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Cassette Sales Increase by 74% in 2016

The Comeback of the Cassette
 
This is funny cause not even a week ago I was wondering if I could still find blank cassette tapes anywhere.
 
This is distressing, since cassettes were never a medium good enough for fidelity even approaching that of the (good) vinyl of the day. No matter what the fancy tape formulation might be, 1 7/8 inches per second tape speed it far too low to avoid severe saturation problems, distortion and too much noise. Noise reduction devices have their own problems which in many cases is worse then the hiss.

I would go so far to say that even mp3 files can sound significantly better than cassette.

Cassettes may have been good enough for mix tapes to be listened to in the car (which I did while in college), but that's about their limit.

Maybe the hipsters will finally discover horses as a mode of transportation and we'll have to deal with massive horse shit.

People are insane.
 
Cassettes may have been good enough for mix tapes to be listened to in the car (which I did while in college), but that's about their limit.

I got pretty good results with higher-end blank tapes recorded from CDs on a Nakamichi tape deck back in the day.
 
I still agree that bringing back cassette tape is insane and completely pointless.
 
It serves an incredible purpose, but the tech sounded average when at its best and terrible the rest of the time. Like AM radio, it made it possible to hear the music we loved wherever we were.
 
8 tracks were the best. As if the terrible sound wasn't bad enough you would be enjoying a song and it would stop and have to switch sides. The song would then resume on the flip side. WTF!
 
It serves an incredible purpose, but the tech sounded average when at its best and terrible the rest of the time. Like AM radio, it made it possible to hear the music we loved wherever we were.

I just realized that, adjusted for inflation, those tapes I used back then would cost around $10/each and that Nakamichi tape deck would be over a grand. That is a hell of a lot of money to spend just to get something that sounded acceptable. Fortunately, I worked at a high-end audio store and didn't have to pay to use the Nak.
 
From one of the posted articles:

But why would anyone want to buy a cassette tape? It's never gotten love from audiophiles the way vinyl has. Nostalgia is one reason. Another? The manager of Anticon Records, Shaun Koplow, says cassettes force you to relax. "Cassette tapes demand that you're patient. You're not going to be skipping tracks as you would on your phone

A noble sentiment for sure.
 
I got pretty good results with higher-end blank tapes recorded from CDs on a Nakamichi tape deck back in the day.
I did the same thing. Used to play an album once to record it and then for everyday listening used the cassette rather than put wear on the vinyl.
 
I had a Studer cassette deck I picked up when a radio station in my town shut down that worked really damn well (it weighed a ton with a massive flywheel for the capstan). It also self-calibrated to whatever tape brand I wanted to use. I made copies of my favorite LPs in full (I didn't do mix tapes, though I did often fill the end of a tape with similar music as the LP I copied if there was space left). I only used the tapes when out and about - in the truck, with my Walkman, or whatever. When at home I listened to LPs or Reel-to-Reels.
 
I’d love to show a cassette to one of my kids....they’d have no clue what it was. If it weren’t for Blu-rays, they wouldn’t know what a CD was.
 
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