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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 6th Aug 2018, 8:44 pm   #1
gezza123
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Default Heard this on the radio this morning.

https://inews.co.uk/news/kylie-minog...c-fans-rewind/


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Old 6th Aug 2018, 9:02 pm   #2
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

I didn't like cassette the first time around

I spent a fortune on an AIWA cassete deck I will need to check the model but it was around 1980 and it had a postion for Metal tapes.

I had previously tried several others by Akai, Sony Philips and Nakamichi.

They all sounded pants compared to vinyl.

I tried different tapes bias ya de ya da

The only Cassete that sounded half decent was an Elcaset I borrowed from a friend.

IMHO in HiFi terms we are well rid of the compact cassete.

As a medium with no pretensions it's fine

Chers

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Old 6th Aug 2018, 9:04 pm   #3
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Good for use in the car where vinyl wasn't practical. Easy enough to compile your own tapes too.
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Old 6th Aug 2018, 9:19 pm   #4
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

I'm waiting 'til it comes out on 78 or cylinder.

Or should I start auditioning minstrels?

Cassettes served a need back in the day, else they'd never have sold so many machines. I used them in the car. Open reels and LPs in the house. Can't say I have any hankering for them back, but other people have different interests. Tape heads are a finite resource and I don't suppose anyone will start making the again, so there's only a finite amount of music which can be played before they're all gone.

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Old 6th Aug 2018, 9:46 pm   #5
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

When cassette was the only practical, portable self-recordable format, its shortcomings were more easily forgiven.

Recordable CDs becoming mainstream in 1998 with the first sub-£200 IDE interfaced CD-R drives was what finished it off.
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Old 6th Aug 2018, 10:33 pm   #6
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Cassettes went from a joke to fairly decent and sometimes extraordinary quality which can't just be dismissed and I'm not a cassette fanatic at all. The advent of Dolby really did push things further forward, although it wasn't always so good depending on how well things were set up. On the recording front I bought [from Dixons] a Sony Walkman Recorder in 1980. It cost £200, a lot of money then but lasted a good 10 years, getting cheaper annually as it allowed me to make great "field" recordings year after year, often on the supposedly notorious C120 tapes. It had an automatic recording level feature but the BBC version [the 6?] had manual level controls fitted. I remember that one of the Tape Recorder magazines published a 1963 article that confidently asserted cassettes tapes would never be capable of making HI-Fi recordings....an ex-spurt view

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Old 6th Aug 2018, 11:35 pm   #7
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Back in the late 1970s I worked as a TV service engineer. I used to record John Peel's late night Radio One show on cassette, then listen to it in the car the next day. I don't think there's any 2018 technology that could do this.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 12:16 am   #8
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

That's a very good point Martin but there's not much with any sort of "edge" these days that would justify the exercise anyway, even if you rigged something up. Listen to what Paul Morley has to say 45 mins in on "Pop star Philosophy", as Broadcast on R4 last Saturday night. [You might need an I-Pod thingy].

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Old 7th Aug 2018, 2:27 am   #9
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Quote:
Originally Posted by martin.m View Post
Back in the late 1970s I worked as a TV service engineer. I used to record John Peel's late night Radio One show on cassette, then listen to it in the car the next day. I don't think there's any 2018 technology that could do this.
For what it's worth, you could do it with a smart phone. Receive the programme either online or via the FM tuner which most still have, scheduling recording via one of many 'apps' if not already built-in, then Bluetooth or whatever to the car system.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 8:10 am   #10
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Quote:
Originally Posted by martin.m View Post
Back in the late 1970s I worked as a TV service engineer. I used to record John Peel's late night Radio One show on cassette, then listen to it in the car the next day. I don't think there's any 2018 technology that could do this.

No, the time machine is yet to be invented so we can't go back forty years and listen to or record the late Mr Peel.

Today's equivalent is BBC iPlayer Radio. You don't have to remember to make a recording, you can download your choice of listening to your smartphone while you have breakfast or even stream it (mobile data signal allowing). TV version available too.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 8:31 am   #11
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Brilliant news, cassettes on their way back! On a good, three head, three motor machine, cassettes are capable of a quality most would find indistinguishable from the source. But there's the rub, while people keep downplaying the quality of cassettes, very often they're referring to average quality decks and dubious ferric tapes. You wouldn't talk about the quality of vinyl with reference to an early 60s BSR record player, you'd more than likely be talking about a Linn Sondeck, SME and an Ortofon. Let's not talk down cassette quality by misrepresentation. And that includes poorly set up, poorly used and poorly maintained cassette decks and tapes.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 8:35 am   #12
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Cassettes were fine for casual 'around the house or in the car' listening where their shortcomings could be mostly ignored, but serious listening (especially via headphones) laid it all bare. High background noise level, poor dynamics etc became obvious.
The compression effects could be alleviated by recording well below max level, but of course the s/n ratio suffered. It's a shame mini-disc didn't survive, it was pretty decent. I suppose it came along at the wrong time when MP3 was on the up.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 8:48 am   #13
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

GEEZA !23

From a Previous Thread:

Kylie Minogue Released Her "GOLDEN" Album In 3 Formats:
1) CD, 2) Vinyl LP and to top it all 3) CASSETTE !!

You can see her delight when she plays the cassette on a Walkman.

Use either link:

https://youtu.be/aOPoi5qxMrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOPoi5qxMrc

P.S. The cassette is signed by herself and some have been bought for around £400 (Limited Edition)
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 10:24 am   #14
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

I'm sure like a few here I used to have hundreds of cassettes, every time I bought a LP I'd instantly record it onto a tape so I could play it in my car. For some reason I would never buy the album on tape.......it never had the same appeal as having the LP issue.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 10:37 am   #15
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Ref Radio Wrangler's comment (4 above), if we encourage cassette and thus new cassette decks, this will encourage production of new cassette heads... and head makers will soon look to expand production. So, all we need is for someone to specify a set of 'Universal' 1/4" heads to take over from where Phi-Magnetronics (Marriotts) left off and make it possible to replace those troublesome Bogens! Then we can all enjoy quality hi-fi again!
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 11:35 am   #16
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Arrow Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
Tape heads are a finite resource and I don't suppose anyone will start making the again, so there's only a finite amount of music which can be played before they're all gone.
The Law of Supply and Demand addresses that concern. Should the demand arise in sufficient volume, someone will respond accordingly and thus make a profitable venture from it.
The one aspect of cassettes that always appealed to me was their ease of use: open the door, insert the cassette, close door, press 'play'.

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Old 7th Aug 2018, 2:09 pm   #17
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Cassette moaners - can't stand 'em!

Set the deck up properly, use quality cassettes that match the deck's settings - perfect results. Record a CD and play it back - no audible difference. What's wrong with that? On my Sony TC-K81 (3 head but still hardly an exotic machine) you can flip between the two in real time and still not hear any real change if you set the bias and recording current up carefully before you start. That's 'real' high-fidelity, not silly audiophool stuff.

No clicks and pops, no tracking distortion, no dust on the needle, all things that record playing systems struggle to avoid. Get a really good cassette deck and the levels of wow are better than LPs too - ignore the turntable motor stability figures - just look how far from the middle the hole in the record is!

I'm not talking about fancy stuff either - I always saw Nakamichi decks as mostly over-rated, poorly made junk (a bit like BMW cars, which their owners always seemed to also like - and tell you about at length). Aiwa were the best at making consistent, value for money decks that gave decent results - I'd defy anyone not to be satisfied with the performance of, say, an AD-F770 in good order and used properly with nice tapes (TDK by choice).

Its hard to pick a "personal favourite" deck, or to recommend one, but for general use the Sony TC-K611S is hard to beat. And virtually any Aiwa of course, I've never seen a bad one (OK, so the AD-6900 II is virtually impossible to service, but its lovely when its working!). And the drawer loading 1980s Beocord 5000 - this sets up beautifully with IEC standard tapes and operates with very little fuss.

Favourites: the other Beocord 5000 (4715 type) - a brilliant performer but very tricky (/ impossible?) to keep working. Philips N2521 - who'd have guessed that the people who invented cassette recorders also made the best one? Its obvious really.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 3:00 pm   #18
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Kylie's a gem. Just a cheerful, happy person who happens to be famous.
('Celebrities' please note...).
BUT, I also didn't like cassettes the first time round.
OK for kids to pinch 'hits' off Top Of The Pops (complete with whistle), but for cars it was Lear-Jet Stereo, and for 'proper' recording, well... it just HAD to be Brenell.
Speaking of new releases on an older, less popular format, I've just ordered my first new album.
It's by Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, and it's available on CD, LP and 78rpm album.
A real album, with turn-over pages holding the records!
I've got lots of second-hand ones, but this is the first time I've bought one new.
Let's hope it catches on.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 3:09 pm   #19
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Default Re: Heard this on the radio this morning.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skywave View Post
The one aspect of cassettes that always appealed to me was their ease of use: open the door, insert the cassette, close door, press 'play'.
Or rewind, reset counter, FF to the bit you want to hear, find it's on the other side, turn cassette over, repeat the above etc.
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Old 7th Aug 2018, 3:44 pm   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluepilot View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skywave View Post
The one aspect of cassettes that always appealed to me was their ease of use: open the door, insert the cassette, close door, press 'play'.
Or rewind, reset counter, FF to the bit you want to hear, find it's on the other side, turn cassette over, repeat the above etc.
The best bit is when the tape gets mangled inside the mechanism and you have to gently pull it out and wind it back into the cassette with a pencil hoping it hasn't flipped over or got chewed up too much!
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