The Legend Returns wrote:
About a two years ago, I posted here about tapes. I messed about with my
tape deck for a couple of evenings, then stuck it back in the box and forgot
about it.

Three days ago, I set it up and once again, have just spent two thoughrougly
enjoyable nights putting some music back on tape and I'm now left scratching
my head, why the format has virtually died out?

Using the very cheap but extremely good TDK SA tapes purchased from Richer
Sounds last week and replacing the 99p RCA leads with some much better but
also inexpensive leads http://tinyurl.com/5zzmq5 I fired up the old Pioneer
CT-740S.
Pushing the Super Auto BLE button and watching the machine work out the
chareristics of the tape was such fun. Wondering whether to use Dolby B, C
or S ...ah nostalgia

Selecting the tracks I wanted to record and then using the Peak Search on my
on my ancient Sony CDP-990 to set the recording levels... Marvellous. The
results, excellent!

Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they used, the
brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when tape recording, or if
they think tape could ever make a comeback?

Cheers all
tox



I did a test of a range of chrome tapes some years ago (probably more
then 10) and concluded TDK SA was the best. However, I have recently
been working with a friends 8 track cassette recordings and have found
the tape edge of SA tapes is rather poor. Best tapes in this respect so
far seem to be Maxell.

Cheers

Ian

Serge Auckland wrote:

"Don Pearce" wrote in message
et...
Serge Auckland wrote:

"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"The Legend Returns" trabant owners club@Nicks place.comco wrote
in message news About a two years ago, I posted here about tapes. I messed about
with my tape deck for a couple of evenings, then stuck it back in
the box and forgot about it.

Three days ago, I set it up and once again, have just spent two
thoughrougly enjoyable nights putting some music back on tape and
I'm now left scratching my head, why the format has virtually died
out?

Using the very cheap but extremely good TDK SA tapes purchased from
Richer Sounds last week and replacing the 99p RCA leads with some
much better but also inexpensive leads http://tinyurl.com/5zzmq5

I'm scratching my head as to why someone who is satisfied with
cassette tape is bothering about leads?


Anyone care to discuss what type of Dolby setting (B, C or S) they
used, the brand/type of tape they used or indeed, still use when
tape recording, or if they think tape could ever make a comeback?


I usually had Dolby switched out. Even with the most expensive
cassette decks there always seemed to be problems with mistracking
between the Dolby encode and decode processes. And with later tape
formulations tape hiss wasn't intrusive.

David.


I used Dolby C, but it was extremely critical of line-up. I can well
understand why anyone without access to test equipment would prefer
cassette without Dolby, even B. However, if the machine was properly
lined-up, it could give truly excellent results, comparable with R-R
without Dolby. Tape saturation wasn't that much of a problem if you
kept record levels down, as Dolby C would take care of the noise.
Of course R-R with Dolby A was a lot better, and a LOT more expensive
on tape costs.
Interesting how it all went away with recording on Hard-Disc.

S.

I've posted this before, but I think it is useful here - it is a plot
of the frequency response and noise levels of my Sony Walkman Pro.
There are three noise plots, normal, Dolby B and Dolby C

http://81.174.169.10/odds/dolby.gif

It isn't a pretty sight with any of them.

d

I no longer have it, but my old Nakamichi 482Z had much better frequency
response than that. At 0dB record level (200mM/mm) it was flat (-1dB) to
20k. Noise curves look about similar, typically broadband noise about
-60dB, Dolby tracking within 1dB. It did need a lot of tweaking to get
it like that, and it did rather vary tape to tape, even within the same
manufacturer and formulation. I wasn't sorry to give up on cassettes and
go to hard-disk.
S.

I have a three head Denon machine here with variable bias - I'll give
that a test soon using the same method and post the results.

d

I'm scratching my head as to why someone who is satisfied with cassette
tape
is bothering about leads?


Ah yes, the Compact Cassette.
Did for sound recording what Disk Film and the 110 cartridge did for still
photography.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

The Legend Returns wrote:

"Eeyore" wrote
The Legend Returns wrote:

if they think tape could ever make a comeback?

Why ?

Why not, sounds good to me... Browsing through the Internet, throws up shed
loads of people still using the format.

There's hardly any tape factories left btw !

The TDK SA, is still readily available and at just 59p for a C90 is about as
good as it gets.

Cassettes sound **** ! And they wear out. I know people with Ampex ATR100s that
have a stereo headblock on 1 inch tape. Now that may be worth listening to.

Graham

"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

I tape from CD to Cassette once in a while, though I have hundereds of
Cassettes from early CD to Tape recordings.

I don't use Dolby at all, as I don't like the resulting sound of the
Ride Cymbals when listening to Jazz.
Bg

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.