[Singapura]

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/21...p-button-audio

Oh, the hours I spent to tape radioshows. The joy of the Walkman. The agony of having my favourite tape being eaten by my Marantz deck. Dolby!!!

 

[Duggeh]

Still nothing that can touch the portable cassette player for battery life.

 

[goldenratiophi]

Cassette > all

http://homepage.mac.com/danielturek/PhotoAlbum50.html

...well actually I loathe cassettes because you have to rewind them, and nobody makes good-sounding decks (though I can't say I'm actively searching). But I thought that was funny.

 

[Trippytiger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Still nothing that can touch the portable cassette player for battery life.

What about MD players? My old Sony MD player could go for something like 34 hours on a single AA battery, but my last cassette player could only eke out about 16 hours of tape playback on a pair of AA batteries. And my first cassette player could go for far, far less time than that.

For that matter, my DNE-330 PCDP is rated for 20 hours of CDA playback on a single AA, and up to 40 hours for ATRAC3.

 

[lmilhan]

The Cassette Tape died for me back in 1987 when I purchased a CD player, and sat down and listened to my first ever CD: Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien.

At the end of that listening session, I gathered up all of my cassette tapes (I would guesstimate about 100ish), put them in a heavy-duty trash bag, and took them to my Girlfriends house. I gave them to her and told her to go through them and pick what she wanted to keep for herself, offer the rest to her freinds, and whatever was left over to throw in the trash. And I never ever bought another cassete again. And I don't miss them one freakin' bit. True story.

I never, ever liked cassette tapes. But there was no avoiding them, so I begrudgingly dealt with them. Audio drop-outs, tape hiss, craptastic sound quality, the need to rewind and fast forward, players 'eating' tapes, player maintenance, poor resistance to heat (bad idea to keep them in a hot car) - oh the HUMANITY! The Compact Disc was just what I needed to come along and save me from that torture.

 

[Grahame]

Cassette tape may have been a medium with limitations, but for many if us, they were, together with the walkman, an introduction to truly personal audio.

And for the analog audiophile, lets not forget the contribution made by the likes of Nakamichi

The UniDirectional Auto Reverse was a sight to behold, as you can see here and here

Then there were the tapes themselves; who made the best CRO2 ones?
Dolby B, Bias settings, setting the recording levels, so the VU meters didn't go too far into the red ... ah all distant memories now. And you tell kids today ...

The Cassette Tape. R.I.P. Gone, but not forgotten.

 

[kramer5150]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmilhan /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Cassette Tape died for me back in 1987 when I purchased a CD player, and sat down and listened to my first ever CD: Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien.

Cheers dude!!! Surfin' was my first CD too.

But this is about cassettes

Anyone else have an Ultrex deck? Mine had dbx, dolb-B and C. I think it still works, Its at my parents house in the guest-room.

My fave CrO2 cassettes were maxell UD XL II-s, the gold trim ones. I also had some denon and BASF casettes that sounded good too. I also had some maxell metal tapes that sounded superb.

Someone at headfest had a Nak Dragon sourcing a maxed millet hybrid. It sounded very good IMHO.

 

[3x331m]

The introduction of CD-R was the death sentence of the cassette tapes.

 

[swt61]

The cassette tape was never meant as an audio medium. Philips developed the medium for office use, mainly dictation. Nakamichi turned the medium into a viable audio format with the launch of there Nakamichi 1000 deck in the early seventies. Almost making real to real decks obsolete overnight.

 

[Carl]

You can still record on VHS tapes, which also have the advantage of better sound quality, although that's small comfort for those who still use a walkman.

 

[Superpredator]

I had an '86 Hyundai Excel luxury sedan from 1994-1998 and then an '89 Toyota Supra from 1999-2002, so I was still using tapes through then. My first CD was For Squirrels - Example, which must have been in 1997 or so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3x331m /img/forum/go_quote.gif The introduction of CD-R was the death sentence of the cassette tapes.

This is essentially what put the nail in the coffin for me.

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grahame /img/forum/go_quote.gif Then there were the tapes themselves; who made the best CRO2 ones? Dolby B, Bias settings, setting the recording levels, so the VU meters didn't go too far into the red ... ah all distant memories now. And you tell kids today ...

Ah, yes, Dolby B. I always find it amusing when people complain now that their iPod doesn't have "black" background with IEMs, or when people complain about how the iPod is the death of quality audio. My iPod/e500 combination beats the cassette Walkman I had 25 years ago in every way.

 

[nickknutson]

My first tape was Lionel Richie "Dancing on the Ceiling"

Cassette Tape, you will be missed

 

[proglife]

Odd timing. I think cassettes are actually having a resurgence. Lots of bands are putting out stuff on cassette now. I don't have much interest in it being an audio nerd, but it's still nice to see.

http://abandonshiprecords.com/
http://sloowtapes.blogspot.com/
http://www.****ittapes.com/
http://www.geocities.com/americantapes/

the list goes on and on

 

[Spareribs]

I used to use the Maxell XL II tapes alot for bootlegs. But I agree, I don't like tapes. CD is what I prefer.