[st5150]

Here is my cassette setup

 

[Oga]

A decent cassette going into KSC-35's that must be some phat sound. That's what is missing with all these MP3s - that thickness of the sound. I always go lossless and Ogg as much as possible.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mushu Heheh, first time I've seen that! Cassettes aren't actually all that bad, it's just so much effort recording your own stuff on them, real time recording just doesn't cut it any longer...especially with 100+ hours of music

True... most of us managed to survive with them until the late 90's tho. I always found it fun making cassette compilations, rather than a hassle.

These days I still put my money on the humble CD-R, and an MP3-CD player (50 to 60 bucks for a good one, on sale or clearance). CD-R's cost 20 cents apiece, hold 700MB, and you can use CD-RWs if you prefer rewriting rather than permanent compilations. 700MB is around 10 CD's worth of MP3's, which is plenty for my purposes in the course of a single day's listening.

HD-based MP3 players are convenient for sure, but in some ways indulgent to the point of laziness (just IMHO). I stick in a regular CD if I want lossless, or an MP3-CD if I want a lot of tunes... works great, and my wallet is a lot fatter than if I bought an iPod.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch True... most of us managed to survive with them until the late 90's tho. I always found it fun making cassette compilations, rather than a hassle.

Argh, no, I did it because there was nothing else! Calculating the time, manual leveling, sitting by, flipping records or changing CDs... all for mediocre sound on a medium that could get totally wiped if you ran out of luck, and no backup. Okay, it was fun, I admit it

I just made a mix-MD for someone a week ago, and even that seemed so retro... I had to burn a CD (too lazy to lug the Kenwood down to the Mac, not willing to risk any AirTunes dropouts) and then record the MD *in real-time*. I wonder how I had the time for that, back in the day.

 

[DJ Mauler]

funny thing about that is i still have like 10 cassestes mostly Led Zeppelin and Floyd my dad gave me. i still use them when i HAVE to drive my moms minivan...

 

[Dimitris]

Although i like my old cassettes i think they are kind of outdated nowadays. I like listening to them when i am at my village house and when i was to listen to something from speakers instead of headphones.

 

[Duncan]

I'm surprised that the cassette still worked after being in the fish tank...

I left a tape out in the wet once, and it stuck itself together so much so that whether it be with the motor of a cassette deck, or with a bic pen - the tape would not budge... was completely wrecked...

I still have a top quality ($300+) Panasonic tape player (walkman style)... haven't used it for a few years, but I bought it for its gimmicky auto hold feature... would only work with touching skin... something to do with electrical conductivity maybe?!

 

[easypeasy]

Ha ha, now where did I put my D6C

 

[LFC_SL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan I'm surprised that the cassette still worked after being in the fish tank...

now try that with a DAP....

woo-hoo. 1st 6 threads, I made last post! God I hate having a broken leg........

 

[Albatross05]

Funny - I thought the days of cruddy audio quality were on the way out when CDs took off. Now, cheered on by the perpetual ignorance of the almighty majority, MP3s have taken sound quality back into the stone age. It's gotten to the point to where I'm starting to wonder how much longer music will be around in a high quality physical form. After all, if most people are satisfied with low bit rate MP3s, the industry might just decide it's not even worth it to strive for quality sound. Audio has always taken a back seat to video in terms of quality. It pains me to see anyone who cares about audio quality contributing to the popularity of the dreadful MP3. I don't care how convenient it is, I won't use it.

And yeah, I still have an old Walkman tape player. Problem is that most of my tapes are practically worn down to dust. HAving said that, I'd still rather listen to tapes than MP3s.

 

[sno1man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VicAjax thurston moore is da king.

Amen to that! This thread inspired me to haul out my walkman pro and my carefully recorded version of "daydream nation".

There is warmth in the sound with this combo, that I have yet to find on any MP3 player......

Of course this thing is a brick

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albatross05 It pains me to see anyone who cares about audio quality contributing to the popularity of the dreadful MP3. I don't care how convenient it is, I won't use it.

That is a slightly shady thing to say...

MP3 in a literal sense (files ending in .mp3) may be old school, and not neccesarily the best quality, but when using higher level encoding such as AAC (256k+), OGG, FLAC, WAV etc then it would be hard for the majority of people to actually pick apart which was which out of the 'mp3' and which one was the original source 'data'... To have an iPod, or any DAP does not mean that you're condemned to living in lo-fi quality forever more

 

[traficante]

Instead of going to battle with each other, why not become one?

Retro

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

MP3 in a literal sense (files ending in .mp3) may be old school, and not neccesarily the best quality, but when using higher level encoding such as AAC (256k+), OGG, FLAC, WAV etc then it would be hard for the majority of people to actually pick apart which was which out of the 'mp3' and which one was the original source 'data'... To have an iPod, or any DAP does not mean that you're condemned to living in lo-fi quality forever more

lossy compression by definition means something is tossed to sqeeze down the music and bit rate only determines how much is lost (forever btw) and not "if" there is anything missing.

I use MP3 in its place as i do all available formats both analog and digital but head to head I can make a far better sounding recording with my Nak' 600 than I can with any MP3 recorder I have ever come across.

High bit rate but still "lossy" I put in the same category with a the CD and the "sample" rate.

No matter how you slice it and dice it the music still comes out as a copy with missing parts,the "lossy" or "sample" of the original, and not a 1:1 exact copy.
That little itty bit of lost parts is where the soul resides and once gutted can never be put back in.This is one operation where a transplant just don't take

Just an opinion guys so don't get all excited

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Albatross05 Funny - I thought the days of cruddy audio quality were on the way out when CDs took off. Now, cheered on by the perpetual ignorance of the almighty majority, MP3s have taken sound quality back into the stone age.

I look at the recording industry as a much bigger culprit than MP3. Today's overcompressed, hot, digitally clipping CD's sound crappy no matter from the CD, MP3 format or 16kbps RealAudio.

A well encoded VBR MP3 can sound pretty good, provided the source material is worthy. Garbage in, garbage out.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Albatross05 After all, if most people are satisfied with low bit rate MP3s, the industry might just decide it's not even worth it to strive for quality sound.

Strive for quality sound?

What part of "the industry" do you believe is doing this? Audiophile labels? They aren't releasing anything in MP3 format and never will... there will always be good recordings available from these labels. The recording industry at large? ROTFL!