Made my first cassette recording of an LP in over 30 years

StantonZ

I recently had my Nakamichi cassette deck restored and decided to re-make a few of my "old" tapes that had faded/deteriorated over the years (I still listen to cassettes once a month or so). Turns out the Maxell XLII-S tapes didn't hold up as well as the older Maxell UDXL II tapes, so I bought a few (used) of the latter off of eBay, bulk erased them, and sat down to record. I can't believe my turntable is still going strong on the original belt after 30+ years (new cart), but all of my original cassettes were made on a (very good) Harmon Kardon back then (although most sound pretty darn good on my Nak thanks to azimuth adjustment)!

voltz

Belt Drives RULES! Rock on!

msg

I still have all my old tapes, too. maybe even a working Walkman.
None of mine were made on any good equipment, but I do remember using a bulk eraser back in the old days, as well. that was a big deal for a kid with just paper route money, but I hated poor recordings, and that was the best way to get the tapes clean, and I saved up and picked one up at the local Radio Shack. accidentally wiped a friend's computer disks, too.

I enjoy indulging in the nostalgia, myself, from time to time. I might see, now, if I can still pull off any freestyle tricks on my old bike...

westmassguy

Making Mix Tapes...brings me back.
Had a Nakamichi back then too. Still have it, but needs new belts.

[Deleted User]

mine too. pain in the butt to fix.
rescued a couple of JVC dual cassettes from the scape heep of
life and slumming with them.

StantonZ

There's basically 2 guys/shops left that service Naks: one on each coast. They can still get things like belts, but heads/motors/etc they swap out and re-build.

honestaquarian

Yeah I need to get my Naks fixed.
I have a bunch of new Sony Metal ES and TDK MA-XG tapes that I would love to use!
Remember when TDK MA-XG finally outpaced the Sony Metal ES on Audio magazine's annual tape shootout?

gmcman

honestaquarian wrote: »

Remember when TDK MA-XG finally outpaced the Sony Metal ES on Audio magazine's annual tape shootout?

No, but I remember when MA-XG was affordable....unreal prices now.

[Deleted User]

I have a couple NOS Maxell XL II Black Magnetites sitting around...

dromunds

I still have most of my compilation cassettes. Had a series of Nakamichi's back then, don't have any now. Those babies had the best sound quality.

honestaquarian

gmcman wrote: »

honestaquarian wrote: »

Remember when TDK MA-XG finally outpaced the Sony Metal ES on Audio magazine's annual tape shootout?

No, but I remember when MA-XG was affordable....unreal prices now.

@gmcman
I got all of mine on fleabay.The catch is that I waited PATIENTLY to find some reasonable ones.
(*were talking months here*)
If you want any I'll sell you a couple.

honestaquarian

@rednedtugent
The "S" versions of the Maxell's always seemed to be better.
XL-1S and XL-IIS
Come to think of it I also have some of those sitting around. All are brand new and in the original packaging if anyone is interested.

dromunds

I remember really liking the TDK MA.

gmcman

"honestaquarian wrote:

@gmcman
I got all of mine on fleabay.The catch is that I waited PATIENTLY to find some reasonable ones.
(*were talking months here*)
If you want any I'll sell you a couple.

I may take you up on that. I have had the best luck with TDK SA-X and I actually stumbled upon a lot of SA, SA-X, XLII, XL II S recently among a few other assorted tapes for $1 per tape for 100 tapes....haven't had any luck with the metal tapes but I remember the more dynamic recordings they offer.

pitdogg2

Best cassette tapes I ever bought were Denon metal. Those suckers you just pushed up to +3db into the red and let it go. I still have them I listen to at work on a boom box. Those tapes are every bit 30 yrs. old. Some of my other favorite TDK SA some if those still are just OK but most gave of the ghost a looong time ago. The highs on the TDK's are pretty dull but those Denon's still are very good. All I have left in the cassette recording were all done on the same deck a top tier Yamaha single non reversing deck. Wonder if there are any manufacturers making tapes these days? I seen the other day that VCR's and tapes were still being made in Japan( I think) until last couple weeks.

honestaquarian

The Sony Metal ES and last version of the TDK MA-XG were known for being able to handle ridiculous amounts of signal. However they also required more bias current than a lot of older tape decks could manage.
I have them all in original packaging unused along with the Maxell's.
If anyone is interested let me know.
I'm going to keep some of them though.
The Nakamichi decks made excellent recordings with them.
Hey does anyone have a Pioneer CT-95 deck?
That was considered the only deck besides the really expensive ReVoX and Tandbergs that could compare to the Naks.

StantonZ

honestaquarian wrote: »

@rednedtugent
The "S" versions of the Maxell's always seemed to be better.
XL-1S and XL-IIS

I have found the exact opposite: the non-"S" versions have done better over time. In fact, I bought some (used) UDXL-II tapes to replace the XL-IIs! Probably going to put the IIs on eBay when I finish the new recordings.

gmcman

I agree the TDK-SA was lacking a little in the highs, but the SA-X helped bridge the gap. PM sent on the metals.

honestaquarian

Wow the UDXL-II tapes preceded the XL-II and IIS tapes!
The SA-X tapes were also excellent. They made an SA-XG version for a while.

honestaquarian

Anyone remember this one?
It was TDK's attempt at merging metal and chrome tapes together. I used to love this one. Problem was back when it came out a lot of decks couldn't handle the bias it required. So it didn't last.

RamZet

Cool, I just got "The Postal Service" and "21 Pilots" on cassette from Amazon.com. I got them so when my daughter gets older she can see them first hand.

BlueBirdMusic

A few weeks ago, I hooked up my Carver TDR-2400 player, and found that cassettes sound better than I remember from previous years. Couldn't find any of my compilation cassettes. I used to make "Jimmy Buffett" compilation cassettes to enjoy on my sailboat. Life was good.

StantonZ

I too am amazed at how well some of my "home made" cassettes have held up over the years. In fact, re-making these last few (Maxell UDXL-II) on a 3-head deck allowed for a real-time comparison of source vs tape. Yes, CD still sounds better in most cases, but a lot of the older jazz LPs I have are either not available on CD, or the CD release was of such poor quality I never bought it.

mhardy6647

heh -- I've got TDK and Maxell cassettes ("needle drops" in today's hip, happenin' parlance) that I recorded on a purchased-used (from Soundscape, of course), thoroughly ordinary, two-head Yamaha TC-511S in the second half of the 1970s -- casettes that spent time sittin 'in a box in my already-rusty Ford Bronco in Baltimore in the early 1980s (including some that were buried in a snowdrift inside the truck due to its rather porous nature by that time) -- and they still sound mighty fine.

Some of them have lost their labels after their Donner Party experience, though.

TC511S203-420view20AK by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

FWIW, with the benefit of hindsight, I think I slightly prefer(red) the TDK SA-C90 cassettes of those halcyon days to the Maxell UD-XLII C90 of the same epoch (even though, at the time, I was convinced that the Maxell tapes were the 'better' of the two... I think they were a wee bit more expensive).

honestaquarian

Uh ooooooh
The TDK versus Maxell wars begin anew after all these years❕❗

StantonZ

Those "wars" were short-lived with me: I think I owned a total of maybe 2 TDK tapes.

mhardy6647

Well, virtually all of my (purchased-new) reel to reel tapes are Maxell UD-35, FWIW.
small%20maxell%20UD3590 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

I do have one TDK (reel) tape from back then. It was/is OK (but in the case of the reel tape formulations, I really do like the Maxell UD tape; it was good stuff, at least for home/amateur use).

small%20TDK%20L1800 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr


More recently, I've taken a likin' to (N)OS BASF reel tape (not that I remember which formulation) -- pretty nice stuff.


sorry for soiling the thread, so to speak, with a different tape format! :-P

xsmi

Thanks for the memories. FWIW, you can still get tapes on Amazon. I didn't realize that.

recoveryone

WHAT!!!!! no Teac metal, that look like mini reel to reels. I love to just kick back and watch those when listening. The TDK's BASF and Maxell's were the standards back then. I may have to give my old Pioneer M66R a workout this weekend.

recoveryone

mhardy6647

sure but... obscenely expensive on the "collectors' market" today.