Cassettes are making a slight comeback

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

Good lord, NO.

Why does anyone want to go back to those? Remember how frustrating it was to record something off the radio, then the idiot DJ would talk over the end of the song.

We would record our brand new vinyl to "sacrificial" cassette. In theory, we would re-record after the cassette started to degrade too badly, but in practice, that never happened.

Good intentions.....

[Don Ro]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I had one of these in my car during high school...I gave it away when I got something better.

Wish I still had it.....

I remember those Pioneers...they were popular and reliable.
Man, the memories.

[911boost]

I still listen to mine as well. Have an older double player hooked up to the stereo.

I haven't used my walkman in ages, but still have two of them, a fancy one and one of those yellow "sport" ones....

the good old days.

[wildthing]

Left all my tapes when I moved in 05, and even then, haven't played them since 95.

Probably all moldy or stuck by now.

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by KNS

I can see it now, people scouring the salvage yards for a vintage Blaupunkt cassette player for their period correct 1978 911SC.

Ummm, never mind...

[Arizona 911]

I can't wait for production to start again on the Maxell Porsche posters.

[Ayles]

[Bill Douglas]

I hope to God NO.

I'd love to have all those hours back as a teenager that were spent unwinding tape and fixing cassette players.

[look 171]

Remember home equip were silver instead of black. My tape deck is still at my parents. I just looked at it today and was wondering if they still plays? Its been there since the mid 80s. I was stylin' because it can fast forward and locate the beginning of a song. I jsut saw this thread and had to post about my silver Sony deck.

[aigel]

Do not miss them ...

G

[aschen]

Tapes are pretty terrible, and as a long time audiophile used to compromise of convenience, I don't get it

I bought record s in the 90s at 2-5$ because CDs were expensive for college kids. Kids can get music free now though and I don't see any redeeming quality in cassettes really. Nostalgia I guess it's sorta like buying a 924 since older 911s (lps) are so expensive now

[Seahawk]

I had the exact same unit. Moved it to three different cars

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I had one of these in my car during high school...I gave it away when I got something better.

Wish I still had it.....

[GH85Carrera]

I rode in a friends Boxster the other day. I pointed out how his center console had storage for several CDs and my 911 came with storage for the cassette tapes in the center console. The same guy has a 67 912 that only has a AM/FM/SW radio.

[jwasbury]

I felt the need to resurrect this thread as cassettes are on the menu once again for me. I recently picked up a new commuter vehicle (1998 MB E300 turbodiesel) which a cassette deck and a CD changer in the trunk. This is my second MB from this era, and in both of them the CD changer is wonky. I spend 4 hours a day commuting, so I want my tunes, but I prefer not to hack up my pristine, one owner Benzs with aftermarket stuff when the factory original stuff sounds pretty darn good. I dug up a few old cassettes and have been rediscovering music that I either never got on CD, and/or hadn't digitized. One thing I like about the cassette format (and also vinyl LP) is that skipping tracks is not convenient. In the CD and now MP3/digital age, its far too easy to have a short attention span and skip songs. Ease of changing tracks makes Shuffle play on the iPod a personal "greatest hits" album. As great as that can be, there's something special about the older formats (LP and cassette) in that they force you to take the album (or one side at least) as a whole. I went to the local vintage record store and bought a few cassettes from the 80's, only $1 each. Really appreciate the format right now, despite the shortcomings.

[JackDidley]

I found mine a couple weeks ago while doing a remodel. I need to try one in my truck. It has a deck but I dont know if it works. Be cool if it does since its a real beater S 10.

[VINMAN]

[Fast Freddy 944]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

I remember someone here got his son a boombox in the last year or so and was remarking about cassettes. I know I've still got a good many... and play them in the car from time to time, too.

Now it seems they're "in the news" or rather, in the music opinion columns, too...

Cassette tapes are having an unlikely moment

The cheap plastic. The unruly ribbon. Leave them on a car dashboard on a July afternoon and be prepared to come back to a warped, melted mess. To those who can remember loading a Walkman or boom box and taking in the warbled results, the recent reemergence of cassette tapes is a peculiar development. But it is a trend that some saw coming, even before the latest resurrection of vinyl, record players, and all things pre-iPhone.

Though quantifiable figures can be hard to come by — unlike vinyl, which reportedly took in $226 million in the first half of this year, tapes are still a relatively underground endeavor — there’s no denying the format’s increased visibility.

In the past few years alone, it has garnered its own holiday (Cassette Store Day, founded in 2013 by a group of labels hoping to draw attention to the virtues of the format), served as the subject of a feature-length documentary (“Cassette,” which is currently being submitted to various film festivals), and become the musical trend du jour for a slew of indie bands and enthusiasts.

Even major bands have gotten in on the action, with groups like Metallica, the Flaming Lips, and Dinosaur Jr. offering limited-release cassette formats in recent years.

“The interesting thing is they’re being put out by labels and being consumed by people who are not old enough to have had cassettes,” says Jem Aswad, senior editor at Billboard, which tracks the music industry. “So it’s a very confusing phenomenon to me.” More: https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2015/11/27/cassette-tapes-are-having-unlikely-moment/krQpVmYAcSsMFGFJ8d6RUI/story.html



Our Misplaced Nostalgia for Cassette Tapes

Los Angeles — EARLIER this month the Canadian singer Nelly Furtado, who has sold more than 20 million singles worldwide, released an album that almost no one could find, and even fewer could listen to. That’s because the recording, “Hadron Collider,” which she made with the musician Blood Orange, was presented in a format once thought long relegated to the trash heap of tech history: the cassette tape.

Many people over 30 remember cassettes, with nostalgia, if not some disdain. And yet, for a slice of music fandom, Ms. Furtado’s choice of medium makes perfect sense. Cassettes, somehow, are making a comeback.

Go to any indie show and inevitably, among the T-shirts and knickknacks, there will be tapes. Some record labels are now cassette-only. The National Audio Co., America’s largest manufacturer of audiocassettes, reported that 2014 was its best year yet.

But before the revisionists completely rewrite my adolescence, let’s be clear about something: As a format for recorded sound, the cassette tape is a terrible piece of technology. It’s a roll of tape in a box. It’s essentially an office supply.

The cassette is the embodiment of planned obsolescence. Each time you play one it degrades. Bad sound gets worse. Casings crack in winter, melt in summer. Inescapably, a cassette tape unspools: It’s only destiny. Fine, death comes to us all. But just because we can anthropomorphize a gadget doesn’t give it a soul. More: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/opinion/our-misplaced-nostalgia-for-cassette-tapes.html?_r=0

I wish I knew that years ago, I had a killer tape cassette collection in good shape that I sold to Half Price books! Arghhhhh

[legion]

I feel like CDs have been the height of consumer-grade audio. MP3's and cassettes both sound worse to me.

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by legion

I feel like CDs have been the height of consumer-grade audio. MP3's and cassettes both sound worse to me.

I have found with a lot of music, I can't tell listening with my I-pod plugged into the car, vs putting the same Music CD into the car and using that as a source.

However, for the music that I can tell the difference, its totally worth always buying CD's to start with. Prior to having a car with a CD player, it didn't matter to me as much. I re-bought a few albums I had bought digitally as CD's to test out. One album I could tell the difference, one album I probably could, but perhaps not really, and one, it really really improved listening to the album a lot.

If something has a in the flesh raw audio mix, the MP3 will take some of that away. If it has a lot of post editing, it may not matter as much.

Big music industry, chooses the music to the popular format. Crooning, popular because it could still be made out even with radio static, etc.

[scottmandue]

Just FYI for my garage purge I'm selling two cassette player.
A top of the line Sony TCK.
And a BIC dual speed.
Carrry on