The Cassette Revival - So wrong on so many levels

So cassettes are becoming popular again. That's crazy. The cassette was a great convenience format, but terrible for sound quality. Cassettes have so many problems they should have been sealed in their death tomb, in a lead-lined coffin, six feet under for eternity, rather than rising zombie-like from the grave. Check out the Audio Masterclass Music Production and Sound Engineering Course at bit.ly/3W3tpKo
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[@SFtheGreat]

People aren't recording on cassettes for best audio fidelity, dude.

[@SFtheGreat]

@Nicholas “UltraHiQualityAudio” I meant that NOWADAYS people aren't recording cassettes for best possible quality. Not then, I know what was happening then, tape was the standard, studios recorded on 2", and cassette tape decks manufacturers were battling each other to deliver best audio quality, then there was the cassette types race, the pinnacle was reached by CT-95. People that are into cassette revival are well aware of all the things he's talking about, they aren't recording because the audio quality is better than CD, they are recording for fun, same reason why I'm recording VHS tapes.

[@samnicholson5051]

@Nicholas was there much in terms of any worse option for consumer level recordings in those days though that wasn't microcassette?

[@justagdplayer4665]

@Nicholas not true, cassettes were mostly for getting music you didnt have for way cheaper than buying a record or cd, especially the standard quality was way cheaper, you could copy music from your friends records or the radio. If you want good quality, that option was already there, vinyl or cd’s, but it’s expensive, definitely for a teenager

[@justagdplayer4665]

@Nicholas dude, you had vinyl, the best quality was already there, cassettes were cheap and you could easily copy music from friends or the radio, that’s the main point of cassettes. Theyre also very portable, so great for cars

[@tonydeniro284]

​@JustaGDplayer you tell em' DUDE, oh brother...

[@mvv1408]

People listen to cassette tapes because streaming music digitally is boring AF.

[@primtones]

If the music is jammin, the format doesn't matter.

[@UrOpinionsSucc]

@@primtones yes it does.

[@EmeraldPixelGamingEPG]

@@primtones Kind of does. Have you seen what happens to Cassettes after just a few years?

[@vasopel]

@@UrOpinionsSucc no it doesn't ;-)

[@vasopel]

@@EmeraldPixelGamingEPG no it doesn't, and what happens to cassettes after "just a few years" ?? :-O

[@primtones]

Young adults know we have no future, so we cling to the past.

[@EgoShredder]

Sure there are no logical reasons for using tape anymore, BUT despite their shortcomings I LOVE THEM! In my 40+ years of using cassettes, I have rarely run into the issues of tangling etc. Good choice of tape is key here and careful use of it, e.g. forwarding tape sides rather than reversing, to avoid bringing about spooling issues and later tangling. I've used cassettes for domestic use and for multitrack recording. There is no way I would return to using cassette for anything serious, but for casual purposes I occasionally use them as I just get pleasure from the format, in that its more mechanical and tactile than digital, which these days is just a computer with an SSD drive.

[@danijelujcic8644]

Fully agree. It's all about the experience and appreciation of where the technology has come from. I watch many Techmoan and Technology Connections videos on repeat.

[@EgoShredder]

@@danijelujcic8644 I'm a long-time subscriber of both, especially Techmoan, probably since 2011 at least, back when he only did dashcam videos. Also VWestlife is excellent too and very thorough in his approach.

[@johanpersson597]

Analog are soo mutch more fun than any digital source.With a good 3 head deck standard type 1 tapes can sound amazing.

[@WDeranged]

There is a fun aspect to it. Especially for gear nerds. Still, after six months of trying to love vinyl's surface noise I've given up and bought a CD player!

[@justagdplayer4665]

Although better equipment can make them sound better, but even at their peak they still sound bad

[@inglepropnoosegarm7801]

I suppose it depends whether you're looking for 'fun' (although I had very little of that using cassettes - and I had 3-head decks from Sony, Akai and Nakamichi) or to listen to music. For the latter purpose, cassettes are demonstrably awful.

[@Pete-eb3vo]

@@inglepropnoosegarm7801 If you have a Nakamichi tape deck, that is pure evidence that using Cassettes is bad for listening to music is complete utter rubbish.

[@examplify4248]

@@Pete-eb3vo Don't know where these guys get their tapes tbh. I recorded my owns and they all sound amazing through my system.

[@idontsmile666]

"A rubbish format" only when used wrong, my advice, use a well regarded tape recorded with at least dolby c on a good deck and play with all noise reduction off, bass at +1 and treble at +4. And tape 'tangling' can be avoided if you clean the machine every 10 hours of play and recording plus use demagnetiser to make lower the chance of it happening again.

[@darinb.3273]

Dolby B (also Dolby) and Dolby C are not compatible. Dolby C recordings without Dolby C switched in/on, have strange artifacts (noticeable breathing) as it is called with DBX noise reduction, however properly aligned DBX (mechanical alignment and electronic adjusted) it will like fool the most discerning listener. Commercially recorded tapes were largely Dolby (B) encoded because the only noticeable difference was a slightly elevated treble response on equipment without Dolby circuitry. Dolby C does have a better noise level reduction, however if the azimuth alignment is off by even a tiny amount it sounds very, very strange. Even Dolby B on a machine with slightly misaligned heads would sound like you had pillows over your ears. Worn tape heads can also cause total Dolby failure as desirable listening. This is extremely noticeable on Dolby C, the best way to describe it is like someone attempting "live" adjustment of the treble control turning it up on stronger treble and down when the trebles go softer or disappear (over amplified breathing) as it were.

[@jacekschneider4686]

Recorded using dolby c and played without? your recorder was broken. Dolby C chips were least compatible between varius manufacterers. Dolby B and S were more interchengable

[@christinejames5697]

You can demagnetise a machine by setting record pause and unplugging it. B&O decks automatically demagnetise themselves. I love the format and have NEVER had a tape jam. I’m 70+

[@robguitarwizard]

Cassettes are not hurting anyone.

[@UrOpinionsSucc]

Exactly, using cassettes and recording onto them is a hobby, nothing more. A fun hobby we all enjoy.

[@drkastenbrot]

You are criticising it from a technical point of view, seeing it as just the medium it is. But the appeal is something different, its a wildly different experience to use cassettes, brings people back a couple decades and what would objectively count as flaws in the quality can be very pleasing to listen to. I like the cassette sound. I dont mean to say I prefer it over digital audio, I just like it.

[@mudi2000a]

I grew up with them and dropped them as soon as possible. I started ripping all my CDs in the late 1990s and after that hardly used any analog media. Never understood the appeal. CDs or even vinyl, fine. But cassettes, who does not hate the stupid winding? At least I did and that was enough to let me use a discman instead of a walkman once they were affordable even though it sometimes skipped.

[@UrOpinionsSucc]

Cassette tapes are fun and have a lo-fi sound we all love and enjoy, we will always enjoy it no matter what. We don't care about the sound quality. It's Lo-Fi for a reason, and Lo-Fi is a bop nowadays. Plus reel to reel isn't portable nor compact, so yeah...i never had any of my tapes tangle up or any problems at all..the heads on all my decks are clean, very clean. I clean them daily. And this is all coming from a young 26 year old who has knowledge of how cassette tapes work..and i use spotify as well, best of both worlds homie.

[@alanh8863]

Spotify is the definition of Lo-FI. A properly recorded quality cassette in a quality deck is anything but Lo-Fi.

[@UrOpinionsSucc]

@@alanh8863 well that's what most call it these days, but i agree. Still, my decks are of great quality and the recordings i've made sound much more dynamic and wide. I just love the sound!

[@samnicholson5051]

There were portable reel to reels. Nagra made ones that used for on-location sound. A bit harder and more expensive to come by though.

[@mudi2000a]

Despite all the shortcomings I don't agree that cassettes are Lo-Fi. At least not the equipment that I had. Well yeah there was the noise but it did not bother me that much. But same as you, I never ever had any issues with tape tangling. Even on the crappiest recorders. However, in any case I always preferred the CD sound, we had a CD player as early as 1986. So physical media is cool but my favorite is the CD, especially with those nice booklets which you had. And they are close to unbreakable.

[@louiloui2955]

Allways when people talk about cassettes they talk about noice but I have been using cassettes as long as I remember and I have never been bothered by noice on a cassette that is recorded properly. I was less than ten years old when I figured out that the way to reduce the noice in my cassette recordings was by simply shout louder or speak closer to the microphone. Analog cassette noise is a pleasant noice and it is only hearable when the signal is low. Like if you hear crickets and a train passes by, can't hear the crickets then cause the train is so loud, signal kills noise! Don't be a silly audiophile that is bothered by analog tape noise in between songs and don't record on silly record levels. For us punks listeneing to hardcore the noice removed by the signal. If you don't understand the relationship between noice and signal, don't talk about it. I don't use dolby because the best noice reducer is loudness!

[@amplifier2]

I totally agree. It‘s a consumer format and was never meant to be used for professional purposes. No reason to hate it though.

[@ericbuhman5243]

The cassette always remembers where I was in the recording

[@bradleyjamieson7718]

I grew up with cassettes and recently got back into them. The appeal is that they aren't easy. In a world of instant media where everything is NOW NOW NOW and super convient they're a breath of fresh air. I can hold a tape, I don't need a subscription or an Internet connection, I can push the metal buttons and hear them clunk, the plastic tape rattles, see the spools rotate. It's connecting to music by disconnecting from the ethereal world of streams and virtual data.

[@meursault7030]

Digital music doesn't have satisfying thunky buttons and doesn't go ka-chunk when you close the door. I have a Chopin tape that's so wobbly and slow that it sounds completely unlike the original and it's beautiful. Spooky, melancholic and eldritch. I only buy certain kinds of music on cassette: Quiet, dark blue nighttime music that's actually enhanced by degradation. The perfect example being my advance copy of She Hangs Brightly by Mazzy Star, or Into The Night by Julee Cruise. A mixtape as a gift is so much more personal and intentional than making someone a playlist.

[@pietermol8508]

A rubbish format? Well, you're most welcome at my place, where I will prove that you cannot hear the difference between a CD and a recording of it on cassette in a double blind test, and we will post the test in a KZbin video. And I will do it using a rust-based cassette.

[@AudioMasterclass]

With your high-quality cassette deck, which I presume is cleaned, demagnetised, and aligned to perfection, I would probably fail your test, unless of course I noticed the noise. If cassettes could always perform to the very best of their ability I'd have no problem with them, other than the noise. But that isn't the real world. The real world, other than for the truly dedicated audio enthusiast, is as I described in the video. But if you're enjoying your cassette experience, as many of my commenters are, good luck to you. I'm not going to take your cassettes away. DM

[@jacekschneider4686]

You are wrong, young person would pickup difference with ease, tapes are very bad medium above 10khz even with best hardware you could buy

[@UrOpinionsSucc]

Cassette tapes have no point. We enjoy them cause recording onto tape and collecting them is a hobby, nothing more. Not everything has to have a point. We love cassette tapes, there's no point, it's just a fun hobby. Same with Vinyl Records.

[@BigKelvPark]

If you think that Nakamichi Dragon is the pinnacle of cassette technology, you are quite clearly mistaken.

[@AudioMasterclass]

Thank you for watching so far into the video. I mentioned Nakamichi because I knew someone who had one (but not the Dragon) and it was clearly light years ahead of other cassette decks. So if you know what out-Dragons the Dragon, in seriousness, please let us all know. DM

[@peacearchwa5103]

@@AudioMasterclass ReVox, Tandberg, Bang & Olufsen made decks which rival Nakamichi.

[@vasopel]

and what was the price of those other "pinnacles of cassette technology" ?

[@cainabel2553]

I remember my different cassette players not running at the same speed.

[@MrGhostown81]

I would like to see a debate about cassettes between this guy, Techmoan, VWestlife, and OddityArchive. That should be fun.

[@AudioMasterclass]

I love Techmoan's videos but I'd run a mile before having to work with that old technology again. The other two I'll have to check out. A debate? I wouldn't rule it out. DM

[@patryk4727]

@@AudioMasterclass I never had cassette player and turntable. I always had cd's. I recently bought both and I love old technology. I always buy same album on tape, vinyl and cd (I think I made only 3 playlists in my whole life and listen to it maybe once I'm usually listen to albums from begining to end). I love this old tech for what it is. I also have Tidal account but I'm using it mostly when friends are at my place or I'm fixing something so I won't have to stop when cd/tape/vinyl ends. I bought a reel to reel player also but pre recorded reels are really hard to get and crazy expensive. I don't even say somethings sounds bad or not it in most cases sounds different (like with a girls some find one attractive other not). Also sometimes when record is too "perfect" by engeenering standards it starts to sound wierd. I'm playing guitar and after few years I can tell one thing: music is anything but perfect and I think that can be one of the reasons why people tend to favour imperfections in older formats (and switching off dolby ;) ).

[@pimianimavdo1523]

I might be crazy (for listening until the end) but indeed, I really like the compact audio cassette format/technology. A) Awesome for making cool audio mix (45 minutes per side of SuperMix -DJ Style from 2 Technics TT) to listen in car, at friends, etc... B) Smaller than LP to cary around in a shirt pocket when going in car or to a friend's place. C) Dolby HX-Pro and (imho) dbx (to Pump up the volume while killing noise) was Super nice to use on a good unit with proper 3 motor, clean dual capstan & proper pinch rollers & with proper azimut set-up. D) Double-Speed dubbing of Mixed music tapes for friends to share some tunes. E) NAKAMICHI Dragon, TEAC V900, Pioneer CT-F700... All Great and fun music devices for home enthousiast in the 80's and 90's. F) FUn format for long car trips with my own transfers and/or music selection/Mix. And also, of course I would clean the heads and the transport system... not doing so would have been heresy. ;) Then again, maybe I am crazy ;) Cheers! PS Do I miss cassettes? Nope. PPS Do I use them today? Nope. But it was fun while it lasted.

[@TerryClarkAccordioncrazy]

Back in the 80s we'd find tape tangled around roadside plants where someone had thrown a chewed up cassette out of a car and it'd got smashed up by the traffic and blown in the wind.

[@marknewkirk4322]

You didn't mention another of my pet peeves with cassettes and reel-to-reel as well. You can't quickly and easily access a particular part of the music - a song or a movement. Even the beginning of side B requires fast-forwarding your tape. It was not a good medium for music theory or history lectures for this reason, unless you made your own cassettes with everything recorded in the order you wanted to present. The only thing I used cassettes for back in the day was to have copies of my own music in the car.

[@metaljoe9088]

Cassettes are the best if you play it on a nakamichi decks

[@lights80088]

I think it was Nakamichi, who had the cassette deck that rotated the cassette (it had a bulged out door for clearance) instead of manually taking it out and flipping the tape to the other side. I was amazed when showed how it worked. They believed it was better than having the tape head move.

[@simonzinc-trumpetharris852]

And they cost a fortune.

[@AntiFreeze202]

I appreciate that there are people who see no point in using cassettes, that's totally fine. But why push that opinion on other people who are taping for pure enjoyment? This not even mentioning the practice of abusing a non-linear recording medium to reveal its own unique artifacts and peculiarities, which is a big thing in the lo-fi, avant garde, or musique concrete scenes. Brian Eno, William Basinski, etc. I just don't feel like any of the things you mentioned are the reasons why people who use cassettes, use cassettes. If you don't want to use cassettes, then simply continue not using them and those who like using them will carry on using them. It is true that there were a lot of bad sounding boom boxes and cheapo cassette decks, but it is also true that there were many very very good cassette decks that with Dolby noise reduction engaged, a blind listener would be hard pressed to tell the difference. People like the ritual of it, nothing wrong with that. Just my opinion.

[@UrOpinionsSucc]

I mean there is no point, it's a fun hobby.

[@vasopel]

people need to realize that music is just...music...regardless of the format. all those other channels on YT that are just making videos to please the trends don't care about the music... they make stupid videos about audio cassettes and other audio formats just for the views and the money.

[@tertia4808]

With advent of digital audio I found that over time I went from listening to music on HiFi with turntable & cassette deck through good floor standing speakers to iPod or iPhone with poor headphones (I very rarely use earbuds) or or PC with poor speakers (even worse - phone or iPad speakers). The convenience & portability of digital audio playback devices meant I was listening to more music but in casual ways - I had lost discipline of listening to HiFi music playback in a listening room with HiFi equipment.

[@kevinhansford3929]

The main selling point for cassette tape for me was it was the only format that that wouldn't skip when negotiating potholes in my old mini back in the day

[@saintmichael1779]

I am an old guy, too. He wants to be curmudgeonly, and boy he is. No matter which you prefer (vinyl records, tapes, CD's, mp3's, spotify or whatever), they are all of them have their good points and bad. You'd think he would realize this by now...

[@JamesMaximilianJason]

Everything is relative from an historical point of view, ok. Everything has its good and bad points, partially agreed. But since portable CD players were put on the market, I couldn't see any good point in using cassettes in 2021, unless you want to listen to some 60's/70's/80's album, not having its vinyl version. Their only good point was portability in fact. They remind me how much I was fed up with hissing, micropitch-issues, tangling, fluttering and background noises back in the day, before CD's were released. CD's were a huge kick in the *ss to the lo-fi cassette universe and I can't grasp the reason to rewind the tape (pun intended) of history.

[@phantomguard71]

@@JamesMaximilianJason , yes, but just because you don't see the reason behind it doesn't mean you have to belittle the people who do, like this guy and many others like him do. It's a hobby. It doesn't need to have a point. People still go fishing when you can get fish at a supermarket, What's the point in that? There isn't one. It's just something they enjoy.

[@JamesMaximilianJason]

@@phantomguard71 I got what you mean but he's an audio engineering teacher and he gave his opinion as an expert, not as an amateur/hobbyist. Amateurs can do whatever they want because, as you said, their only aim is fun. Nonetheless when you're young and you want to approach audio engineering, you should be aware that the "whatever you do is good until you think so" rule does not apply to music industry. Industrial bands, synthwave artists release their albums on cassettes ? Great, it could be a great artistic choice. Music lovers enjoy cassettes ? why not. New-born audio engineers can release their mix/master on cassettes ? No, nobody would do it, unless they have to follow a specific request from their client.

[@gianlusc]

All of these technical reasons are fair points, but what is irreplaceable about cassettes is their physicality. They do exist in the real world. They last a lifetime, they can be recorded. They are personal, mesmerizing when looked at playing. Very few of those technical points matter to most of the people that buy cassettes. Which however can sound remarkably good with a proper equipment even if they are type I. We are human beings. We don't necessarily seek always perfection all the time.

[@8bitBarry1]

Let’s also consider the endless plastic trash and environmental manufacturing costs that both cassettes and CD (from your other video) as well as vinyl and other nostalgia generate. That’s a high price to pay. As an owner of all formats from the last 40 years, I have to say there’s little point in all this any more, when digital technology can create such masterful results . Don’t get me wrong, I love to have artwork and tangible media in my hand, I have made mix tapes on cassette and DAT and reel to reel, but I feel it’s now my responsibility to let this go. I’m not selling my collection, but I feel need to act responsibly these days.

[@ML-bu3lz]

How often will you replace your wireless router and your iPhone ?

[@tonydeniro284]

Oh please, give the environment sh*t a rest already....

[@tonydeniro284]

Do you breathe air? Well then you yourself are a pollutant...you know, that nasty carbon dioxide that AOC talks about?

[@Luthiart]

Cassettes had their place and time. Back in the day, all we knew was that they beat 8-tracks, and you can't play records in your car. Also, before CDs were a thing, I bought mostly vinyl and recorded my albums onto high-quality cassettes, so as to minimize wear on my records. Yeah. we knew the sound quality wasn't as good as vinyl, but it was good enough. We were also aware of the limitations (and annoyances) of the medium, but it was an acceptable trade-off for convenience and cost. However, wanting to go back to that today just doesn't make any sense. I think anybody who wants a cassette revival must be too young to have ever owned a cassette (or even a CD for that matter), and just dig it simply because it's "retro".

[@AlanJEdmonds]

Cassettes were good in cars. The poorer dynamic range helped in the noisy environment, and it was nice to instantly resume playback from where you left off. I used them for many years but I got rid of all mine before the revival. I’ll never go back.

[@petercreed2539]

Using a Nakamichi deck and TDK AR you get great recordings cleaning the heads and pinch wheels is needed

[@jacekschneider4686]

Tdk AR is a great example for great sounding nonstandard and not at all TYPE I tape... Tapes should be at least compatible for the format to survive...

[@peterw1213]

Nice rant....Entertaining and true Still I just revived my old cassette deck and even bought another used Akai GX-95 Master Reference cassette deck with lots of NOS blank tapes. Spotify, Apple Music ??? Naaahhhh....PASS. New stuffs today don't lasts as vintage audio equipments built for quality instead of low production costs.

[@hifi.david.]

Cassettes are my favourite format compared to vinyl, i have a duel capstan 3 head 3 motor akai deck and its one of the best sounding decks ive owned

[@martincosby9743]

Hang on! I really enjoy both my old cassettes, and also recording new ones... I like the whole process, from finding old stock chrome blank tapes, playing with recording levels and so on, and creating a wonderful analogue-sounding end result. But it helps to have a decent tape deck. I have a Revox B215 and the results I get from recording are more or less indistinguishable from the source. I say almost, because I find that the tapes have a wonderfully old-fashioned sound which often suite the music. It is a very relaxing and satisfying hobby

[@UberPilot]

My DRAGON will crush most CDs.

[@macronencer]

About a decade ago I bought a Denon hifi cassette deck from eBay for £50 (it sold for £400 when it was released!) The only reason was so that I could archive a lot of tapes of performances by bands I'd been in, and other personal stuff. But I spent quite a long evening cleaning it all up with IPA and demagnetising etc. I didn't have the technical skills to do azimuth alignment so I don't know whether that's OK, but given that the tapes are pretty rough and ready anyway, it's not terribly important. To test that it all worked, I grabbed the first commercial tape to hand, which happened to be a copy of Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds - oddly enough, the very first thing I ever heard on CD :) It was a Chrome tape and had survived the ravages of time very well, so I thought it would be a good test. I have to say that to my ears (which are not razor-sharp like those of an audio engineer) it sounded fantastic! Perhaps not as good as a CD, but it took me by surprise because I'd forgotten how good cassettes can sound under favourable conditions. I'm not saying I prefer them, quite the opposite (I'd never buy music on cassette now), but I wanted to share this memory because I think it's amazing how much brilliant engineering went into making the best of a rather limited technology (as you of course mentioned at the end of the video). I was impressed. I still have the Denon deck, just in case I want to do any more archiving, perhaps for other people. I also have an MT120S four-track with dbx on it, as I had some old Portastudio tapes too - and I've kept that around as well... again, just in case!

[@teashea1]

always enjoyable to listen to your presentations ............. I must confess that I purchased a new cassette deck two years ago ------ fun to occassionally use but not for the sound quality.

[@stevengagnon4777]

One more reason....this revival has priced me out of the marketplace...I thought at least the cassette media would never come back and I could replace my very high miles JVC DD-7 with another for a hundred bucks ...well even less. Also I was getting all the tape I needed at the St Vincent dig and save. I just liked the sound of compressed digital files recorded and then played back on cassette. It was fine for work and listening to my portable in the car I was living in. I had a record player at work too. But 45 minutes of tape was perfect for pacing my self as a bicycle mechanic.

[@jdraven0890]

I have a late 1970s era Pioneer cassette deck. When it worked, it was brilliant. I've been inside it twice to replace all the belts, and realized that its mechanism relies on the most astounding precise bit of friction between a rubber roller and a plastic disc behind each reel. This perfect balance has proved impossible to achieve, decades later. Further, as noted in this video there are SO many tolerances and settings that have to be right to get a cassette deck back in working operation. I'm sure someone could repair it for me, but it simply isn't worth it just to play tapes again. I say this as someone who loved the format back in the day and resisted switching to CDs until 1997.

[@AudioMasterclass]

I'm guessing then that my Pioneer cassette deck from the late 1970s that's now in my attic won't work either. DM

[@jdraven0890]

@@AudioMasterclass Sadly, probably not. One belt had already broken, and it was in a garage without cool or heat for some years. When I went it to replace the belts, the main one on the flywheel was nothing but black goo that took forever to remove. After a second belt replacement, it still won't start playing a tape. It probably isn't sensing the proper resistance at the drive wheel, and as I noted probably never will again without a professional shop working on it.

[@K2teknik.]

@@AudioMasterclass Most likely it will not work, and the same for turntable, reel-to-reel. VHS, BetaMax and all other devices that are mechanically operated, everywhere you have friction and lubrication then you just have to change these now and then, and parts are not accessible today, god help you to find alternative fiction materiel and lubrication. I use to repair old cassette-decks and turntables, but when I ran out of special grease and oil then that business halted.

[@ericbuhman5243]

I agree completely with every point made here. I also still love my inferior JVC KD-V44 cassette deck and all the other tape decks I own. I enjoy watching the sound being taken from a physical medium that can be seen in motion. And I agree, it isn’t as good as digital. I like that. I know the author is speaking about the recent cassette revival, but as for me, I never have left the medium and was pleasantly surprised to see them return for, likely, the reasons mentioned in this video.

[@ReasonablySane]

Cassettes were awesome back in the day. I had a good deck and would buy an album and record it on one side of a 90 minute TDK SA tape. And those tapes were VERY close to the album in sound quality but could also be played in my car. I had a Sony TC 30 auto reverse deck in 1970 while all my friends had 8-Track. So it had a great value add for me personally and definitely sounded a LOT better than my friends' systems. Now, the resurgence of Tape is just part of the nostalgia craze started with LP's, and fueled by people missing the physical interaction with the world in a digital age. Since the one advantage of tape, being able to take it with you, is destroyed by digital, it's just a novelty this time. It adds little value, really. This will be short lived. Sell your vintage gear and tapes while everyone wants it! :) At least vinyl has the art, the higher sound quality, the "old school vinyl experience", etc. Tape is just, well, antique. It may return, but only briefly. I have hundreds of cassettes, but only because I don't throw stuff away. I occasionally listen to them from a nostalgia perspective, but that's about it. It is cool to slap a tape into my old Pioneer CT-F1250 while enjoying scotch with friends in the mancave, but that's mainly why I keep it around. I used to sell those decks when they were brand new. They were not the best sounding, but they were very cool looking. And today, that's what counts. If you want just good sound and nothing else, go digital. But the human brain is an interesting instrument of its own. All that nostalgia stuff matters. The handling of tapes, the marveling at how they work, etc. is all part of the experience. Heck, that's why people go camping, even though a nice hvac system, full kitchen, and nice soft bed awaits at home. :D

[@scottcortez1313]

they are still awesome

[@Noone-of-your-Business]

There were only a few redeeming qualities to compact cassettes: recording, taking your music along, and being _the only affordable system to do just that at the time._ All of these 3 qualities have long since vanished into thin air and cannot be brought back by any amount of wishful thinking. How I _hated_ the tape salad that some machines made of my precious recordings, and how I longed for better audio quality. I _did_ love the music I listened to and was grateful for the fact that I _was_ able to listen to it, but that never stopped me from wanting more quality. A desire that has, I am glad to say, been fulfilled by the incredible advances of audio tech in the last few decades. Which makes it so weird that people today would want to wish themselves back to the time of outhouses and oil lamps just for the nostalgia.

[@vasopel]

hear hear!

[@phaenius]

This old fellow can't hear hiss anyway, so why bother? People, especially people passed a certain age talk about systems, formats, quality of sound and so on, but they forget and omit one simple aspect: hearing degrades over time and when you are old, you don't hear so many details.

[@75eszhgclk]

Cassette tape, oh dear, where should I begin? The biggest problem I can remember is azimuth differences which cassette tape is unforgiving of due to the low speed and extremely narrow tracks. Excellent video.

[@9Dunk]

Cassettes had two redeeming features, portability and the ability to play them in your car. They were a heck of a lot easier to carry with you than LPs. Even significantly into the CD era, with a car having a CD player, I still used cassettes for car listening because of the skipping issues (which were solved) and the ability to make mix tapes (also solved with the availability of CD-R/RWs). Otherwise, they were terrible for all the reasons enumerated in this video.

[@EdwinDekker71]

Having recorded on a cassette 4 track for years I say *burn all cassettes with fire*.

[@tc-netherlands5331]

I love the magic of tape compression and tape saturation. I own a Tandberg tcd 310 MKII cassetteplayer and the sound is incredible. I love the sound much more than spotify streaming service. And the Tandberg sounds way much better then my Revox B77 MKII reel-to-reel machine. So I am going to sell my expensive Revox and will continue recording on my cheap Tandberg cassetteplayer.

[@StringerNews1]

Actually Dolby noise reduction used companding to achieve a modest noise reduction, by compressing the dynamic range while recording, then expanding on playback. Ray's first system, Dolby A, was available as add-on equipment for professional tape recorders, and did need to be aligned for proper playback. IIRC, Dolby A was a 2-band system. Dolby B was a simpler single band version that was only available in integrated circuit form for incorporating into consumer cassette recorders. Whereas professional open reel machines had continuously variable bias and EQ settings to allow adjustment for many different kinds of tape, Compact Cassette relied on a small number of tape formulations being consistent, and the use of _switches_ to select the correct tape type. The built-in IC was able to get the right levels without user intervention. Dolby C was like the A version, but only for cassette machines. It was somewhat backwards compatible in that Dolby C encoded tapes could be played back on Dolby B machines with good results. Dolby S was the final and best system for cassettes. It had 3 bands of companding IIRC. Dolby SR was the pro version of Dolby S, with 4 bands of companding. Like Dolby A, it was available as add-on equipment. There were other companding systems, like dbx, that featured 2:1 compression across all frequencies. But any nonlinearity led to pumping and breathing. Dolby's system was unique (and patented!) in that it worked on specific frequency bands, and with varying intensity. This helped eliminate the pumping and breathing, but at the cost of less overall noise reduction. Sadly, the Dolby chips are no longer available, and new consumer tape machines are unable to record or play back Dolby encoding. And without NR, even the Nakamichi Dragon would be a let-down. I remember finding a switch to remove the 19 kHz pilot tone from FM stereo broadcasts--it was wishful thinking on that '70s vintage Nakamichi.

[@daleharper5361]

Yes, I aligned and cleaned the heads on my Nakamichi RX-505 weekly and my Yamaha cassette, Teac & Uher reel to reels. Was interested in what tapes frequency range graph looked like.

[@monzarace]

While you have a lot of points for all the formats you mentions, I have to say it's not about finding faults. It's about enjoying the music. To listen for faults only, is a misrepresentation of listening to music. It's not the same. Interesting subject. Thanks for sharing.

[@waltrohrbach2459]

must be the gimmick factor, i still enjoy the quality and convenience of digital, after the decades of analog. Though i was cleaning heads and demagnetize them on a regular basis on the cassette deck, as well as the teac 4 track reel to reel i had. Correct Dolby B was never used as it mostly dampened high frequencies in my ears, Dolby C was quite a bit better in a later deck, but with metal tape i found it good enough without any noise reduction compression. Thx for the vid, brought back memories, or was it memorex?

[@phrtao]

The thing people always seem to forget about the cassette format is that an important part of the playback mechanism is distributed with each tape you buy. To keep costs down this is inevitably going to be made as cheaply as possible. This feature alone lets down the whole format.

[@AudioMasterclass]

The pressure pad being the worst, but then pressure pads were always bad in reel-to-reel too. DM

[@johnbull5394]

I had some Superpila tapes. They were awful magnetic tape with a welded box. My father used to sell them so I'm assuming they were some special kind of cheap. To reduce noise, the tiny rollers were not rollers at all and, instead, the tape was dragged over low-friction, chrome-plated, stationary "rollers" and the whole cassette is welded solid rather than screwed shut. This worked well (although they never sounded great) until eventually an oxide layer built up and friction increased to the point that the tape either jams or activates the player autostop mechanism. The pressure pads were in a class of their own and, instead of being felt glued to a spring, were solid springy felty material. Sometimes this came loose and had to be returned to its original position. I still have at least 4 Superpila 'low noise' tapes. Two have been cut open, cleaned, and reassembled loosely. One tape was removed from the casing and fitted inside another cassette. One is still in its original welded casing. I don't play them very often, though they can be very entertaining. Nothing wakes you up like a cassette repair at a service station halfway through a long drive, though bolting a loose exhaust back on comes close...

[@ThaVoodoo1]

I am on the fence with this one. A three head direct drive Tape Deck with Dolby S, HX-Pro, low wow and flutter 0.3% or bellow is bloody good when used with TDK MA-XG, MA-R & MA-XG90 cassettes. Dynamic Range: Dolby S provides a dynamic range of up to 100 dB for high-quality audio recording and playback. Noise Reduction: Dolby S reduces the tape hiss and other types of noise by up to 10 dB. Frequency Response: The frequency response of Dolby S is 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which covers the entire range of human hearing. THD+N: The Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise (THD+N) of Dolby S is less than 0.5%, that is pretty good considering on average a vinyl record THD+N is typically in the range of 0.1% to 3%, depending on the specific recording and playback equipment used. Signal-to-Noise Ratio: The Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of Dolby S is up to 85 dB, this surpasses vinyl which is 65 to 80 dB. Crosstalk: The Crosstalk of Dolby S is less than -70 dB. Biasing: Dolby S requires a specific biasing technique called "High-frequency bias," which is used to optimize the noise reduction and frequency response.

[@jacekschneider4686]

85db for dolby s is max you can achieve but if your ears are good you can easily pick up noise through a music signal, it is noise modulated, tapes are 2x too slow and 2x too narrow, unfortunately

[@johnbull5394]

You forgot about the ghostly echo of loud sounds about half a second out from the actual recorded loud sound. This is most noticeable on audiobooks. I can only assume that the wrapped tape ends up magnetising the adjacent section of tape and imprinting an echo? I still use cassette tape on occasion. Some albums I only have on tape and I don't want to buy further copies on another format; I use tapes in my van; finally, it's the only home-recordable recording format I can connect to my hifi speakers. I agree it has its limitations and if people are buying new pre-recorded cassettes, then that sounds very strange indeed to me!

[@AudioMasterclass]

I don't think I forgot about it, I just don't think I've been troubled by it. Reel-to-reel tape definitely can suffer from print through but I guess that the other degradations of cassette often mask it. I'll consider the topic when I update this video.

[@johnbull5394]

Mine wasn't a serious criticism. Sorry if it came across that way. I just thought it was an interesting quirk.@@AudioMasterclass

[@DanielQwerty]

The frequency response is bad compared to digital and CD, but how did they even get an OK response with 1 7/8 IPS? That's terribly slow for how decent they sound.

[@AudioMasterclass]

What was achieved by cassette in the high end was massively better than the format was ever intended for.

[@davespagnol8847]

I've often wondered about buying a cassette player. Note, not recorder. With a view to getting back some old cassettes which I put in my brother's loft when my first marriage broke up. Back in the day I had a Kenwood cassette deck which had auto-bias. It was tuned to TDK-SA tapes, but the auto-bias tuned it to the cheaper TDK-SF tapes, and, honestly, as long as I used the auto-bias I could record without Dolby, and not hear the hiss normally associated with cassettes. What I recorded was the BBC Radio One in concert programs. As most of this was rock music interspersed with audience applause, I'd probably have been hard pressed to hear any hiss in any case. I used to back up CDs and Vinyl onto cassette to play in an AIWA walkman (which I don't have any more). So, as with vinyl, I would like to play my old cassettes, but, honestly, I would never buy them pre-recorded even then. So I guess that, overall, I agree with you.

[@nelsonnichols922]

Cassettes were OK in their time for their purpose. I never purchased a pre-recorded cassette. I would however, when buying a new record often record it on the cassette then I could play the cassette without wearing out the record also, as mentioned in the video, it was excellent for grabbing copies of friends records For those purposes and have to a portable playback option the cassette was fine in it’s day, but now there are so many better options. It’s kind of hard to understand Cassette revival other than to playback existing tapes.

[@Pete-eb3vo]

What you have is more convenient options. That doesn't automatically mean that they are better for sound reproduction. Good quality decks are capable of brilliant sound that is not limited by speculative bits and mandatory resolution that cuts off further frequency response.

[@meilstone]

I remember untangling cassette tape to be a rather meditative activity. 😊

[@elk3909]

the tape type switch doesnt change alignment it changes the resistor that is in parallel with the feedback capacitor in the preamp opamp circuit. the tape preamp circuit has a large resistor usually between 100k and 820k between the output and inverting pins of the opamp this is also in parallel with a capacitor in series with a resistor that determines how high the lowpass filter is tuned since the lower frequencies have to be boosted more than the higher frequencies during playback

[@elk3909]

maybe ill make a video about how my cassette preamps work and why more than 1 stage is required. even sony only uses 1 stage and this leaves a high pass filter like effect below 100 hertz and even more below 20 hertz

[@AudioMasterclass]

I’m reel-to-reel rather than cassette but I would have expected similar things to apply… time constant, level, EQ, bias. If all that’s happening is, as it seems from your comment, a change in time constant then I would suggest that this deck isn’t getting the best out of the cassette medium. DM

[@elk3909]

i also run my cassettes at high speed during recording and playback as this fixes alot of the cassette tape problems. a type 2 at 3x speed will have just as good sound as a metal tape.type 1s still have bad hiss at high speed but the frequency response is much better. i use a modded sony 3 head deck so that the speed is changeable for recording and i use a tape player i built with a 3 stage preamp for lower frequency extension for playback.

[@elk3909]

im just getting ready to build another tape player that will run on a 6S lithium battery instead of 4s like the one i made last time so it will have more voltage for the output power amp for more power.the power amp will be two TDA2050 monoblocks

[@elk3909]

@@AudioMasterclass i would also go with reel to reel but they are hard to carry around

[@MikeDS49]

You forgot player belts turning to tar, speed adjustment that can change with temperature and over time, moldy tape, sticky shed syndrome and breakdown of tape lubrication. That said, part of the joy of cassettes are their very tactile nature, no worry about scratches or fingerprints, size, the rattling sound they make when moving them in and out of their case, finding good pre-recorded ones (Cinram!), mix tapes, and the act of creating them. But yes, so much goes into ensuring the tape sounds good -- high quality source, blanks that match your deck setup, head alignment, speed adjustment, clean transport, good belts, healthy pinch rollers, proper bias adjustment and recording level. But once those are set, they sound great. We're both well over 40, so the highest frequency response really doesn't matter a can of beans :) We moved to CDs for obvious reasons, but the cassette was excellent for the areas that it served -- portability, handling durability, and recordability.

[@jacekschneider4686]

Belts lasts longer than average pickup laser for cd and dvd player... And they are easy to replace. Tape format is wrong but the belts and dirty heads are not a problem

[@MikeDS49]

@@jacekschneider4686 Interesting, I never thought of the lifetime of a pickup laser vs. belts. I have a NEC CD player from 1989 still kicking though, while I've seen a number of decks of the same vintage on KZbin that had their belts turned to tar. Do the relative lifetimes hold in general?

[@timyork6150]

I've only just discovered your channel. I would add one further problem with audio cassettes, namely their uncertain useful life. I built up quite a large collection during the 80s and early 90s. There were pre-recorded cassettes, mainly for playing in the car, and cassettes recorded at home from CDs and LPs borrowed from a media library with a view to enlarging my knowledge of the repertoire, both of works and interpretations. In the former category of pre-recorded tapes, most have become unplayable for many years now. Worst are EMI but Decca is not much better; DG is least bad. In the home recorded tapes, those on Maxell XL and XLS are mostly holding up very well but a lot on the TDK and Sony equivalents have developed a disagreeable pitch instability. By contrast, very few of my CDs of similar vintage show any problems and my lovingly cared for LPs from even earlier only show the usual problems of some wear on the inner grooves and a few clicks and pops.

[@SO_DIGITAL]

Do these new cassettes use Dolby B?

[@samnicholson5051]

I'm not sure I agree with the characterisation as a "rubbish format". Sure it doesn't compare to modern digital in it's specifications but it's pretty amazing how what was once originally a lowly dictation machine format managed to become in some cases capable of hi-fi performance through improved tape machine design. It also put sound recording in the hands of the masses for the first time. Boomboxes and their built in mics were I guess pretty shitty but still listenable. That would have been a pretty big deal as most people before then probably had no idea of what they sounded like.

[@AudioMasterclass]

Did I say that? Well probably I did, but that's from my 2021 viewpoint. In its day, cassette had its merits, and I did comment on some amazing technology. I can see why old-timers might like it for nostalgia value. That's fine. But it's the past, not the future. DM

[@videobrains]

I had a Nakamichi 582 back in the 1980s, a wonderful cassette machine. It had built in test tones to manually adjust record level, bias, and azimuth. The onboard Dolby B removed a lot of noise without compromising high frequency response. In the studio, I used it for recording daily rough mixes so I could listen to them at home, and even for an orchestral recording using metal tape and an ORTF mic setup. By the 90s however, digital audio had taken over both at home and in the studio. So when friend borrowed it and plugged it into the wrong voltage (set to 110vac and plugged into 220vac), I just sold it for parts. My brothers 582 is in storage in the basement with stuck transport. I've thought of having it fixed, but haven't gone through with it because I'd never use it anyway.

[@kvmoore1]

I can't even find a decent "new" high quality cassette player with line-level outputs for a "decent" affordable price. The ones I do see are pretty expensive. I have a lot of old cassettes I'd like to digitize.

[@seanpuello]

I prefer cassette over vinyl. I grew up with the hiss. And find the snap and crackle of vinyl annoying. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@factorylad5071]

The cassette patent was given out free and that started the ball rolling on a very portable and forgiving format.

[@adamant3844]

I've made a few tweaks to my Nikko cassette deck over the years that noticeably enhanced the sound quality. The first was removing the original cheap built in interconnects and soldering quality double shielded ones. Next was using a set Vibrapod isolators to help absorb vibrations which diminishes sound quality. Lastly, I hooked up a graphic equalizer to help offset the limitations of Dolby noise reduction. All in all, the difference is night and day.

[@AudioMasterclass]

Congratulations on your noticeable enhancement. I have to say though if that there's a problem with Dolby that can be cured by EQ then your Dolby isn't working correctly. DM

[@adamant3844]

@@AudioMasterclass No issues with Dolby. I'm just trying to get it just right. Perfection is a harsh master.

[@tonydeniro284]

Please...has this guy ever heard a Nak or top line Aiwa deck? These issues are really over exaggerated. Cassettes can sound fantastic and are a fun format to use.

[@brianstuntman4368]

In the past I ventured down the audiophile rabbit hole, so can appreciate the thrill of hearing pristine dynamic audio, but I can get equal joy listening to a decent cassette through desktop speakers while tinkering in my man cave (shed). Sure, cassette is imperfect - much like people - but it has characteristics that give me pleasure. When recording on a 3 head deck, I can switch between listening to a hi-res digital source and the recorded output as the tape passes the play head, and while not identical it can still sound excellent. It actually makes me smile when making these comparisons, and realizing just how well the much maligned (but not misaligned) cassette can hold up. Of course you have to maintain your equipment, but it's hardly a chore when it provides another avenue to enjoying good music.

[@richardlytton]

I was so happy when I was able to throwing my collection of cassettes into a bin, many years ago, after I'd made mp3 recordings from my analogue media sources. Good bye, and good riddance, to the days of opening up cassette tapes, spooling them with a pen, and repairing the breaks by using sellotape. Are there any hipsters out there who might like to be rubbing sticks together, to start a fire,instead of using matches?

[@KeatingJosh]

Oh it's definitely fun though! It's quite interesting how good the quality can be with a decent tape and Dolby S but it's no comparison to digital on closer inspection.. just a bit of nostalgic fun

[@alanh8863]

It's a bit of an uneven playing field and intellectually dishonest to consider the best digital and vinyl rigs and then pull a cassette deck out of something out of bin. When audio enthusiasts talk about great setups, they inevitably include the best of the best in audio components. However when it comes to the humble cassette it seems that most people want to only discuss or compare low to mid grade cassette decks, cassette tapes, and offer some platitude about listening to pre-recorded cassettes on a low-end, and probably unmaintained car deck whilst speeding down a motorway at 80+ in their Ford Cortinas. Why purposely ignore the technical achievements in both format and deck, solely because it does not fit the narrative cliches? These TOTL examples exist regardless. How about sitting down with a recently serviced Nakamichi or Tandberg TOTL deck and allowing the format to prove itself? The fact is the format has audio performance well beyond the limited ranges offered by low-end tape decks most naysayers insist upon using in their arguments against the format. They do not represent the pinnacle of cassette performance. A recording on a top notch Nakamichi 3-head deck like the ZX-7, ZX-9, Dragon, 1000ZXL, CR-7A when using a quality cassette is near indistinguishable from digital or CD source of same material. You sound like reasonable and open-minded chap, I encourage you to seek out one of the above decks with a recent servicing and have a go at pushing the format to its limits.

[@toddlee2571]

Cassettes are for suckers. If you have a very good deck, and if you own premium blanks, preferably high quality type 2 or 4, then you got something. It's possible to find a very good deck that is still serviceable. But to own premium blank cassettes means you've paid a small fortune for new old--stock or even used tapes. The most common new old-stock tape that's still available is low-end type 1. Type 2 and type 4 metal blanks go for 10 times their original retail price. Yikes.

[@jacekschneider4686]

Type I old stock - were available for 1Eur/piece last year.

[@toddlee2571]

@@jacekschneider4686 yeah, Type-1 🙄

[@jacekschneider4686]

@@toddlee2571 Type 1 - lowest distortion level, excellent with dolby s

[@musicsound2683]

Hi, my emails are going unanswered. Do you have an email that is being monitored?

[@wrestletube1]

They should have made Type IV the default format for this one in every deck since it was invented with it's less faults but Type I became the format throughout. Or they should have done a Quadruple Metal Type V featuring Ferric, Cobalt, Chrome and Metal which I guess is Steel bits in the magnetic tape to make the superior tape format.

[@johnlomasney7632]

love tape

[@vjspectron]

You forgot a big one: there's no easy, immediate way to select a track like CDs or vinyl. There's a lot of reasons most of us never looked back once Discmans came out!

[@TerryClarkAccordioncrazy]

Yes searching for tracks on cassettes was awful. I was so glad to leave that in the past and go digital.

[@paulanderson7796]

Most type II cassettes were not chromium dioxide formulations. They were instead cobalt doped ferrics.

[@JamesMaximilianJason]

Strict but fair. In these times where everyone feels wronged by any opinion, I highly appreciate someone who exposes himself to show his opinion so intensively and in great detail. It would be more easy to say "cassettes, vinyl, mp3's, CD's, streaming services are all fine: any of these has its good and bad points, so they're equally valuable". But audio engineering clashes with politically correctness, thankfully.

[@jazzydog5635]

Best thing about cassettes was while driving you could change them , lobbing the finished one on the back seat without damage. It´s not really a revival though, a 100k a year is less than 0.1% of the UK music market. Still got mine in a box somewhere though,. If you ever played in a band and had rehearsal tapes on cassette, then they are time capsule treasures, even if you don´t have a player anymore.

[@bobthebros8585]

I always thought the Dolby nr makes the music less sharp and sound kinda muffled.

[@AudioMasterclass]

You need this... kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYfco6yQd9Sam9E

[@ReasonablySane]

I just assumed this whole rant was satire - or mostly satire. I enjoyed it. :) I liked it to make the count a tie. :D

[@waz3128]

In terms of record label’s/ established bands jumping on the bandwagon by doing reissues / selling tapes as merchandise in order make more money they don’t need, I HATE the tape revival. BUT cassettes are a great way for small bands to sell merchandise at gigs simply BECAUSE of their unique nostalgic element. They cost very little and thus can be sold for very little. They're a cheap effective way of getting your music into people attending your gig’s hands. Because believe me, no matter how much people love your show they will go home and forget about you, unless they have something to remind them not to. So instead of handing them a low key litter business card or just calling out your website address, offer them something physical that piques their interest ( more than a CD because that's a format that many still view as clutter and obsolete). And no, they don’t even need to have a tapedeck to play it on , just include a QR code on the album art. I believe they will eventually go to your website if they encounter that tape enough times in their house.

[@simonzinc-trumpetharris852]

They were crap then and they're crap now - but they were fun.

[@islandtime1402]

I think you may have forgotten the "vacuum cleaner" effect on cassette tapes. Stray magnetic fields from electronic devices could partially erase the signals on the tapes. This could lead to weird things like if you accidently placed your collection low to the ground in your room, the vacuum cleaner motor and its magnetic field could partially erase the signal that was recorded on the tape. Of course, it disproportionally affected the high frequency signals on the portion of the reel and layers of tape closest to the magnetic field. You could end up with tapes with a reoccurring spot with reduced HF response. It was so annoying. With today's cell phones and the fact that cassette tapes are about the same size, how long will it be before a new generation learns the hazards of stray magnetic fields on analog tapes? I also don't think you mentioned the cleaning of the capstan and pinch roller -the primary sources of "eaten tapes". Most people who were diligent enough to clean the tape heads, usually didn't clean the capstan and pinch rollers. Of those, even fewer cleaned the rubber pinch roller properly. They would use alcohol on the rubber pinch roller which would reduce the lifespan of the component and make the rubber hard which in turn increases wow and flutter. AFAIK TEAC was the only company that sold rubber conditioner/cleaner. I can understand the vinyl resurgence somewhat. A good analog source like vinyl can often sound better than a poor digital source. I repurchased a Thorens turntable with an excellent Shure cartridge to play my legacy vinyl recordings because the experience and sound are just "different" from digital. It's strange how comforting and sometimes annoying that the "whoosh" of groove noise can be! What I don't understand is waxing poetic over cassette tapes. With a $1,000+ tape deck, you could get good results, but the chief advantage of the cassette was portability and mixing your own tapes and digital mediums have completely eliminated that advantage.

[@johnr4459]

in the 80's/90's cassettes were the thing to record records onto, they were played in the car and i had a walkman, but as time went on to 1999 i went minidisc and did the same things, couldent take an lp record out when i walked the dog, had a kenwood mdlp player in the car, so md was better in all ways, but dont tell a cassette nut i said that.cassette revival, nah, leave that for the enthusiasts.

[@peacearchwa5103]

Your closing remark was, "If you're still listening now, you're crazy!" Hmmm.... cassette tapes have experienced a modest mini-revival and contrary to what you've asserted, there is a decent chance that cassettes will retain a niche market for music lovers. Your review is somewhat condescending and assumes that viewers are ignorant about the deficiencies of the format. Many of us enjoy our tapes and decks, we have very large collections of recordings from decades past. For professional musicians, they may still possess a large collection of live performances taped earlier in their careers and unreleased commercially. Music lovers who have re-discovered cassettes are not entirely constituted of trend-setting "hipsters", nor just aging people savoring the novelty of nostalgia. I found your endorsement of streaming media services as the ultimate in sound quality rather funny, since in many cases the 39-year-old Compact Disc format is superior sonically plus provides you with physical media you can play repeatedly. I suppose you dislike the 73-year-old Long Play record format as well. C'est dommage!

[@chrisbarnette7137]

Vinyl decreases in sound way more after each play than a cassette. Plus it's more true to the reel to reel My player sounds amazing , it was pricey but even my vinyl friends agree it sounds better and some even have switched over.

[@davewestner]

Did you come up with this idea after reading a reddit thread on 4 track machines by any chance? EDIT: Guess not, but check out the reddit thread if you have 6 minutes.

[@AudioMasterclass]

If by 4-track you mean the Tascam Portastudio, the sound quality wasn't great, the dbx noise reduction was awful, but less awful than no noise reduction. But... for many people it was their only way into multitrack recording. It was a great idea, a little let down by the NR but otherwise perfect for its time. DM

[@davewestner]

@@AudioMasterclass The reddit thread asked, "why doesn't Behringer or someone else make a new version of a cassette 4-track?" and there were some interesting comments that were both on and off topic. About 12 years ago, I borrowed a friend's porta-studio...was a late model that ran at 3.75ips....and recorded some acoustic guitar with a pair of u87s just to see if it'd have some mojo. It was really awful. I don't miss cassette at all. Especially having to run rough mixes at the end of a long session that ended at 4am

[@jacekschneider4686]

Read about elcasette, it was The format. Forget 4/8tracks

[@jsbjsb5933]

Old man yells at cassettes

[@Amper-o-mat]

Why wrong? Cassetes can sound very good if recorded on a decent deck. And the shitty recordings can come from all formats as well, I got bounch of original CDs,that sound awfull. People think cassetes are bad,because they never used them properly and only played&record them on the cheap devices. I never had any issues with my Yamaha cassete deck,neither with cassetes themselves. Still working fine. So,why not comeback? Just because of some myths?

[@tomasspacey6828]

Still much better format then what 99% of the planet listens to - MP3. After a while not using my tape deck I've put some professionaly recorded tape - chrome. Man what a sound - it sounds great. Better then vinyl on bass and wider in stereo too. Upper frequency range very very slightly limited but better ballanced which adds to liveness and the noise only in pause and when highly amplified noticeble ... Well MP3 itself is a great argument for CC revival and there are some more i believe. BTW My Yamaha type goes till 23kHz + - 3dB and 18kHz have been meassured on some 2 head decks with +- .5 dB . That noise madness that killed the format is so usless. It actually does something really good for the listening IMO and I let it up to everyone to figure out for himself.

[@tomstickland]

There's a channel on youtube, TechMoan who loves old hi fi equipment and also old tape decks. Just for mechanical interest really.

[@j7ndominica051]

The frequency response doesn't just end with an analog system. It falls off smoothly. I can see on replay that my deck has a 19k notch for the FM carrier to avoid interference with Dolby. The treble response suffers on Type I if the tape is overdriven. A constant, smooth noise was not as objectionable. It only became irritating if it pumped because of NR, or there was a trape dropout. After getting a music collection on a computer I occasionally enjoyted listening to a cassette tape because I was forced to listen to the music right now, without an ability of random seek. I avoided rewinding the casette to prevent damaging the tape. I used to record concerts and dramas from the radio. 30 years ago we had uninterrupted album playback with track gaps for one hour on most nights. Spotify et al, are not the best example to give. It is a ripoff service designed to take our money and prevent us from owning any music.

[@ndburley]

Fond memories of the cassette and making mix tapes in school. Recently dug out my old cassettes and a HI-FI separate to have a go....nah I prefer the memories to be honest and I prefer the crisp sound of a CD. All that said I love the memories and the way tapes used to fit in to radio recording and making tapes to share with friends at school. Thank you for the video as always I loved it!

[@Pete-eb3vo]

Define the "crisp" sound of a CD? A original record and cassette in good condition put on a excellent turntable and deck due to the even more extreme contrasts of analog formats will sound more "crisp" and alive than that of a CD. It seems you only brought a average type of deck that most people brought because they wanted to save as much money as possible. Well in the real world away from digital propaganda, digital is only good for proper archiving and nothing else. If people want the true experience for when music actually used to sound interesting with great usages of instruments and dynamic range, analog is the way.

[@NeoBurley]

@@Pete-eb3vo thanks for replying, I mean from my point of view Crisp is cleaner sounding. I used a Denon tape player with my hifi. It's all personal preferences to what you prefer. I find tape to sound muddy and more dull sounding but others will disagree. It's good to hear other opinions like this.

[@Pete-eb3vo]

@@NeoBurley I understand what you mean, but you can have remastered CDs that will tone down the hiss which puts both a huge dent on frequencies and dynamic range because hiss is part of the old music process itself, and then boost up the loudness and you have a very bad sounding CD. Even with the good CDs of the 80s and 90s, digital by its nature is a interpretive format regardless of whatever technology it is, so you can't exactly have the end all be all sound with CD unless the tape deck and record players are not that great. But, CD is still a solid format to listen to music especially in this day and age of streaming and the world of records being extremely expensive. You might get a chance with really good vintage tape decks but they will definitely need some maintenance.

[@somitomi]

For one thing, you are somewhat missing the point by focusing on audio quality, but also, many of the problems you've outlined are inherent in any tape format and some of them (such as wow&flutter or dust & dirt affecting playback) apply even to vinyl records. Surely you would not suggest that vinyl is terrible for sound quality.

[@EmeraldPixelGamingEPG]

There's another insane problem: Cassettes degrade. Horrifically. They dissolve into nothing, whereas Vinyl don't. I recommend you take a look at a demonstration of this on youtube.

[@benjaminshiels1824]

Cassette was like KZbin sensors. Living on borrowed time! 🖕😊

[@Richard-bq3ni]

I remember we could rent cd's for little at the library in the 90's, so I might have taped them to TDK-SA or TDK-MA with Dolby-C, so I didn't have to buy expensive cd's. But I can't recall if I ever did 😋. And the recordings must have sounded great, using good tapes and spending time on bias fine tuning. But, the cd's that I bought, I still have. The tapes however have all been thrown into the bin years ago. I should have spared myself the 800 guilders (that is now 777 Euro's according inflation calculator) on the deck and instead should have bought the cd's.