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 Post subject: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 20 Oct 2011, 21:11 
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Read about this in the Wall Street Journal today . . .

Miss the Hiss? Fanatics Flip for Tunes on Cassette Tapes

At first I was like, so what? It's just a few fanatics, but then I read:
Quote:
It's hard to say exactly how many people disagree. U.S. music-cassette sales are up about 50% to 23,000 albums so far this year, compared with the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But that statistic doesn't include all private tape production or sales of blank and used tapes.

Steve Stepp, president of National Audio Co., the largest U.S. cassette-tape manufacturer, says he has seen a surge in cassette-tape sales. He says he has doubled his staff to about 60 from 30 in 2009 to increase production at his Springfield, Mo., factory.

There's really that much of a demand for such an antiquated medium?

For a second this bit of news kind of sparked hope that maybe LDs could come back in the same way, but then I remembered how insanely difficult the LD replication process was. And it made me sad again . . .
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 01:16 
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Brands like Panasonic and Sony produced some beautiful cassette walkmans during the late 90's which mostly went unnoticed as everyone was shifting to MP3 players at that stage. I have a few of those cassette players from that era and noticed they are now fetching big money on Ebay as models of that quality are no longer manufactured anywhere in the world. A good metal body walkman can fetch £75 on Ebay. I don't think cassettes will revive as a format but there is definitely a collector market for the players. There are loads of interesting models to collect over the course of the formats life. I also still have a really good 3 head Denon cassette deck in my Hi-Fi system which I would never part with.
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 03:03 
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Well now let's see, aside from a nice Akai tape deck I also have an Akai 747 reel to reel, a Wollensak 8075 8 track player, Sony DAT player, Pioneer turntable, JVC DVHS deck,CED player, LD player.... which one will make a come back first? :)
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 04:18 
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8 track
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 04:18 
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Oh, wait, reel to reel :) Didnt see it. 16mm projectors will.
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 04:47 
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its still big in the metal/punk scene, I used to hang out with this dude who had started his own cassette tape distribution, he called it reapers grave, basically all the local metal and punk bands would send him their music to his pc and he would record it onto hundreds of blank tapes and he would go to to staples or whatever and get custom stickers to put on them, and he would sell them for 2 bucks a tape, some of these bands split up afterwords and now the tapes are all that are out there, except whats on his pc...
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 05:03 
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Actually the Latest Cheap Trick album was available on 8 track. Cost you 30 bucks though to buy it.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10287864-1.html
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 05:18 
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Cassette, 8 track, Reel to Reel, Beta Max,& many others... sounds like a song in the making ....
What is it like to have those " Good 'Ole Old Format Blues "
Lyrics anyone....?
How about the Key of G....LOL !!!

I have many cassettes,mostly live Grateful Dead among other bands, and they play fine !
Thought they would have demagnetized by now being close to 20-30 years old !

Some formats die slower then others......
Continued by die hard fans (stubborn?LOL!),or resuscitated by new(er) devoted disciples......

" Show me something built to last......" to quote Jerry Garcia ....
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 21:07 
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And while on the subject of cassettes, anyone in the US remember this service?

The Personics System

It was basically the first music on demand service there was (at least the first one that I can remember.) You'd go to a kiosk in a music store where you can preview the tunes available from their service, make a list, take your list to the counter and about 10 minutes later they'd hand you your custom made tape (on high bias chrome oxide tape, no less, with Dolby B NR!) of the selections you've made. The tape would have a laser printed label as well as a laser printed card for the tape case.

I remember it costing about US$1.10 per song, after an initial cost of US$2 (for the tape and service I would imagine.) Not too steep if you ask me (especially when you consider that 45's didn't exist at that point anymore, and cassette singles were a ridiculous $3.49.)

I had a couple of these custom tapes made (though I lost them in a fire some time ago.) The service didn't last that long though. I think what did them in was lack of support from the record labels. Thus their selection wasn't that huge. So after you got the songs you wanted that they had available, there was no reason to go back since their selection didn't change.

Here's a commerical for the service on Youtube:

Personics Commercial
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 22:34 
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Awesome! I picked up a mix tape at Tower Records back in the day with this system. The tape was actually good quality, and didn't sounds mushy after a few plays. Maybe it was my part of the country (N. California) but I was able to pick up 45"s with no problem still during this period.
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2011, 23:44 
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I remember buying those mix tapes a few times. I had totally forgotten about that. Thanks for the memory.
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 22 Oct 2011, 01:57 
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I still have a few, they were cool.
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 25 Oct 2011, 01:13 
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mikeystoyz wrote:
Oh, wait, reel to reel :) Didnt see it. 16mm projectors will.

I wish 16mm would make a comeback. I was looking for a cheap sound 16mm projector recently, and I optimistically thought they would be dirt cheap since it's a dead format. Boy, was I wrong. I guess I'll just have to have the few remaining 16mm home movies I own transferred to DVD. I also regret giving away my Super 8mm projector and screen a few years ago.
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 26 Oct 2011, 08:26 
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jjhunsecker wrote:
mikeystoyz wrote:
Oh, wait, reel to reel :) Didnt see it. 16mm projectors will.

I wish 16mm would make a comeback. I was looking for a cheap sound 16mm projector recently, and I optimistically thought they would be dirt cheap since it's a dead format. Boy, was I wrong. I guess I'll just have to have the few remaining 16mm home movies I own transferred to DVD. I also regret giving away my Super 8mm projector and screen a few years ago.


I've still got a 8mm/Super 8 projector. I did have an older Kodak 16mm projector too, but I had no use for it and actually gave it away free. I didn't think it was worth anything.
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 27 Oct 2011, 12:53 
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Wow this person wants over 3g for this so called dragon slayer(nakamichi dragon that is) :shock:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-l-Pioneer-Elite-l-CT-93-l-Premier-Cassette-Deck-/250916492282?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6bc9d3fa
  
 
 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 28 Oct 2011, 16:51 
Young Padawan
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Speaking of which, has anyone ever owned a Digital Compact Cassette recorder/player?

http://home.netvigator.com/~ntomyng/dcc900/

I first read of these way back in a multi-paged ad in Entertainment Weekly way back in like 1991 or 1992, but never thought much about them (especially since I jumped into MiniDisc a few years later.)

Now, I've seen a few decks pop up in the trading posts near me. Almost considered buying one, but wasn't sure if I could even get blank DCC's for recording, let alone any pre-recorded software (I know some are out there, but they've got to be even more scarce than pre-recorded MDs!)
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 28 Oct 2011, 18:37 
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that's pretty cool never knew of a digtal cassette before
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 28 Oct 2011, 19:16 
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ios wrote:
that's pretty cool never knew of a digtal cassette before


I remember the quick-lived Philips DCC vs. Sony MD fight that took place in Europe for a while.

At the time the question was "Will DAT transfer from professional market to mainstream?". It was perceived that the 48KHz recording of the DAT could eventually beat the 44.1KHz of the CDs. DAT was a big professional success but never materialized in everybody's home.

Until very recently, I know that some radio journalists were still recording interviews on MiniDiscs. What they loved about it was the fact that they could edit (split/merge/move) answers while adding their pre-recorded questions between answers. Back at the radio station, they could hand over the disc with the finished product, no need for a separate editing equipment (all on the MD player) and the radio deck would accept broadcast-quality straight from the MD.

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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 28 Oct 2011, 19:33 
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Anyone remember the EL-Cassette? Sony and JVC were the competitors....
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 Post subject: Re: Compact Cassettes Making a Comeback?!?
PostPosted: 18 Apr 2012, 08:12 
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Still have my Philips DCC player and about 30 pre-recorded tapes. Still sounds amazing 20 years later...
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