Just as I was getting used to digital...

[MajorFubar]

...I go and 'spoil' it again.

I've spent months getting used to the sound of my Mac Mini & HRT Streamer II+, mainly playing lossless CD rips via iTunes and BitPerfect. And very satisfied I was too.

Then, as you might have read from my recent thread, I've gone and bought a Nakamichi DR-1 cassette deck after '20 years of hurt'. I couldn't afford one new in 1992, I had to make do with a DR-3 instead (bought in 1994), which was a damn decent second best it has to be said. Even the DR-3 had sat dormant for a while, boxed away, but having bought the DR-1, well I kind of had to use it a bit even just to justify the purchase to myself.

I've been listening to some of my favourite old cassettes, such as Themes by Vangelis, Rock Anthems (a relatively inexpensive compilation on the Dino label which I bought at the same time as the DR-3), along with a collection called 'The Love Box' on the Castle Communications lable, which I think I bought for about £2 from a service station ten years ago when they were clearing out all their tapes.

What an absolute revelation it has been. Somehow with digital it's a kind of analytical experience, even when I'm just trying to enjoy the music. I don't mean that the sound from my equipment is too analytical, what I mean is, even when I'm just trying to flow along with the music I end up analysing what I'm listening to. Is that high-hat over there as crisp as it should be? Is the separation between those two instruments as good as it should be? Hmm that vocal is a bit forward...I'll just go tweak some settings in the software.

Absolutely none of that tonight with these tapes. I just sat there and let the enjoyable, lush, warm, inviting sound wash over me and smother me. And you know what? It sounded fantastic. Sure, the Mac >HRT>BP front-end is more revealing, the blacks are blacker, leading edges of transients like snare drums have more attack and maybe cymbals and sibilants are that bit crisper. But you know what? I didn't give a monkey's. I just sat there, transfixed for about three hours (getting up every half hour or so to turn/swap the tape!), allowing this sound to pull me close, throw its arms around me and cuddle me in a way that my technically-superior yet frigid digital front-end just doesn't know how to do.

Twenty year old tape deck = best purchase I've made this year. 8)

 

[CnoEvil]

I always enjoyed my tape decks (Audiotronic ACD 770D -> Sony TCK 4A -> Aiwa ADF 360), and they didn't have the performance of your Nak.

 

[MajorFubar]

Good decks though Cno, I remember the Aiwa very well, I went to audition one once.

Reading through my ramble probably what I would have been simpler to say was that somehow with my digital front end (including CD) I get too bogged down on how well it's doing all the 'HiFi' things rather than just listening. Somehow I find it drags me into that kind of analytical listening, even if I don't mean to. This evening, sitting down and listening to some well-recorded tapes on a first-class deck came almost like a release, like escaping from the HiFi rat-race for a few hours. Feel almost like I've rediscovered what it's all supposed to be about.

 

[CnoEvil]

You, like me , were brought up on a sound that was voiced differently from today - and now you realize what you've been missing........and this is why I keep banging on about Valves and Class A (and Linn Streamers!)

 

[MajorFubar]

You're probably right Cno. Perhaps one day I will get the chance to seriously look at a valve/class A set-up and finally get the sound from digital that up to now, only analogue seems to be able to provide for me.

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

Like this one...?

I'm drolling...

Congrats!

 

[plastic penguin]

I've always had a love/hate relationship with cassettes: No issue with sound, especially the old chrome 90 minuter, but just too much hassle. My dad never lost me, if he couldn't see or hear me, he'd follow the celluloid (all the way upstairs).

 

[CnoEvil]

My dad never lost me, if he couldn't see or hear me, he'd follow the celluloid (all the way upstairs).

That was the C120s

 

[MajorFubar]

I do know what you mean PP. It's a far cry from sitting in my chair and controlling iTunes with my phone app!

Like this one...?

I'm drolling...

Congrats!

That's the one!

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

i used to love cassettes, but when i got married and have to move from my parents home the cassettes got lost in the process... and i had some that i loved, and took me, some times weeks to record as i have to have the perfect sequence... goooooooood times... studing and listening to music...

 

[MajorFubar]

Shame that you lost some of your cherished tapes.

With pre-recorded tapes I used to find the quality varied too much, and it often wasn't at all related to price or the prestige of the label.

Mind you since buying my first Nak in 1994 (the DR-3), I found that a lot of the tapes I'd condemed and thrown to the back of the drawer were actually quite listenable. Before buying the Nak the most I'd spent on a cassette deck was £250 on a three-head Technics with a motorized door, and in terms of what came out the phono sockets, the £400 Nak was in the league above.

 

[Frank Harvey]

The Nakamichis were always in another league regarding quality. It was something that was so easily demonstrated too.

 

[MajorFubar]

Strange thing is, when I went into Practical HiFi in 1994, I had no intention of buying a Nak. I'd read all the WHF reviews and I'd absolutely made my mind up that I was going to be walking out the shop with a £350 three-head Sony with all the bells and whistles, including Dolby S. I can't remember now but it may even have won Best Recorder that year.

It was the salesman who made me demo the Nak. He said before handing over £300+ for a cassette deck I just had to listen to one. So I did, coincidentally enough using the Rock Anthems tape I've been listening to tonight. The Sony stayed on the shelf. It wasn't even a maybe.

 

[MajorFubar]

Now listening to this:

I'm at the point where Andrew Everard is talking about the Marantz CD52, the Rotel RCD965BX and the new kids on the block: bitstream converters :dance: 8)

 

[Frank Harvey]

If I remember rightly, the entry level Nakamichi was always a two head unit, but it still beat any other manufacturer's three head unit, regardless of price. It was a no brainer. Aiwa and Denon were the usual choices for those of us who couldn't afford a Nak.

 

[the record spot]

I imagine much of the experience is down to the quality of the sources too, not just the player, good though the Nak is. I've picked up a few Castle CDs and they've been very impressive, perhaps using the original master tapes, or a very early generation copy of. I get the same reaction for those discs you did for the tapes.

 

[Al ears]

You, like me , were brought up on a sound that was voiced differently from today - and now you realize what you've been missing........and this is why I keep banging on about Valves and Class A (and Linn Streamers!)

Righton CnoEvil! I am heading that way myself and as
MajorFubar found out cassettes have their own way of doing things (and its not a bad one).

This is one reason I still hold on to my Sony Pro Walkman WM-D6C, it still gets an airing occasionally, and I could still get the same cash I paid for it way back then, if I was to flog-it today.

 

[cheeseboy]

glad you enjoyed. Sounds like you went back to the stage of listening to the music, not the equipment - something which often gets forgotten with hifi enthusiasts.

If you love music, you don't really care what it's being played on, just so long as you can enjoy it

 

[scene]

The darkside of tape beckons...

I've had a venerable CR-1E from new (currently not plugged in - as I can't decide which system to plumb it into since the building work...) and I love the Nak sound.

 

[Al ears]

Lovely sound to the CR-1E I seem to remember.

I do believe my Pro Walkman may be getting an airing sooner rather than later as I've just discovered a rather large batch of brand new TDK SA cassettes I must have stashed away years ago. I assume they are still usable - only one way to find out.

 

[MajorFubar]

glad you enjoyed. Sounds like you went back to the stage of listening to the music, not the equipment something which often gets forgotten with hifi enthusiasts.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there.
There's times when you end up listening to the system more than the music, and it can happen without you even knowing it.

 

[chrisup]

I remember going to the Decca factory in Bridgenorth where they produced prerecorded cassettes. I was 16 and they played the tapes through a Quad set up and used Quad Electrostatics wow it was incredible!! I also have Sony Pro Walkman, Sony 136 SD (toploader) I bought it in the late 70s and Sony TC K561S bought in the 80s. I always used TDK SA C90s and friends allowed me to tape their new LP before they played it on their tin box! They also got their own tape. I originally recorded off a Garrard Zero 100SB but sold my system to a mate and then used a Rega Planar 3 as the source. Still got my mixed tapes. My daughter nicks some of my tapes to play in the car even though she has an IPhone & IPod. I still love analogue sources.

Best Wishes

Chris

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but the audio cassette was the work of the Devil.

All that time and effort recording, checking levels, writing inlays, then scrunch! The car cassette player ate it, cue unwinding, splicing with sellotape and scalpel, rewinding, screwing back together all the fiddly rollers to get in place.

Good riddance to the hateful things i say!

 

[MajorFubar]

I never ever had a minced tape. Maybe it was partly luck, but mostly I think it was because I looked after both the tapes and the machines I played them on. Also I never bought or used cheap nasty cassette decks with substandard transports.

 

[Native_bon]

Having read this thread i just brought out my yamaha desk. It just brings back memories. Also its sounds really good. actiually am very surprised by the sound. Its does sound a bit dull compared to a digital source, but the whole music as a whole is just really good.

Hum cn't really see the shout about dac's really. Having said that, some of the recordings are really poor & with very revalling amps this days you can easliy hear the tape hiss & compression in the sound.

But over all not bad.

Thanx for bringing my attention back MajorFubar.