Cassette tape decks, what is the fascination?

What started me back into tape was when I bought the “Time Life” 60’s and 70’s R&B CD’s. I only wanted to listen to certain songs and didn’t want to wait through the songs I didn’t really like as much. CD’s are a great source for recording tape.....go figure but CD players are quieter than turntables as a source and provide a stronger signal for better recordings. So having a quiet system with a good cassette recorder that I bought with my system new and never using it, I decided to give it a go. Found some new chrome extra cassettes from a Canadian website and made tapes that surprised everyone I knew.....even me.

You know, you can go cheap on doing the vinyl thing.....but with cassettes you can’t and that is what is most people’s problem with tape. When it comes to cassettes.....you definitely get what you paid for. But not all levels of stereo equipment and how people have their systems set up is good for recording tape. The heads on a tape machine will record all the noise in a system.....so it’s not the tape, it’s a noisy system.
 
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With the limited availability of parts, belts, rubber wheels, heads, friction pads, etc., I keep my BIC T4 deck running only to digitize old 2 track recordings. Mostly my own music I recorded at 3 3/4 IPS on metal tape.

I have some pre-recorded tapes and they all sound pretty mediocre. Worse than LP or CD in my opinion.

I have some vintage cars from the 70s and 80s, but the cassette decks stopped working in those long ago. TR Tape Deck.JPGfront.JPG
 
I am fascinated by them because i grew up with them. But as it happens, they are better than cd players, reel-to reel etc for a few reasons:
1. A decent cassette deck will usually outlast a cd player and are much easier to fix when they break.
2. In day to day life a cassette will outlast a cd simply because they are less susceptible to scratches, moisture, dust etc.
3. Analog sound is better than digital sound. That`s an easy one.
4. A cassette deck also records, a cd player only plays. Cd recorders are expensive and a lot more finicky than a cassette deck.
5. The sound from a cassette deck is way more predictable than what you might get from a digital source, but that`s only an opinion.
6. Cassette decks and cd players are still the most convenient way to store and play music on the long term. I store most of my songs on a hdd, but i have to be 100 times more careful with handling and preserving digital data than analog sound(cassettes, vinyl.)

A few days ago i finished recording a tape on my unrestored(factory belts), found in the bin, 1987 denon dr-m12hx. As expected, the cassette(tdk type I) sounds great without the use of Dolby. That cassette will be ready to play back again 20 years from now. The deck will also be good to go with a few bits replaced(belts, capacitors etc). Can you honestly say that about your totl cd player/recorder or digital recording stored on hdd/ssd ???

As a conclusion, when it comes to preserving important music and photos, use tape and paper, don`t rely on digital or you might lose that precious picture with your grandma (=^.^=)
Wow, you're really coming in here strong with your troll game. So much of this post is nonsense.
 
For me, it’s about digitizing tapes I made of my jazz fusion band back in the day. That music is nowhere else, and I want to preserve it. I have very few of my prerecorded tapes, I tossed most of them years ago. But I kept all of the original music.

For fun I’m building a mix tape of favorite songs from my vinyl collection to play in my car. Haven’t needle dropped for a tape in over 30 years, so the nostalgia is nice. And my new to me Denon DR-M4 is by far the best cassette deck I’ve ever owned. Amazing.
 
These days for me it's mostly nostalgia thing but good recording on R2R still sounds goo.
One thing to point out is figure of speech:
We still say to tape it or roll the tape even if recording it to the chip!
:rflmao:
 
For me, it’s about digitizing tapes I made of my jazz fusion band back in the day. That music is nowhere else, and I want to preserve it. I have very few of my prerecorded tapes, I tossed most of them years ago. But I kept all of the original music.

For fun I’m building a mix tape of favorite songs from my vinyl collection to play in my car. Haven’t needle dropped for a tape in over 30 years, so the nostalgia is nice. And my new to me Denon DR-M4 is by far the best cassette deck I’ve ever owned. Amazing.
I've got a 800-A nice decks, and a JVC TD V621.
 
Mostly nostalgia,as many have posted-been fascinated with tape recorders since I was a kid in the 60s... I have a lot of hard to find stuff recorded from FM in the 70s to 80s,also plenty from vinyl that I don't have anymore. Just started revisiting some of those tapes-mostly Maxell,TDK and Fuji - Type II,and some Type I. The audio quality has not degraded as far as I can tell-nice! Finding replacement motors is a problem,belts easier to find- I have 2 decks that need motors,and 2 others needing belts. The one in use now is an Aiwa R550 that has too much take-up torque and is likely to mangle the beginning of a tape,so I have to be careful what I play on that...
On a side note,back in the early 80s,when New Wave was new,I used to do occasional DJing for parties,and a tape I put together back then came in handy recently for use on a LPFM station -when I was filling in for another DJ on the station,I aired that tape -sounded good and was liked! (Most non-commercial stations still have TTs,and CD players,some have cassette decks,and an input for your own laptop or other device)
 
Fished a nice Technics RS-TR333 dual cassette deck from the recycle bin not too long ago. Put some new belts in the other night and having some fun listening to my old tapes.
 
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