Anyone still listen to Cassettes?

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autowasherfreak

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I was going through my closet and I found a box of of cassetts, I've been listening to them all morning. Partridge Family, ABBA, Linda Rondstadt, and Tammy Wynette and George Jones. Some of the cassetts sound muffled, is this because of age? I bought a used RCA dual cassette deck at Goodwill for $8.00 several years ago. I would love to get a turntable, I have two boxes of 33's that I have listened to in years.
 
I have a Luxman stereo deck and while it sits in the stereo cabinet, I haven't even connected it probably in five years or so.

I have some cassette tapes I made back in the late 70's/early 80's that I like. My car actually has a cassette deck in it as part of the CD deck. Highly unusual. On occasion I play cassettes on it. A few years ago a friend sent me a cassette of music mixes he made out the old Beatles songs. I would have thought that since it was 2009 he would have made a CD by then.
 
I wish I could figure why the radio doesn't work anymore on my stereo. About 4 years ago, we had a really bad thunderstorm and lightening struck somewhere in the back yard, and ever since then the radio AM and FM no longer work, tried hooking up an antenna and still nothing it can't even find stations when in search mode.
 
Oh yes

i still use cassettes a lot-especially for car use-i find them to be handier,more
durable for car use and truer sounding than CDs or other digital playback methods.
Even still record "mix tapes"for car use-different soundtracks for different cars.
Using high quality recording and playback equipment is the key to high fidelity
with cassettes-still can have sound and playback glitches sometimes though due to
the mechanical nature of tape playback;muffled sound is often caused by missing
pressure pad(glue ages and they fall off)or an out of position pressure pad.Warped
cases and squeeling guide rollers also happen as can tape stretch after hundreds
of plays.
MY main home cassette decks:
'85 studer revox B215
'82 studer revox B710 Mk2
'81 Akai GX-F 60R(nearly as good as the two german machines,early'80s seems to be
the best era for japanese equipment as they started to really cheap out after
about 1985...)
Car decks:
-'81 porsche 928:'87 benz becker"grand prix"-this was meant to be temporary,to use
untill i found a period correct blaupunkt i liked,but i got to really like the
becker and it's still in place over 7yrs later...i made sure to use german
speakers too.
-'82 z28 camaro '84 delco,modified,based on '84 cadi seville and '84 vette delco
radios-has the blaupunkt transport first used in '84.hooked up to a 400w "period
correct"system this just rocks!very acurate,detailed and solid sound.
-'89 raider-'89 pioneer,very good radio but cassette nowhere near as good as the
becker or delco/blaupunkt cassettes
-'71 saab 99-'84 blaupunkt analog tuned-kinda BOL radio,but does have the good
style transport and with knobs on either side,looks pretty good in the old
saab dash.Philips speakers salvaged from '80s renaults.
I still run reel to reel and 8-track tape too.
 
Have an Onkyo cassette deck in my Hi-fi system-haven't used it in a while-one of my cars had a cassette player-have sold that car.Have many cassettes of band organ music.This is the only format some of that music came out on.The Studor Cassette machines are familiar to me-see them used a lot in radio stations at one time-not so anymore.One station I worked at used Nakamchi cassette machines-these were considered the best.Now--they are gone.Those were really nice machines.Studor and the "Naks" were the cream of the crop.
 
Definately Yes!

Being an analogue fan i have never stopped using reel-to-reel, Elcaset and cassette, and also having been an audio engineer most of my working life servicing them has not been a problem.
At present (for some years) I am Using a Nakamichi BX-300 which is a stunning machine, and there a few others that i have owned over the years which show the cassette medium at its best.

I would trade convenience for sound quality every time, IPODS etc are too me so rude sounding i will not entertain them.

This picture shows Pioneers briliant CT-F9191 a two head very well built and excellent sounding unit from the mid 1970s

electron1100++11-11-2011-02-09-47.jpg
 
Me too

Yes, I still have a stack of cassettes quite a lot of them have different songs that I like which I taped off different radio stations, and I still take my walkman with me and listen to my music on the way to work on the train.
 
I have lots of cds I had recorded at clubs via djs and want to save them. So, I record off cd on to tape and have a nice Sony boombox i take with me every weekend to where ever I wind up.I had newer cds I took along that were completely ruined by scratches and are far,far more delicate then any tapes when you're taking a bike trail or two here.
 
Technics SP-10's Seen and serviced a lot of those in radio stations-then when digital came out-----the TT's just disappeared.The SP-10 does make an excellent home Hi-Fi TT.Very nice Hi-FI system shown in the pictures-sure takes me back in time-vaguely remember the Elcassettes-never used them.
 
I've bought some cassette goodies over the last five years, not listening to them per se though, just making sure I've got a good stock in here. I want a Magnavox badged reel to reel, they never show up in stores here. I hesitate to use Ebay for anything anymore. Last cassette machine I bought is a deck, I overpaid because I wanted the Magnavox name, and the thing dates to 1971.
 
philips magnavox

so are '70s magnavox cassette players philips built or use philips transport?
A 1970 chrysler underdash cassette player/recorder i have has a philips transport.
 
I was into cassette tapes in the 70's through the 90's. Finally I got a CD player at home, and later in the cars. Made a lot of what is usually called "mix tapes" for my own enjoyment, but others liked them as well. Most of the content was from vinyl in my collection. I still have most of them, but the players have seen better days ;-).

One of these days I'm going to archive most of my vinyl to CD quality. Disk space has been an issue, although with the low price of hard drives these days it really shouldn't be. The other limiting factor is time. It takes a long time to playback vinyl and get a good digital copy.

The muffled sound of your old cassettes might be that they were recorded without Dolby noise reduction and you might be playing them back with Dolby turned on. Try turning it off and see what happens.
 
Yes I do! Also Vynils! At flea markets I always find alot of cassette for less of a buck! Vynils of course are more expensive I like find and listen them also! I do have a great collection of Vynils of my mother. I have a lot of cassettes of every kind, most of them are 90s Disco dance that was very nice in those years till 2005, then disco dance changed and got trash! I also have tons of cassettes registered by myself of 90s disco dance weekly radio parades of the best hits, they will become history and most of them aleady are..... My mother shortly before she passed away started to buy also tons of cassettes of Rolling stones and Beatles and The Birds, Mamas and Papas etc... she already had all these songs on original vynils but she wanted to listen them in the car also.... I do listen them sometimes, listening her cassettes reminds me of her....when I was a child she always used singing me their songs....She used to singing me "She loves you" putting me to sleep... It is a sweet memory of her, she miss me everyday......
Anyaway, yes I still listening cassettes!
 
tandberg

also among my cassette decks is a 1978 tandberg TCD310 mk2,not in current use
because it needs minor repairs.Made in norway,it has a horizontal cassette well
and a 3-motor transport using DC motors directly coupled to the reel hubs and a
little fan-cooled induction motor for the capstans.My two revox machines have 4
motors:low inertia "coreless"brushed DC motors directly driving the reel hubs and
electronicly commutated DC motors built into the flywheels for the capstans.
I also have a tandberg receiver-also from 1978,it has several shortwave bands in
addition to the am and fm.
 
Oh, Yez!

I amassed quite a number of cassettes in the 1980's.  WCBS-FM (NY) the oldies station used to have a "top 20 countdown" from a specific 1950s/1960s year every Sunday.  When I was at home I used to tape it, the commercials were spaced every 15 minutes so it was easy to edit them out.  Sometimes they would do different months in the same year.  Plus I made tapes from my oldies 45s to keep in the car.  Great for long trips.  In 1992 my '89 VW was stolen.  It was found and refurbished like new.  When I went to pick it up I saw my tapes were still there by some miracle!  Popped one in:  The b@$tards had re-recorded RAP music on all of them!!!  I cursed words I didn't even know I knew.  Back to the stereo system and do the job all over again.  It takes hours because you have to balance the sound on each one (some play louder or softer, some are mono or stereo, or some might be off an LP).  What a chore.  When my refurbished car was stolen AGAIN six months later, it didn't come back.  Damn, recording all this stuff all over again for the third time.  This project I was smart and duped them all on the dual-deck so I have backup copies.  Also comes in handy when an oldies friend asks for a copy.  Did the same with some disco tunes as well.  I had a Kenwood tuner and deck, and a Gemini turntable (amazing that it was made here in NJ!).  The Kenwood deck eventually died, so I replaced it immediately with a new JVC that I bought on Amazon, while they are still being MADE. 

 

When I bought my new 2012 Ford Fusion I asked to have a cassette player in it.  The salesman looked at me as if I had uttered a four-letter word.  I told him "No cassette player=no sale".  He found a Pioneer one that works a little awkward but sounds great.  For whatever reason, the manufacturer specifically states that 120-min. tapes should NOT be played.  No reason given, but it's a small inconvenience. 

 

FWIW, I have a BIG library of 45s since my OM was a jukebox repairman for 40+ years.  LPs not so much.  I have a total of about a dozen CDs (mostly received as gifts from clueless friends).  When I have my DVD player hooked up I'll listen to one or two, otherwise I'll play them on my GE clock radio if I'm housecleaning or ironing.

 

Contrary to popular belief, vinyl isn't final!
 
Still have a large box of '45's from a radio station-found while cleaning out their transmitter site-they were going to throw them out-I saved the records.Lots of 60's oldies.they have "Q" burn-but still play-trying to look for a jukebox to play and store them in.would be more convenient than playing them manually.Located a Wurlitzer box at a swap shop-working out details to buy it-the mechanism and and amps,speakers look in good shape.The shop used to have more boxes-but sold them to collectors a few years back.
 
I still listen to cassettes

Since I still have a nice-size collection of cassettes, and have a beautiful front-loading Denon recorder, I love listening to the music I don't have on either LP or CD. My family was the very first in the neighborhood to get a beautiful, 1968 Ampex stereo cassette system. Everyone who heard it was amazed! I still have the recorder, though it's in bad shape. My dad got me a HUGE, portable Ampex recorder for college one year later. That I don't have any longer. Two of my prized cassettes are the movie soundtrack from "Bullitt", and a favorite Brazilian group no longer together, but that particular album was never available on LP or CD.
 
OOPS, I forgot to mention...

My Denon cassette player/recorder is a 1992 model bought in New Hampshire, along with my 20" Sony Triniton Stereo TV. The cassette recorder is a slide-out drawer type and has no auto-reverse. My beloved Sony TV sits in my bedroom on the floor, covered/protected and unused since 2003!
 

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