Cassette Decks

[Al ears]

Try a perfectly aligned ReVox A77 reel to reel recorder. One of the cheapest but best sounding analog machine you can buy.

And this has a great deal to do with cassette recorders? ;-)

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

I can’t believe anyone would want to still use tape decks. I sold my Sony one this year, and the guy who bought it paid a decent amount. But with cd being so cheap if you get it used, and with the time since tape is no longer sold, you’d have to have one huge tape collection to still have a deck?

 

[MajorFubar]

I can’t believe anyone would want to still use tape decks. I sold my Sony one this year, and the guy who bought it paid a decent amount. But with cd being so cheap if you get it used, and with the time since tape is no longer sold, you’d have to have one huge tape collection to still have a deck?

You've no hope of understanding the attraction...you can't even believe people still use CDs! *biggrin*

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

I buy CDs for quality files to rip but they go straight on the hard drive.

 

[BigH]

I can’t believe anyone would want to still use tape decks. I sold my Sony one this year, and the guy who bought it paid a decent amount. But with cd being so cheap if you get it used, and with the time since tape is no longer sold, you’d have to have one huge tape collection to still have a deck?

It's trendy. Never liked cassettes, really can't see why anyone would buy them, maybe I can sell all my old ones for a decent price, hope they are worth £10 each.

 

[chebby]

Just imagine, 90 minutes of music on a medium the size of a phone!

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I buy CDs for quality files to rip but they go straight on the hard drive.

what happens when your hard drive goes wrong and you lose all of your music files in one go ? And then your got to buy a new hard drive and re rip all of your CDs that you do not like . Ones brought I’ve still got my CDs they do not go wrong or cost me anymore money

 

[chebby]

I buy CDs for quality files to rip but they go straight on the hard drive.

what happens when your hard drive goes wrong and you lose all of your music files in one go ? And then your got to buy a new hard drive and re rip all of your CDs that you do not like . Ones brought I’ve still got my CDs they do not go wrong or cost me anymore money

Backups. Why wouldn’t you? They are cheap, quick and easy to run and can be stored anywhere. Are every single one of your CDs duplicated in a backup collection somewhere safe?

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

You can use a two drive nas, or use mirroring software so need to re rip.

 

[Happy_Listener]

IMO, Reel to Reel Tape is superior to all other formats. Cassette tape on the other hand is inferior to LP and possibly even CD. I never owned a Nakamichi Dragon before so perhpas Cassette has more to offer than I realize.

 

[andyjm]

You can use a two drive nas, or use mirroring software so need to re rip.

Hmmn. I had a Qnap NAS with 4 x 1TB drives. Power supply blew up, took out all 4 drives at once. You shouldn't consider drives plugged into the same device with a single point of failure as backups.

Real backups get done on removable hardware or a different machine, and ideally stored somewhere else.

 

[andyjm]

IMO, Reel to Reel Tape is superior to all other formats. Cassette tape on the other hand is inferior to LP and possibly even CD. I never owned a Nakamichi Dragon before so perhpas Cassette has more to offer than I realize.

While you are entitled to your opinion, I am afraid I disagree completely. In terms of frequency response and dynamic range, the pecking order is CD, reel to reel (except esoteric half-track studio mastering machines with a high speed), LP then in last place the compact cassette which is a very poor 4th.

The LP can manage decent frequency response, well above a CD, but a) no one can hear it, b) only for the first few times the disc is played before the stylus mangles the grooves.

 

[MajorFubar]

The problem with reel to reel tapes is maintenence/set up of the decks and degradation of the tapes over time, which also affects cassettes. Records don't degrade over time*, but just like cassettes and reel to reel tapes, they do unfortunately wear away with use. This is why digital storage is the only future-proof method of archiving treasured and valuable recordings.

*I did read once that scientists had artificially aged some records just to see how long they would actually last unplayed. Turns out if we suddenly come across Constantine the Great's record collection we should probably think about digitizing it before it becomes unplayable during the next 100 years.

 

[chebby]

You can use a two drive nas, or use mirroring software so need to re rip.

Hmmn. I had a Qnap NAS with 4 x 1TB drives. Power supply blew up, took out all 4 drives at once. You shouldn't consider drives plugged into the same device with a single point of failure as backups.

Real backups get done on removable hardware or a different machine, and ideally stored somewhere else.

Plain common sense but doesn’t sound as ‘technical’.

It scares me just how few people actually backup at all! (Especially considering how small and cheap drives are and how easy it is.)

 

[QuestForThe13thNote]

That’s how I do mine. Music all goes on large pc hard drive. Back up with wd nas Drive next to pc. In another room I have my single drive music nas connected to my extender which is also connected to my streamer. As I add music to the pc hard drive of ripped CDs or downloads etc, software duplicates my music drive to my music nas in the other room. That way if my music nas fails I just buy another.

 

[andyjm]

The problem with reel to reel tapes is maintenence/set up of the decks and degradation of the tapes over time, which also affects cassettes. Records don't degrade over time*, but just like cassettes and reel to reel tapes, they do unfortunately wear away with use. This is why digital storage is the only future-proof method of archiving treasured and valuable recordings.

This is a very good point, and does make you wonder about those master tapes decaying away in EMI's vaults. Just how long before the originals are unplayable......

 

[nopiano]

The problem with reel to reel tapes is maintenence/set up of the decks and degradation of the tapes over time, which also affects cassettes. Records don't degrade over time*, but just like cassettes and reel to reel tapes, they do unfortunately wear away with use. This is why digital storage is the only future-proof method of archiving treasured and valuable recordings.

This is a very good point, and does make you wonder about those master tapes decaying away in EMI's vaults. Just how long before the originals are unplayable......

There have been various articles covering just that. I believe sometimes tapes are baked, then copied once at very high resolution - and then they’re scrap. But in the good old days various copies were made and seem to pop up handily. But one does wonder how much of a 1950s recording is actually a remixed CD master that’s already 25 years old. Then it appears on a new LP...!

 

[BigH]

You can buy cold storage back-up now very cheap. Hard drives are so cheap now. What happens if your cdp packs up? If you rip cds then you still have them anyway, I don't see the difference really.

 

[macdiddy]

you go to your local hifi dealer and buy another one, new cd players are still being produced at all price levels, they haven't stopped making them because its the fashion to put everything onto a medium that probably won't last long (sorry but my pc's primary internal hd has totally crashed twice which involved the buying of replacement drives and worse still the re-installation of Windows 7 from the start, I also had an external drive which just failed totally one day without warning, the data on it was un-recoverable and it ended up being an expensive paperweight).

by the way the person on here who said reel-to-reel tapes degrade over time should take a look at this video, at one point he plays a reel from 1957 that still sounds awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KHSz9Gi-II&t=1106s

*music2*

 

[BigH]

you go to your local hifi dealer and buy another one, new cd players are still being produced at all price levels, they haven't stopped making them because its the fashion to put everything onto a medium that probably won't last long (sorry but my pc's primary internal hd has totally crashed twice which involved the buying of replacement drives and worse still the re-installation of Windows 7 from the start, I also had an external drive which just failed totally one day without warning, the data on it was un-recoverable and it ended up being an expensive paperweight).

by the way the person on here who said reel-to-reel tapes degrade over time should take a look at this video, at one point he plays a reel from 1957 that still sounds awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KHSz9Gi-II&t=1106s

*music2*

Yes but that may take some time to find a suitable cdp. Probably a lot quicker to get out of storage your ripped cds. Cold storage costs about £10pa for 100gb, probably less now if you shop around. There is also quite a bit of free cloud storage available.

 

[BigH]

The problem with reel to reel tapes is maintenence/set up of the decks and degradation of the tapes over time, which also affects cassettes. Records don't degrade over time*, but just like cassettes and reel to reel tapes, they do unfortunately wear away with use. This is why digital storage is the only future-proof method of archiving treasured and valuable recordings.

This is a very good point, and does make you wonder about those master tapes decaying away in EMI's vaults. Just how long before the originals are unplayable......

There have been various articles covering just that. I believe sometimes tapes are baked, then copied once at very high resolution - and then they’re scrap. But in the good old days various copies were made and seem to pop up handily. But one does wonder how much of a 1950s recording is actually a remixed CD master that’s already 25 years old. Then it appears on a new LP...!

Yes I have heard similar from vinyl fans and forums, many lps now seem to be just cut from the cd master, not just 50s but more recent recordings. Of course vinyl should have it's own master. There are quite a few different versions of some classic 50s jazz albums, some are mono, some are 2 channel stereo which I hate, because there is nothing in the centre, you have say 2 instruments out of the left speaker and 2 out of the right and a great big gap in the middle. But some have been remixed so you get a proper stereo effect. It pays to hear different versions before buying.