Gear / Technical Help > Playback Forum
Cassette resurgence
ts:
Since my cassette player is in good condition and has a playback azimuth adjust knob, I decided to purchase some new cassettes for giggles mostly. Quite a few releases to choose from, both new and old.recordings. Recent RSD's even have a few choices. Picked up the Motley Crue box set.
So anyway, here's a funny article: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/cassettes-comeback-sound-lousy/
Even though this guys an idiot, I have to agree with him somewhat. On new releases that is. The Crue box set sounds horrible. I picked up a new Billie Eilish cassette for my daughter and you can actually hear the needle drop on both sides. Pretty funny. Nevermind sounds good and the two Stones releases I picked up are decent. But, none of them come close to older commercial cassettes I have or anything recorded on blank tape. Too bad. This resurgence probably won't last because of this. Or maybe it will, since hipsters probably don't care about sound quality. :shrug:
guitard:
--- Quote from: ts on October 19, 2022, 09:27:27 AM ---Nevermind sounds good and the two Stones releases I picked up are decent. But, none of them come close to older commercial cassettes I have or anything recorded on blank tape. Too bad. This resurgence probably won't last because of this. Or maybe it will, since hipsters probably don't care about sound quality. :shrug:
--- End quote ---
I wonder if some (many?) of the sales are collectors just buying stuff to add to their "name the band" collection and they will never even know what the cassette sounds like (and thus don't care one way or the other).
mountainhop:
the few ive bought in last few years are poor quality
can make a better one with an xlII
it seems they are treating it as a novelty
rocksuitcase:
They talk about this a lot on tapeheads.net. Most of the take is similar to yours and the reviewers. Apparently, there are a few companies who are specializing in making High quality cassette releases, but mostly they are not. Here is one thread, but membership (free, moderated) is required to read most forums.
https://www.tapeheads.net/
Here is a link similar to yours
https://www.cassettecomeback.com/blogs/ruminations-about-the-hobby/the-real-cassette-comeback
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1dVcmYKfKo&t=1391s - video by same person
I have yet to buy any "newly produced" cassettes, BUT, have found a few original releases from the 1990's at flea markets etc for $.99 or so which all sound pretty good.
ts:
It's a shame the producers and manufacturers decided not to concern themselves with a quality product sound wise. Packaging is nice and original on these new releases, but it stops there. Like rocksuitcase I'll stick to flea markets and goodwill for any future purchases.
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