"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , The Legend
Returns
trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote:



Can't see the point of going back to analog mag tape. Recording onto CD or
other digital media seems fine to me with none of the worries about head
cleaning, dolby adjustments, etc, etc. I only use tape now when replaying
old recordings to transfer them to CD.

But to me, that's half the fun of a cassette deck, all the messing about
and experimenting with different tapes.

You may well ask why people bother with vintage and veteran cars. They're
cold, dirty, break down every few hundred miles and need more attention than
a new born baby! However, people still enjoy driving and working on them.

BTW, dare I ask this, but did you use metal tape cassettes?

tox

"The Legend Returns" trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote in
message ...

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , The Legend
Returns
trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote:



Can't see the point of going back to analog mag tape. Recording onto CD
or
other digital media seems fine to me with none of the worries about head
cleaning, dolby adjustments, etc, etc. I only use tape now when replaying
old recordings to transfer them to CD.

But to me, that's half the fun of a cassette deck, all the messing about
and experimenting with different tapes.

You may well ask why people bother with vintage and veteran cars. They're
cold, dirty, break down every few hundred miles and need more attention
than a new born baby! However, people still enjoy driving and working on
them.


Indeed they do. But they don't "scratch their heads wondering why people
gave up using them" or ask if vintage cars "will ever make a comeback". And
just as most people prefer a reliable, comfortable modern car to a vintage
one when they actually want to get somewhere, most people prefer their iPods
to their old walkman any day. And whilst many audiophiles still prefer the
LP to the CD, few HiFi enthusiasts get nostalgic about the sound of
cassettes!

David.

In article , The Legend Returns trabant
owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote:

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , The Legend Returns
trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote:



Can't see the point of going back to analog mag tape. Recording onto
CD or other digital media seems fine to me with none of the worries
about head cleaning, dolby adjustments, etc, etc. I only use tape now
when replaying old recordings to transfer them to CD.

But to me, that's half the fun of a cassette deck, all the messing
about and experimenting with different tapes.

For me, the point of audio equipment is to allow me to listen to and enjoy
the sound of the music/speech/etc. Not to fiddle about. Happy to leave the
fiddling to the people in the orchestra. :-)

I agree it can be fun to design or build your own kit, and to discover how
it works. But I regard that as a seperate interest. Once designed and built
I want it to work without more fiddling around on any regular basis.



You may well ask why people bother with vintage and veteran cars.
They're cold, dirty, break down every few hundred miles and need more
attention than a new born baby! However, people still enjoy driving and
working on them.

That is fine for them if that is their source of pleasure. I don't have a
car, though. :-)


BTW, dare I ask this, but did you use metal tape cassettes?

I did experiment a few times with metal cassettes. However they didn't seem
worth the expense at the time, and with the deck I had - which I suspect
could not fully drive them. The type 2 tapes seemed OK to me.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Change 'noise' to 'jcgl' if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

The Legend Returns wrote:

But to me, that's half the fun of a cassette deck, all the messing about
and experimenting with different tapes.

Trust me, there are better things to do. I used to have to do that kind of think
for a living once on anything from quarter inch to two inch machines.

Graham

On Mon, 8 Sep 2008 09:58:52 +0100, "The Legend Returns" trabant
owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote:


"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , The Legend
Returns
trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote:



Can't see the point of going back to analog mag tape. Recording onto CD or
other digital media seems fine to me with none of the worries about head
cleaning, dolby adjustments, etc, etc. I only use tape now when replaying
old recordings to transfer them to CD.

But to me, that's half the fun of a cassette deck, all the messing about
and experimenting with different tapes.

You may well ask why people bother with vintage and veteran cars. They're
cold, dirty, break down every few hundred miles and need more attention than
a new born baby! However, people still enjoy driving and working on them.

BTW, dare I ask this, but did you use metal tape cassettes?

tox

I bought 2 or 3 Metal tapes in my lifetime. Must say, I did like the
results but I've heard people talk 'bad' about them and I don't know
why. Maybe excessive head wear? At least you didn't need Dolby with
Metal tapes. BTW, used TDK MA.

Marky P.

In article , Marky P
wrote:


I bought 2 or 3 Metal tapes in my lifetime. Must say, I did like the
results but I've heard people talk 'bad' about them and I don't know
why. Maybe excessive head wear? At least you didn't need Dolby with
Metal tapes. BTW, used TDK MA.

IIRC there were two concerns.

1) That they needed a higher applied field to record up to the max levels,
and to correctly bias the tape. So many of the decks that had a 'metal'
setting for them were unable to use them properly - e.g. because the record
head saturated before the tape! :-)

2) That early examples of the tape were prone to degrading as the metal
oxidised or otherwise reacted with their environment.

Can't say how well founded the above ideas were. I just tried metal
cassette a few times and decided that - in my recorder - they didn't seem
worth the money at the time.

IIRC head wear was also said to be a worry with some early 'Crome' tapes.

....and I can say I miss cassette much. Useful before I had digital
recording, but...

Slainte,

Jim

--
Change 'noise' to 'jcgl' if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:57:15 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:

In article , Marky P
wrote:


I bought 2 or 3 Metal tapes in my lifetime. Must say, I did like the
results but I've heard people talk 'bad' about them and I don't know
why. Maybe excessive head wear? At least you didn't need Dolby with
Metal tapes. BTW, used TDK MA.

IIRC there were two concerns.

1) That they needed a higher applied field to record up to the max levels,
and to correctly bias the tape. So many of the decks that had a 'metal'
setting for them were unable to use them properly - e.g. because the record
head saturated before the tape! :-)

Must admit, the meters on my Yamaha cassette deck went way off the top
and the tape still took it.

2) That early examples of the tape were prone to degrading as the metal
oxidised or otherwise reacted with their environment.

Can't say how well founded the above ideas were. I just tried metal
cassette a few times and decided that - in my recorder - they didn't seem
worth the money at the time.

They were a bit pricey.

IIRC head wear was also said to be a worry with some early 'Crome' tapes.

...and I can say I miss cassette much. Useful before I had digital
recording, but...

Slainte,

Jim
I remember TDK briging out a Ferric tape that could be pushed to the
limits like a metal tape. Think it was AR-X or something. It did
perform very well but was still nearly the price of a metal tape.

What I did like about cassettes was that not everyone could make
decent recordings. You had to make an effort. I made recordings for
mates at school and they were envious of the excellent sound quality
:-)

Marky P.