Rewind: Cassettes are making a pop-culture comeback

[Elderberry]

Fox13 by Mark Wilson 1/14/2021

Your computer and your phone can deliver whatever song or album you want, when you want it, with a simple click. But a growing number of music lovers is pressing rewind to embrace the old school -- cassette tapes.

"We buy and sell them on a regular basis nowadays," said Erin Stoy, co-general manager for Sound Exchange in Tampa.

Erin's father, the audio resale store's other general manager, Ron Stoy added, "We're seeing the beginnings of nostalgia on cassette."

At their store, you'll find a wall of cassettes and even a bin of the 8-tracks.

More: https://www.fox13news.com/news/cassettes-are-making-a-pop-culture-comeback

[Sighlass]

There were a few songs I had on cassette that I can't find now days, yeah, I would buy it via cassette if the songs were right.

[dfwgator]

What about Reel-to-Reel?

[Elderberry]

What about Reel-to-Reel?

I still have one and a bunch of tapes I got from a coworker who used to work at a rural radio station. I haven't gone thru all of them.

A good friend has a sizeable tape collection. He had a friend that owned a music store that supplied him with gobs of albums that he recorded.

[GtHawk]

What's the lifetime of a magnetic tape? I know back in the day they talked about video tapes degrading.

[Elderberry]

What's the lifetime of a magnetic tape? I know back in the day they talked about video tapes degrading.

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/reel-to-reel-tape-lifespan.1619/

   

May 19, 2011

    #17

tape lifespan

I have tapes from the early 70s with test tones to 20Khz and they still measure flat to within 1/2 db all the way to 20K. These tapes have been played more than 30 times.

[jmyrlefuller]

But do they use them to store computer data? Those things could hold scores more data than a floppy disk.

[DB]

I still have my Sony DAT player...

Used it a lot before writeable CDs came along...

Never going back to cassette tape...

[Elderberry]

I used to do my backups onto DAT cartridges. I recently picked up a DAT drive that I still need to hook up. When I started out doing builds for NASA in 83, all our data came on 9 track tapes and we delivered the system on removable multi platter  300MB disk drives. I stored data on my first computer, a SYM-1, on audio cassettes. I'll never go back to cassette and especially not 8 track tapes.

[roamer_1]

Never going back to cassette tape...

Not going back to CD/DVD/Blue either. My entire media library can now reside on a single thumb drive on a key chain (with plenty of room to spare), and plays flawlessly without any mechanical hissing.

The whole thing is a pittance on the back drive of my phone that I can take anywhere, and with the addition of a solar brick can be played indefinitely, to the extent that the machinery remains in working order - which at the least mimics the lifetime of a well loved album on CD, and may well exceed it...

Why go back?

[mountaineer]

I foresee a run on pencils.

[Fishrrman]

I have a nice Panasonic tape deck I don't use any more, would give it away if I could find someone who wanted it.

I gave away my old Magenecord 1024 reel-to-reel a few years' back. It was as large 2-piece studio unit, someone came and hauled it away.

I still have a SONY Minidisc recorder, along with a few hundred MD's I made years ago... even have a few boxes of blank MD's left, as well...

[Hoodat]

Can't beat these.

[DB]

Not going back to CD/DVD/Blue either. My entire media library can now reside on a single thumb drive on a key chain (with plenty of room to spare), and plays flawlessly without any mechanical hissing.

The whole thing is a pittance on the back drive of my phone that I can take anywhere, and with the addition of a solar brick can be played indefinitely, to the extent that the machinery remains in working order - which at the least mimics the lifetime of a well loved album on CD, and may well exceed it...

Why go back?

I've had some pretty bad experiences with FLASH memory on SD/USB drives. When left unpowered for a long period the data may not be there anymore... For long term use SLC type flash is much more robust - and expensive. It can also be hard to find.

[skeeter]

Not going back to CD/DVD/Blue either. My entire media library can now reside on a single thumb drive on a key chain (with plenty of room to spare), and plays flawlessly without any mechanical hissing.

The whole thing is a pittance on the back drive of my phone that I can take anywhere, and with the addition of a solar brick can be played indefinitely, to the extent that the machinery remains in working order - which at the least mimics the lifetime of a well loved album on CD, and may well exceed it...

Why go back?

can you pull a thumb drive out from under your car seat where it has sat with old French fries and empty coke cups and kick it into a deck with your foot while driving when you want music like you can with an eight track tape?

I’ve never heard a flash drive play two songs at one time either.

[BassWrangler]

can you pull a thumb drive out from under your car seat where it has sat with old French fries and empty coke cups and kick it into a deck with your foot while driving when you want music like you can with an eight track tape?

I’ve never heard a flash drive play two songs at one time either.

You make a compelling argument.

[Elderberry]

None of my old vehicle's stereos take flash drives. But they take CDs and I can load a mess of music on CDs as MP3s. And I can also plug in my phone to the stereo. I'd never think of going back to 8 track. My first one was a monster LearJet unit I mounted to the hump on my 60 Biscayne. It had a speed control dial so you could change the playback speed according to how fast or slow my mind was running at the time. And I truly hated having to do surgery on so many tapes.