Is the Cassette Recorder Dead?

Oddly enough the cassette is still better than all these horrible sounding digital devices like MD, DCC, MP3, etc. I own one of kenwoods top of the line MD's and the flexibility is nice, but its bad digital-thin and anemic sounding. A good high quality cassette deck probably isn't a bad idea. They have made some advances in the analog arena that don't get much note these days: aside from Dolby S, pioneer's cassette decks digitally recalibrate the signal, there are more accurate mechanical/tape drives, better head material, and better tape formulations. Not to mention, regardless of the digital used, MP3 etc., you've got to worry about poor A/D convertors so that don't even get the maximum amount of info onto the inferior formats. Ya cassette is dead, but if depending on recording needs it may still be a good choice.

Ezmeralda I really got a shock recently when we tested Cassette Tapes made from LPs with CDs. The cassettes were clearly superior. Even with all the anomolies of cassettes, sonically there superior to CDs.

Most of the older car CD players and many existing players will cause "scuffing" of the CDs if you drive over a bad bump. My early Sony player did this alot. Now I have an Alpine model that doesn't seem to have this problem.

To steal a quote from Frank Zappa about jazz! I think the cassette recorder will come back if the RIAA is successful in getting its way. They do not want the new digital format to be consumer recordable. Chances are it won't be. So no SACD-R's or DAD-R's. We could still make CD-R's, I suppose but how long before CD's are no longer compatible in new players?

To be honest, I'm archiving old homemade cassette tapes onto CD-R's - with great sonic success, I should add. In many instances, my product sounds better than its corresponding commercial CD release!

Well, it maybe better than those items. However, it is not better than DAT or CDR. CDR is the replacement for cassette and does provide better performance as well as convenience.
Everyone owns a CD player and the next logical step in consumerism is to buy a CDR for all the obvious reason, as driven by the manufactures, archiving and sound! The king (cassette) is dead! Long live the king (CDR)!