Old cassettes sound great

[loneryder]

I recently bought an 02 Jetta which has a cassette player in the dash. I found some old cassettes that I had recorded back whenever they were they rage. I plugged them in the radio and they sound awesome. Great fidelity. They were a high quality tape but it still surprises me how good they sound.
Don't throw your old cassettes away.ha

 

[FordBroncoVWJeta]

I prefer vinyl

Don't forget they make those cassettes that you can plug your phone/mp3 for around $10.

 

[aquariuscsm]

I totally agree. Imo,digital music sounds awful. It's weak,tinny,and has no warmth or punch. I'll play a record and a cd side by side (original vinyl album vs cd version of the same album) and the cd sounds weak. The record blows it away. Reel to reel tape is actually the best recorded format. Nothing digital will never match up to reel to reel tape.

 

[loneryder]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I totally agree. Imo,digital music sounds awful. It's weak,tinny,and has no warmth or punch. I'll play a record and a cd side by side (original vinyl album vs cd version of the same album) and the cd sounds weak. The record blows it away. Reel to reel tape is actually the best recorded format. Nothing digital will never match up to reel to reel tape.


+1

 

[ozric]

I remember reading an article written by a recording engineer many years ago who was asked why some early cd versions of albums sounded differently from the vinyl mix. Remember that when vinyl is pressed, the audio has been passed through a filter to attenuate the low bass frequencies, otherwise the size of the grooves needed to represent full level bass would be much larger and cut down on the LP running time. When listening through a phono input, the signal is passed through an RIAA filter to reverse this and bring the bass level back up to normal.

He said that many of the first cd's were made mistakenly from masters that had the filter RIAA filter applied to them, and since the cd signal is not routed through the reverse filter, it sounds like it is missing impact and punch. The people doing this were so used to hearing the signal this way that they did not notice, and there was a rush to push all these albums out on cd to get the most repeat sales, everyone wanted a cd version of their favorite album.

Years ago after buying a new turntable I recorded some old LPs and created some audio cd's. One was an old Police LP, and I noticed the songs on my version sounded much better than the version on the greatest hits cd. So I experimented and ripped the greatest hits version, applied a reverse RIAA filter in Audacity, and it sounded much closer to the version I had recorded off LP. So I think there may be something to that story. Later I bought a remastered version of the cd with that song, and it sounded identical to the vinyl version. So I think there is something to that story, and why so many early cd's sound so tinny.

 

[53' Stude]

I was at a yard sale this a.m. And got some 70's SEARS hand tools and 2 33vinyl Sanford&Son records. 50cents each

.


Listened to them on this that's circa 1967

 

[CT8]

CDs aren't the best sound quality.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Best friend has a high end 78rpm only turntable and played me an original press 1950's mint condition 78rpm Elvis Presley record. Literally sounded like you were right there in front of the stage at a live concert. The reproduction was INCREDIBLE!!

 

[eljefino]

Just "old masters" sound great. Aside from CDs being "too bright" when they first came out.

For example the "Made in Japan" Dark side of the Moon from 1983 ish is regarded as the best by Pink Floyd Fans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
/Loudness_war

Yeah, that's what I was going to mention, that plagues a lot of modern music. And sadly this has nothing to do with the recording medium.

 

[OilyWaterMIXER]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I totally agree. Imo,digital music sounds awful. It's weak,tinny,and has no warmth or punch. I'll play a record and a cd side by side (original vinyl album vs cd version of the same album) and the cd sounds weak. The record blows it away. Reel to reel tape is actually the best recorded format. Nothing digital will never match up to reel to reel tape.


If that is how you feel about digital, then your stereo sucks.

Always thought that vinyl was the choice of the audiophile purist, Sony Digital Audio Tape format had the true cassette quality of CD, and standard 16-bit Audio CD was so far ahead of its time that it still holds its own, from which other formats struggle to contain the high fidelity.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Digital music has it's place, but around the house I'll put a record on the Thorens turntable and listen to music the way it should sound.

 

[mjoekingz28]

It is weird how distortion can take you for a ride.


Excuse any ignorance, but think wow and flutter are the sparkles and pops of a cassette tape. It kind of lets the music sound full and authentic. While a CD can sound empty and leave you fiddling with the eq all day because it doesnt sound perfect.


Im a CD guy. Love em. Only negative to me is that they can skip in the car when the subwoofer pounds.


But for sound thru a quality source, amp and speaker system- cannot be best IMO.

Tapes just have somethng CDs cannot and I think the vinyl record guys are the same way. They grew up and invested themselves in vinyl and that is top dog to them.

 

[46Harry]

I still have a Denon cassette deck along with a Teac open reel deck and a Dual turntable with a Grado cartridge in my main sound system running through vacuum tube equipment which makes everything sound better to me including the CD player and FM tuner. The tubes take the rough edge off of the digital recordings making them sound a bit better. I have open reel tapes that I made 40 years ago that I still listen to and enjoy.

 

[aquariuscsm]

There's no digital audio source anywhere in existence that can match reel to reel tape or a vinyl album played though a vacuum tube amplifier. Analog will always blow away digital,after all,music BEGINS its life as analog sound.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: car51
I was at a yard sale this a.m. And got some 70's SEARS hand tools and 2 33vinyl Sanford&Son records. 50cents each

.


Listened to them on this that's circa 1967

I used to have a Motorola portable AM radio that looked a lot like that. Excellent sound it had.

 

[Schmoe]

Cassettes will eventually lose their magnetism over time. Also, most tapes in the past had some sort of iron coating on them, unless you used metal or chromium, which were really expensive back then, and the iron coating starts oxidizing over time. The tape heads will need to be cleaned a lot. I had a butt load of cassettes from the 80's that I just took to Goodwill. Kept having those problems and then the dreaded cassette "squeal." I guess someone like them because about two weeks later I went to the same Goodwill and they were all gone. I had a killer album collection, but the evil-witch step mother decided to simply throw them away after Dad passed, along with the Teac reel to reel and cassette deck, a Pioneer MM record player and a MC Dual belt drive record player, a mid 70's Fischer amp and a bunch of speakers......still wake up with cold sweats sometimes thinking about that.

 

[DBMaster]

I eventually just trashed all my cassettes. Most were CRO2 which I felt produced better recorded sound than normal bias and were a lot cheaper than "metal." Initially, I recorded all my LP's onto cassettes to play in the car. Later, I re-recorded a lot of the music from CD's, also to play in the car. Then I got a CD deck to replace the cassette deck in the 89 Accord. Once I got an MP3 player it was all over. For car listening it beat everything for convenience. Now, everything is on my phone and it can stream via Bluetooth to my Mazda's sound system.

In my mere 51 year lifespan I've had LP's, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD's, and now compressed music files. I can fit what used to take up a couple of shelves onto something a quarter of the size of a postage stamp. This is where technology really impresses me.

I had to trash the cassettes rather than selling them, BTW, because I had recorded them myself. I'm sure if I tried to sell them I'd be violating some copyright law.

 

[OilyWaterMIXER]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
I eventually just trashed all my cassettes. Most were CRO2 which I felt produced better recorded sound than normal bias and were a lot cheaper than "metal." Initially, I recorded all my LP's onto cassettes to play in the car. Later, I re-recorded a lot of the music from CD's, also to play in the car. Then I got a CD deck to replace the cassette deck in the 89 Accord. Once I got an MP3 player it was all over. For car listening it beat everything for convenience. Now, everything is on my phone and it can stream via Bluetooth to my Mazda's sound system.

In my mere 51 year lifespan I've had LP's, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD's, and now compressed music files. I can fit what used to take up a couple of shelves onto something a quarter of the size of a postage stamp. This is where technology really impresses me.

I had to trash the cassettes rather than selling them, BTW, because I had recorded them myself. I'm sure if I tried to sell them I'd be violating some copyright law.


Yes, I have experienced this progression as well. Just as long as some yahoo does not randomly smash and steal the radio. It does happen sometimes. With OEM head units less, but sometimes with those too.

Good ol' Normal/Chrome/Metallic cassettes. Metal were always supposed to sound the best, but my portable units (Walkman) seemed to have trouble playing them.

With streaming everything now, no matter if it is iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotlight, Pandora, Slackers.. The game has changed. Still love a good CD now and then.

 

[OilyWaterMIXER]

I recorded the radio a lot on deck similar to this. The digital meter was in db, the other was in VU or "Volume Units."