I wanted a wm-d6 or tc-d5 - but they're expensive to buy and expensive to service and I got zero music on cassette 

 

I wanted a DAT walkman too, but those are apparently even worse for reliability?

[swt61]

I loved making mixed tapes, and would tape every album I bought, to try to preserve the original vinyl. But it wasn't the greatest medium. 

Then MiniDisc came along and revived my love of making mixed 'tapes'. And much easier to carry with you. 

But all the things I liked have been improved even more as far as portable mediums go. 

Nostalgia is fine, but I don't really care to go backwards.