Cassette - Everything old is new again

[cleeds]

Originally Posted by Golucid

... Should I consider a cassette and a real to real?

If you have to ask, the answer is no.

There's only one reason to buy a cassette deck today, imo, and that's if you have historic or irreplaceable cassette recordings. If that were the case, I'd suggest digitizing them asap. I love analog, so please don't misunderstand. But cassettes are a relatively fragile medium, and any tape deck requires care and maintenance.

There are two reasons to buy a reel to reel. Again, if you have historic recordings, there's obviously no other way to play them. The second reason would be if you're interested in buying any of the new reel to reel releases now being made, such as the tape project. That's not my cup of tea, but there are certainly many audiophiles interested in that approach.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Golucid

there's another guy on another form by the name of Steve that his been trying to influence me to consider buying a Studer real to real. I think the model is an A810.

I have never seen in person a real to real machine and heck barely know what a cassette is.

I was told that if I transferred my vinyl over to reel to reel that the sound or should I say the analog sound will showcase better.

I like my vinyl and I like my digital stuff too but I'm really skeptical about tape - seems so old and antiquated.

I am open-minded to try new things and even very old things. Should I consider a cassette and a real to real?

Just keep in mind that the sound can not be improved upon. Anyone who claims that the sound will showcase better if you "transfer" your LPs onto tape is misleading you. Best case scenario, the tape will preserve the analog sound without adding the digital "edge" to the sound but the tape will NOT miraculously improve the sound, it can only record what it is fed at best. In reality there will be some compromise due to the R2R and tape quality itself, just like the different cassettes often sounded better or worse due to their own inherent quality and the quality of playback heads. There is no magic here, there is no "The sum is greater than the parts" here either...

Vinyl is vinyl, the better your equipment and setup, the better the sound but it can get no better than the LP itself... Transfering the "BEST" you can muster out of your turntable/cartridge/phonostage/LP itself is what will be on the R2R (ignoring the variables the tape and heads will introduce).

I enjoy XRCD, XRCD2, XRCD24 Super Analogue & XRCD24 Refined Digital, for the simple fact that when they are mastered, an ORIGINAL ANALOG TAPE MASTER is sourced for the production. There is the secret! XRCD process and you can read up on it here ( https://www.elusivedisc.com/xrcd24digprocess.pdf ) preserves the analog naturalness, fullness, warmth and ease of listening and is as good as digital gets IMHO.

So... Recording vinyl to R2R would be great if you have an R2R and tape and want to preserve/prolong the life of your valuable or rare LP and expensive cartridge's life. But the best case scenario would be an R2R mastered from and ANALOG MASTER TAPE on a bigger/more affordable scale like some of the LPs are and most XRCDs. That would be heaven. As good as the XRCD is, I feel the R2R would beat it because you can never completely get away from the digital process when it comes to digital media.

[Golucid]

Thanks PHC1. After reading your note it makes sense that I not bother with this. The little research that I've done into it and it seems like it would be a total pain in my tail. Although I love the look of the antique tape machines, I don't believe that I am going to expend the energy to deal with it.

Record vinyl and digital files is keeping me busy as it is and now I have just invested in the laser displayer to play since now purchasing some laser disks.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Golucid

Thanks PHC1. After reading your note it makes sense that I not bother with this. The little research that I've done into it and it seems like it would be a total pain in my tail. Although I love the look of the antique tape machines, I don't believe that I am going to expend the energy to deal with it.

Record vinyl and digital files is keeping me busy as it is and now I have just invested in the laser displayer to play with a couple of laser disks.

I'd say it is a smart decision. I can see getting into R2R IF there was a source of R2R tapes to choose from with various musical content like there is in vinyl resurgence.

[Catcher10]

3rd reason to buy a Reel to Reel........Chicks dig R2R!!

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Catcher10

3rd reason to buy a Reel to Reel........Chicks dig R2R!!

That was a long time ago... More recent picture.

[Golucid]

Originally Posted by PHC1

That was a long time ago... More recent picture.

Yep, you got me with this picture!

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by PHC1

It would be nice to see a resurgence of reel to reel for that analog lover in all of us.. (most of us?)

Am enjoying a mini dose of resurgence here with the recently-acquired Crown. Even with the limitations high-speed duplication imposes on the used commercially-prerecorded four-track open-reel tapes I've managed to scoop up on eBay, I hear more "there" there on a number of the recordings. So for me the money's well spent.

But I wouldn't expect reel-to-reel to achieve a following today sufficient to support more than a niche effort in either hardware or software production. We're a culture now so acclimated to convenience that the user effort required to keep a deck operating at optimum performance (tape path cleaning and demagnetization every so many hours comes to mind) would inhibit consumer acceptance at anything remotely approaching a level that would warrant major capital investment in the manufacture of reasonably priced hardware or the tapes to play on it. That's too bad. But it's reality.

[o0OBillO0o]

So.. begs the question.

What Cassette Deck and type of Tapes should we be getting?

[Golucid]

Originally Posted by o0OBillO0o

So.. begs the question.

What Cassette Deck and type of Tapes should we be getting?

+1