# cassettes are making a comeback



## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Cassettes a cheap and trendy alternative:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2012/08/20/calgary-cassette-comeback.html

They're also part of popular culture -- “My adversaries are always playing the same cassette tape. Let’s call it a cassette tape..."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...record-or-is-it-cassette-tape/article4459394/


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

I have kept several of my [old] cassettes because my 10+ year old car still has one that plays them. I did buy a gadget for under $10 that allows me to connect my MP3 to it. I think it's called a cassette tape adapter.

Also kept a record player that's about 15 years or so; why would anyone throw away antiques.


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

Another crazy hipster fad, like ugly clothes and big glasses.

Why would anyone want to move backwards in terms of the quality of the sound? Sort of like the instagram fad I suppose. Cross-developed photos do not make art, or crappy photos more interesting.


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

Sampson said:


> Why would anyone want to move backwards in terms of the quality of the sound?


Moving forward, I completely agree! However, I have difficulty selling things that still work like new [like my car].


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

You are just being frugal TGal. Nothing wrong with that. Also, re-buying things you already own is probably painful. What I mean is that in the article, I'm sure most of the people 'readopting' cassettes don't have cardboard boxes full of them in their basements.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Records I can sort of understand. Cassettes.... no way. What's next, bringing back VHS? The quality was awful.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Actually back when I dubbed LPs onto high-quality cassettes it was pretty much impossible to tell the difference when I played them back on my stereo. I usually dubbed my favourite albums onto cassette because LPs are so easily damaged (scratches, pops, etc.), whereas cassette tapes I bought in the 1970s and 80s still sound fine today. I didn't buy many commercial cassettes, though, so maybe that's where the quality suffered.

I've been gradually converting the cassettes worth saving over to digital; I have a couple hundred cassettes in a library card catalogue (another obsolete technology) in my basement.


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

Vinyl's resurgence was somewhat understandable due to the DJ movement, but I'm not convinced that it all can't be done digitally. Maybe the physical interaction with a record is more satisfying, but I don't think the same can be said about cassettes.

I do miss that hollow plastic sound they make when you jostle them in their boxes though.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

I am just waiting for KaeJS to chime in and ask what a cassette is?


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Note the TDK D90 included a handy card for writing down the contents of the cassette tape but I used to make up song listing on the computer and print them out as well as keep a copy in a binder for reference.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Some years back I used to trade recordings (mostly home recordings of traditional Irish music) with a friend in France, and he would send me emails saying that he was going to send me a "K7." It took me a while to realize that this was a shorthand way of writing "cassette" in French, because "K" in French sounds like "kah" and "7" sounds like "set."


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## LondonHomes (Dec 29, 2010)

Good to know! I'm going to find all my old tapes in the basement tonight and become a hipster.

I glad I keep all those old tapes I recorded from the radio!


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

When I cleared out my brother's house in 2009, I could not give away the 100s of cassettes, let alone the reel-to-reel tapes. Even some of the vinyl went to the dump.

I did keep the taped set of Tony Robbins motivational lectures. One of my kids will have to throw those away.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

How about floppies? I gave up on those a couple of years ago. I remember a time when I felt like I was living on the right side of the tracks for using 1.44MB *high density *disks. Those less fortunate had to stick with the 720Ks. Wow.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

I still have a few 5-1/4" floppy disks in the attic of my parents home.
I will throw out my collection of music cassettes a couple of years after I throw out the 5-1/4" floppies.
All in good time, what's the rush.


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

Wow - frugality comes with hoarding mentality.

The computer data and storage disks/drives are the worst. What is that 360kb of data that is worth storing in the attic? I have blank .txt files that are larger than that.


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

HaroldCrump said:


> I will throw out my collection of music cassettes a couple of years after I throw out the 5-1/4" floppies.
> All in good time, what's the rush.


Maybe now's the time to sell your cassettes, if they're worth something now and you'll be throwing them out anyway!


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

Sampson said:


> Wow - frugality comes with hoarding mentality.
> The computer data and storage disks/drives are the worst. What is that 360kb of data that is worth storing in the attic? I have blank .txt files that are larger than that.


I have a kept only a couple of them purely as a memento of the good ol' days.
There is nothing worthwhile in them.
Even if there were, good luck finding a PC that has a 5-1/4" floppy disk drive to read the data.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

brad said:


> Some years back I used to trade recordings (mostly home recordings of traditional Irish music) with a friend in France, and he would send me emails saying that he was going to send me a "K7." It took me a while to realize that this was a shorthand way of writing "cassette" in French, because "K" in French sounds like "kah" and "7" sounds like "set."



love it. Like for the 1st year in france my kids kept looking for a cartoon super-hero on french tv called Pat Panic. Every time there was a breakdown in the émission a female voice would announce the imminent arrival of a character apparently named pas-de-panique. Eventually we caught on.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

humble_pie said:


> love it. Like for the 1st year in france my kids kept looking for a cartoon super-hero on french tv called Pat Panic. Every time there was a breakdown in the émission a female voice would announce the imminent arrival of a character apparently named pas-de-panique. Eventually we caught on.


Driving in Maine with two French people in the car, we spotted a truck with a vanity license plate that read "PIANO KC." Presumably it was owned by a guy named Casey who played the piano, but my French companions exploded in laughter because in French it translated to "broken piano."


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

brad said:


> Driving in Maine with two French people in the car, we spotted a truck with a vanity license plate that read "PIANO KC." Presumably it was owned by a guy named Casey who played the piano, but my French companions exploded in laughter because in French it translated to "broken piano."



haha that's Oka


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

The Acura TL had a cassette player as late as 2008:


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

So weird this brought back memories of wearing out my favourite tapes. I only wore out two mostly because my parents were way too lame to to buy me music

Eye of the tiger - Survivor
Madonna - Some kind of compilation...

And that sound the tape made when you rewound it. And the horror when the tape got all tangled in the machine...


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## donald (Apr 18, 2011)

Or remember winding it with the back of a pencil
trying to predict with the ffw button(all tape players had various speeds)
having a mixed tape(not labelled)and searching high and low for it(or testing all your randoms)or wearing the tape out some much the play list labelled on the tape wore off.(and you lost the case)
and the worst.....having a tape get stuck in a car tape player lol.....so many things..
My memories-beastie boys/inxs/and the first tape i ever got......2 live crew(the banned addition,with the parent advisory on it...lol)snuck it home and felt so bad assed-prob 7 yrs old.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

Barwelle said:


> Maybe now's the time to sell your cassettes


I will sell them right after my dad sells his 45 rpm records


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Does anyone remember those chrome (crO2) tapes? I had a few of them. Here's a very informative writeup about cassettes including chrome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Cassette

Time to fire up the Walkman. LOL.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I got rid of all my diskettes and Zip Drive cartridges this month. Even dispensed with some older DVD backups.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

Pet rocks anyone?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

kcowan said:


> I got rid of all my diskettes and Zip Drive cartridges this month. Even dispensed with some older DVD backups.


We did that last year -- the Shred-It company has periodic free community shredding days, and they had one in our neighbourhood. The machine they use securely shreds zip disks, floppies, CDs, DVDs, etc. so I didn't have to worry about some garbage-sifter coming across my disks and getting data from them. The guy in the truck shredded them while I watched.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

brad said:


> the Shred-It company has periodic free community shredding days, and they had one in our neighbourhood.


thanks for the useful info


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