One of the things that people might not realize today is that cassettes and players, although pretty poor when they started,had improved greatly by the time they were about to be discontinued; if you purchased high-quality tapes and high-quality machines and made your own recordings "properly," you could end up with a very formidable sounding audio source for decades to come.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

This is very true, big difference between cheap cassette on a cheap deck and quality tape on a quality deck.

@MyNameIsKlaus

15 күн бұрын

I always chuckle when my "audiophile" friends put down cassette but then rip their vinyl to DIGITAL files?, 😂... Vinyl ripped to tape on good chrome tape and a good deck sounds closer to master tapes than vinyl does. Why back down an analog file to a digital format...

@andykrikkit

15 күн бұрын

@@MyNameIsKlaus Back in the day, I would consider the LP to be my archive copy, and record it to tape for most of my listening. It preserved my hard earned records, and the cassette was PORTABLE.

@mancavedecorations8158

15 күн бұрын

​@Dadpool2006 , not as silly as you would believe. While the vinyl is still there for special occasions, the analog sound transfers nicely. There is also easier access. I've got about 1200 LPs and 900 CDs. 99% of my listening is streaming

@alanross99

15 күн бұрын

I agree! Recordings on three head tape decks with tech like Dolby C and metal tape really sounded fantastic.

If it wasn’t for cassettes, we would never had the most Iconic music Image of all time ... The Maxell Guy.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Oooooh man! That’s a thought right there!

@mancavedecorations8158

15 күн бұрын

There is that

@ShazeemKhan

12 күн бұрын

lol, I bought 3 boxes of their UR90 today lol

@bdisaac1

10 күн бұрын

Let’s get even further down the rabbit hole….minidiscs. GO!

Anyone remember peeling the wrapper off a new cassette and then smelling the ink on the fold-out J card? One ZZ Top J card ink smelled like grape.

One of the things I loved about growing up with all of the sources of Analog audio, was that they all started out pretty bad, and then improved over time. You started with a horrible "record player" with a ceramic "needle" and then moved up to a real turntable with a cartridge. They you have to debate belts over direct driver, or quartz locked drives, etc. With cassettes, you started with a kids player, then a deck with Dolby B, then better blanks (loved the Maxell UDXL-II), then Metal tape, and Dolby C. Everything was evolving at that time. People like Nakamichi took cassettes to incredible levels with their 3 head decks and adjustable azimuth. When CD"s came out, and everything became Digital, it was like everything was perfect. There was no where to go. This was as good as it was going to get. No question that all of these forms of physical media have a huge nostalgia factor for those of us of a certain age. Both your channel and Randy's, have really encouraged me to get back into my two-channel systems, and I have had a great time rediscovering vinyl and vintage systems again.

Analog tape can be an enjoyable EXPERIENCE with the proper ingredients. Making a good analog recording is a thing of skill, pride and attention to detail. Plus the end result is a unique creation - a physical and sonic one. Years past, I found the exploration of the attributes of different tape formulations to be fun process. At its best, analog recording matériel was a merger of excellent electrical, mechanical, chemical and industrial engineering practices. It was a quest and gradual growth towards better sound and performance, not an immediate perfect cookie-cutter gratification.

Its closer to the org mastertape than vinyl ever will be. Make tape, not vinyl😂

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

There ya go! Like the comments!

@tonydeniro284

12 күн бұрын

They can sound very good indeed.

An audiophile can just mean you try to get the best sound that you can from whatever equipment you have, that's the type that I am. Anyone who loves music is technically an audiophile. There's a bathroom on the right.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Nice lyric! Yeah anyone who loves music sure can be!

@aaronrandolph261

15 күн бұрын

your not an audiophile. you are like me which is a guy who appreciates and recognizes good sound. audiophiles are people with serious OCD who found audio as an outlet for their disorder. trust me i thought i was an audiophile for years and then i met some real ones.

@crazyprayingmantis5596

15 күн бұрын

Anyone who cares about sound quality is an audiophile That's how I clarify the term, there are degrees of OCD from top to bottom in-between that definition but all care about sound quality to whatever extent that might be

@Slammy555

15 күн бұрын

@@aaronrandolph261 They're a mixed bag of nuts for sure but I've seen some very smart sound engineer types who recognize how the perception of music changes between people that will educate and defend the lower spectrum people like myself. My friends all ask me to help set up their sound systems but I know I'm not in the same ball park as someone that sets up systems for a living.

"'Scuze me, while I kiss this guy!"

@ingenfestbrems

15 күн бұрын

😂 omg..

@bpalpha

15 күн бұрын

I'll never be... your pizza burning (?)

There was a period where I had a nice CD player setup in the house - but only a cassette deck in the car. I recorded the CD's to high quality cassettes for listening in the car. The sound was so good - yes there was the tape noise etc. but nothing sounded like that - some sort of magic happened in the transfer that really appealed to my ears. I've heard people call it "tape compression" or something, but whatever it was - I loved the result. I would actually sometimes prefer to listen to the cassettes in the house even though the cd's where right there.

I'm an TRUE audiophile, and that's why I only use my 8 track to cassette adapter with a cassette adapter to 3.5mm for all listening choices for my music enjoyment.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Hahaha I love it! I have one of those!

The only reason I stopped using cassette tapes as a kid & why I haven't picked them back up again since, is that the tape would always get stuck & chewed in the walkman or tape player of my portable radio. I'd then have to sit there with a pencil or the tip of my finger and manually wind it back in and that's if the tape didn't break, pulling the tangled mess out of the player heads. I'd love the idea of a physical medium that compact, that could store lossless quality (at least 24/96) albums, probably more than vinyl, if I wasn't totally done with the idea of breaking tape & having to wind tapes, that didn't break, manually. If it weren't for that then forget Kallax, I'd have an entire room of cassette storage and thousands of cassettes. On the "audiophile" subject, I have mild tinnitus, I listen to rock and metal way too loudly and some of my music is live music KZread rips that I converted to WAV or FLAC before downloading, but still garbage quality by lossless digital music standard. I'm also tinkering with the idea of buying a couple of cheap used drum kits and turning them into DIY floorstanding speakers by placing those DIY exciter transducers and bass-shaker transducers you see on the inside of vending machines and racing/flight sim rigs on the inside, on the back of the drum skin (the smaller the drum, the higher the frequency it will play). It might sound good. It might sound garbage. It won't sound as good as proper floorstanding speakers. I'm not expecting it to. It's just an experiment. ...I'm a music lover, not an audiophile.

Cassette pros: Saying "Mix tape" is cooler than "Playlist" or "Mix CD". You can't put a CD or a .DSD file in an old Teddy Ruxpin to watch it sing Black Sabbath. The local punk bands in the late 80s/early 90s didn't have a Soundcloud so they made demo tapes. They were almost universally crappy production-wise but those cats put some feeling into those tapes. Cassette tapes help keep pencil makers in business.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Maybe the pencil makers are funding the cassette comeback?

@andykrikkit

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard Now there is a conspiracy theory if ever I heard one. ;-)

I sold all my tapes in a yard sale years ago. Between my wife and I we had hundreds of tapes. I kind of regret it now. I dont consider myself a Audiophile, I just listen to my music and drool over all the cool gear I can't afford, lol.

Somebody posted a comment on Randy’s video, and they nailed it. I’m paraphrasing, but he said if you care more about the gear than the music, then you are essentially a electrician. Let’s be honest, many “audiophiles” are wankers with a holier then thou attitude and are more interested in telling you, “you’re doing it wrong”. I’m in my mid 50s, and grew up with Cassettes and still love them and buy them. I’ve got a very nice home theatre set up, with a lot of legacy audio gear hooked in and most everything sounds great, and at the least, very good. Not everything has to be at 24/192. It’s the same reason that in the last week, I’ve watched a couple of 4k discs on a 85” screen, and also watched a couple of vhs tapes on a CRT 68” Tv. My mancave doesn’t discriminate against formats. PS - I’ve got a Pioneer H-R100 8 track that sounds beautiful. If the 8 tracks are looked after, and/or had the pads and foam replaced, they sound great.

I grew up on cassettes and loved the versatility of them back then. The mixtapes were made exactly the way I wanted them. The sound quality was okay, but back then there was really nothing else that people my age had to compare it with. I still have a select few of homemade mixtapes and store-bought tapes. Sometimes when I listen to them it does take me back.

Lenny, You know I am an Old Guy. When we bought new LPs the first thing we did was record them on to a cassette and then put the album away. We only listened to the tapes so we wouldn't damage the records. If cassettes are so bad then why did companies like Harman-Kardon and Nakamichi spend so much time and money developing world class recorders? I am with you. Some audiophiles need to keep their mouths shut.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

I love the fact that you recorded vinyl to cassettes, that’s amazing

@OldGuyHifi

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard Everyone used to do that. We would use cheap Chrome tape for playing back in the car and metal tape for playback in the house. Because of that I have 50 yr old albums that are virtually pristine.

@edwardjohnscott7534

14 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard😊

@tonydeniro284

12 күн бұрын

People do themselves a disservice by dismissing the cassette, if they only played then on a cheap boom box. Get a real cassette deck and you will be astonished.

Having a cassette player in your rack gave you one more piece of gear with VU meters or LEDs that made your system even cooler!

Well, I re watched the video because it is quite good and if I was there with you we would be talking about this for hours. See? you put out the sleeve and opened it showing the lyrics, credits, etc inside. Well, as you already know I'm Spanish and back then at home, without any technology or anything like that I wanted to know among others what Mark Knopfler was saying on the Sultans of Swing album tunes (I had the brand new 1978 vinyl) and you could find the lyrics in the interior papers just like in the cassette, my point being that these inside sleeves in the cassettes which I had at the time too, helped me a big deal to learn to speak english properly more than school or college. It was my love for the music mostly from the U.K. and The United States and the fact that those lyrics were there the reason I'm talking to you right now. so Thank you ol' time devices for helping me out so much.

Yes I still do listen to Cassettes of all different tape formulations . . . using both Dolby & DBX noise reduction . . . oldest mix tape I have I made during the summer of 1977 on a top loading Panasonic deck with adjustable recording levels . . . both still play . . . and so will I. 😉🔊🔊😎

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Dude a mix tape from 77, that’s amazing in itself!

@edricjr7930

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard Hi Lenny! 😉 Yes, the deck used to record it was a Panasonic RS-600US hooked up to my Mother's Magnavox console stereo. The tape was a Realistic Low Noise (Normal) C-90. True, the fidelity isn't the best, but the memories are so dear to me. I could afford the tape, but not the music 😔 so I used the REC Out on the console to record the local college radio station (WBRU) Sunday afternoons. Most of the music you can find on stream now, however some of the music not even Shazam can identify and is lost to memory and my surviving tapes.

@ingenfestbrems

15 күн бұрын

Why the heck would you use noise reduction on a quality tape, referring to quality metal tapes and crome with metal particles early 90s you could record hot 8-10db maybe more,

@ingenfestbrems

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeardno, that was normal

@ingenfestbrems

15 күн бұрын

@@edricjr7930low noise tapes and the 70s, that’s a bad thing,, counting out your childhood memories of course. Sitting myself in front of the living room speaker with my cassette boombox recording with the internal microphone,, guess other than! low noise tapes, would sound even more terrifying terrible today. But used what i had and the memory vs making a Spotify playlist i rather go back in time..

I used to record albums that i was allowed to borrow from the record store i worked at. I always used Maxell UDXLII tape and the sound was incredible to me at that point in my life. Then, after purchasing a Mitsubishi Stereo Hi-Fi VCR, I experimented with tecording music on high-end Videocassette. I loved it. That became my go-to method. I wish i could go back in time to listen and compare to the equipment i listen to now. I gave away all of my cassette and VCR recording equipment and tape when I moved to the Philippines. I have a little regret about that now.

@alanross99

15 күн бұрын

Loved those Maxell UDXL-II tapes. I used to buy them buy the box, and record songs off the radio at first, and later I copied all of my LP's to tape.

I wish I did, but I don't have a functioning tape deck. Of my 2 tape decks, none of them work, one of them missing the mechaninism ENTIRELY, the other has broken belts, that are caked onto the drive pulleys, pls give me advice for removal if you have it, I would love to get my only Sony audio component working again.

I loved tapes, esp in my youth, almost got back into them a few times recently but where I live it's either impossible, crazy expensive or both, I'm good with my CD & MD

I have all the cassettes I have purchased over the years less those that were lost or stolen. I have over 250 cassettes and I play them on my home system, in the factory cassette deck on my 2002 Harley, in the 72 Challenger, and through my 35+ year-old Sony Walkman. I have access to every media format available, and cassettes are time capsules of functional vintage fun.

Any analog media has a huge influence of device design and maintenance. Bad mantained and design cassette decks sound horrorible, as well as vinyl, 8tr, whatever... But the "Internet Audiophiles" never listened a tape beign recorded on Naka/Akai/Revox...

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Oh that’s such a good point! Thanks so much!

A am 48 years old and about 5 years ago i've decided to start collecting cassettes again.today i own several cassette players,nothing high end,and around 1500 cassettes that i've managed to collect for the last 5 years.i am happy as a kid decades ago but this time actually own the gear and the music i've dreamed about as a kid.to me cassettes are not all about the sound quality only,its about the whole experience and the ritual,and of course the cassette era,as a epoca of the entire evolution of music and the sound as a fenomenon it self.to simplify,i just enjoy playing cassettes and listening the music on it,recording on them,it just puts a big smile on my face,every time:))

I have hundreds + mixed tapes. What is the best new cassette deck available now???

I started my personal audio journey on cassette tapes when I was 13. I related to Randy in the video you mentioned. Prior to that all I had access to was vinyl on my old man’s all-in-one stereo system with a mediocre turntable. I could listen to my choice of music in my bedroom on a little portable cassette player/recorder. At that time in that place I was happy. I moved on to reel-to-reel at age 19. It’s been a fun trip because I was listening to music regardless of gear. I do miss my reel-to-reel tape deck. I was making “Mix Tapes” way before it was a thing 👍🏼🎶😎

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Thanks for sharing your story! Appreciate you joining the conversation!

I remember the VCR players were so loud when rewinding the tapes. Lol! That is in the same realm as cassette tapes.

I grew up in Northern New Jersey (mid 70's to 80's) and our local radio station was 105.5 WDHA it was an album rock station. When new albums would drop they would play the album end to end. My friends and I would record the broadcast and have an inexpensive new album. I purchased so many 10 pack cases of TDK SA90 cassettes from Crazy Eddies. "Every time you go away, You take a piece of meat with you".....

8 tracks, yes sir I had an 8 track in my 66 ford. The real negative was the song fade out then fade in with an audible clicking in the middle. But the cassette decks and tapes were convenient but not sure it’s warmer than vinyl I don’t know. But you could put all your favorite music on a Maxwell tape and carry it with you. Now streaming makes it and the CDs obsolete. Audiophile seems to be thrown around a lot, me I’m just an old fella trying to enjoy music from my younger days.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

That’s what it’s all about Dave! Reliving the music from our younger days!

@ShazeemKhan

15 күн бұрын

& u don't need internet connection to enjoy them

Before hard drive storage for studios, all LPs, cassettes, 8-tracks, CDs all originate from: TAPE. Be it analog or digital. Every recording you ever listen to from before the early 90s is a second, fourth or tenth generation copy of TAPE. Every single MOFI all analog vinyl pressing comes from (or , should I say, should have come from!) analog TAPE. Tape sound is the original sound Granted, cassette isn't the best tape media by far. Still, it was at its best fantastic sounding. I dare anyone to A/B test using the monitor/source button while recording on a good 3 head deck and say it differs from the source in any meaningful way. Back in the day most people experienced cassettes through CHEAP equipment. 100 dollar boom boxes, 35 dollar walkman copies, cheap car stereos with 4 inch speakers in the doors. Judging cassettes by that standard is like slagging off vinyl after listening to it from a suitcase style player today. Whatever the reason for people to use a cassette today is very comparable to buying a classic car. You don't buy a Mercedes 500 SEC or a Golf GTI from the 80s because it gives you better fuel economy, because it is faster or because it is safer than a modern car. You buy it for the nostalgia. For the feeling it gives you. Maybe because you remember wanting one when you were 18 and couldn't even afford a bus ticket. Whatever your reason, you just want one, and you enjoy using it. I am eagerly awaiting an AKAI GX-75 that is on the way as we speak. I didn't even know anyone that had or could afford one of those back in 1990. It cost 3 times what an entry level deck did. Also, most of us didn't have decks with calibration, or didn't know how to use it, so we didn't get the very best out of our recordings. I find it enjoyable to muck around with stuff like that. Call me weird. Opinions online about HI-FI is also a lot like with cars: keyboard warriors that will tell you - from their Mum's basement - that the new Ferrari is shit and only a Lamborghini will do. Because someone on Top Gear said so. There just can't be enough people with money to buy and compare 10.000 dollar speakers in this world to be discussing it on the webs with such passion and in such numbers that we see. Audiophile? Nah. Alan parsons said something along these lines: -Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. They use your music to listen to their equipment. Do you like music, or do you enjoy comparing cables? I know where I stand.

@Wised1000

15 күн бұрын

A cassette has tape, but its a completely different animal from the master tape. It runs much slower and is about half the width. The tape on a cassette has only a fraction of the inherent fidelity of the master tape.

I grew up listening to cassette tapes, and I had portable Walkman players. I eventually switched to portable cd players, and the sound quality was much better. The cassette tape is very cool and nostalgic for many people. At the end of the day, it's what is enjoyable for you that counts. My parents had a station wagon with an 8 track player in it and I always remember that.

5:58 You get that with vinyl too, what makes tape lively is that you can record your own music, and you can take it anywhere if you have the equipment. And if you have metal capabilities, you have one heck of a sound medium in the palm of your hand, analog, and physical.

I was down at Third Eye Records a couple of weeks ago and the lady behind the counter said that they have people coming in asking for new cassette albums. I did tell her that if any of her customers was looking for a cassette deck, that you had some nice ones.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Thanks! That’s the one store that wasn’t open when I was in Nashville touring record stores!

@bernarrcoletta7419

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard The Third Eye Records I'm talking about is in Annapolis, off Chinquapin Round Road. It's a nice place.

I've got and have had some great sounding cassette tapes that I made on some great sounding tape decks that I enjoy til this day. The only drawback with Cassette tapes is they breakdown and sometimes stretch and cause wow and flutter.

Yeah... this weekend I made my first mix tape since the 90's and It came thru how rewarding experience it was, so now I decided that at sundays I will make the week mix tape ... although I am using a rfeel-to-reel lol . .so as reel estate is expensive I just record over the same reel... so it made realise to get one k7 deck because my car still has the original k7 deck and make a mix tape just like the old days.... forget Radio and Streaming at alll. now onto quality, yeah it doesn't reach vinyl or tape or cd, but has that mix analog experience of being listening while recording and spend the entire day making the decision which music goes well to be the next one... its a creative process ... much better than rolling endless social media feeds... :D

@csxlab

15 күн бұрын

About Audiophile .. I don't consider my self an audiophyle .. I am happy with my components, although I could consider my self an Hi-Fi enthusiast... my friends don't consider me any nor audiophyle nor hi-fi enthusiast because my components are mostly Technics .... lol not expensive enough to be audiophyle, as one cable would buy my whole system haha

@csxlab

15 күн бұрын

On the reel-to-reel ... it was always a kid dream and bought one in february at last :) a Technics RS-1500 ... Man was the single piece of audio equipment that I bought in my entire life that actually surpassed my expectations, but I bought one because I am interested in the quality, there is still a lot of classical music that are amazing recordings, can actually get some copy of master tapes, but Vinyl vs reel, yeah defenitly it kills my both turntables in audio quality, I must say I recorded a wav file from a friend production digital from the computer to the reel, and it got so much different .. the bass and the warmth was amazing, I have some digital albums, and I am recording them to tape, because they sound really amazing (and I don't want to have a computer to listen music no more screens), we made a-b testing and almost no difference, and the noticeable difference is a welcome warm difference. But I agree is an amazing piece that makes us focus our atention on the mechanics of it and forget the sonics, everyone that comes to my room, their eyes immediatly turn to the reel-to-reel, I could have gold around and the focus goes to the machine, and when I put it to work, there is silence of apreciation for the sonic quality and the mechancal piece in movement, this is the only piece on my equipment that makes us transcend the relation between music and equipment ... even people that never cared about music just stay in awe. It is timeless and I understand why some people will buy and rarelly listen to them, but I don't think that is the main reason people are buying them, mostly is because in a super-digitized world, filled with devices that make all functions in one... people are trying to come back to seperarate devices to accomplish different functions.. just like vinyl .. it comes the moment of tape, k7, vhs, cd, dvd, blu-ray .. all physical single function devices... even typewriters are becoming a big thing nowadays because you can focus in one task without being assaulted with other un-related notifications. In my honest opinion, people are wanting to focus more in what they do and or what apreciate undisturbed, and for music we have many flavours to choose from, unfortunatly we will always have the typical customer that wants the same car or a better one than the neighbour bought if even more esquisit... even better and reel to reel falls into that department.. defenitly not for the average joe (sorry for my bad english, I am not native, just fluent)

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

The amount of things better than doom scrolling on social media!

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for sharing your stories!

@andykrikkit

15 күн бұрын

The joy of making mix tapes is probably what brought me to buy a tape deck again. 🙂 it makes you slow down and think about the music instead of just skipping down a playlist.

Tapes were king when I was growing up. Never had a cd until I was In 11th grade. I used to get my tapes from Record and Tape traders. Also Bmg and Columbia House. My mother beat my ass when we started getting cassettes mailed to us constantly. Tapes I did not order for one penny from In the Tv Guide. Lol! Great video!!!!! Tapes sounded best when they were labeled “Digalog”.

Hold me closer, Tony Danza...... We need a T-Shirt of this!!!! Best thing I've heard in a long time!!!! Signed, kid that grew up in the 80's and cassette was my first format.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Hahahahaha that’s my all time favorite

@ramondelgado6778

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard thanks for the reply! Made my day!!! Look forward to buying something from you guys soon!!!

Cassettes are my favourite because I just love the sound and feel of them. It's definitely a nostalgia thing but I definitely think I'm somewhat burned out on streaming. A cassette forces you to listen to the whole album.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

I agree to everything you said Bradley!

Love Cassette. Love making recordings on cassettes. To me it's a bit like shooting on 35mm film. You can push it, in one direction or an other, by changing the ISO, aperture, speed, etc. With cassettes on a good 3 head deck, you can adjust the bias, the tape type & brand, to tailor the sound to your tastes. I get fantastic results with my Akai GX-9!!

I assume Lenny is familiar with the XDR tone-burst on some cassettes. Now THAT brings back some memories.

I'm a 'musicophile' and appreciate all you do for us. Thank you so very much, Sir.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Thank you Simon!! I appreciate your support and you enjoying the content!

I still have a few high-quality cassette players and most of my old high quality cassette tapes with '70's and '80's music that were recorded on good equipment; believe it or not, many still sound good after 40 years, because they were stored properly etc., especially the highest quality ones. In hindsight, it was worth the extra money to go for the highest quality equipment and tapes. Prerecorded tapes always sounded rather low fidelity. True, not as good as high quality digital, but surprisingly good for such a small 4-track tape using Dolby C.

Dear Lenny, I still listen to all my prerecorded cassettes, or I recorded myself ( 120 cassettes) , 60 min or 90 min Chrome or metal tape, and the different bias and noise reduction settings. This, of course, on a cassette deck or, guess what, on a Walkman (Sony). But to say that the sound is warmer and or better depends on the deck , and as you say is the nostalgic feeling and a of the many advantages that you can listen for a long time and do not change the vinyl or the same with streaming. You listen to your music with all feelings and emotions

Nice 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 quality. Thanks for the tip on Randy’s vid👍👍

I had a few cassettes when I grew up, but I mainly went from vinyl to cd I mainly listen to them at work on a walkman. And I think they actually sounded pretty good. And just in case you didn't know the sleeve.Inside a's cassette is called an o-card. And thanks for another awesome video I can't wait till the next one comes out each time. And also, by the way, I still listen to vinyl 99% of the time.Thanks for your. Consideration.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Brett, thanks for sharing as always and I totally didn’t know that about the O-Card!

@brettc132

15 күн бұрын

My bad, the o card was what a cassette single came in.The insert in a cassette is a j- card my fault sorry.

A decent Kenwood cassette deck sat at the thrift for over a month so i decided to rescue it. For $27 i got a dual well Kenwood CT21 which features auto-bias function, dolby b,c, mpx filter, manual record level adjustment, ccrs functions, and b well is dolby hx pro and that makes a difference. I'm surprised how enjoyable cassette can be. If you think cassette is worthless, you haven't heard the right deck with the right system.

Cassette tapes were the ultimate gift. Think about it. You're in Jr High or High School. There's that person of interest. You make them a mix tape. That took thought and time. It was work too. I was lucky to have a neighbor with a spare dj mixing board, so I hooked up both a cd player and a turntable to make a mixed tape with proper fading if needed.

Back in the day there was a scandal against record companies useing poor quality tape. They really sounded horrible I would borrow albums I didn’t have and record them on Maxell and they sounded great

@alanross99

15 күн бұрын

I always thought pre-recorded tapes sounded terrible. I copied all of my LP's to Maxell UDXL-II's.

Sparkomatic was a few tiers below Craig when it came to car audio in to 70's/80's , in my opinion. And the Kraco Power Booster was a must. Man, did we wire up some crap back then.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

That sounds so fun!

@eaches

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard Look up that Power Booster. We blew so many car speakers. :)

I consider myself an audiophile based on my 60+ years of buying and selling stereo equipment in the never ending search for the ultimate sound. I recently inherited some vintage equipment that includes a cassette deck. Never owned a cassette deck and I am enjoying buying cassettes of music I love or never purchased for one reason or another because the cassettes are considerably less expensive than vinyl and some CD's I think it is fine for casual listening and does not compare to music played on my main system. It's fun when you don't have time for a extended listening session.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Good stuff as always! It’s all about the fun! Least you know that’s how I look at it!

Put me down as a Tape Head. Cassette recordings can be extremely good, so audiophiles should not dismiss them. Lots of positive things to say about cassettes, as described in this excellent video.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Thanks so much for that! I appreciate you watching and especially commenting!

I remember playing lots of cassettes growing up, they were usually copied off the radio or vinyl or something. It was done with a pretty cheap recorder so when I heard the originals the cassettes were substantially lacking in quality. Also sometimes they would stretch and had lots of wow and flutter or the player belt would stretch and play really slow. I have two decks, neither are speed accurate. The Marantz one is 1percent slow forward and almost 6 percent in reverse (It's pretty worn out). I have nothing against cassettes, but I'm in the vinyl camp.

My 10 Year old Son LOVES Cassettes and so for that alone I will buy them and support them - I love them too!

I absolutely love cassettes! I still make mix tapes, and all mine from the eighties still play fine. The prerecorded ones also. They're convenient, cool and virtually indestructible.

Digital sounds so good, mixing engineers add tons of distortion to make it sound more like tape.

I’ve been rocking Marantz since the 70’s and I have a degree in music. Does that make me an audiophile?

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

I honestly don’t know what makes an audiophile haha

I have 55-year old vinyl records that still sound as good as when I first acquired them 55 YEARS AGO. The pre-recorded record label-produced cassettes RARELY sounded as good as a record. Records don't produce a high-pitched SCREEEECH when they get older and have been played 20 times. Several of my pre-recorded cassettes did that just a couple of years after their purchase from the record store. And, if they had Dolby encoding, you either dealt with lots of hiss if you didn't use the Dolby decoder on your deck, or you dealt with listening to an album that sounded as if it had been recorded under a couch cushion if you DID use the decoder.

I consider myself a true audiophile yet perhaps without all the snootiness. I’ve been into high quality sound since I was a little kid and have pursued it ever since. However I’m not one that insists on paying uber $ on gear. I believe we can get most of the way there without buying the most expensive stuff. Thats why the Cheap AudioMan is so useful for myself. I like the Audiophiliac too but most of what he reviews is way out of reach. I have more important things to do w/ my income. I loved making mixtapes back in the day and I was good at it. At the time I had a Yamaha Natural Sound CD player, a duel cassette recorder w/ all the goodies(chrome/metal bias, Dolby B, C, S & dbx NR, Dolby HX Pro, and a Realistic graphic EQ to fix up poor source material(I didn’t EQ everything and I learned to only use small bumps/dips considering playback would also have treble & bass adjustments). With a quality blank tape I was making to my ears at the time CD quality dubs. Today I own an Oppo bdp I bought used on EBay, a Yamaha Aventage AVR & Pioneer Elite bdp I bought open-box at BB. I own 3 record players including a newish AudioTechnica 120 yet my favorite by a wide margin is the early 80s Akai AP-D210 fully automatic direct drive. The myth that a turntable must be fully manual & belt driven for great sound is pompous-ass nonsense outside of the emotional satisfaction. Likewise those that believe the only proper way to listen to music is stereo, no multi-channel surround sound. I’ll listen to whatever format I feel like. Sometimes I want to hear pure stereo, sometimes I crave a more immersive playback. It’s all good. Those that insist on 2-channel only may not have experienced a well mixed multi-channel DVD-Audio, SACD, or blue~ray. Of course it depends on the mix and personal preference. I think the performers intent is often overlooked. Sometimes a surround mix is closest to the artists desire. And when it comes to live concert material nothing beats a well done DVD or Blu-ray. That center channel can actually enhance the experience and make it more real. Quads also do great w/ both studio & concert recordings. Among the best sound quality I’ve experienced is my BR headphone rig w/ a particular set of cans. Monolith Liquid Spark DAC and Liuid Spark amp with my Status Audio OB1(open-back studio over-ear) that I swapped out the pads with Brainwaves pleather. All budget priced stuff. The cans retailed at $79 and I paid less on sale. The amp & DAC are lower $100+ range that I also nabbed at a discount(Monoprice has crazy sales sometimes). I absolutely love the sound rivaling my more expensive rig downstairs w/ higher end cans. I have a collection. That all said while I have experimented with various tunes just to hear the sound quirky I do not repeat tunes I don’t like. It’s all about making the music I like sound its best with reason. I also pursue new music. Even though I’m halfway through my 50s I have found quality music made by youngsters in this century. Those that claim all of today’s music sucks are just being fuddy duddies. It’s simply found differently today. We’re unlikely to hear great new music from 20 & 30 something’s on the radio. Putting your streaming source on discover mode can pay great dividends. Not everything coming out today is manufactured pop garbage. That’s always existed. I’m not my opinion the 80s is the worst overall era of music. Too much fluff-n-stuff & glamrock which I felt even as a teen was the dumbing down and cheapening of “rock”. Most of it felt like hard /fast pop garbage. Some gems exist of course as they do in all genres. I’m a pursuer of quality music that includes the music itself with hopefully fine sound quality.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Thanks for contributing all that! Really appreciate your takes on everything from turntables to cassette decks! Today’s music definitely doesn’t suck!

@erieeddie8683

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeardsorry for submitting an entire book. Impressed you read all that rambling. Won’t blame those for skipping and moving on down.

@andykrikkit

15 күн бұрын

I never liked live albums much. They just didn't sound right to me. 5.1 concert blu-rays though, are great! 🙂 Both for the immersive surround sound, but also seeing the music being played by real people.

How old are you guys? 25-30 yo? So maybe 5to10yo when the last good cassette tape transport was made 🥴

😂🤣😂😂Don't forget the pencil !

Just remember, you are in the land of milk and honey listening to the finest gear money can buy, so maybe it is a nice change of pace to wear that scratchy (but warm and dry) wool sweater every once in a while. Keeps your listening perspective fresh.

Bro that beard jiggling 💀

I started with 8track in my 72 Vega. Then cassette came out big improvement. Always loved vinyl but pops and clicks and pain in ass. In the car cassette were not bad at all! Was all in on DAT and sound quality in my opinion was as good as any format and I've had them all. When NEC came out with hifi vcr, I bought 2 of their 1200$ and ran that for years.😊

To paraphrase PCU, "Talking about a cassette from a band while wearing the shirt from that band, don't be that guy." :D

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

I know I saw that too! lol shoulda grabbed another cassette but I just liked the green haha

The BASF CRO2 tape formulation used in the A&M cassette releases of The Police sounded pretty darn impressive.

@ingenfestbrems

15 күн бұрын

The only formulation of todays tape is a secret blend owned by rtm, and they own licenses from both agfa and basf. Not sure if something is being made in Russia, But definitely something being made in Asia somewhere.

I have that very cassette player, except mine is blue. The "we are rewind" is a very decent player for today. I have a Sony TC-WE305 for my stereo system. But I'm totally into records mainly. 👍🏻

I miss that new cassette smell

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Wow great nostalgic thought! That was a great smell!

I have had the pleasure of owning pro series tape decks with laser amorphous heads and Dolby noise reduction filters, but the hissing wile was more quiet but was still there, Vinyl records is more better to me as far as sound quality, tape is just for portable devices

I love cassettes. Still have a JVC half professional deck with excellent sound, well, amazing for the times it was built 1978 or so, the you have the Tascam professional decks which sound great, notr to mention Nakamichi with their Dragon decks. Vinyl has the scratching problem, vinyl no matter what you do has scratching sounds, then if you get the proper cartridge, Ortofon, Grado, etc, an expensive good one, you will hear every single noise on earth. Obviously the high freqs will be to die for. Nevertheless If I had the budget I would go for a good reel to reel but, well I don't havre that kind of dough so Tidal will have to do.

I used to have 800 cassettes all of them high quality cassettes chrome or metal. I recorded them on my Aiwa excelia 007 deck using dbx. I found it sounded great. But some ten years ago my wife convinced me to get rid of them. I still regret it. So many memories. I still have my Aiwa deck though...😢😢

Magnetic tape is warmer, and more musical rounding off the high end and boosting the low end nice and smoothly. Tape recordings are also generally much quieter and more pleasing to the ear than digital files which are way too loud and gets annoying fast. Tape uses the VU meter standard which keeps the levels at a nominal level(-18dBV) for the human ear.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

That is great information!!! Really appreciate you adding this!

@crtgamer2355

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard Ah no problem, it's only a pleasure. I love tape, it just has a magic you don't get from vinyl or digital. Only problem with tape decks is maintenance and the only reason I gave up on my deck for now. I will however find a decent used one again, just a matter of time. I really really hope the big guns will bring out their old schematics and start making real decks again with significant improvements in the moving parts, the people have spoken :)

@andykrikkit

15 күн бұрын

The loudness war with its brickwalling, sigh. You can see it easily when making a tape recording. Old tracks will make your meter bounce happily away with nice dynamics, many new tracks will have the level staying completely flat.

@crtgamer2355

15 күн бұрын

@@andykrikkit Exactly, that is one part of the magic of tape, but also other factors that make it sound so good :)

Seeing you guys attempting to repair hifi with a hacksaw,, guess you don’t know other than what you se on KZread. This is heavy” 😅. It’s a cheap Chinese transport.. 😖

I still ear tapes recrded more than 35 years ago,and they are fine..even yesterday i was a the store i work Ultimateaudio with my colegues comparing those tapes with vinil,Luxman PD 191 with luxman top of the line cartridge and its amazing,but i recorded in tape denon 700 and Sony 890 ES ..and the sound for some is better..sweeter and somewhow smoter,the Denon 700 a little more open than the sony.

Personally, I consider myself a music enthusiast and do not label self as an audiophile even though I like nice equipment to listen to it with! 🎶

Cassettes are like living in a mobile home. Cheap, plasticy and cheesy and if you want to go from the first song (kitchen) to the last song (bedroom) you have to go past all the other songs (rooms) to get there. Also, you can get a lot of them in a small area beit a cassette storage case or trailer park. Lol.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

What an analogy!

I love the cassette tape format. I still have two tape decks and still make mix tapes for my wife. 👍👍

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Dude that is awesome!

For sure prerecorded cassettes have no pops and tics. My Sony TC-K950ES delivers very lifelike sound.

Tapes and cassette tapes have a 'professional' sound. Deep, solid,.punchy. Like a live music club, concert hall sound. But cassettes and tapes must be kept away from heat, dust and up right. Better played on good vintage players with the heads cleaned and demagnetized regularly. Serviced with heads aligned and rubber bands replaced.

Cassettes can sound fair or exceptional. Depends on the deck you are using

I still own and play cassettes. I have over 900 cassettes in my collection. While not the best format. It is one that works well and can sound very good on a decent deck.

Sony WM-d6c the Walkman to rule them all. It took me 40 years to get one….. ❤ cassettes…..and proud of it. Love your music…..

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Love it! I still haven’t gotten my hands on the original! Nice job getting your WM-d6c!

# 2. I'm not an audiophile, I'm a musicphile.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

13 күн бұрын

That’s good stuff right there!

The reason recording companies approved of the cassette was that it could not make a perfect copy of the original. It was physically impossible. Thus, sequential copying made sequentially worse copies. The only way for cassette to recreate the full spectrum of vinyl was with special encoding like DBX. Since DBX was not backward compatible with regular tape, it never became mainstream. Reel to reel could make a much better copy (identical to the master tape), but it was very expensive and unwieldy. So, no cassette was never, ever as good as vinyl. In fact most prerecorded cassettes were pretty awful.

@sounddoctor5decades

15 күн бұрын

I would disagree, Take any late production 3 head Nakamichi, does not have to be a Dragon, say a CR5, run a good quality Metal tape, say a Nakamichi ZX, record with Dolby C pick your favorite UHQR record and spin it on say a Linn or Sota or the like with the high end cartridge of your choosing, and do a blind test, you won't be able to pick the tape, trust me I know, I was a dealer and did it thousands of times, it's 50/50 as far as what the pick is, making it moot, You are correct with prerecorded tapes, they are shit, but also high speed mass duplicated, so what would you expect...

@Wised1000

15 күн бұрын

@sounddoctor5decades Dolby C like DBX was not backward compatible and lasted a very shirt time before digital arrived. DBX was even better.

@sounddoctor5decades

15 күн бұрын

@@Wised1000 I'm only discussing duplication capability, as you are correct, as well as dolby C and DBX prerecorded tapes were virtually non existent. Most "Audiophiles" I worked with were buying a deck cassette or open reel to archive vinyl records and were looking for excellent duplication performance, some also made significant investment in a high end car stereo, which did offer Dolby C. They just wanted a cassette deck that could faithfully duplicate a vinyl record, and they do and did exist, quite frankly the best decks ever made could come very close to duplicating a CD, as a Open reel machine running DBX could. I'll say one other thing here for all the other folks, not directed to you wised1000, and solely MY perspective, Tape machines in my opinion are the only Hi Fi items where a BEST device can be determined, as they are NOT subjective. A tape or duplication device should make a precise duplication of an original source without adding anything, so it should not color the sound in ANY way. unlike speakers or amps or cd players etc. where the tonality and coloration is totally subjective. In my opinion, only mine, but based in technical aspects and my own evaluation as well as thousands of customers over my many decades in the business, Nakamichi in cassette and Studer/Revox and Crown were the de facto standards in open reel and cassette tape "duplication", they were the most faithful devices in making a tape that was the closest duplication of the original, whatever that was. Sorry Lenny, just throwin' my 2 cents in.... and Tom, take your favorite open reel and grab a good cd or record and rip it to the open reel and Lenny's dragon, good luck telling the difference and if you don't have DBX on the open reel, lenny's dragon will sound better. Just sayin'

@Wised1000

15 күн бұрын

@sounddoctor5decades I get it. I had a Teac C3, it could make excellent copies of vinyl. (Dolby C and DBX) Tape decks that could were expensive and rare. Players that could use such formats were equally rare. They came out at the very end of the analog era. Not even the famous Dragon ever had DBX, which not only completely eliminated tape hiss but also could cover the complete dynamic range of vinyl and more. However, they could not be used on playback decks without the system. Dolby C could but sounded no better than without it.

@sounddoctor5decades

15 күн бұрын

@@Wised1000 thanks for the conversation buddy!

I like cassettes because compared to cd's and lp's it delivers the least listener fatigue. I agree with Tom that it is the warmest sounding format. In find bass sounds best thru my cassette player. Does my cassette deck sound better than my cd player or record player? No. Would i ever consider selling my vintage Nikko cassette player? No. As a teenager I owned a Pioneer 8 track player that sported VU meters and dolby noise reduction. I thought it too sounded good.

CD is still the best format. And they don't degrade over time.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Except mine, they get really scratched haha

@AT-wl9yq

15 күн бұрын

Everyone seems to forget that for many years CD was considered to be a substandard format. People were pushing for a better format for a very long time. If you want to know why everyone is listening to vinyl again, its not because of nostalgia. The industry made some very poor choices. After years of waiting, we got not 1, but 3 new formats. SACD, DVD-A and MP-3. (I know MP-3 was released before the other 2, but I'm going by when the industry decided to push the format. Not when it first came out. Same thing with CD's. They came out in 1982, but didn't get popular until the late 80's-early 90's). Anyway, most people were happy with SACD and DVD-A. SACD was considered to be the better format, but both were good, and both were a step up from CD. The industry decided to push MP-3, a vastly inferior format. What they did was unprecedented. In every other branch of consumer electronics, they pushed better quality. PS-2 was better than PS-1. DVD was better than VHS, New computers were more powerful than older models. You get the idea. MP-3 was pushed on features, not quality. Add to that, the internet was getting big, but everyone was using dial up, so MP-3's were much more practical to download due to their much smaller file size. It was a disaster of their own making, and it gets worse. In 2008, Sony made it public that they were no longer supporting SACD, and people were pissed. They finally got a new format, invested in SACD's and SACD players, and then no support. It caused the biggest run on turntables in history. For about a year, it was almost impossible to buy one. That's why most people went back to vinyl. If the industry made better choices, it would have never happened. One thing I want to make clear is that even though I'm responding to your post, its a general comment. I'm not trying to tell you that CD's are a bad choice. If you think they are the best choice, that's all that matters. In fact, I own a 10k CD player myself and use it more than any other source component in my system. So, I'm not bashing CD's. And in all fairness, the industry has put a lot of work getting CD's to sound better. Modern players are way better than the old ones. I only bring all this up because most people don't know a lot of the history on all this, and how we got here. It seems like everyone is trying to get back to CD quality, and I just find that amazing.

Mix tapes made with love.

Lenny, I love cassettes type II or metal you can produce good recordings I did mix tapes for years. I sold audio so i do consider myself an audiophile. If the gear is good the music will be good

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Hey Patrick! I think you qualify as one! Good tapes and good recorders equal good quality!

He is right , I could compare every format ,…best format so far ( best format is relative) , for me is R2R , ….it brings an extra that you simply do not get with cd , streaming or even vinyl

@MsCorbacho

11 күн бұрын

Only my opinion of course , And , i did not say ,…the most accurate , the most detailed , For me is the most musical format , I am referring to R2R not normal cassette decks

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

11 күн бұрын

Awesome! Yeah I just wanna know what format people like best! Reel to reel is a great answer!

Being an old codger. I grew up with both 8 track and Cassette. My take on them is... been there done that. Digital has made a lot of advances since the days when they were king. I get more enjoyment out of the modern formats and do not miss the cassette. Tapes being eaten, the audible whirl and rumble when played on poorly constructed players, IMHO the good old days weren't. As far as being an Audiophile, I would call myself one as well as be called one. Own too much McIntosh and ARC gear not to be. Even though there are those elitists that would classify my gear as Mid-Fi. They can take a long walk off a short pier, to me they are mind over matter I don't mind because they do not matter. That being said a bone of contention, you guys are confusing an Audio-Snob with an Audiophile. These are the guys that everyone loves to hate on and have had bad experiences with, primarily they listen to the gear and not the music. My definition is ... an Audiophile is all about the music and sure, will invest in things that give them a great play back experience is a part of being one. However, the amount you spend and what you like to listen to it on, will not get you into or deny access to the club. Great gear can be had at any price point. Whether it is a modest $500 streaming receiver and bookshelves or a $50,000.00 in separates mated with full range towers. The common denominator is being able to crack open a cold one, kick back and enjoy the recording. The make, model, and cost of the gear be damned.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Wow man! Good stuff and I appreciate you contributing to the comment section! I’ll crack one for you next time I’m listening!

Here's the thing man.........

Hey if its just about getting noticed why not forget your pants next time your out for a walk? :-0 lol. Will say that some of those old cassette machines are very groovy beautiful engineering and something to appreciate regardless of any personal opinions about the sound which I think can be pretty good depending on the rest of your gear.

Lenny, MD is the worst sounding format mechanically, also MP3 at low bit rates sounds way inferior to a good cassette deck. the limitation of cassette is the pre-recorded tape as they suck, if you record your own on a good deck, it quite frankly will run in the same realm as vinyl records. Also, the quality of the system that its played on has material impact.

There are audiophile wannabes, there are audiophiles who are overrated and audiophiles who are followers.

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Oh very good take! I will notate that one for future use!!

@robertoney5665

15 күн бұрын

@@ThatGuyWithTheBeard use it as however you like.

How can I say no to cassettes when I still have a working Pioneer CT-M6R Six Cassette Player/Changer/Recorder! 😉

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Hahahaha right!

Never heard an 8-track?! You absolutely MUST bask in glory of the background noise from the other track bleeding through in reverse. Only real way to get the devil music rockin'. (So yeah, it suuuuuucked.)

I always chuckle when my "audiophile" friends put down cassette but then rip their vinyl to DIGITAL files?, 😂... Vinyl ripped to tape on good chrome tape and a good deck sounds closer to master tapes than vinyl does. Why back down an analog file to a digital

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

That is the conundrum!

@AT-wl9yq

15 күн бұрын

Where did you get the master tapes to make the comparison?

@MyNameIsKlaus

15 күн бұрын

@@AT-wl9yq I grew up in Los Angeles during the 70's and worked as a recording engineer for almost a decade... heard lots of master tapes... because I made them. Was fascinating to hear how those tapes translated to the vinyl and cd final products. In the end all the studios went digital recording... and the analog chain was broken. Newer digi recording devices are wayyyyyy better than those early ones though so it sounds much better nowadays.

But wait a Walkman Pro eat it those sound fantastic D6But it's cool they're actually manufacturing them thanks for the great video have a great day

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

15 күн бұрын

Thanks!

When you order ZZ Top from wish

@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

14 күн бұрын

Haha funniest comment of the day! Love it

I just bought over a hundred prerecorded tapes for well under a dollar each. All but 2 sounded fantastic. Many are on chrome tape with Dolby. I love my decks. Audiofiles, stay away. You won't hear those bat calls.