Does anyone here still use cassettes?

[abby normal]

until it bit the dust, i used an old Nak to transcribe onto digital, that was the extent of me playing my old tapes.

 

[Soundfield]

But no-one is doing so, all new cassette decks either have no noise reduction, or have a rudimentary version for playback only which has no settings for B/C/S it's just on or off.

I guess that's because whilst the NR patents may have lapsed, the Dolby product names, logos and trademarks haven't. So even if you go to the expense of building a Dolby B look-a-like circuit into a new bit of kit you can't label it as such or advertise it in any way - clearly pretty pointless from a business perspective.

 

[skywaveTDR]

To answer the initial question yes, I use them often and the reason is I am one that is repairing them and I have many customers that want to buy restored ones from me that is even beyond the supply I have. In addition another Technician I know and meet with regularly repairs Nakamichi decks and so to say there is no one using them is just not accurate at all.

 

[MidiMagic]

But no-one is doing so, all new cassette decks either have no noise reduction, or have a rudimentary version for playback only which has no settings for B/C/S it's just on or off.

It's a moot point though given the only new transport mechanism available is the Tanashin which is dreadful. Doesn't really matter whether it has noise reduction or not, it will still sound awful.

This is because Dolby B is the only format used for commercially sold tapes. Tapes in the others could be had only be recording them yourself.

Also, Dolby C and Dolby S could be played back without much error on a Dolby B player.

Theres an optimist. Well Ive heard of a Tanashin transport now sadly I know what it means...

Im not sure regarding the above about dolby NR
If the patents are expired it would be implemented in the new cassette decks. Why not?

The Dolby C and S circuitry costs a lot more than the Dolby B circuitry.

 

[doity]

Practically all of my music listening is done on cassette, and has been since about 1981. I have a large collection due to this fact and own quite a few ‘audiophile’ cassettes from virtually every label, large and small, that produced them. I like them not only for their fidelity, but for the convenience factor also.

Of course you need to have a decent enough deck and tapes to make it enjoyable and to keep you from straying from the format. If you use a cheap Crosley cassette player you are not going to get the same enjoyment out of it than someone who has let’s say a Nakamichi 1000zxl.

Here is an interesting classical music review of current cassettes on the marketplace some 40 years ago. Look at the prices for the Tudor Guild offerings. $25-30 for the ones dubbed onto the Nakamichi metal tapes. That is like over $70 in today’s money. I have one of the TG tapes and they are real special and extremely hard to find.


https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/I...-IDX/IDX/80s/High-Fidelity-1982-12-IDX-77.pdf

 

[doity]

I think that a lot of the same issues that helped quad become nothing more than a passing fad in the consumers mind, also helped to give the humble cassette tape the same kind of reputation today. The competing formats (SQ, QS, CD4, Discrete) and the lack of good hardware to make it all work right.

Most consumers look back at cassette tapes as mass produced garbage that sounded awful and were prone to unspooling. Which in my experience rarely happened. With the cassette, there was so much terminology that was confusing (Dolby, DBX, tape type, Hx Pro, dual capstan), and most people just wanted to put the cassette in and push a button and have great sound.

Add to the fact that a lot of the tape stock that people either bought as pre-recorded or on blanks, was not really made for great fidelity. There were so many factors involved in making a nice sounding tape, not the least the right recording level matched to whatever tape type that you were using at any given moment.

Most people ‘in the know’ who invested in good gear and knew how to use it had excellent results. Even then, there was a learning curve to all of this which sometimes took a bit of time to master.

 

[doity]

This is because Dolby B is the only format used for commercially sold tapes. Tapes in the others could be had only be recording them yourself.

Also, Dolby C and Dolby S could be played back without much error on a Dolby B player.



The Dolby C and S circuitry costs a lot more than the Dolby B circuitry.

I have a few commercially available tapes on both Dolby C & S. Mostly smaller labels, but still. I believe that a couple of larger labels had some Dolby S offerings near the end of the cassette era.

 

[Guy Robinson]

In the process of selling my BX100 as I haven't used it in ages.

 

[par4ken]

This is because Dolby B is the only format used for commercially sold tapes. Tapes in the others could be had only be recording them yourself.

Also, Dolby C and Dolby S could be played back without much error on a Dolby B player.



The Dolby C and S circuitry costs a lot more than the Dolby B circuitry.

An excellent alternative to Dolby was the "Hush" noise reduction system. It was released rather late in the game but provided the same 10dB improvement in signal to noise as Dolby B, and without any pre-encoding of the input signal. Rocktron for one produced a lot of equipment using it. My Rocktron automotive Circle Surround decoder has Hush NR built in. It was obviously included because cassettes were still the predominant music source at that time. It's rather cool that you can switch it in and out on a quiet source such as FM radio or CD and hear no difference in sound quality, try that with Dolby B which requires carefully calibrated record and playback levels to avoid an audible reduction in treble response. I built myself a four channel version but seldom used it, now with digital techniques you can easily apply noise reduction via software.

Another lesser known noise reduction system was Sanyo SuperD. I was similar to DBX but worked in two bands. I used it a bit with my reel to reel. It came with a demonstration cassette.

 

[jefe1]

JVC also had their own noise reduction system on their cassette decks as I recall going from memory. Seemed to work like Dolby B

 

[par4ken]

JVC also had their own noise reduction system on their cassette decks as I recall going from memory. Seemed to work like Dolby B

Yes it was called ANRS (Automatic Noise Reduction System). It was used in the CD-4 system for as well to reduce noise of the difference signals.

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

I haven’t had a cassette player in so many years that I cannot remember when I got rid of it. I always had one or two cassette players around along with portable devices.

In May of 2009, while packing for a major relocation move from Seattle to Southern California, I disposed a lot of cassette tapes, most of them, pre-recorded from tapes I used to do for nightclubs in the area that would play them on the nights they didn’t have DJ’s (only a few I got back) and others I made for personal use. The cassettes I purchased from artists / songs I liked, I sold off to the used stores that would take them. Anyway, I ended up saving a few I didn’t want to give or throw away that I still have.

 

[doity]

Here are the specs of the top cassette deck I have in my collection. I guarantee that with good source material that I can make a cassette copy that is virtually indistinguishable from the original source:


Tape Type: type I, CrO2, Metal

Noise Reduction: B, C, DBX

Frequency Response: 20Hz to 22kHz (Metal tape)

Signal to Noise Ratio: 90dB (DBX)

Wow and Flutter: 0.03%



Anyone who says that the cassette format is “low fi” really doesn’t know what they are talking about......or just never used or heard good equipment.

 

[humprof]

About once a year I'll fire up one of my two decks (both mid- to high-end Denons, one with Dolby B & C, another with Dolby S) and dig something out of the boxes full of home-recorded tapes taking up shelf space in the garage. In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I made dozens of mixtapes and dancetapes and recorded tons of LPs and CDs borrowed from friends and/or from the library. And for at least twenty years I relied on cassettes exclusively for the car. Bought very few prerecorded cassettes, except for some African music in the 80s and 90s. (For a long time, cassette was by far and away the preferred medium throughout Africa.) Some of my tapes suffer from the inevitable HF dropout, but many still sound great.

I have an old friend who's a cassette enthusiast, and I think he belongs to at least one XenForo forum of fellow enthusiasts. (I gather many of them are gearheads and vintage computer and/or electronics nerds.) About a month ago NPR's Radiolab podcast started a mini-series on the cassette that I'm eager to hear:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/projects/mixtape

 

[jefe1]

I see dead people.
I see cassettes.

 

[hobie1dog]

dubbed my first one today to a cd-rw deck, now 100 more to go through

 

[doity]

This is my dream deck. All 40 pounds of it .

 

[cbmmm3]

This is my dream deck. All 40 pounds of it .


View attachment 74377

I had one of these. Nice deck. But big and cumbersome. At the end of the day, I sold it as I had ( still have ) some Naks - a Dragon, a CR-7A and a ZX-9.
The 1000ZXL did not make the SAL ( spouse approval list ) . hrumph

 

[doity]

I had one of these. Nice deck. But big and cumbersome. At the end of the day, I sold it as I had ( still have ) some Naks - a Dragon, a CR-7A and a ZX-9.
The 1000ZXL did not make the SAL ( spouse approval list ) . hrumph

Now that is a man with good tastes! Or a big wallet......one of the two . Did you by chance have any of those demo tapes that came with the 1000ZXL? I had a couple of them at one time. They were recorded over in Japan and if I remember we’re done by a Japanese musician in the Nakamichi studios. Then they were dubbed in real-time to a 1000ZXL and included with the decks. Or at least that was my recollection. Those tapes were excellent and darn near CD quality.

 

[par4ken]

I had one of these. Nice deck. But big and cumbersome. At the end of the day, I sold it as I had ( still have ) some Naks - a Dragon, a CR-7A and a ZX-9.
The 1000ZXL did not make the SAL ( spouse approval list ) . hrumph

Time for a new spouse!