Compact Cassettes: Don't Digitise - just enjoy
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- The JVC KD-A7 tape player was the last component I needed to finish assembling my unusual HiFi.
In this video I also show any HiFi components that I didn't cover in other videos and throw in a few tips if you are thinking of putting together your own. (CLICK SHOW MORE)
Below are links to currently available items that are seen in the video.
Rolling Stones GRRR! on Bluray Audio amzn.to/1mFGsdN
Sony MDR-1R Headphones amzn.to/1m36ZQA
Sonos Play 1 Speaker amzn.to/SmU847
Pro-ject RPM Genie 1.3 Turntable amzn.to/SmU6cv
Mistral DT-307S Bookshelf Speakers amzn.to/1mZSNep
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Thanks Techmoan. Your channel has made me chemically addicted to vintage hi-fi technology.
Now I have an AKAI GXC-709D sitting in my room that I use to play obscure black metal
+Carrotttt That's a nice old solid machine - nice VU meters...and I bet you got it for a great price.
Techmoan
Actually it was sitting in my garage, my dad said that it was really good back in it's day (luckily it still is).
+Carrotttt rather funny im on the same boat as you, got my grandfathers old Akai GXC-706D
Tombstone258 got my fads cassette tapes one of them is a type 2
Yeah, now I have been bitten by the "Buy old HiFi equipment" bug. I have stacks of old vinyls and cassette tapes from dead relatives, and I really want to remember what it was like to listen to cassette tapes like when I was a kid.
Props for the dope hip hop collection.
@@NintendoDude888 No.
@@NintendoDude888 you don't like it so it's garbage... typical
@@NintendoDude888 geez, settle down spaz! No one cares what you think. A lot of people enjoy videos games and I'm sure there's some who think it's a garbage way to spend ones time.
@@NintendoDude888 How is it controversial, the fuck is this the 80s. Nice try at trolling kid now i think its past your bedtime.
@@therage3904 What did he say?
I'm not an audiophile, I'm just obsessed with music. So for me, the novelty has never run out. I love cassette because it's so fun to hold a piece of musice, make my own mix tapes, and show people. I'll love cassettes forever.
"I don't plan on adding minidisc"
Actually years later:Buys hundreds of minidisc players.
That JVC deck is amazing. I love the technology from the mid 70's to the early 80's where it was all flashy lights, bright VU meters (whether analogue or digital), and silver faced hi fi components.
Damn, that selection of cassettes. Techmoan didn't chose the thug life, the thug life chose him.
Comment of the month!
At least I don't have to worry about Techmoan bidding online for the same genres of music as me!
@@MrWombatty yeah honestly.
Seriously! Impeccable taste in hip hop here
"Have you ever imagined. that your favorite rapper is a stone cold killer?"
"I think I've assembled all the components I want in my HiFi system now."
-Techmoan in 2014.
Life is tempting.
next week: oh look a new Hifi component.
'He who dies with the largest collection of sound-gear wins!'
"So that was a lie"
-Techmoan in 2021
he probably already knew that this sentence gonna age poorly :D
How funny is it that Mat thought this was it for his home stereo six years ago! LOL - there was SO much more coming down the line my friend!
Came across this old video of yours Matt, love that you said you weren't interested in minidiscs. They must have grown on you.👍
I'm so tempted to go into the attic and bring down my old Hi-Fi stuff but I'm not so sure my wife would be as happy to see it again. Love your enthusiasm for this stuff, great video.
Try and do it one component at a time and see how many you can sneak into the lounge before she notices. It's a funny thing, but my missus joined in with my latest obsession when we retrieved her old record collection from her parent's garage.
Techmoan Good idea, she may well be tempted by some of her old records that are also in the attic.
@@electrictroy2010 yeah, but now you have less durability and more skipping, so might not be a valid trade off … besides, minimalism isn’t always a good plan of action, keeping retro or “obsolete” things is always an excellent conversation starter and a cool thing to showcase at family gatherings :)
Wow! Nice library Techmoan. Never saw you as a golden era of Hip Hop listener. Big Daddy Kane, Gang Starr, Ice Cube, some classics! Great video as always.
The best way that I have found to digitize cassettes and other analog sources is to use a standalone CD/DVD recorder with analog inputs.
Use a recording EQ with inputs for 2 cassette decks, and substitute the burner for one.
The EQ can be used to enhance the sound, the other cassette deck that you unhooked can be used as a VU meter and for balance/level control if the burner comes without.
You must touch the track button between songs on the remote for the burner, or else you will have one long track for the whole album.
That is where the problems end.
At this point, it is on a CD, and can easily be transfered to a computer to make mp3 or other files out of it.
Now you have a hard, long lasting copy, and the capability of the new portable formats as well.
Im suddenly becoming facinated with vintage Hi-Fi Audio Equipment... I suddenly wanna buy a high end Cassette deck WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!!!
ChrisTheSheriff same
To be honest, the same goes for me. Also, nice pfp!
Add me to the list. I want to add a cassette deck to the stereo I am putting together.
yeah hes good at getting people to spend money
ChrisTheSheriff - The casset is the weakest link unless you want to make mix tapes. But, even there, why not make CDs with your own mix. Cassettes often break when they get old.
WOW you have a WRECKS N EFFECTS on TAPE? that's amazing!
I don't usually leave comments... But damn! All of those Big Daddy Kane tapes make me jealous!
WORD
Rappers stepping to me, they want to get some, but I’m the Kane so yo, you know the outcome! 🔥🔥🔥 I’m jealous too!
Cool! I found this exact tape cassette player in perfect shape at a Salvation Army store here in California. $19.00 usd.
"very young-looking Will Smith" lol he pretty much still looks the same as that cover photo.
Hes a vampire.
Black don't crack, my dude.
Same with LL Cool J, permanently 30 years old.
homies dont were out dat easy.tuff skin.
Casette digitalizer is waste of money becouse you can plug any casette player with phones input to computer mic input with just simple mini jack to mini jack cable and just record it with any audio recorder. In fact you can "digitalise" any record with that metod :)
+PolesAreEverywhere That's ZX Spectrum logic there xD
Good times :D
+PolesAreEverywhere I have a PC device that fit in a 5.25" bay (PlusDeck2 I think it was called) that I had purchased intending to convert my cassettes over, but when using it, it failed to separate tracks and the actual sound output was horrible.
A decent tape deck patched into my audio input jack, setting good recording levels and 320k bitrate MP3 encoding sounded far better than the WAV format and low-quality playback head in the PlusDeck. I only used it once and gave up.
DashCamAndy Exactly, I wouldnt belive that any "digitaliser" have better quality than any of my old decks. Its good to see that more people realized this.
+PolesAreEverywhere The problem is, tapes don't last for ever. So far I've mainly digitized my 8-tracks cassettes (normal compact cassettes) into Garageband to make sure the songs (mine) are backed up and can be completed digitally with new tracks. I still use my 1988 Yamaha recorder as a mixing desk when recording.
You have amazing taste in music. I've noticed in several videos. Yes this is very important.
+SG 6000 He has a surprisingly good hip-hop selection.
True connoisseur right here.
+Harry Armstrong
For a older white guy YES!! I dont even have some of those in MY collection!! I never knew all this stuff came overseas to Great Britain.
I live in the UK too and I have nearly all of those artists in my collection, ironically the one I don't have is the Outlaw Posse...and they were made in the UK!
After acquiring a high-end Yamaha compact-cassette recorder Hi-Fi component, I was really impressed how great the cassettes sounded through my Pioneer system!
Man, you got me into the retro tech nostalgia. I was a kid in the '90s and the only music I listened to was through my dad's car stereo. Your rig is lovely, btw.
Fantastic setup! The eject mech on the JVC is probably has either a knackered or missing damper. The top loading VHS machines had the same issue, except they would catapult the tape across the room!
Bro, #salute to your collection! Dope
+Aaron Jaunty Word.
Really loved this video, I am impressed with your love for this equipment. It also reminds me how incredible my B&O Beocenter 9000 is because it looks brand new, plays CD, tape FM-AM, phono ect but is just so compact and lovely to look at.
I love the feel of equipment when it's made to last!
I always liked the design of the B&O 9000 on a stand. I wish there was a stand-alone CD player that looked as impressive.
Techmoan aha, sorry but you're thinking of the Beosound 9000, they made a Beocenter 9000 (my one). It is like a horizontal version without multi CDs but with a proper 4 channel amplifier. Worth a look man :)
Techmoan
Stunning Setup! I would love to see the wiring!
I have noticed that many people who love retro music equipment also have a good collection of old school hip hop, there is a direct connection it seems.
Had quite a collection of vintage and retro auduo stuff which i stopped appreciated years ago but thanks to your channel im now looking at them with new eyes again... Inherent my dad's stuff and he had been a true audiophile... several nakamichi cassette decks and Pioneer, Technics etc and turntables, amps, tuners, graphic equalizers etc. etc. im now looking with new eyes at these precious gems.. thanks.....
Came across your channel and spent so time watching some of the videoclips. Thanks for taking your time to show us all this. Nostalgia caught me after a while. The 70s and 80s especially where IMHO the Golden Age of HiFi and I miss them in part because all the equipment had that special touch modern gear lack today. I still keep some of the equipment as my Dual direct drive turntable and Sony 3 head cassette tape deck from 1978. They still in use, but only once in a while because I’m afraid to wear them down. Anyway, thanks and keep it up.
I converted a whole bunch of cassettes to MP3 using some audio SW that allows me to easily split a continuous track into separate ones and then do hiss removal as well as snap/crackle/pop and rumble (for vinyls) and it does an amazing job. It means that I can play all of those old tapes off a CD in the car or via Bluetooth streaming and via Sonos at home. A little bit of inconvenience up front for a world of pleasure.
Why convert directly to MP3? You probably would have been better off to make a higher quality wav file and then convert to MP3 (or whatever format). That way, you'd have that original higher quality file to re-encode at a later date to whatever is needed, should you need to. You've now forever limited them to whatever the MP3 bit rate was. I hope you used the highest bit rate (which I think is 320 kbps).
A world of pleasure? Converted audio cassettes? I couldn't disagree more.
You've obviously never considered the hours spent doing that manually to be a pain, and you can digitize what you like, make a playlist and have hours of hands-free listening while working about the house. AND making CDs of your own, then there is backing up your precious tunes for the day the deck suddenly devours it or the CD is no longer recoverable, or it breaks...ever had one shatter in your computers CD/DVD drive?
Oh, that JVC take deck takes me back right to the late 1970s. My parents (well, my father) bought an all-in-one JVC system. It was the lowest cost one, so everything model number ends in '11". That system is probably why I'm addicted to this channel. The system itself came with a black-with-silver piece of furniture, which my mother hated because it didn't go with anything else in the living room. Strangely enough, I never actually bought a piece of hi-fi equipment, other than a Sony Walkman, a Sony Discman, and a Sharp portable MD. And, of course, the M-Audio M-Track 2x2M that is connected to my PC, my Korg Electribe EMX-1, and a pair of AKG consumer headphones.
Building my own nostalgia! Cassettes are the best. Nuff said.
If your cassette tapes start sounding warped, FF or RWD all the way to the end, and then back the other direction once, maybe twice, and it should straighten out/line up the 2 reels. Before trying a more invasive repair or assuming it's magnetically messed up.
Yooooo that tip is golden
Yes that works
yes, repack the tape after long storage
nice oldschool hip hop collection
that's a really neat way of using the tape 2 monitor. allowing to listen to any source and then wireless stream it in the house. Genius!
I kept my old VHS tapes for many years planning to use a video capture card to record them into my PC... eventually I did one of them and decided it was easier and better just to buy DVDs if I wanted to watch those movies.
OK Mat, you've convinced me not to go down the road I was planning on traveling and by that I mean digitising all my music. I'll keep my old stereo equipment and I'll even add to it. ;) I was very tempted back in '75 to buy a reel to reel but good ones were just out of my price range and so I settled for a good quality cassette recorder. Sadly that went to meet it's maker some time ago. Finding anyone who can repair them where I live is nigh on impossible so I'll source a new one online. Thanks for posting. Cheers, b. Edit: typo
Awesome set-up, and I like that you went for the silver look as opposed to the standard black one.
Good to see appreciation for cassettes.
Didn't figure you for a rap fan, but real nice.
When you look at an English chap of a certain age, most folks don't count backwards to realize he was coming of age when hip hop was going mainstream.
Your channel has become one of my favorites to watch. I've actually been on the fence about getting a new Cassette Deck, and this video just pushed me over. I've still got a number of tapes, and here in The States you can find them for next to nothing at second hand stores.
Cool, I would have the MD myself, they were the loveliest format of the 90S
I have tried using a sync-your-cassettes-to-a-usb-key-or-cd method with my mother's JVC KD-D10, which has massive orange VU meters that captivate my 11 year old sister when I put on a Queen cassette. My mother has an amazing retro hifi, that we store in the attic. The other cassette player in that setup is an Aiwa something-or-other that has an amazingly bright led vu meter, hooked up to a Sony ta-f55 stereo amplifiers, a sansui t7 tuner in silver, and a pair of kef cantor 2 speakers. Apart from the Aiwa's belts, everything is flawless. I even sneaked in the JVC cassette player to his Marantz pm5003, and convinced him to keep the t7 tuner rather than buy a matching tuner for his amplifier. Yes, I'm a 13 year old PC builder and someone who is super ocd when it comes to sound and equipment.
In the 80's I had a newer JVC cassette recorder with LED level and spectrum analyzer. It was a great deck, but I foolishly got rid of it when it quit working and didn't have the time or money to fix it.
Pre-recorded tapes became good-great sounding when they started using digital duplication (Digilog) in the mid-late 80's. I just wish they had all had used chrome high bias tape.
JVC KD-D4?
Remember kids...study in school, don't do drugs or get girls knocked up, and you'll have a good job like this guy and have a real stereo instead of a phone.
It makes sense..good moral character leads to having more money in your pocket.
+Brent Fisher It's not that amazing of a system. Still nice though.
I cruised through school with a mediocre GPA, followed the cheerleaders to the A&W where they worked after school and worked my way up to diabetes and a Santa Claus belly at the age of 51...but hey, that was legal, I never smoked stuff, and I have more stuff! I also don't have a stupid cellphone, another reason and I also have vintage synthesizers and 4-channel reel to reel Teacs. On a FIXED INCOME.
Don't do drugs so you can buy music. Alternatively, do drugs so you can make music. Don't kid yourself. All those artists whom have made great music that has enhanced your lives were all rrrrreal fucking high on drugs lol
You need to have money to get girls knocked up these days....
watching your retro videos is like re living my teenage. These things meant a lot to me.
That tiny Samsung® Blu-Ray™ player is just adorable! I like the front-loading mechanism that pops out of the top. I'm surprised that there aren't any other players on the market with a similar form.
That was really a video at the right time; I currently am transferring all of my (really my moms and dads) cassette tapes over to my computer. Not because I can't find them on the internet (some of it is actually not on the internet) but because I want the music away from the medium before any of them decide that they're going out. I know it won't sound as good, I know it takes time, but the joy for me is listening to them while in progress + having them as WAVs afterwards. The deck I'm using is a trash-picked Sanyo RD 3510M, I tried it with my on-board audio-cards before I finally landed on my Zoom H1 as the interface. Record them with Audacity, put a noise reduction filter on if needed and then manually separate each song and write the labels off the case. A lot of work, but I like it. Anyway, great video as always.
I think all audio formats have their merits. I like the mechanical quality of the tape drives and cassettes. I also like CD and it's optical, mechanical, and software aspect. Very neat combination. Even today there are some options for a non-moving part players. Or even on a shoe string budget, by using your phone, it can also be good, if the MP3 is 320Kbit/sec. Many options. But only one option in stores...
I've watched quite a few of your videos to this point, and I love the look at old technology, but I admire your taste in music...
I was watching this video with headphones coming out of my Pioneer SX-3600. What a surprise seeing one turn up on screen. Very nice setup you have. I have mine split between my computer, TV, and turntable
Don't use those cheap cassete digitizers. Record from a real cassete deck (with dobly and so on) through rca cables to your computer's soundcard. Done. ;)
And there is plenty of free software that you can use to easily rip the songs. OP is good at some of this stuff but he doesn't seem to be great with computers.
Audacity is excellent for this and will host VSTs for remastering any recordings
Dan Lettuce Audacity is fine for basic editing but sucks for mastering. Get REAPER instead.
@@Andystuff800 iZotope RX.
Gigidag77 RX is good but expensive unless you pirate. REAPER is just easier.
Loved that tour of his naff hifi equipment. Really good
Beautiful setup there. I don't think the led vu meter is tacky tho
i think he has upgraded every single piece of equipment demonstrated here. what an awesome collection
I'm probably NOT the first one to say this, but I tossed out my commercially available albums on cassette out a long time ago, as they are available on so many other formats. But those mixed tapes i've made from radio with long tedious listening of so much pre-war (joke) radio crap to find those hard to get tunes on to tape - are such nostalgic gems for me, so I ripped the tapes as A and B sides with a DCC so didnt have to bother with digital leveling in the computer. Two files per tape. Mastered them with 'stereotool' in my own setting, fadein/fadeout in an editor, down to flac, and kicked them hard into the google music uploader, with a photo of the tape and some name.
So now I can listen to all my tapes in sidelong episodes in as good quality and even volume, as possible, but with all those bad recordings, talkovers and partial stuff, just like I remember them from my childhood, everywhere I go. And the storage is free...incredible :)
1:54 the moment that thing turned on and the song started playing, man i think i wet my pants, not again god damn it
I know I'm SUPER late to the game on this video, but just getting back into cassettes (I'm 45 years old now) and I'm re-buying all my favorites again. I see you have similar taste! with the Ice T, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD (my all time favorite) etc. I also love metal/rock etc., but I love your taste! (and your videos obviously) ALSO, take a look at how much that Rolling Stones BD goes for now!!
Give me analogue cassette tapes any day if looked after they will out last cd recordings, l have tapes now 40 years old and still cound good they are tdk fuji maxell chrome.
In my opinion i truly believe it's better to listen to cassettes the traditional way and not to digitize them
DUDE YOU GOT STEP IN THE ARENA. That tape is so tight! I played it nonstop as a kid until the tape broke.
Yes, most of those can be found cheaply on CDs, if you care to replace them, but I have to digitize my compilations of the time. They were done without a mixer, just pressing un-pause at the exact right moment.
I've never stopped using cassettes. When I noticed the format was declining. I started horsing blanks and I'm glad I did.
I bought my JVC KD-A7 new in 1980 and it is still going strong, it could use a new pinch wheel however. I bought the remote control for it at the time too, not an IR device, it connects via a cable to a socket on the back of the unit. The spectrum display isn't just for show by the way, it was useful for selecting the correct record EQ for unfamiliar tapes, the idea being you'd record some white noise, inter-station FM radio hash would do, make a mental note of the level at the top end of the spectrum display and then play it back and if the playback didn't match up, try adjusting the record EQ accordingly and repeat until you get the best match. If you find that the auto-stop keeps triggering intermittently mid tape it will be the little belt that drives the mechanical tape counter slipping, the counter unit supplies the electrical pulses that prevents the auto-stop mechanism from triggering. I used mainly TDK SA tapes with mine and they all sound as good as the day I recorded them all those years ago. I love the channel by the way, very interesting, thank you very much !!
I just love Cassette tapes. They are the best music format ever!
my Sony STR 11 receiver...with its blue green ambiant light. I'll never give it up.
nice collection of tapes, I was the master of driving with one hand and with the other FF...PLAY... pretty close to hitting certain songs in the begging .love cassettes!
Your 1980s tape collection : American hip hop .
Mine ( American ) Brit synth pop bands
I've spent 35 years sort of one upping you ;-) and I did it with more than a few thrift store and eBay as well as local classified ads and the reliable friends in forums. I've owned the H-R99 AND 100 (Dolby B), 3 SX-3600 receivers as you have, TWO SX-D7000s! Cassettes were my best friend so I have plenty of those, new old stock even. I topped your Akai reel deck with the GX-636, have to fix Pioneer RT-707 and 909 but that just gives me more time with my Revox A 77 (shrugging shoulders), Now I'm not so much of a spiteful braggart, no, not at all...it's just too damned fun! PS JVC made some really SOLID gear back then.
enjoy watching your vids thanks.im late 70s kid also a scratch dj and have merits in electronic servicing and repairs.i have most of you tape collection on vinyl.have collected my dream audio components over the years.keep them videos coming thanks.
About the LEDs behind the buttons on a Nakamichi, my RX-202 has little red lights next to the various transport controls, and a red LED bar graph. Very slick looking machine.
I spent most of the pandemic digitizing 40s/50s R&B and Doo-Wop mix-tapes my dad pulled off the air from some enthusiast radio shows. I startled using a non branded version of that Ion machine (I think it’s the same unit actually) and the sound quality was complete garbage. I dusted off the long-retired early 90s JVC twin-deck component from my parents hi-fi in the lounge, and hooked it up to a decent stand alone RCA to USB converter and digitized it song by song, and did much better. It was fun to pull each song off the mostly unmarked cassettes, figure out what songs they were;- some were so oddball i failed even though I really am a fan of that kind of music- and had the definitive doo-wop reference discography and songographys (my dad is a co-author on both books, actually) in front of me.i even typed-up tape cards on my Smith Corona portable electric from the 60s so the tapes would no longer be unlabeled. It was fun and helped with standing our two month lockdown.
Anyway I realized once I switched to the JVC Just how good a Phillips Compact Cassette can be- and these were all ferric of course- but I did digitize them because I wanted to listen to them in my car, which only has 3.5mm, USB, SD, and streaming inputs for its stereo- no tape or CD. Digitizing them was mostly fun and educational. I can’t believe they sell DAC cassette players that are so garbage, though.
Good combination of old and new technology, only matters is the Quality of both worlds.
jesus christ, your collection's pure gold
Minidisc doesn't have a lot of fascination for you? Methinks this would be, in 2022, a case of, "never say never?" Not that you're not entitled to never say never after years and years of amazing coverage.... 😉 I do wonder what you use for headphones now (if you do...). As always, thanks for producing!!! 😊
I was shocked to see Eazy E in your collection!! your obviously a man with taste!
Eazy E was total trash. Zero talent.
keyproductions100 yeah. By himself he couldn't do shit. Ice Cube wrote his best rhymes, than MC Ren. When he tried to write by himself he sucked
@@folksurvival He had an extremely distinctive voice and unbeatable personality. Rap is about more that lyrics. Also, plenty of great rappers back then were ghostwritten. Biz Markie didn't write "Vapors" and Dre didn't write a single lyric on The Chronic.
@@DrLoverLover You've just proven yourself a liar.
dont sleep on the d.o.c.
I like how a cassette rant turns into a Hi-Fi overview lmao
Mr Techmoan we would enjoy a long drive with all that awesome music on tapes you have I had all those at some point I'm jealous. Great videos
You should do a video about your music collection
Ooer, that cassette deck is gorgeous. I have not ever seen a tape deck with a spectrum analyzer.
Such a cool setup! Love that you have everything running through a Sonos as well!
Try them on a Yamaha K-960... Mine brought-out tonal qualities that no-other could. In-fact: It does such a good job... my audiophile brother was impressed with it. So-much so I found one on-line, and refurbished it for him to replace his mis-stored Carver.
Best tape collection ever! I have many of those in a wall rack somewhere in my mother's attic.
Another great Hi-Fi video. I converted all my cassettes over using my computer and AVS Audio Editor. I still listen to the actual cassettes, but I also listen to the digitized versions. I still make mix tapes as well. Primarily because, for me, it's fun and relaxing.
Same. There’s just something so much more satisfying about working within the limitations of the medium, and having something you can hold in your hands and the abjility to collect and display what YOU made… as opposed to Spotify, where playlists are just a bunch of boring JPEGs, and there’s literally no limit to the amount of music you can store in them, so you often won’t think before putting new songs in or whatever.
Some years back, a family friend asked me to copy her extensive collection of Jazz/Easy Listening/Broadway cassette tapes. I considered how to hook up the Pioneer 3 head tape deck to Ye Olde 3Mhz Pentium 4 tower running Windows 95. After some false starts, I chose an upgraded Shareware analog to digital recording program and made CD-R versions of her collection. Then there was the time I made some Windows event .WAV files from Ye Olde VCR, but that's another story.;)
Techmoan your old school hip hop tapes took me back, love the formats you have covered in your retro set up i used to have "1980's" a Marantz SD 6020 tape deck with two speeds and a Marantz PM500 Amp with 4 speaker outs and about 16 cheap speakers stacked as a wall pugged in to that... VU Meters rule :)
You have a very surprising collection of great classic hip hop! I'm now trying to imagine you in the 1980's cruising around the UK with a thumping car stereo jamming Run Dmc!
At the 2nd-hand store I work at (In The Netherlands) we get those things a-plenty. And yes, I mean with VU-meters as well. Trew quite a few away as well (We are not allowed to sell broken stuff and don't have the time to do in-deph repairs on stuff).
Watching this in 2022. I love you Techmoan but I think you may have something to do with the current price of cassette players! 😜 keep up the great work!
It's fun seeing this stuff again. Thanks for "stepping backwards".
Love it. have to say I went MD after cassette. I would have thought that have appealed to your techie side.
My JVC DD-5 has the same eject "enthusiasm". There is a little square "brake pad" that wears out and loses tension. But I like it the way it is.
I've started buying and listening to second hand cassettes not for the sound quality but for the nostalgia. For the last 20 years, all I've heard has been files on computers, and I miss physical music forms. The sound quality isn't the best, but the satisfaction is.
Well worth checking out vintage speakers too. Some have upwards of 8 speakers per cabinet and woofers in excess of 15"... better than a painting on the wall
I just love that your collection of cassettes is all hip hop.
I digitized all my mom's cassettes by getting a pretty good cassette deck, plugging it into my computer and record it with audacity. I believe that that is the best quality you'll ever get with digitizing cassettes.
I recorded some Type2 HOUSE PARTY/DJ /live one off type tapes into Audacity, I got some of them "Loud" and certainly improved the listening using VST's and a A&H vcf Mixer. The idea is I can now skip through the mix quicker if I need to without adding ware to the cassette deck and the cassette itself, editing as WAV then putting them on my phone as 320kbps mp3, Agreed it does take time though but I believe it is worth it if only for preservation and longevity of the master, but I agree the commercial release cassettes are poor even when digitized, improving only on volume and stereo balance mainly.
I LOVE how into old school hip hop you are!
Hey! The Project RPM 1.3 Genie is the progenitor of my turntable the RPM 3. Nice choice!
that JVC tape player, so gorgeous. what a machine!
The "it's the over the top and completely unnecessary spectrum analyses, that attracted me to it" made me laugh and then made me think that I would probably have fallen for the same reason. Most of my hi-fi components are from the 90ies, but I have a couple of spares, from the 80ies and 70ies. I totally understand!
Wonderful! When JVC were manufactured in Japan. JVC = Victor Company of Japan.
Nowadays nowhere near as good since they went to Korea manufacture.
I'm a musician and still have my Tascam MFP01 which allows multi track recording on cassette. It uses both sides of the tape in one direction, thus four tracks can be recorded (side 1 L&R plus side 2 L&R). A C90 thus becomes 45 minutes long. My friend has a Fostex one which uses twice normal speed and gives fantastic sound quality. On this, a C90 becomes just 22.5 minutes long.
Wirralbloke , do you need a special player to play those recordings?
1:49 I want that JVC tape deck instead of my low end boombox.
Nice collection of hi-fi materials. And a nice trip to memory lane too. I just love all that silver equipment.
But as you said, the only thing that's missing in there (according to me) is Mini Disc.
I have a DCC recorder too (as well as a portable one) but as soon as I got my hands on MD equipment, I was very much less fascinated by DCC myself. I only bought DCC first 'cos the prices dropped first on DCC but my real goal was always to aim at Mini Disc. :)
@@electrictroy2010 Yes CD was lossless but when Mini Disc appeared in 1992 Recordable CDs were either non existant or very expensive. And good MD players were really shock proof when CD players, not so much. You could record concerts and edit songs seemlessly like in a recording studio, etc. the appeal of MD at first was very strong and recorders were cheaper than DATs.
To preserve a 35 year old cassette with the band I was playing with (1989) I got a Tascam CD RW recorder.
Some things are so rare...
Enough said.