Cassette tapes making a comeback?

[Richard_FM]

I've still got all my tapes & a Yamaha twin deck Hifi recorder.

A few years ago I digitised all my pre-recorded tapes & some of my chart times, which I didn't bother to edit out the DJ. Recently the TOTP repeats on BBC4 have been covering the same era, & so far 3 programmes from the same week have been repeated.

[Studio263]

Cassette decks are certainly selling well on eBay at the moment. Not for spectacular money, but if you can get them cheaply enough and there isn't that much wrong with them there is money to be made. Clean examples honestly described with decent photos always find a home. The same isn't true of CD players, which are a bit of an uphill struggle to shift - how things change! They'll be wanting tuners next...

[AC/HL]

You do have to be careful with media reports in general, but Cassettes are the obvious choice for something to follow on from the record revival. Cheap, plentiful and still capable of acceptable performance. Until digital media swept all before it, they were never really replaced mainstream.

[Biggles]

And what ever happened to DAT? That technology may well satisfy the digitally obsessed people nowadays as a sort of hybrid-retro-but-with-the-better-quality-of-digital-sound kind of thing. That's if you can find a DAT deck. I haven't seen one for a very long time.

[Studio263]

The problem with DAT is limited head life. It was estimated some years ago that there are more hours of DAT recordings in the world than there are remaining 'head hours' to play them, and DAT heads are something that you can bank on never being made again. Cassette recorders are tough and will still normally work at a basic level even when almost completely worn out. DAT on the other hand is fragile at the best of times, and the passing years have not been kind to any of the machines which I've seen.

[G6Tanuki]

I remember DAT - as a computer-backup medium! Never came across it in its role as an audio format though; the coming of cheap writable CDs (and later, DVDs) - with their instant track-selection rather than having to wind tapes forwards/backwards - made life hard for audio-DAT.

Was any music ever released natively on DAT? Wasn't there also a "Digital Compat Cassette" standard at one time, which supposedly had both analog and digital copies of the content on the same tape? Never caught on.....

[I'm happy that cassettes went obsolete: once a cassette got its tape thoroughly tangled round the entrails of a car cassette-player and the lease-company surcharged me £200 when I took the car back!]

[electronicskip]

Originally Posted by Studio263

Cassette decks are certainly selling well on eBay at the moment. Not for spectacular money, but if you can get them cheaply enough and there isn't that much wrong with them there is money to be made. Clean examples honestly described with decent photos always find a home. The same isn't true of CD players, which are a bit of an uphill struggle to shift - how things change! They'll be wanting tuners next...

I keep a decent cassette player purely for loading my computer programs for my Sinclair 48k and a few other vintage computer systems.

[SiriusHardware]

I still have a nice metal - chassis 'landscape' format 'National Panasonic' recorder which was one I originally used with the ZX81 / Spectrum.

As to the mainstream use of cassettes, as far as my partner is concerned they never went away and I keep a small fleet of 70s / 80s cassette units running to serve her need to be able to listen to cassette based audiobooks wherever she happens to be. She has a big collection of original music tapes as well, but I don't think I have ever known her to listen to them.

I have my Denon DRW-750 twin deck in its original packaging - I recognised that I wasn't really using it any more and put it into storage a few years ago, although I should really get it out and give it a good workout before the belts go brittle.

[Richard_FM]

DAT seemed to catch one mostly as a semi-pro format for home recording demos & keeping works in progress from studio sessions.

[G6Tanuki]

That's what I gathered: that you could reliably and reproducibly time the duration of takes, samples etc. made it ideal for such things.

From memory, DAT was used for some news applications (recording interviews etc) as a lighter and more-foolproof version of the classic analogue luggable Uher Report-4000 and its later multitrack successors (or a Nagra if you worked for a very wealthy network...

[paulsherwin]

Most location audio speech recording went straight from Uher Reports to Sony Minidisc recorders. DAT was indeed more successful as a data backup medium, with HP making a series of drives with increasing capacities and different tape formulations which were very popular for a while.

DCC was a Philips consumer system developed in competition with Minidisc. Obviously Minidisc won out, and DCC had a short life. Its only advantage was that you could play analogue compact cassettes on a DCC deck. There was no analogue copy on the DCC, which could only be played on a suitable deck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Compact_Cassette

[stevehertz]

I heard that the heads on DCC decks were prone to wear.

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by dominicbeesley

I'm still a regular cassette user. I've got an old Landrover so a CD is out (suspension) as is anything vaguely knickable so I hope this fad doesn't make my tape deck desirable!

To solve the suspension problem, you could fast forward to memory stick format...... if the Landie's old enough you can hide the works behind a bit of steel plate over part of the dashboard "tray" area. Just a small slot for the USB connector to be accessed.

[19Seventy7]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

While a few people never stopped using cassettes, the current interest is just a teenage / fashion fad. As with the earlier vinyl record craze, there is little interest in the technology or sound quality.

You have to remember that cassettes are an exotic novelty for anyone under 30. They will never have owned a player and may never have seen a cassette in the flesh. They have heard nostalgic stories from their parents and grandparents about recording mixtapes for parties and want to experience a bit of that retro culture. It helps that they want something physical to photograph and share with their friends on Instagram.

That’s exactly how it is, being from that age group (but not tech-wise) i know a few people like that. Some have decent albums, mainly for show, and play them on a very cheap, generic record player, they were even trying to get a Crosley all for show because they “look cute.” - The interest was lost very soon, after no more photos could be taken for social media, it then moves onto something else.

I personally love the technology side of it, too, but others just want the “aesthetics” from it, because it’s something different to what is mainstream now. I dont feel the need to post photos of my cassettes online, i can’t see the point really...

It is (to me at least) in a sense, a form of attention seeking - there isnt genuine interest in it.

Edit: There are of course those with a genuine interest in the technology side of it too, it just doesnt seem as common.

[MurphyNut]

I cant see tapes making a big comeback, but saying that, who knows! we do seem to be seeing a sustained interest in vinyl which I didn't imagine happening.
I spent many happy hours in my youth in the 1970's with cassette tapes, I'd never buy albums on them but buy the album on vinyl and record it onto tape so I could play it in my car or on my Sony walkman. If the tape got mangled I could just simply tape it again.
I used to enjoy recording off the radio too, loads of Radio 3 concerts, I still have them but not listened to them in many years, I must dig them out.
I had a decent Hi-Fi with a proper VHF aerial on the roof so if they haven't deteriorated with age they might be worth a listen again.

[rontech]

Originally Posted by Studio263

AD-F770? That was an Aiwa, not an Akai. Nice recorder though.

You are correct of course. I got aiwa and akai reponses when searching for decks of the period. Then the wrong name when composing the post. It's my age I suppose lol

[Richard_FM]

Even with Dolby my Dad never liked the quality of pre-recorded tapes, he reckoned recording onto them from vinyl or CD was as good as professionally made ones.

He used to record a lot before music was easy to find online, & digitised anything obscure he had on tape a few years ago.

[stevehertz]

Even with Dolby my Dad never liked the quality of pre-recorded tapes, he reckoned recording onto them from vinyl or CD was as good as professionally made ones.

Totally. Pre-recorded cassettes used cheap tape and housings. You couldn't beat recording an album off a good record deck/cartridge or CD player on to a good quality, well maintained cassette deck using something like TDK-SA.

[Richard_FM]

Yes my Dad tried to buy the better quality blank take, TDK CDing was a type he used a lot.

[Andrew2]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

Even with Dolby my Dad never liked the quality of pre-recorded tapes, he reckoned recording onto them from vinyl or CD was as good as professionally made ones.

He used to record a lot before music was easy to find online, & digitised anything obscure he had on tape a few years ago.

Quite. Pre-recorded 'Musicassettes' always sounded compressed and 'thick' to my ears, and there was often a rather variable azimuth error. A good recording onto TDK AD or SA was always superior.