Cassettes still rock!

The Harmon Kardon late cassette decks shared a warm and dynamic sound like Tandberg.  I found the Nakamichi more reliable (serviced twice in 20 years) versus the constant problems with the Tandberg (and RR as well).  I used only top quality Maxell and TDK tapes, at the end metal in ceramic housing.  This is the way I created great sounding cassettes.  As to pre-recorded, I now remember that I have about 400 more pop cassettes in boxes that had either way too much hiss, or with Dolby B, lacking in highs/compressed highs.  Unacceptable. 

As to CDs having a litany of faults by geofkaitt, I don't know what the heck he is hearing except that my mastering engineer friends and audiophile friends (pardoning my analog LP only friends) get magnificent sound out of correctly mastered CDs.  Jazz and classical are particularly well remastered whereas rock has had a worse record.  A 1985 Kyocera 310 or 410 CD player is superior cassette players based on my experience in a high end system.  My 2 track 7.5 ips RR pre-recorded tapes from the 50's slaughter the cassette.  If a jazz or classical music CD fails to breathe/recreate natural ambiance either the mastering, player or both are inadequate.

fleschler
As to CDs having a litany of faults by geofkait, I don’t know what the heck he is hearing except that my mastering engineer friends and audiophile friends (pardoning my analog LP only friends) get magnificent sound out of correctly mastered CDs.

>>>>Everything is relative. If only you could hear what I’ve heard with your ears. And that goes double for your mastering engineer friends and audiophile friends!! 👯

One assumes by “correctly mastered CDs” you’re referring to the ones that aren’t in reverse polarity and aren’t overly compressed, which leaves what, about 15% of them? 😬

Next up, how to color cassettes. Please, no angry emails. 😡

I like the sound of cassettes as well. I have 30 of them, recorded on a Nak 500 deck (which was stolen by our movers! they knew what to steal :-). Right now, I am using a two-head Marantz deck with electronic control (touch buttons), headphone output, Dolby B/C, and a very quiet, smooth transport. My "affair" with cassettes began in my youth; at the age of 17, our family flew to Switzerland, and my father bought me (an expensive!) Sony Walkman. Mind you, this was 30 years ago, yet Sony used SMD's (Surface Mounted Devices - read Chips) and the build quality was exemplary. I remember listening to it (with equally superb headphones) for nights on end. BTW, I do not agree with some of the posters here about the quality of Denon's cassettes; mine had deteriorated badly over time. In my experience, TDK SA and That's cassettes are the best. BTW, anybody here can tell me what a new, unused TDK SA90 BLACK Limited Edition cassettes can fetch? I've got a few, maybe someone will be interested in buying them, but I don't know how much to ask for them.

BTW, anybody here can tell me what a new, unused TDK SA90 BLACK Limited Edition cassettes can fetch? I've got a few, maybe someone will be interested in buying them, but I don't know how much to ask for them.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=TDK+SA90+BLACK+Limited+Edition+cassettes+&_sacat=14962

Back when, i rarely used the Nakamichi deck to listen to cassettes--just to record for use in the car.  If sound quality degraded over time i just re-recorded the vinyl.  Now though, having lost so many vinyl albums in the flood, i have some cassettes that still rock--audiophile quality, no, but better than buying CD's of the same. Gotta agree with GK only i think the % of well recorded CD's is less than 15%.  Never jumped on the SACD train so those might be pretty good.  Pre-recorded cassettes were usually lousy because they used inferior tape but perfectly adequate in the car until auto makers got serious about road noise reduction.  Another issue with my cassettes:  the writing on the cases and tapes has faded so badly i don't know what's on them until i pop them in !