Cassettes.......pre-recorded and otherwise....

Cassettes are, believe it or not, making a small comeback recently with underground music and DIY musicians who have some recorded tracks that are not worthy of a vinyl pressing, or small labels that want to produce something on the cheap and easy. I've bought a few over the past couple years and found a Technics deck in good condition for $20 to play them on. I was surprised at how good they sounded. Smooth analog sound and plenty of headroom. Not as good with separation of notes and detail as vinyl but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I have to agree with Milanv, I once owned a Revox B215, that was freaking amazing. I had to struggle to hear the differnece between it, and my B77. Only on my Sony TC-755 could I easliy tell a difference, and that was in the bottom end. (sony goes down stairs like none other) Hence in a moment of stupidity sold the Revox. I am now using my calibrated Advent 201A to make tapes for background music when company is over. Surprising, it's a very respectable machine. Milav is also spot on with regard to the top Nak decks. I still use cassettes and enjoy their convenience. While I would never sit and 'seriously' listen, you may be stunned at what a well calibrated machine can do.

Try to contact 'Teresa' on AA. She's all over the higher-end pre-recorded cassettes.

At least she was recently-her format tastes seem to change on a whim.

I found a Nak deck that really blew my mind, using a Telarc Cassette I picked up in a thrift for .25 cents. The theory is that even cassettes, with all their issues, might still provide a more "liquid" sound than CD's with their inherent bandwidth limitations. (I'm quoting from the 'net, so take that FWIW.) I was very fond of the Slatkin/Barber survey on RCA and EMI but I didn't like the sound at all on CD, I like the sound on cassette. Considering that the deck was $10 and the casettes are often 4 for a dollar, you can't help but experiment. The Nak was the only player I found that still ran smoothly and had good bass and an soundstaging.