The Cassette Comeback - should it?

Agreed, (expensive) cassette decks are as interesting as (expensive) mechanic watches. Small parts, great mechanics and precision, great to work on. But not the best sound results. Personally I own a NAD6300 and an AKAI GX75 II, both are great fun, well kept and pimped but in no way able to make high end sound ( because they are cassette deck!). Hiss is no argument for me. Bit in comparison to original, they just sound a bit boring, undynamic and change the character of the recording to the bad.
About brands: Denon is plastic body and very cheap parts inside. I wouldn’t sort it higher than Kenwood, much more solid and still high quality parts. But to be honest, I just compare 2 decks (Denon DRM 740 / Kenwood KX 9010) from the late 80s and don‘t know the selling price of both.

J & R I remember very fondly.

New Jersey, not far from me. An hour to drive

The worst tape still sounds better than an MP3. Mp3s played on decent equipment sounds like crud.

Cassette & Deck should Come Back Again

I still use cassettes since I was a child.

My cassette deck is a Grundig CF 21, I have it since my 13th birthday in 1998. Previously I had an Universum cassette deck.

In the 90's I bought the cassettes in our local radio and TV shop here in Harrislee. I always bought chromium dioxide cassettes by different manufacturers but over the years I found out that the BASF Chrome Super II has some of the best sound quality. That's why I only buy the CS II nowadays.

honestly the only real reason i like using cassettes is because it feels awesome to load up a cassette. like a musical shotgun

I love the clunkiness and what it does with the sound. And I regurarly record random playlists for the mixtape thing. Then I listen to then on my Walkmans.

Yes it was great delivery format, other than that R.I.P cassette.

just only one great trick i am doing it i had a nice collection of new blank tapes like tdk or maxell etc the trick is connect my DAC loaded with my mobile player with hi res Flac files to my TASCAM deck then i do recording my favourite albums to my blank cassette then re recording them as wave files at 96k 24bit on my DAW then listen to these on your digital player with the DAC you have u will hear a true wonders of the cassette the main problem that made cassette seems weak to other formats like cds or vinyls the source that you are recording from to the tapes with the new DACS it gives the max quality and the strange thing cassette take them very well by this way you got the both world a real analogue sound from the tapes and re play them as digital form on any HI RES DACS or players its an amazing experience

The whole sentiment presented in this vvideo that cassette quality is lacking is a big exaggeration in my opinion. Cassette can sound fantastic. More importantly, it can produce a varying quality when recording your own tapes that can color the sound in positive ways. I grew up on cassette and I can't tell you how many times I had a song or album recorded on cassette that I listened to a million times and when I heard the 'superior version' years later on CD, I was disappointed to find that the cassette recorded version I had sounded somehow better to my ears.

i like sony and tdk most

i still have cassettes i even still use reel to reel tape player

As someone who used to specifically use TDK 120 minute blanks to record things too and I would listen to them all day at work many many times over and all the time recreationally as well in both walkmans and car stereos...... I can't remember ever have one that snapped or broke.

I do remember hearing that they were supposedly thinner and more prone to break boat with anything like that you don't know what's rumors and what's actually true so I used them being aware that it might happen and if it did I would not use them but fortunately for me it never happened.

Nice video down memory lane and I just remember how much I loved CD when it came along. I never really liked cassette tapes because of the hissing and very inaccurate fast-forward rewind nonsense we constantly had to do to find just that specific song we wanted..... Tips for such a pain in the butt and not worth it. The only good thing about them was the small form-factor that you could fit in your pocket. Audio quality was always bad in azsuna CDs came along I never looked back and never missed the cassette tape experience because it was always full of bad audio and fast-forwarding and rewinding compared to CD's where you can simply go exactly to the beginning of the song you want which was always better.

Who knew this crazy streaming future was coming..... I saw many discs for the fact that those were knowing they were too small and people would lose them to easily etc and then weren't really Superior to CDs...... Honestly I thought CD would stay the preferred format forever at least in my life as it seemed like a pretty perfect format offering clean digital audio.......... Then the internet came along and MP3.....Napster, FLAC (currently my only choice). Now it's all about flac files, and all of those CDs we used to buy rip them with exact audio copy into flac and throw them up on your Plex server. This will probably be the last format and preferred way that we listen to music for the rest of my life now........right?........ I mean wait, have I said that before? Oh shoot, I guess the next thing is probably triggering the music beamed directly into our brain just by thinking about it....... Hey that sounds cool, bring on the future!!

Yes, cassette is still the cheapest analog source available. and love is cassettes...

As someone that grew up in the 80s and 90s I can tell you that cassettes sucked!! CD’s were far more superior

I'm clicking off now and looking up specks 😜😜😜

Well if you’re going to trash talk tape, I’ll have to give this a dislike 👎🏻

I was playing tapes til 2007 when I was then getting a new car that had a CD player instead. So I was also becoming a “Modern Man”. 😬

But then about 6-7 years ago I dug a Tascam 4-track out of the closet. Everything worked. I’m into music production so thought this was excellent.

Then last year Tascam released a new Cobalt tape that I bought directly at a high price.

But this year the whole tape memorabilia came flooding back.

Bootlegging music to blank tapes from various sources or setting up mix tapes was something I always did and lugging around 6 tapes at a time was my normal. And I’m welcoming all of it back.

I recently listened to my bootlegs from 30 years ago and they all sound just as good as I remember them. I never threw out my broke tapes either and they’re all still broken with bad sound, playing backwards or stuck.

I honestly don’t care if the sound quality isn’t as good. I consider the tape sound over the music as a feature!

Ever heard of foley? That’s the various random noises ppl put into their music because it makes it sound better. That’s all tape hiss is: just more foley added into the sound.

The other added benefit of tape is the deeper dive of listening to fewer artists at a time for longer periods. That’s how you got into an artist’s music. It wasn’t this dabbling around under thousands of artists at a time. It’s bullshit! You don’t draw any satisfaction from listening to so much in short periods of time, remembering nothing about it, even if the sound quality is better.

I’d argue that ppl listen to streams “out of convenience “, but it’s hollow and unfulfilling.

With tapes and physical media, you’re forced to focus on less, and from it, derive so much more.

Cassettes are Bad Ass and CD Quality sound can be Had, plus it's FUN
By the way Replace the Belts before they rot Away and you have a big goo mess to clean out!

modern casettes do have dolby I got a new release last year and it has dolby B on it the only thing that doesnt have dolby now a days is the players if you have a dolby compatible machine modern tapes can and do take advantage of it

What a coincidence!! I have the same Technics deck as well!! But I bought it used of eBay, and I'm a 2K4 born GenZ, who is getting back into Cassette Tape since I have a nostalgia for the format with my mom playing them when I was very young in 2004-2007, and also listening to 80s Japanese City Pop also got me back into tapes. I record City Pop music onto tape from my laptop with it plugged into the Technics Deck!

If they do come back as a format for use in cars then the hedgerows will soon be gleaming again with shredded tapes thrown angrily out of car windows after unwinding and jamming up inside the player and coming out as a shiny streamer! Although not shiny any more I'm more than sure there are thousands of miles of cassette tape from those days bedded into the hedgerows of Great Britain. Let's not go there again.

Next he’ll make a video of the Edison wax disc making a comeback.

My first experience with cassette tapes was when I was about 10-years-old in the late 1960s. I received a small tape player/recorder for Xmas that was probably made for dictation more than anything else. I had an “All Band” radio and I would make mix tapes from music off that radio on cheap Scotch brand tapes. I never bought into the 8-track tapes because they frequently had to fade a song out and back in just to change tracks, so vinyl was how I bought most of my music, and I really didn’t get back into cassettes until the 1980s.

By then, I mainly bought high quality TDK or Maxell bank tapes to make mix tapes from my record collection and my newer CDs. I’d pick the best songs from my albums (record and CDs) and I’d also include all my 45s. After all, there were plenty of artists that weren’t worth spending my money on the whole album, so I’d just buy the single. And having a small 90 minute cassette of singles was easier than carrying around a stack of 45s. I’d frequently record new albums and singles straight to cassette the first time I played them. I figured I may rarely need to play that vinyl again until the tape wore out (so, it kept my vinyl in good shape). Also, when I either roomed with others or visited friends and family, I’d make cassette tapes from their records and CDs to obtain the best of their music that I might be missing.

By using high quality tapes and high quality tape decks I was always able to get a good playback sound where the only time you might be able to hear tape hiss was between tracks.

I’ve still got hundreds of mix tapes from the 80s through the early 2000s that fill up two chests of drawers.

And, yes, 60, 90, & 100 minute tapes held up pretty damn well. My experience with 120 minute tapes wasn't as good, so I avoided them.

If you own a good cassette deck like my Nakamichi 581, it plays clear like a CD. My wife and best friend thought it was a CD playing.

I have been asking myself this question lately. I have just got back to two channel listening and picked up an old Pioneer SX-780 receiver. I think I will skip getting a cassette deck and opt instead for a new Pioneer cd player, and a turntable.

I have a Technics RS-TR555 which is somewhat mechanically similar to your RS-TR355, its likely to be 33 years old now and it still plays like it always has, no belts, no changes, just the occasional head cleans and it keeps on powering on. they dont make them like this anymore. After reading the feature set between the two it looks like the RS-TR555 gains a few small features plus dbx NR but otherwise largely the same

Tape sounds better than vinyl, the wider the better of course. For the car I would make a cassette with a quality tape from vinyl. Would never even consider making a cassette from a CD, ridiculous.

The Skinny Puppy mention got my sub.

Got 12 decks covering from the late 70's 'till the early 90's here and they were fully revised by me. 😅
I agree with Tony from Cassette Comeback when he says: a good deck makes any average tape sound good.

I love cassette tapes I think they should make a huge come back and I think Siri should make a big comeback as well. there’s something wonderful about hearing cassette tapes and recording your own mixtapes which I love doing.e

Cassette is not the best medium but a sound system is about as good as its worst piece and most of the time it is the speaker. With a decent deck they are good enough.
A good Japanese one from late 80 's would outperform 90 percent of all speakers "audiophiles" have..

And for a car cassette is probably the best medium ever (except radio)..
It was robust. And you could load it with one hand.
Who cares about cassette hiss in a car with engine noise..

Technics decks are good and they use the same heads in their single and double deck versions.. Buying a double deck is a smart decision since it would have less wear (one at least on one of them) and few audiophiles take double decks seriously. It can be a bargain..
Technics does not cut corners. I learned this in my little research I made prior to buying (used) my RS-TR555 ( very similar to your mother's)
It is a Volvo 850 :)) (not Pontiac) The real mechanical tank was my former Akai 710d .. Did not sound that good. Did not bother to replace belts when they broke.
Technics is good.

cd's were terrible in cars skipped, scratched and failed.
cassette tapes had their drawbacks too but it was usually equipment related not tape related.
i'll never really get used to the idea of buying something and not physically owning it. especially when you can make more money by reinventing your streaming platform periodically.
i have a feeling that after an apocalypse the cassette tape will be there holding some lost works that didn't survive on vinyl.

This really reminds me of the resurgence in VHS collection lately. Though it seems like the only ones that have been going kinda crazy in price is horror.

The thing is, I have a big box full of cassette tapes, with music, and often I pressed REC on my boombox and recorded
my life, parties with friends up through the years. They bring back memories, and is fun as hell. The sound quality was
often good enough, so. My latest was a Tandberg Soundfreezer with a Sanyo super-D two band compander.
A measured (after 10 years of service) 11-26500 Hz, and a S/N ratio North of 100db.
I still use them, the last tape was Pink Floyd, dark Side..

i still find a mini cassette with the cue n review the best for learning guitar parts . . no bull just no menus no squinting at a screen .. you have a physical recording that is storable . also when recording from a digital recorder to cassette deck it definetly imparts warmth .

I'm happy if cassette tape back to the market coz I love it.

Notice how ALL modern receivers have NO tape inputs, tape monitor loops, record outs, pre-out/main-in, etc. connections; absolute NO way to record anything that you are listening to? That is why I love 1990’s stereo equipment. Also, n=it ice how the S/N, THD, etc. specs of older equipment often exceeds modern equipment? What do you think about d x noise reduction?

Beyond nostalgia, bringing cassette tapes makes zero sense. It's just silly. Isn't it ultimately about the music over fetishizing what plays it? I grew up in the 70s and 80s and had cassettes. All that forwarding and rewinding, the magnetic tape getting caught and chewed up, winding the reels with a pencil, etc. Might as well bring back 8-Track, reel-to-reel, and Edison cylinders too.

Vinyl and shellac I get, esp. for purists and people who have much better ears/hearing than I do... It has the analog presence, etc. I miss the large sleeves and artwork. Except: Not very portable! Unless you always listen to music in your living room or wherever you keep your turntable, it's quite a limitation. Plus surface noise, etc. I put my hi-fi in the back of my car and damn if the needle didn't jump all over the place every time I turned the wheel.

If only we had little metal discs that lasted for decades if not longer, ones that are light and portable, never hiss or get scratched like records, could playback at any point within seconds; maybe someday...

I bought tapes bc I never cared for records or record players. Cassettes I always found to be cooler. Cd sound blows away both vinyl and cassettes BUT nowadays cassettes are fun to buy and collect.

Yes please

If you wondering about the quality of cassette decks get yourself a Nakamichi and record your own cassettes. You will be amazed by the sound quality.

Well said. I digitized & then binned my 40 or so cassettes, 2012ish. Don't miss them at all. ...And I can listen to the MP3s of those casssettes, anytime nostalisizing, on a Smartphone/tablet.
MDs (recorded at 'MDLP' setting) sounded AS GOOD as cassettes, mid-/late '90s: 4 hours of play time, without tape-chewing hassles. (I guess it's time to digitize & turf those MDs, too....)
Thanks for posting this: well done, brother.

I’ve never heard the term compact cassette lol we always called them Tapes lol

I’ve been collecting records, tapes & cds since the 80’s. I never stopped buying vinyl but definitely switched from tapes to cds in the 90’s. The only thing I hate about tapes is when they get eaten in the player lol I had a very rare Iron Maiden cassette that I haven’t played for years. It looked loose so I put it in my tape deck just to rewind it and it got eaten lol it is a double tape deck lol

I definitely used to call them tapes too

If you can get a good 3 head single deck cassette deck. some metal type IV tapes, and know your way around the bias knob you can get it to sound really good, damn near CD quality sound except the highs wont be as clear and a bit rolled off. Due to cassettes making somewhat of a comeback, finding a nice cassette deck is tough and a good 3 head starts around $150. Keep in mind cassette players are extremely fragile and require maintenance, new belts, lubed bearings, etc. Finding belts and parts becomes more difficult as time goes on. Finding good type IV metal cassettes only gets harder and more expensive as time goes on because all this stuff stopped being produced back in the 90s/early 2000s. If someone with the capital was smart, now would be the time to start developing a good quality cassette deck and type IV metal cassettes, you would make an absolute killing and be the only player in the game for quite some time. One of my newly acquired past times is sipping some whisky and creating mix tapes from my record collection on my Yamaha KX-670 with a stack of metal tapes I acquired on ebay for cheap. Its fun, relaxing, and I enjoy writing the song list and time stamps on the little cassette card. Sure or I just create a playlist on my phone in a matter of minutes and just stream it and it would sound better, but wheres the fun in that.

Skinny Puppy! Yay! I salute you!