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Who is still playing or recording cassettes?


jwc

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Well, I do have one of those cool Denon tape decks with the slide out drawer but it's been used maybe twice for about 10 minutes since I got it about 10 years ago.  I don't think I've really been into cassettes since about 1990 or so.  Don't really miss it.  I threw away about 100 cassettes that someone gave my wife to give to me a couple years back.  I played a couple of  them and they sounded muted and dead so I trashed them.  But back in the day when I first worked for a car/home audio/video store (maybe 1987), we'd get new CD's in and I'd record them onto cassette.  We carried Denon and Nakamichi tape decks for home and I had a Nakamichi TD-700 in my Mustang GT at the time along with a CD player.  Those tapes sounded great using the manually adjustable azimuth control on the TD-700.  The TD-1200 had automatic azimuth and sounded really good....when it worked.  Too darn pricey for me even at cost.   Got tired of recording cassettes so it was all CD from there.

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JWC I just handed my old pioneer and cassettes down to my son. Its comical to me that he loves cassettes and vinyl and I love CD's and digital. I remember back in the day I would always record the top 40 countdown off of the radio station, wish I could find some of those to give him.

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Still have 100 or so cassettes that I recorded back in the day (late 70s, early 80s) on mostly metal or similar high end cassettes. I have a Nakamichi CR3A player that has worked without issue for a long time. Just checked one and I recorded it in 1981. Interestingly enough these tapes still sound good after all this time. Not great mind you, but still sound good to me.   

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I sold my Dragon a few years back to a friend of mine who loves all things Nakamichi, but I kept a Yamaha deck because I have a 1987 Corvette that has the original Bose cassette player. I will make driving mix tapes on occasion for the car, but I don't listen to cassettes on my home system unless I'm trying to figure out what I recorded!

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I have 2 decks in use. One is on my primary system and one is on my secondary system. I have a few tapes I still listen to and for the most part they sound fantastic. I have had to stop playing some of them because they have issues. Some I have had to reattach the felt pressure pad. One go to is Tin Machine. Great quality commercial tape. I purchased it the day it was released. I have no reason to record to tape. I have bought and sold a couple Nak decks. Still have 4 Yamaha decks.


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I still have all my cassettes but haven't listened to them in about 20 years. My wife still has all her mix tapes I made her. Been meaning to transfer those to digital, warts and all. Some of the song breaks are very important: movie quotes, spoken word, etc.

Bought a used Onkyo deck about 10 years ago to make sure playback will be possible.

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My collection of cassettes goes back 35+ years. About 5 years ago, I ran across them in deep storage and realized they contained a lot of music that I did not have in any other format (some of it rather dear to me). I bought a deck just to hear them... not knowing if they would even sound decent (or play?)... I was stunned by how good they sound. I listen to vinyl, CDs, FLAC... and now tapes, too. I don't know why; and I don't need to... but, a lot of these old cassettes sound GREAT (although few haven't aged well). I don't record – and can't imagine starting – but I'm not getting rid of my tapes.

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I know there is a forum for those dedicated to the format. http://www.tapeheads.net/

I had all 100+ of my cassette tapes stolen out of my car many years ago. The thieves used a crowbar and peeled the door open. Been on CD ever since.

Also, I did recently acquire and subsequently sell a very nice tape deck though. 1980 Aiwa AD-770 3 head in the original box. Got $212 for it. Never got to hear it, cause I have no tapes. 

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I have a Tascam deck, 102 MkII, A Tascam DA-30 MkII dat recorder and an Alesis ADAT XT-20, a 20 bit digital recorder that does 8 tracks on a vhs type video cassette.

 

I only have them now to transfer recordings that I have that I want to archive or that someone pays me to archive/transfer to a digital format.

 

Bruce

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13 hours ago, jwc said:

I would love to hear about your gear and why you are still doing it.

 

Jc


I bought a Pioneer CTf-1000 cassette deck identical to the one I bought in 1977 in high school! Tthe same one that in 1979 we made the Cheep Effects material.
CTF1000.jpg

Here is one of two studio songs we did in 1979. Notice the cool cassette that looks like a tiny reel to reel:

AKHVTMB8wQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.classicaudio.com%2Fvalue%2Fpio%2FCTF1000.html&psig=AOvVaw30lWQC5LXmRlqMA8wcR0Cq&ust=1555206009202745


I played the Moog synthesizer! I twist knobs really well! :-)

John Kuthe...

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Ca-what?  LOL! Not since 1985.  I did have a nice-ish deck [Kenwood?] with Dolby B & C and dbx encoding.  I could actually get some benefit from Dolby C in my Tbird Turbo coupe by turning on Dolby B and playing with the treble knob.

 

😆

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Until a couple of months ago, I still listened to cassettes on a regular basis in my boat system (25 year old Jensen player) and in my 1999 Infiniti Q45 (original Bose system, CD not operational but cassette worked great).  I replaced both of these with Kenwood Bluetooth/CD players.  I was listening to tapes that I had recorded 30 years ago, and those sounded decent in a automobile audio system.  I have the original AM/FM/CD/Cassette system in my 1998 Explorer that still sees tapes once in a while.

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