It's CRAZY that Cassettes Might be the FUTURE of Hifi!!!
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2024
- the FIIO CP13 cassette player may be the future of hifi. Looks like there is stock on amazon
Get them while you can amzn.to/3Qnqdsd (affiliate)
Check out the wonderful starspickeraudio.net for stock too! - Наука та технологія
Always so many haterz that come out in droves when talking about audio gear and the retro products of old...everyone who is any audiophile at all knows the cons of tape decks, walkmans, etc.... of coarse it will have flutters, of course it will not sound "hi fidelity" we ALL already know that....we are not ignorant, we are how ever nostalgic, forever young and chasing that reconnect that will bring back that Awesome emotion that we felt connecting with the music in out time, Randy hit the nail on the head on this one and is 100% correct with the content on the video....Great Job Mr. RANDY!!!
I use cassettes, I have a TEAC W-1200 and make LP recordings and mixtapes from streaming. I listen to cassette everyday......I describe the cassette sound as a "Melancholy dystopian depression filter with a blackhole background doom reduction cancelation"
Sounds about right. 🤘🏼
I had the Teac A-150 and loved it. Nothing special but it was very well-built
I have also this item but I'm not satisfy with it. I record a lot of cassettes with it but I had problems... Meanwhile I enjoy to listen to cassettes... I have more than 500 cassettes at this time
@mireillepinzuti183 the W-1200 needs regular demagnatizing with recording. And it does better with different input gain....try to keep recording level under 6....but good tapes make most difference....it's playback is always fantastic.
Def Leppard, Pyromania on cassette brings back so many memories
Former hoarders are now screaming, "Argh, I shouldn't have thrown away all my audio cassette tapes. I *knew* I'd need them someday!"
It's not hoarding, it's collecting!
It's only collecting if you don't play them. 😁
And true hoarders, who still have them, smiles ... See, I'm smiling! :-)
I’m glad I kept all of mine. I never really stopped listening to tapes.
The only thing I liked about cassettes was that I could record a copy of my favorite records to listen to away from home and not care if they got damaged or lost. There were also a few local/independent bands that I could only listen to on cassette, and some live recordings that were traded. Once digital recordings became commonplace, I no longer saw the need for them. I don't miss them at all.
I love your enthusiasm cheapaudioman but I am glad my cassette times are over.
Me too
Why would anyone want to go back to obsolete tech? It's obsolete for a reason
I binned my tspes and decision in the mid 90's and never looked back. Cds are still the hard copy king.
1992 I listened to a CD with headphones. Rejected tapes and vinyl forever since after hearing that quality. Return to tapes and vinyl is incomprehensible.
Haha, that opinion dates us. And I share it completely. The obsession with vinyl continues to perplex me. It used to be that the pursuit of "audiophile" quality was as little noise, hiss, pops, wow and flutter as possible. Now, it's kinda the opposite, in specific and inconsistent ways .... :)
@@WSS_the_OG I first saw CD in 84 at a local electronics retailer (and was in awe when that tray slid out) so maybe I'm even older. While there are fantastic versions of analog and digital systems, I suggest finding a way to fairly A/B a good vinyl set up with a stream or CD. There are pros and cons to both and they are NOT the same. For SOME, analog simply sounds "better".
You got used to BSR-level vinyl playback. Even a U-Turn Orbit Plus or Fluance RT-85 will exceed your expectations.
@@WSS_the_OGThe comeback of Vynil and Cassettes are because of streaming being compressed to hell, The Loudness Wars in digital land, and streaming being less consistent than the radio for track retention.
I also think the comeback is mostly among young people who grew up with CDs and wanted a bit of a tea ceremony.
You will also have people saying that vinyl masters use more dynamic range, but that's more true for music released since the 90s and the beginning of mixing for car stereos on digital media.
Hey there, Yes Vinyl is far from perfect, but what I like about is the character vinyl has, the slight crackle of dust or an occasional pop, to me is all part of the experience, like pulling the vinyl from its sleeve and actually touching the music source (carefully) and placing it on the turn table running a dust brush across it and slowly lowering the needle down, vinyl has a warmth & depth to the sound. also looking at the artwork on the album cover and reading the lyrics from the sleeve all adds to the experience of listening to vinyl. I love it. But I also stream and listen to CDs and now cassettes. I like it all, because I love music in all its forms!
Ooooh, I can listen to my Grandpa's old Amway sales tactic tapes with that!
LOL I just found a few cases of old Amway tapes in storage! I thought I'd dumped them all but in hindsight I actually wish I'd kept them. There's some great mindset education on some of those tapes that shaped my life for the better.
amway (or maybe it was just some locals) used to also sell a cassette player with a speed knob. Crsnk it up and get thru those sessions in half the time!
I found an entire case full of some sort of religious sermons at the Goodwill bins. I kept the transport cases but now I'm thinking maybe I should have kept the sermons as well 🙂
Sorry to say this. As an owner of hundreds of cassettes, their main function was creating mix tapes for yourself and then sharing with friends.
I once created an excellent tape and took it with me on vacation to a small Greek island. The owner of one of the bars asked to borrow my tape.
For the remainder of my vacation my tape was played in every bar and restaurant in the town.
Also great for playing music in the car.
I would buy the music on CD and tape it to make it mobile (before many cars had CD players).
They were great.
But killed by MP3s.
Reminds me of a holiday I had. The car cassette would not eject but was able to rewind and play again. A whole week of having to listen to Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark (OMD). I didn't like it to begin with.
Yes, the power of the mix tape! Make one for your girlfriend to show her how much you care. Not sure why more people don't mention this. It was a huge thing. Once you mastered the art of dubbing a song from another tape to the mix or the CD track to the mix you were a DJ. Come on, admit it, it was fun!!
@@mattupload5808 totally!! My wife still references the mix tapes I sent her 30+ years ago
Huge thanks for the shoutout Randy! We were absolutely thrilled to hear you mention us and even happier to have been able to provide you with the FiiO CP13.
We loved hearing about your audio journey and how the casette player sparked your passion. It's stories like yours that make what we do so rewarding.
We're big fans of your channel here at Stars Picker. You have a fantastic way of explaining complex audio topics in a way that's engaging and informative for everyone, from beginners to seasoned audiophiles.
Thanks again for the kind words, Cheapaudioman. We wish you all the best in your continued audio explorations!
Sincerely,
The Team at Stars Picker Audio
P.S. If there's ever anything else you need on your audiophile journey, don't hesitate to reach out! We're always happy to help.
This takes me back to being 16 and loving my Sony Sports Walkman while also being exasperated by it. Batteries never seemed to last very long and there always seemed to be a loose wire in the headphones which would stop sound in one ear for a few seconds. The joy of being able to listen to music on the go though was priceless, happily walking to College with The Pogues or The Smiths or The Cure blaring in my ears. Bliss.
Only old Audio format l wish had lasted was the Mini disc.
Mini discs were good protected in plastic so didn't get scratched like cds.
Could make lots of play lists copied from cds onto mini discs
I'm an MD Enthusiast, and still record "mix tapes" from Tidal for my end-of-the-world back-up collection of music. With 11 different players, I'm sure to have music until after I'm consumed by radioactivity.
@@ADREISTER I've had a few Sony decks crap out on me in the last 10 years and I had my last MD walkman stop working a few months back. I'm a fan of MD but the equipment is getting a lil' long in the tooth. I have 1 more Sony deck that I have to shake the internal transformer around to get it to work. She ain't gonna be around much longer.
@johnpajestka5022 my MD car deck that I purchased in 2002 and used for 4 years, still works today.
Word. I don’t think I’ll ever bother with anything portable as it relates to physical media when I can just use streaming, but I will make an exception for MD because I missed out on it during the couple of weeks it was actually almost A Thing here
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 It was a really cool format in the 90s. Had a deck in my car back in 96. Perfect portable digital format pre-mp3 player.
For me... a cassette is nothing more than an inconvenience of my youth. My best memory of music was the day I finally received my Discman D-7 and was forever freed of the hell induced torture of terrible cassette audio. No more devices eating strands of tape, scotch tape repairs, and pens twirling gears to refeed the monster.... just to be rewarded with sound that only a deaf person could enjoy. NO MORE!
I clearly remember walking to school with my discman for the first time. I was listening to REM's Green album with a smile that went from ear to ear. Real music clarity on the move. I was amazed! Sure.... the little magical box had little to no dsp. But I proudly and carefully held that discman out in front of me like carrying my first born child. I knew then, I was done with cassettes forever.
Discman's were so cool. I also really liked mini disc players while they were relevant.
If your tape players ate tape that means you didn't take care of them or even care actually. If you clean your machines they last and won't eat tapes. I have 50 year old tapes of Original Pressing LPs that blow away any digital stream or CD version you can get today. Especially when played on my Nakamichi tape deck.
@@AudioGuyBrianDragon?
I get it, but those discmans skipped and cds got scratched and you had to have a car cd player or some sort of contraption to play the cd. So it ended up costing a fortune to "get modern" and you probably threw away all your cassettes that are actually worth something nowadays.
I’ve got a lot of cassettes I recorded between 1975 and 1985 (approximately) recorded on a H/K CD-301 with Dolby C HX Pro on Metal tape and the sound is still amazing. Very, very few people can tell if I’m playing the cd or the cassette. Back then I would buy the album and immediately record it so I could use it in the car and play the whole album without having to get up and turn the record over. My tapes were superior to store bought cassettes. H/K decks were second only to the top two Nakamichi units and even then it was very close.
Same here, exactly, except for my equipment. I recorded my brand new vinyl albums, the day I bought them, to cassette tape using, like you, Dolby C & HX Pro on an NAD cassette deck. Most of the cassette tapes were the better quality, Maxell XLII-S, or TDK SA. Dolby C w/HX Pro was really good at reducing tape hiss and preserving highs.
My tape decks (two I owned before transitioning to CD's were a Pioneer, mid '70's, and the NAD 6155)
I ordered a red FiiO CP13 yesterday. I am so looking forward to hearing some "memory lane" tunes and playlists.
My two cassette decks never ate tapes, but the ones in cars sure did.
I had an AIWA 36 years ago that I can remember perfectly. Just a few millimeters bigger than a cassette, smaller than this FIIO. With Dolby B and C, it sounded really great.
Randy, the fact that you traveled across seas to give us this awesome video. It's completely worth it. Great job! Keep it up
I still have the original Sony Walkman WM-1 and I remember how terrific it felt to walk around listening to music. Glad I didn't get rid of it or a case full of 80's and 90's cassettes. Now I have to go dig them out!
Hopefully those 30 year old tapes haven’t self destructed! 😊
The best cassette player is the one from the 80s you find in a bin and put a new belt in.
Does it come with a complementary pencil?
pencils sold separately.
😆 🤘🏼
I found a pencil outside one day last week and I picked it up and kept it. Now I know why!!
The pencil world was prepared for the return of cassette tapes. Which proves: there is a massive conspiracy! Or which proves: there is a glitch in the space-time-continuum, and the timelines for audio and for writing instruments are not synchronous. Or which proves: as nobody writes with pencils any more, they had to bring back the cassette tape to have again a purpose for pencils. Or which proves: time moves in a circle (or a spiral): when things are old enough, they are new again. And: the cassette player is in reality a time-machine: even if you only look at it, you are back in a long-forgotten trauma or happiness (or both simultanously: bittersweet memories). Also a fantastic conversation starter: go to some bar with your cassette player, and you will be the center of attraction and discussion and emotions ...
But: great idea. A branded pencil - maybe personalized. And sold as "tape-ready" / Sony-compatible / antimagnetic / hifi-proof / ...
@@jensbomholt4529
This. 🤘🏼
All I have to say is whyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!! Tapes suck!!!! We struggled so long to be free of them.
we also struggled very hard to get out of the woods and caves and here we are waiting to be on vacation to go camping on the woods and explore some caves.
Because they're nostalgic and tactile. Not because they're better. Just yesterday I lent my friend my new OMD cassette (which came in a bundle with LP and CD), which I'd never actually played.
@@1Blackstaffer An VW Bug is nostalgic as well, but they are truly awful things to drive and dead and gone for a reason (0 crash protection aside)
Ikr!!! I always hated cassettes!!
I’m having a flashback to listening to welcome to the pleasure dome on my Walkman in the early 80s on a bus… made me smile
Well done Randy. All that old school vibe. I’m here for it.
1980. I grab a wad of cash at the age of 9 and run to the local music store in Europe. I bought the first original and still the best Sony tape player to ever have been built - Sony TPS-L2. It was ridiculous over engineered. Had separate volume control for each side of the headphone, built like a tank, played metal tapes. I regret loosing it, misusing it. There never was or will ever be such a great walkman
There's a turn in the road, just when one can first see the Rockpile. An Army unit was crossing our Marine unit. An Army dude was resting by the road side and playing "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" On an early portable (DUH) cassette player. I asked him- "who's that?" This was 1967 -ish.
Hey , I'm a old school 80s metal head, I still have one of my cassette collections I think this was the second collection I started first one being trashed by girlfriends that see no value in keeping things in good condition and organized . So my #2 collection I let no one touch but me ( lol ) and so I still have it today in excellent condition . My vintage Denon audiofile grade cassette player recently went into the shop for a complete tuneup and cleaning new belts as well . I was so excited to get it back and jam out , it sounds awesome I have three different types of noise control including Dolby B & C so hiss and other noise is almost not even audible. I recently upgraded all my speakers thanks to your reviews I have the fluance signature series bookshelf speakers on the front channels and the Numi BS 5s on the rear channels , I have 70 watts a channel thanks to my Denon AVR 1000 .And two subs one 10 inch jamo 100 watts and a 8 inch polk with i believed 100 watts also .All this in my living room which is about 25x12 so it sounds incredible thanks to you . I also have the fluance RT 81 elite turntable which I love also thanks to you 😁
Oh joy oh boy! A whole generation is about to rediscover the horror of tape hiss.
I've owned thousands of dollars in stereo equipment in my life. During the vintage years, I owned a Phase Linear system and sold my Pioneer system to help pay for it. You know what I did not include in my system? A cassette player. When I did own a cassette player, I was almost forced to pay 600 dollars (in 1977 money) for a DBX noise reduction unit. It was the most effective method of masking tape hiss available. Unfortunately, this masking came at the expense of covering some of the original music. Early form of compression, I am guessing...or the same outcome.
So nope...not today. Not ever. Cassettes need to stay in the museums. But I'm glad you found joy in it Randy. Just my opinion.
Agreed. And remember the days of wondering if the tape head was either dirty or magnetized? Always worrying that each time you played a tape, you degraded its sound quality even further? Screw it :D
Not to mention a lot of decks are a PITA to repair😅
Hiss, warble/wobble, stretch, break, trim, tape, ... 😬
I remember seeing remains of tangled tapes and messed up cassettes along the side of certain roads. That's one reason CD's where adopted quickly (they didn't jam).
I just think of it now as training for VCR maintenance that would come in the future.
just got one, and I love it..
As a stereo nut from way back, I remember getting my first quality stereo component. It was a Marantz 5020 cassette deck. Those huge blue and red meters, the sliders and controlls, it looked and sounded amazing to me. I recorded all my music from records onto TDK or Maxell tape. Using Dolby it sounded almost as good as a record. Eventually I bought a Teac V2rx 3 head deck with DBX encoding. Sounded almost as good as a CD. Still have the Teac (needs belts). I also have a bunch of cassettes. Had a Sony cassette Walkman and it was pretty good...all that aside, I will never go back to cassettes. Like the 8-track that ship has sailed. I still listen to CD's and occasionally a record. I admit I'm spoiled with an old 80gig I-pod and streaming. Being able to have 10,000 songs in my pocket without needing the internet or any other tech is nice. No longer the huge box of cassettes or CD's in my car. I'm old, but like new technology when it is actually better.
I sold my 5220 deck a few years back. Those things r' going for over a grand now on eBay.
I had the Technics deck with Dbx encoding. It was cool until it stopped working. A cool audio day in my youth would be the day the 10 pack of Maxwell chrome tape arrived from the camera/audio place in New York.
I grew up listening to cassette tapes! When I heard my first CD, I was forever done with cassettes! I couldn't stand all of the imperfections in sound that cassettes offered! The CD is still my choice of physical media to this day along with bluray audio!
hang on, I thought April Fool's was a month ago!
As John McEnroe once said: you can NOT be serious. They never sounded good and they never will.
When I bought my first car, the guy selling said, "The audio system is worth a few thousand itself." I told him, I didn't need an audio system. Take it out, just put the original radio." He sold the car for three thousand with the audio system. I grew up buying the best earbuds. That's what I knew. After driving for a while, I turned on the radio and was blown away by how the full-sized speaker sounded. It was like feeling the music with my whole body. I told everyone how good the large speakers were. They said, "Okay Boomer." Dude, you can see me. I'm only twenty-five. Earbuds are expensive junk that break after a while. It's the same with CDs. I used to buy all my music on CDs. Streaming wasn't a thing yet. Then the companies stop supporting CDs. Everyone streamed music or bought vinyl. streaming cheats the artist and vinyl is a joke. The strange thing is, I never owned a CD player, except for the one in my car. I used to buy a CD and burn a copy in case I lost the original. I made a master file of my music on my computer. From the computer, I load my MP3 player. Later, I just loaded music into my phone. When my computer finally died, I lost my files. I dropped my phone in the rain once. Killed my files. Lost my phone another time. Bye-bye music. My CDs are still fine. CDs sound the best and hold up longer than vinyl. The sound is superior. Streaming doesn't pay the artist. if I buy a CD, at least I know the artist is getting paid. F all over media.
Not sure if anyone has ever felt an audio orgasm, but wow. I purchased an old set of Bose TriPort Headphones on Amazon, popped in my Moody Blues (Other Side of Life Cassette) and jacked into my FIIO CP13. OMFG. I never experienced such an amazing distribution of sound from my all-time favorite band on a cassette player. This wouldn’t have been possible without the FIIO and Bose headset. Strike me for whatever you want, but even my high-end phones don’t produce this amazing sound. To much base, etc. … Sometimes old school is still the best.
Your enthusiasm is great. I understand the nostalgia. The cassette is dead. The 80s are gone. How we store and listen to music has evolved and improved.
Ya …. That’s a no for me…. I threw out my cassettes in the 90’s and replaced them with cd’s which are in my storage locker collecting dust.
I know the old school audiophiles are gonna go on and on about analog formats but I’m from then being a year older then Randy and I didn’t like them then. (Too much noise)
I love hi-res digital streaming now a days and I’ll stay there in my happy convenient place and enjoy crystal clear playback.
✌️
Can’t wait to see a really good tape mechanism and some new old tech, such as type 2 DBX NR, appearing in the market. Cassette is hands down the best format ever
A much improved drive system to reduce Wow & Flutter and a sturdy cassette well with a dbx system or Dolby S. Add an HDMI input and output with USB as well as DC configured amps and it would be updated and ready for the future.
Forty-plus years ago I wanted to check out a Dixie Dregs album I'd heard good things about. I wanted the vinyl (we just called them records then) but the local record store only had it in stock on cassette. I was apprehensive about buying a pre-recoded cassette, since those were crap in my experience, but the sales guy talked me into buying it, claimimg it was a high-quality product. I succumbed to temptation and handed over my hard-earned cash. That cassette started sounding like trash after just a few playings. Complete garbage.
I still have 4 almost full wall racks of cassettes but they're mostly stuff I recorded myself on XLII''s or SA90s.
Being nostalgic about cassettes is like romanticizing using an outhouse, complete with the poop pyramid and accompanying stench. Nope, I have clean indoor plumbing now.
The real thrill for us old music heads came circa 1969 when cassettes first became stable enough to be used for music! 😮
I still have a Toshiba walkman with auto-reverse (no longer working), 4-band equalizer, AM FM radio tuner. Also an Aiwa walkman slightly larger than a cassette, auto-reverse, 4- or 5-band equalizer, AM FM presetable channels, compatible with both regular and rechargeable batteries, came with detachable stereo microphone for recording, Dolby A B noise reduction, etc. Also have a few blank cassettes. And a tone of cassettes full of recorded songs from radio back in the early 80's when I was in highschool.
I bought the Toshiba cassette player w/FM adapter in 1981. I was the coolest dude around.
one of my buddies had a Toshiba that no kidding... had an fm module that was the size of a cassette and you'd remove it to put in the cassette. was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I think it was a Toshiba. it was given to him by his brother and I think that thing was $400 plus in 1990. it was a marvel of engineering too.
The ONLY reason tapes are better than CDs is that when theyre portable, they dont skip. Remember when you could tell the quality of a CD player by the length of their anti-skip protection?
I just picked up the Alesis Elevate 5 MKII for $109 on amazon. Do you think that was a good deal?
pre-recorded tapes like these were normally recorded with Dolby B noise reduction. Playing it on a tapedeck without dolby B actually increases the hiss by a lot. Because that is how the algorithm worked.
What about nostalgia? I have a drawer full of mix tapes from my college days. I love to drift back to my eighties college days
Loved the video and reminiscing about the good old days, however I don’t have the patience to forward a tape to get to the next track anymore 😅
Analog tape? And cassette, the worse music media since the wax cylinder. Back to degradation from plays, head demagnetizing, transport problems, broken tape, head alignment, mechanical movement, fast forwarding, rewinding. Just doesn't get any worse.
I know... isn't it awesome!
You never owned a nakamichi dragon or a pioneer elite then. Because properly recorded cassettes on high end equipment is very fat sounding.
Cassettes aren't the worst. Hold my 8-track.
Bet you used a crappy boombox to record off of back in the day. Feed a decent deck a good source, set your bias and levels, sprinkle in some Dolby and you'd be amazed what you get on playback.
@@cheapaudioman At least do the format justice. This thing is hot garbage. You should do a video with a decent deck. A lil' how to on ol' school home recording. See what kind of quality you get out of tapes. Is it worth it to get a tape deck in 2024? Stick around to find out!
Remembers spinning unreeled cassette on a pencil
Grab a cup of coffie and sit back for some content.
Cassettes will always suck as to their audio.
Minidisc should be made again. In its HD format it were loss less. Cassettes sucked, but i love them.
I'd be all for a MIniDisc format that supports lossless files. Even better if I could drag FLAC files over and it just plays it.
It's all in the equipment used. I run a Schiit Modi into my cassette deck to record lossless. Sounds better than a minidisc using my Sony deck. All I have is the analog outs on the minidisc deck though. 24 year old DAC not so good in it. If I had a minidisc deck with optical outs sure it sounds sound just as good or better. Regardless, tape can sound really good with a good source.
@@bobgoat158 Platinum MD (a modern replacement for Sony Soundstage) can actually read FLAC and write losslessly direct to Hi-MD (assuming you have the Hi-MD recorder and disc). I was lucky to get both the device and a couple of Hi-MD discs at reasonable prices. People used Hi-MD to record bootlegs, there's still a Cranberries concert on one of them.
Minidisc were pretty good. I wish they would caught up more. They were small and protected, and the same quality than a cd.
@@bobgoat158 You can. You just have to pay $300 to $1000 for a Hi-MD walkman and $50 a pop for a used Hi-MD disc and you're all set.
i get it. Not everyone does. No, this won't replace your music library. No, you don't need to find that brown 'briefcase" tape carrier to carry your tapes, but it's cheap(!) i assume, and I get the nostalgia. I'd love to have a rotary phone in the house right about now.
Tapes aren't for everyone but I like still having them around for the sake of nostalgia. Mainly I keep the blank ones around, and I re-created some of the cassette recordings I remember from my childhood. Later on, it was easy to bring a tape deck to a concert venue and directly record my friends' band by miking the room. I made the mistake of throwing away a lot of my old cassettes, but now I have made good on that by re-buying many of them, and I plan on keeping some cassettes around (even if in storage) for the rest of my life.
Team Cassette here.
I have over 200 cassettes from 90s rave recordings. I got them out of storage and my old Pioneer deck, made me realise how I miss physical formats. Touchy feely of the cassette, the designs all gone. Also the engineering that went into the high end decks was amazing. I remember one AA battery would only last a few hours in a walkman, they eventually got that up to 15+ hours. Amazing engineering we rarely see these days with fewer restrictions.
I cant stop buying cassettes!!! Love it!
I still have my Sony Walkman with Dolby B switch and it works great.
Lunch looks awesome!!! I want. :)
When I was young I had a Panasonic RQ-SX35. Those were the times!
Are you capable of recording the output of that that device so we can hear what's up too?
Sony Walkman Professional D6C, still going strong, beautiful recordings, quality audio, an amazing piece of equipment, the way the cassette slides in and the lid snaps shut, mmmm, almost edible. Good audio technology will never die , as with all fine things from the past : )
Cassettes where great, in the same way lanterns where great before the light bulb.
You have to get Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 & 2 so cool.
Now I have to wait for Nakamichi to re-release the Dragon.
So, when are we going to find your mix tapes for sale in the store?
far out! one time i went to wall drug and all i got was a bumper sticker! lemons into lemonade and all that. Thanks for the great video!
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug
funny how im watching this while prepping my home made tape player for a trip
I still have my high(‘sh)-end duel cassette deck from the late 80s. I want to say it’s an Aiwa but I’m not certain; it’s buried in my house somewhere. Anyways it had the bias adjustment for regular, chrome or metal tapes. It also could record in “Dolby HX Pro” which seemed to liven up the mix, added fidelity I guess. It also has Dolby B, C, and S noise reduction as well as a NR called dbx which needed to be played back in a unit that had dbx to sound proper. Worked very well on my unit yet I had little use because at home I’d listen to CDs or radio. I used the tape deck to record CDs onto high quality cassettes to play back in my car which sounded superb, at least to me as a 20-something. CD players in cars then were new, expensive, and skipped too easily. I was particularly proud of my Black Sabboth “We Sold our Soul for Rock ‘N’ Roll” and The Doors greatest hits tapes. The bass line on Sabboth Bloody Sabboth and the entirety of When the Music’s Over on those tapes in my then new ‘90 Pontiac Grand Am on that Delco system was phenomenal. A buddy remarked that was the best he had ever heard recorded music. That said, I have no plans to resurrect my tape deck or go back to listen to cassettes. I stream hi-res(Amazon) and have a collection of CD, HDCD, SACD, DVD-Audio, Blu~ray and vinyl. Yet for those who want to hear tapes I’m glad such a product is made.
Finally a voice of reason amidst all the noise of mocking and moaning and complaining. I personally hate Internet streaming and don't use it at all. I rip my CDs/DVDs to FLAC and stream them from the home NAS. And I still love listening to physical media from time to time, just to remember how it was back in the day. Sold all of my vinyls a long time ago, unfortunately. I'm a Sgt. Pepper baby, btw.
I know that "Grand Am". I'm a child of the eighties. They did come with a crazy good AC Delco system from the factory. Experienced The Doors the end for the first time on that system. It was mind blowing. Cassette based as well.
I’m an ex audiophile for 53 years I know it’s sad but I’ve owned 40 cassette decks hifi seperates. I have moved on and moved with the times. Yet somehow I wish we had what I called mechanical ways to play music again apart from cd and vinyl. I think maybe they should come back but modernised. This would be the perfect time for Sony or Yamaha or nakamichi to remake them. I have a soft spot cassette decks.
Cannot forget the mix tapes we used to play, recorded from the radio. I won't be going back to tapes though. I had a JVC box around 1978, cost 100 pounds sterling back in the UK, was a chunk of money for teenage me.
i recently started collecting cassette tapes after collecting minidiscs and cds for 4 years.
if you're still searching for new casettes and are interested in lesser known metal bands i'd suggest the shops from smaller labels like no remorse records, darkness shall rise, high roller records, cruz del sur, dying victims records or van records, i found some pretty interesting, limited stuff there from bands like King Diamond, Celtic Frost, Blind Guardian, Eternal Champion and other great bands.
I still have all my cassettes. My first purchase as a 13 year old kid in 1995 with allowance and Xmas money was an NAD 616 Cassette deck. It's not in my system currently. It works as good as it did when it came home from the dealership. The dealership has been done since 2000.
I threw out all my cassettes in 1985 when my Technics cassette player recorder started eating them.
Just found your channel and it's so interesting!
Hey Randy does this thing have Dolby noise reduction?
I loved this video. It is so true all that you said. I live for the tactile part of my music. I have been playing my cassettes now again for about 2 years and if you really want to get into it I recommend mini disc and I have been loving that. Embrace your music I say!
Pardon me, I know this is off topic but i need your help guys... I bought the Edifier R1855DB to play games on pc, so would you suggest me something to pair with it or are these speakers good enough by their own? Thank you very much!
Nice! I still have Panasonic RX-SA79, and it still works great, I miss cassettes as well
Hi Randy, Thank you for coming and giving a talk at the Hifi show in Penang. I was there and saw your talk. It must be nerve wracking to be jet lagged in a unfamiliar place giving a talk but you were great. Also loved seeing you try nasi kandar and noodles. This is only the 2nd Hifi show in Penang and your presence really upped the star power of the event for me, Thank you.
was such a pleasure. Wonderful city and people. Wonderful experience.
Ok I’m busting out my Cheech & Chong tapes tonight and firing up my deck. Hope the belts are functional! Thanks Randy👍
Great vid!
Last night I opened (still in shrink wrap) Donald Fagen’s “Kamakiriad”. It’s a “digalog” from Warner.
Sounds great! I just had my 1990 Luxman K351 cassette deck totally restored. Has Dolby B & C and HX Pro. The head can be reversed on the fly and it will search for gaps between tracks too.
Also had my 1979 Pioneer CT-F950 deck restored 2 months ago.
I use a 300B single ended triode (8-watt) tube amp and it really improves the sound 👍👍
Fun video my friend. You nailed it. It is about emotion. The music should transcend the play back medium. Safe travels home.
Weird, wild stuff!
The slim AIWA walkmans with BBE and DSL had the best crispiest sound. It beat the Sony's, Panasonic of the same. Remember listening to Spyrogyra, Everette Harp, Norman Brown, Alex Bugnon, Marion Meadows,..the smoothjazz cats of the late 80's and 90's for hours on them...spellbound!
WOW! Mind blown 🤯... The fact that's even made is a suprise. But I'm old enough to have had an 8-track collection for portable music. I was depressed when they were phased out in favor of cassettes. But I transitioned and sold off my 8-tracks. Enjoyed my metal cassette recordings fidelity for the time. Then of course the industry pushed the transition to CD's. Wish I had the money I spent on the different mediums back now. I've kept my extensive CD collection though thank goodness 😅
Very cool! I've still got cases of old mixed tapes as well as a couple Walkmans and Discmans from the early 80s. I just pulled the Discman out of storage so my 12yr daughter can listen to her newly acquired Metallica Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets CDs. I was a proud papa when she brought them home after a day of shipping with one of her schoolmates. I think I still have some sealed Maxell XLII-S and XLI-S and TDK cassettes too. As for that Plant album, I still have it on vinyl but need to buy another turntable.
The great thing about cassette was that it encouraged you listen to the the whole album.. rather then skip tracks.
exactly
I had a high quality Aiwa "walkman". It had Dolby B noise reduction, and could be set for regular or chrome tapes. In case ou didn't know, Those pre-recored tapes will sound like you described them because they are encoded in Dolby B and need to be decoded to get the full dynamic range of the music.
I am glad you are enjoying your cassette player. I enjoyed cassettes in the 70's and 80's because it allowed me to take music with me. However, I never like cassettes because they didn't hold their fidelity, I was always having to rerecord music because the sound quality didn't last. I never bought prerecorded cassettes tapes, I recorded my tapes from album because they (the album) lasted. I even a Nak tape deck. I always recorded with Dolby sound processing to reduce the noise also. I celebrated the CD because it was a better portable media. So, I can't get excited by cassette players and tapes, I am happy that you can.
Shame it's made with cheap, generic parts. You'd be much better off getting a refurbished audiophile grade cassette player or even an old refurb Sony walkman.
...and that is EXACTLY why I can't even CONSIDER getting a new cassette player. Because I'll start thinking about the cheap parts in modern players, and then I'll start looking at old players, and then I'll start comparing, and then the price I set for myself will start to creep up, and then I'll realize I don't even know what I'm looking for anyway, and then I'll look up at the clock and realize it's 3am and I've spent FIVE HOURS comparing players I know nothing about, and that I almost just paid 800 REAL DOLLARS for a vintage refurbished Sony TPS-L2 (whatever THAT is) when I haven't even STARTED saving for my kids' college, and then I'll start crying. Again. So NO THANK YOU, cassette players...
Naaa I’m good mate. You fill ya boots though sunshine…. All that hiss, stretching….reeling it all back in with a pencil when the mechanism malfunctions……
I’ve seen some serious temper tantrums when tapes get chewed up, in fact a friend of my Dads once ripped a brand new Pioneer tape player straight out of the dashboard of his truck and beat it with a hammer screaming “ f****ing thing just chewed up me best Slim Whitman tape” 😂
Yeah- sure he did.
I still have my Sony Walkman plus my akai beta Hi-Fi tape player. Their great memories and somewhere there's about 500 tapes in cassette in cool storage. I can remember making copies from my newest albums to cassette so I didn't wear out my albums. Away from the first release of the Beatles to ZZ top and the Allen Parsons project on vinyl glory.
The problems with 30 year old cassettes is that the tape WILL BREAK at some point.
I have over 1,000 Maxell and TDK blanks. Some 40 to 50 years old. I have good equipment to play and record them with. None have ever snapped or been eaten.
I still have a few hundred cassettes in my collection from the 80's - 90's. Even though I have a studio deck, I rarely listen to them. Vinyl sounds much better.
I have some portables from back in the day, restored and working, as well as three NOS AIWAs of later vintage and real nice quality. Three-head decks in the home stack to make tapes. FWIW Ebay is a good source of new vintage/NOS tapes.
Interestingly I bought my first Walkman at the Hong Kong airport back in 1983... the black and gold Sony. Mmmmm good.
Thanks as always and safe travels.
Edit PS... Once you get home try that thing with a pair of "real" headphones... it'll blow you away. Mine have no problem driving a pair of AKG/similar.
I use all my sources including cassette. I like the sound of tapes. Those who don’t simply don’t have a good player and / or tapes
I just got the clear one ordered I’m so excited I have 100s of cassettes and I have a recorder and blank cassettes so I’m ready.
Now and Zen was one of the first CDs I ever bought. It was also the very first DDD recording ever. Digital from start to finish.
BTW, I would never go back to tape when I can carry thousands of albums with me and don't even have to use a forklift.
Interesting. I bought Flim & The BB's CD Tricycle back in 1983, and it was the first non-classical fully digital CD to be released. Came with a warning about the incredibly low noise floor and to not turn it up too loud since it might cause speaker damage. The first track comes in quietly and then hits with a punch.
@@ComputerGeeks-R-Us According to the wikipedia page on it, it was the first ever non-classical CD. This is not to be confused with DDD which has no analog signal anywhere in the chain. If I remember correctly, Now and Zen was also the first recording that used sampling.
How could they make the claim that no analog signal was used in the studio? I have no idea. Even putting microphones to digital interfaces would still seem to be an analog signal from the mic to the interface. Same with guitars and other instruments.
Up till that point, everything else had been AAD or ADD.
Hey, Malaysia. Nice. Wow, Walkman day. The first time I heard the Walkman in a lecture theater from a student (I didn't know him), I was blown away. I was hocked on stereo from then onwards 😅.
So cool!
I just bought a JVC dual cassette deck from an estate sale for $20.00 it works great and I played an ole Bruce Springsteen cassette and it sounded pretty good! I'm still going to buy more vinyl but maybe I'll buy some cassettes if the price is right!
As someone who graduated high school in 85, and owned a lot of cassettes, were cassettes tapes ever "audiophile" quality?
Bought my first cd in late 85 and never looked back.
No, they weren't. Reel to reel tape, yes. But hey, if you really ENJOY them, who cares?
Maybe with a Nakamichi Dragon
Pre recorded tapes were garbage.
Some of the metal cassettes could be considered "audiophile" back then... would never have the dynamics or clarity that we now have access to though. Some could be better than cd but never had the dynamics of one to begin with.
I ditched my cassette player 40 years ago and vowed never to go back!
Things with built in batteries have been such a blessing so far. Millions of pounds of ewaste. because the power storage failed.