The cassette vs. the Rest of the World debate

[ArtSalt]

Maxell XLII was my go to blank tape. Those actually did sound pretty decent.

I used to get that squeal you're talking about. It always came from the tape spindle, but never from the tape itself.

Correct, and it can be erased by oiling the spindles. Not as diffcult as it sounds, but you need to be careful.

Some of the metal type tapes exchange for princely sums now. I am talking about 60 Euros plus.

There's still a vibrant cassette community out there.

[sidewinder]

Maxell XLII was my go to blank tape. Those actually did sound pretty decent.

I used to get that squeal you're talking about. It always came from the tape spindle, but never from the tape itself.

Still got a box full of that stuff (both recorded and blank) in the attic !

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

_{The cassette culture was a different world: the record was considered for plebs, the audiophile was using the cassette deck.}

_{When the heck was that era. I never encountered it.}

_{Well, sales for one: cassettes were out selling records. I was somewhat tongue in cheek there, because I didn't know any audiophiles back then!}

_{But the humble cassette for a long time was out selling vinyl and there was a lot of rubbish pressings in the 80s, remember how flexible Virgin pressing were?}

K7s are almost certainly STILL outselling vinyl worldwide. The size of the African markets in number of units (not value of sales) is effin' enormous. I don't doubt that's true of other 3rd world regions.

MG

[mikeweil]

Inspired by this thread I walked into a local electronics supermarkt this afternoon after work and bought a X4-TECH cassette-to-MP3 unit for € 25 - not that bad. It comes with Audacity as processing software - that's good enough for me.

Edited May 28, 2013 by mikeweil

[rdavenport]

My 2006 Transit van has a cassette player in it, which I find odd, as cassettes seem to have been hopelessly outdated for decades.

I don't use cassettes at all now, but I've certainly had plenty of them in my car over the years, recorded from (other people's) records or CDs.

Edited May 28, 2013 by rdavenport

[mikeweil]

Funny, the van I use at work for transporting wheelchair users has a cassette radio, too. But I always forget to take some tapes with me ...

[Jim Alfredson]

Properly encoded, high bitrate MP3s sound far superior to cassettes.

The sentimentality of this craze is funny to me. Cassettes were a pain in the ass.

[rdavenport]

The sentimentality of this craze is funny to me. Cassettes were a pain in the ass.

I agree. It's surely an affectation, in the US / Europe at least (MG's post about sales being huge in Africa is duly noted).

Edited May 29, 2013 by rdavenport