Ok Cassette tapes

mantis

Whats up all?
I recently broke out the cassette player due to the fact that I have a local band (Sic Vikki from the 80's , Phila rock band) demo tape and just had the desire to listen to it. Well it's just about dead. The sound quality is so worn sounding it's almost unlistenable. If I didn't want so badly to listen to the great songs they wrote then , I wouldn't bother.

I remember back in the day loving going to the store and buying a new Album on Cassette but then as listening over time develop that hiss from the tape wearing out.

Do LP's suffer the same thing? I'm assuming it's less but I'm sure they degrade over time correct? it's a topic not really talked about much. We have many customers buying new tables to listen to their Records.

mhardy6647

Good quality tape will not degrade appreciably over numerous plays over a long period of time. I have TDK SA-90 and Maxell UDXLII-90 tapes made in the late 1970s on a Yamaha TC-511S (an entry-level deck, ca. 1975) that still sound very good.



There are very poor quality tape formulations, though - prerecorded tapes (especially early in the era of that genre) tended to use pretty crummy tape.

Most of the hiss you describe arises from residual magnetism of the tape heads and other metal in the tape path. Regular cleaning and demagnetizing of the heads and other parts of the tape path minimize that problem. Once the damage is done, though, it is irreversible.

LPs do not degrade over time (polyvinylchloride is tough stuff; its lifespan in a landfill is essentially infinite). Mistracking can damage a record in one play - but well-cared-for albums kept clean and played on properly aligned equipment with a good stylus can last for many decades. I have albums dating back to the mid-1950s that are still like new.

heiney9

I always owned Nakamichi decks, including a Dragon, never had any tape issues back in the day. The other key is to use premium tapes, the cheaper stuff just didn't cut it. I spent a LOT of $$$ on blank tapes back then and it was worth it. I just recently threw out 150 of my old cassette tapes. For me the media was/is completely dead, even beyond nostalgia. About 6-7 years ago I did spend some time transferring my favorite or one of a kind tapes to cdr.

H9

mhardy6647

I pick up decent quality cassettes whenever I find them at the dump... I don't really quite know why though.

Yeah. A Dragon. That'll do. :-)

Best deck here is (are) a couple of CT-F1000s and a couple of CT-F900s. Nothin' fancy here as I was never a huge fan of cassettes, preferring big tape.



I suspect we'd agree that good maintenance of decks and careful storage of tapes is key to long and fruitful lives, though.

heiney9

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I suspect we'd agree that good maintenance of decks and careful storage of tapes is key to long and fruitful lives, though.

Absolutely! Back then our local high end audio store had tape deck clinics where the techs would clean, demagnetize and test the specs of your cassette deck for a set low price, like $19.95. Had those twice a year and they were popular.

H9

P.s. I still have 350 cassette tapes of Led Zeppelin Bootlegs. I would hook up with traders via mail from all over the world and trade Zep shows. I have everything in digital format now and nothing to play the cassettes on, but just can't bring myself to throw them out. Lot's and lot's of cool, fun times tracking shows all over the world and making some nice friends.

nooshinjohn

heiney9 wrote: »

Absolutely! Back then our local high end audio store had tape deck clinics where the techs would clean, demagnetize and test the specs of your cassette deck for a set low price, like $19.95. Had those twice a year and they were popular.

H9

P.s. I still have 350 cassette tapes of Led Zeppelin Bootlegs. I would hook up with traders via mail from all over the world and trade Zep shows. I have everything in digital format now and nothing to play the cassettes on, but just can't bring myself to throw them out. Lot's and lot's of cool, fun times tracking shows all over the world and making some nice friends.

I have a nice Denon tape deck you can have if you want it...

mhardy6647

heiney9 wrote: »

Absolutely! Back then our local high end audio store had tape deck clinics where the techs would clean, demagnetize and test the specs of your cassette deck for a set low price, like $19.95. Had those twice a year and they were popular.

H9

P.s. I still have 350 cassette tapes of Led Zeppelin Bootlegs. I would hook up with traders via mail from all over the world and trade Zep shows. I have everything in digital format now and nothing to play the cassettes on, but just can't bring myself to throw them out. Lot's and lot's of cool, fun times tracking shows all over the world and making some nice friends.

heh, PM me if you ever want one, gratis; got a few spares around the ranch (no Naks, though)

heiney9

nooshinjohn wrote: »

I have a nice Denon tape deck you can have if you want it...

Thanks John, but I haven't listened to the tapes in years as I have it all in digital format now. I just can't seem to part with them, not because I want to listen to them, but because they have some nostalgic value. I can go thru those tapes today and tell you where most of them came from, maybe not the person but the part of the world.

Some of the bartering was crazy, like a virtual swap meet. Took quite a few chances as I was in college back then and didn't have a lot of money to lose if I got screwed sending 30 cassettes to Japan or Australia.

I just recently sold my last Nakamichi deck, I hadn't used it in about 3 years so I figured it was time to get it out of the audio closet.

H9

FTGV

mhardy6647 wrote: »

a Yamaha TC-511S (an entry-level deck, ca. 1975) that still sound very good.

Since they are of the same era that looks like a perfect cosmetic match to our CA 800's.

cnh

I don't own anything quite as upscale as a Dragon....just a 3 head AIWA Deck. Had it reconditioned a couple of years ago.

Last night I put my Rti-A3s in the basement HT rig and popped in a tape I made of Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life over 20 years ago from a Technics TT. No real degradation that I could hear. Not bad except for a bit of surface noise from the LP.

Most of my cassettes still sound fairly good? As per Mhardy and H9s descriptions above.

cnh

mhardy6647

FTGV wrote: »

Since they are of the same era that looks like a perfect cosmetic match to our CA 800's.

It is of exactly the same era. I bought one (used) ca. 1978 to go with my CA-610II and it served me well for a long, long time.

The TC-1000 is also probably of about the same model year. I bought this on a whim from eBAY a long time ago - it's actually nothing special... but it looks like it should be! :-) I know virtually nothing about it (which is why I bought it).




ahem... sorry for the Yama-hijack :-P

mhardy6647

cnh wrote: »

I don't own anything quite as upscale as a Dragon....just a 3 head AIWA Deck. Had it reconditioned a couple of years ago.

Last night I put my Rti-A3s in the basement HT rig and popped in a tape I made of Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life over 20 years ago from a Technics TT. No real degradation that I could hear. Not bad except for a bit of surface noise from the LP.

Most of my cassettes still sound fairly good? As per Mhardy and H9s descriptions above.

cnh

AIWA made some pretty fine decks as well.

mhardy6647

Wow, that is a nice looking piece of hardware.

SCompRacer

mhardy6647 wrote: »

The TC-1000 ........

ahem... sorry for the Yama-hijack :-P

I'm sorry for the Yama-hijack too...

Nice TC!

I've got a TC-720 to go along with my CA-800/CT-800 basement rig.



I still have the TC-320. It needs a drive belt, not a fun job. Need to install a new bulb in the tuna meter as well.

mhardy6647

oooh I like that CT-800! :-)

Not like that's anything near on topic...

agfrost

mantis wrote: »

Whats up all?
I recently broke out the cassette player due to the fact that I have a local band (Sic Vikki from the 80's , Phila rock band) demo tape and just had the desire to listen to it. Well it's just about dead. The sound quality is so worn sounding it's almost unlistenable. If I didn't want so badly to listen to the great songs they wrote then , I wouldn't bother.

Is the 'felt' backer still in place behind the tape in your cassette? I've had one or two tapes lose this piece and without it there to provide pressure against the heads, the sound was somewhere between muffled and nonexistent.

FTGV

Great lookin Yammy triplets Rich.

dorokusai

When you start using metal shells on your tapes, you can start talking shite.

heiney9

dorokusai wrote: »

When you start using metal shells on your tapes, you can start talking shite.

TDK MA-XG, I had several of those back in the day. They weighed about 3 times a normal cassette.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilvance/4015979307/



Not my photo

H9

dorokusai

I knew someone had some hard shells in the cabinet. Thx H9

comfortablycurt

heiney9 wrote: »

I always owned Nakamichi decks, including a Dragon, never had any tape issues back in the day. The other key is to use premium tapes, the cheaper stuff just didn't cut it. I spent a LOT of $$$ on blank tapes back then and it was worth it. I just recently threw out 150 of my old cassette tapes. For me the media was/is completely dead, even beyond nostalgia. About 6-7 years ago I did spend some time transferring my favorite or one of a kind tapes to cdr.

H9

You threw them out!?!?:eek: Blasphemy!! I would have loved to take them off your hands!! How can you just throw away music!?

heiney9 wrote: »

Absolutely! Back then our local high end audio store had tape deck clinics where the techs would clean, demagnetize and test the specs of your cassette deck for a set low price, like $19.95. Had those twice a year and they were popular.

H9

P.s. I still have 350 cassette tapes of Led Zeppelin Bootlegs. I would hook up with traders via mail from all over the world and trade Zep shows. I have everything in digital format now and nothing to play the cassettes on, but just can't bring myself to throw them out. Lot's and lot's of cool, fun times tracking shows all over the world and making some nice friends.

Well if you ever want to get rid of any of those Zep boots, let me know. I'd be more than happy to take them off your hands.

mhardy6647

dorokusai wrote: »

I knew someone had some hard shells in the cabinet. Thx H9

Wow, I don't remember those - must've been when I was in grad school and starting a family; not too much hifi for me in those days. Heck, I missed the Kenwood "Galaxy Commander" completely the first time around. :-)
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=269671

... my repeated apologies to the original poster for clobbering the topic of this thread yet again :-(

Monster Jam

As a kid, I bought a few tapes. But I didn't like the sound quality from most of them, and thought I would buy LP, then copy the LP to tape myself.

The results I had going from LP to tape (I figured out I got even BETTER quality with a metal tape) were phenomenal - I only ever bought blank metal tapes after that.

Fast forward some 20-25 years. I had a case full of tapes and a handful of LPs I knew I had to move to mp3. I wanted to go from LP to mp3, figuring I would get a much better result than the old tapes, but the LPs were warped beyond usefulness. I then went tape to mp3 route and the nostalgia really kicked in: the tapes sounded exactly as I remembered them. Store bought tapes were pretty bad (with few exceptions), but my tapes were actually quite good.

wayne3burk

I had a Yama K-960 back in the day. Recorded all my LPs using the built in DBX encoder / playback. To my way of thinking the DBX was superior to any iteration of Dolby. But that deck went the way of my C-70 / M-50 / CD-x2 / KLH-1 (analog bass computer) system.

Oy Vey.

wayne

stuwee

Well, I hope cassettes never go away, I still have many from 20 years ago, they all still sound great, only top of the line stuff, mostly Maxell and TDK's my stash of MA-XG's below, the Denon deck is a DN-790R, cheapish, lightweight but, makes great tapes.

My pride and joy is a 30lb Teac V-8000S tank, uber fun and rare, has to be heard to be believed. I've made tapes since I was 7years old, still make them at 48, and will never get tired of them

Like any media, they will let you down sometimes, rarely if you take care of them though.

nooshinjohn

Wish I could find another if for nothing more than the cool factor. This deck made the handful of cassettes I have left sound as good as vinyl...

mhardy6647

Arguably the best cassette deck ever built, the Dragon. The 1000ZXL being another likely candidate :-)

Heh, apropos of this thread... yesterday I taped the rebroadcasts of this week's A Prairie Home Companion and Says You for my wife (who was traveling back from the West Coast) using a couple of dump-find TDK SA90s on the cheap-jack Sony dual-well deck that lives in our family room :-)



The aforementioned BOTL Sony (at the top of the short stack in the photo) was acquired from the New England area electronics retailer Lechmere (prounounced Leechmeah by the locals) on closeout (cheap) when they went under, quite a few years ago now.

smglbrth

Best deck I ever had was a Onkyo TA-2600 Integra back in the late 80's. A high dollar item back then. Metal tapes were the ONLY blank cassettes worth their salt. I could make a tape and it would play back with darned near the same sound quality of the CD. Most of my buds couldn't tell the difference.

BTW - I thought the "Dragon" had a central loading tray that pulled itself out and "flipped" the tape on sort of a carousel. I remember seeing one perform in a high end shop back in the day (at least, I thought it was a Nakamichi Dragon).

schwarcw

Some great photo's of nice nice cassette gear. I have a Marantz cassette deck that I use in my vintage rig.

Mike, Rich and Mark you guys have a nice rack!

mhardy6647

smglbrth wrote: »

BTW - I thought the "Dragon" had a central loading tray that pulled itself out and "flipped" the tape on sort of a carousel. I remember seeing one perform in a high end shop back in the day (at least, I thought it was a Nakamichi Dragon).

Nope. Nakamichi made such a deck, but it was not the Dragon.
EDIT: In fact, the TOTL cassette flipper from Nak was the RX-505 (sounds like a Mazda product ID!).
http://www.hifiengine.com/manuals/nakamichi/rx-505.shtml (free registration required to download manuals, etc.)
http://www.thevintageknob.org/THEVAULT1/RX505/RX505.html

dorokusai

Wasn't it the RX-202, 303 and 505? I've owned the lower models and a Dragon. The Dragon is a hyped player but does certainly have alot of adjustability for the taper.