Does anyone use/need a (music) cassette deck these days?

[Rick Nebiolo]

I’m posting this here since I’m fairly sure the average person on OOT wouldn’t even know what a cassette tape or deck looks like.

For the first time in years I’m listening to cassette tapes on my living room stereo while I sort through some stuff (tax records /images/graemlins/frown.gif) on the floor. I’m mostly playing the few things I don’t have on CD or on my computer or iPod playlists.

I ask because I want to make room on the shelf for pictures and stuff. I’ll probably be giving it away to the Salvation Army/Goodwill or even a deserving poker player on 2+2 (it seems these items don’t fetch much on eBay). The model I have is the Sony TC-KE500S (http://tinyurl.com/362f4q) and it’s hardly been used. It seems to be playing well although I haven't tested the record function.

~ Rick

[guids]

I have a Ren and Stimpy tape from when I was a little kid, it would be the only thing Id listen too if I had a tape deck, as its the only tape I have.

[Ineedaride2]

I bought my truck back in '01, and it came from the factory with a tape deck.

It's had Long Cold Winter in it since the first day I had the truck.

I'm not even sure if it would eject now.

I still have some top 40 tapes I recorded off the radio in the late 80's....we didn't have iTunes back then, kids. Problem is, the only player I have is in my truck (referenced above).

[cow_phunk]

i still use a cassette adapter for my ipod. itrip is hell in the city and i haven't gotten around to getting a new stereo. don't need one really.

[Golden_Rhino]

I use my tape deck to make mixed tapes for my car. That's right, my car has a tape deck.

[daryn]

my car has a tape deck. i used to use it a lot. i think i'll get back into it, some dick stole my ipod recently.

[guids]

OMG! ya, thats right, my car has a tapedeck in it too! 50k brand new, I guess thats what they decide to give you, oh man, I cant wait to take a drive and crank up that tape tommorow why didnt I think of this before.

[NLSoldier]

lol i dont think ive even used a CD player in at least 3 years.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
I use my tape deck to make mixed tapes for my car. That's right, my car has a tape deck.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mine too (a 96' Saturn Coupe). But I mostly listen to talk radio - the cassette deck screams this "Must Clean" message at me. The sick thing is I have about 200 well recorded tapes of mostly good stuff. But I'm getting a new car next year so I have little motivation to clean the deck or use the tapes.

Fortunately in the eight years we've gone out my gf has never been in my car.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
lol i dont think ive even used a CD player in at least 3 years.

[/ QUOTE ]

Although I already can plug my iNano into my main stereo in the living room it doesn't sound quite as good as my CDs (and I've A-B'd the tracks). If copyright issues are ever resolved some day I hope to see high capacity dedicated hard disk or memory based devices holding one's entire music collection in .wav format.

But then again most people don't listen to high fidelity these days.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
...we didn't have iTunes back then, kids...

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the real sick divide on 2+2 is those of us who actually owned and used eight track tapes!

I'd bet it amounts to less than 1% of registered users.

~ Rick

[Claunchy]

[ QUOTE ]
my car has a tape deck.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not to hijack, but don't you have mad poker monies?

[daryn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
my car has a tape deck.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not to hijack, but don't you have mad poker monies?

[/ QUOTE ]

are you talking to me? i have money but not sure what that has to do with having a tape deck in your car. i bought my car new in 98, still got it. the stereo is really not that good, just standard. maybe when i get a new car it will have a nice stereo.

[nyc999]

[ QUOTE ]
i still use a cassette adapter for my ipod. itrip is hell in the city and i haven't gotten around to getting a new stereo. don't need one really.

[/ QUOTE ]

Totally agree, I don't think I could do w/o a tape deck in my car. iTrip sucks anywhere near a city.

[private joker]

Hey Rick, I have a teletype machine and a dictaphone if you want to trade.

By the way, this post was written on:

http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/t/F/typewriter.gif

[Alobar]

Like VHS tapes and VCR I threw out my cassette tapes and player a long ass time ago.

It annoyed the [censored] out of me that when I bought my nice shiny new vehicle it had a 6 disc in dash changer, and a [censored] TAPE DECK! For [censored] sake, why???

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Like VHS tapes and VCR I threw out my cassette tapes and player a long ass time ago.

[/ QUOTE ]
You threw out your VCR? Unless you have Tivo or a DVDR isn't a VCR sort of useful; at least sometimes?

Does anyone ever tape a TV show these days?

Does everybody but me have a Tivo type device?

I do have a combo VCR/DVD player but haven't used the VCR part since starting on Netflix. I guess I should give away that big box of VCR tapes cluttering my closet. But I still need the VCR for a few tapes and recordings (e.g., family pictures transferred to VHS tape).

I wonder if donating a box of old VCR tapes, a nice cassette deck, and cassette tapes is considered tacky (sort of like Bill Clinton donating his old underwear (before he was Pres)).


[ QUOTE ]
It annoyed the [censored] out of me that when I bought my nice shiny new vehicle it had a 6 disc in dash changer, and a [censored] TAPE DECK! For [censored] sake, why???

[/ QUOTE ]

My parents bought a Toyota Avalon a couple years ago with standard audio like what you describe above. I think models like this appeal to the older boomers who still have a lot of their music on tape. Me, I have a lot of music on tape but I managed to get most of it transferred to music files.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
my car has a tape deck.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not to hijack, but don't you have mad poker monies?

[/ QUOTE ]

are you talking to me? since i'm a mid limit grinder with a double nut i have little extra money but not sure what that has to do with having a tape deck in your car. i bought my car new in 96 , still got it. the stereo is really not that good, just standard. maybe when i get a new car it will have a nice stereo.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
my car has a tape deck.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not to hijack, but don't you have mad poker monies?

[/ QUOTE ]

are you talking to me? since i'm a mid limit grinder with a double nut i have little extra money but not sure what that has to do with having a tape deck in your car. i bought my car new in 96 , still got it. the stereo is really not that good, just standard. when i buy my friends four year old but immaculate car next year it has a six disk CD changer.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Rick, I have a teletype machine and a dictaphone if you want to trade.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't use or need that; I'm on a get rid of things I don't use or need jihad.

A future OP will ask the forum how tacky it would be to donate almost new perfectly clean briefs now that I've suddenly switched to boxers *. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

~ Rick

PS * I now assume my next underwear will be in the Depends line of products. (http://www.depend.com/products/products_all.asp)

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]

You threw out your VCR? Unless you have Tivo or a DVDR isn't a VCR sort of useful; at least sometimes?

Does anyone ever tape a TV show these days?

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually dont have TV anymore, but I threw out my VCR long ago when I still did. I never had Tivo either. I just never felt the need to record anything. If I missed something I wanted to watch I could just find it on the internet.

[ QUOTE ]

My parents bought a Toyota Avalon a couple years ago with standard audio like what you describe above. I think models like this appeal to the older boomers who still have a lot of their music on tape. Me, I have a lot of music on tape but I managed to get most of it transferred to music files.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mine was a Toyota 4runner, so maybe its just a Toyota thing, dunno. I still think its retarded tho. Even most baby boomers dont have tapes anymore. CDs have been out for like 20+ years or something, most people replaced their tapes loooong ago. And with CD burners being standard on every computer for like the last 5+ years, I doubt anyone makes mix tapes anymore.

Seriously, I cant figure out for the life of me why they are still in brand new vehicles. Hell you couldnt even buy a freaking album on cassette tape anymore I bet, prolly been like that for years too. I wouldnt even be surprised if you most places even carried cassette tapes in general anymore

[El Diablo]

Rick,

"Does anyone ever tape a TV show these days?"

No. You should buy the cheapest DVR you can find and even if you don't want to pay for the guide service, you can use it to manually record stuff like a VCR. So, so, so much better. Basically just using a hard drive to record instead of tape. I bet you can get older ones now for super cheap.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
The model I have is the Sony TC-KE500S (http://tinyurl.com/362f4q) and it’s hardly been used. It seems to be playing well although I haven't tested the record function.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wrote the OP because I don't want to duplicate the mistake I made when I tossed out two heavy boxes of classic vinyl LPs in great condition thinking nobody wants or uses these anymore (perhaps a story for another post).

Anyway the above cassette deck worked fine all afternoon yesterday but I still haven't tested the record function. That deck with manual along with about 100 or more well recorded tapes (I always used the better cassette tapes) is available for free to any 2+2er who wants them and can meet me sometimes in an LA card club parking lot so I don't have to pack and ship it.

Otherwise it goes to Salvation Army and now I wonder if they will even accept it.

Reply below or PM me if you are interested. First serious reply wins.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Rick,

"Does anyone ever tape a TV show these days?"

No. You should buy the cheapest DVR you can find and even if you don't want to pay for the guide service, you can use it to manually record stuff like a VCR. So, so, so much better. Basically just using a hard drive to record instead of tape. I bet you can get older ones now for super cheap.

[/ QUOTE ]

I must be out of it or some sort of clueless dinosaur but a DVR still may not work for me. You see my wife (we are separated but friendly) was taping shows for me (e.g. Sopranos and High Stakes Poker) as recently as last year. She has cable and a VCR but no DVD or Tivo/DVDR. I had a VCR/DVD combo and no cable.

With Netflix I no longer need her to tape shows except perhaps for High Stakes Poker on Monday nights. I won't get cable; I simply don't watch enough TV.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

Ignore the above semi-duplicated post; it somehow got up there before I completed it and now I can't delete it.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Hell you couldnt even buy a freaking album on cassette tape anymore I bet, prolly been like that for years too. I wouldnt even be surprised if you most places even carried cassette tapes in general anymore

[/ QUOTE ]

I was walking through some sort of "indie" music store a couple of weeks ago. They definitely had vinyl and may have had cassettes. They didn't have the Lucinda Williams and Mary Gauthier CDs I wanted.

I threw out my two boxes of perfect condition classic LPs when a couple of local vinyl shops went out of business (which made me mistakenly conclude the vinyl format was no longer used) and I read/heard that my mint condition "It's a Beautiful Day" vinyl LP (http://tinyurl.com/35j5h7) no longer was worth much. Yet someone on Amazon (http://tinyurl.com/34sf6x) is asking $30 bucks for it right now! I wonder if he would get his price? I wonder if he got his copy of "It's a Beautiful Day" from my dumpster?

~ Rick

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
I think the real sick divide on 2+2 is those of us who actually owned and used eight track tapes!

I'd bet it amounts to less than 1% of registered users.

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to listen to my parent's 8 tracks all the time. Not sure I ever bought an 8-track tape for myself. Also my first car came with an 8-track player. It was a '76 Nova and I got it for HS graduation in '84. First thing I did was change the stereo.

As for the OP, if I had a cassette player in my car I'd only use it for an Ipod adaptor. My home stereo cassette deck is in my closet. Last time I used it, I dug it out and hooked it up to my computer to convert a cassette based audio book to MP3.

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think the real sick divide on 2+2 is those of us who actually owned and used eight track tapes!

I'd bet it amounts to less than 1% of registered users.

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to listen to my parent's 8 tracks all the time. Not sure I ever bought an 8-track tape for myself. Also my first car came with an 8-track player. It was a '76 Nova and I got it for HS graduation in '84. First thing I did was change the stereo.

[/ QUOTE ]

My frist vehicle had one to. I had a copy of "Crimson in clover" or whatever that song is called and I jammed to that like a million times. I havent heard that song in forever, I actually think im going to go DL it right now, heh.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
My home stereo cassette deck is in my closet. Last time I used it, I dug it out and hooked it up to my computer to convert a cassette based audio book to MP3.

[/ QUOTE ]

Turns out I do have some music on cassette (perhaps twenty tapes) that is otherwise unavailable or costly to replace. I might look into doing this if mostly just involves getting a couple cables. I do wonder how to break up the tracks although I would assume there's some freeware out there that would do this.

Unless I hear from a deserving* 2+2er I think the cassette deck will go to the Salvation Army after I make those conversions. Damn, I must have been one of the last people on Earth to spend $250 or more on a cassette deck in the last eight years.

~ Rick

* Being "deserving" isn't required. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[cow_phunk]

nothing's unavailable when you're looking in the right spot. and it wasn't hard to tell the cassettes will not hold any value over time as a medium, unlike vinyl. some people still like the sound of vinyl, there's no such people for tape. not really searchable either. its bad, its gone. i'm just glad i dont have to shell out an unnecessary amt of funds > $100 for a car stereo w/ input jacks for the ipod.

[guids]

My dad still has an 8 track at his shop, but he has some sweet ones. Blues brothers, queen, clapton, so Ill pop one in once in awhile.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
i'm just glad i dont have to shell out an unnecessary amt of funds > $100 for a car stereo w/ input jacks for the ipod.

[/ QUOTE ]

The car I'm getting next year from my friend has a 6 CD cartridge player so I probably won't bother with an iPod input. I'm not sure the convenience of an iPon/iNano outweighs the degraded sound.

gf and I both have 8gig iNano's. Most of our music is ripped from my CD collection using Exact Audio Copy and converted to MP3 at an average 190 VBR bit-rate or so using the LAME back-end (I do know about some new stuff, I just didn't realize how useless my old stuff was /images/graemlins/grin.gif ).

I bought the inexpensive basic cables to hook up the iNano's directly to both the living room and bedroom stereos (for fun showing new songs in the living room and to easily play my latest "bada bing" mix in the bedroom). Anyway, the living room stereo is half decent and we can really tell the difference between the same song using MP3s and the .wav file the original CD.

~ Rick

[guids]

List of songs on Bada Bing mix pls.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
List of songs on Bada Bing mix pls.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not at home so I can't export the list from iTunes but gf is starting to get into the blues, especally the straght blues (without any element of swing).

Favorites seem to be blues by Robben Ford, Roy Buchanan, Duke Robillard and at least one of the guys named Albert. Tonight I have some stuff by Joe Bonamassa for her to check out.

I do know she's played Roy Buchanan's live version of "Down By the River" about 500 times on her iNano (my computer is her mother ship so it counts the plays on my iTunes) so it's nice if I can manage to hit the right note when that one's playing.

So I guess when I said "Bada Bing" I didn't mean to imply it was all Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra type stuff (although that can be pretty good too).

~ Rick



PS If I can remember I'll export the list and post it by tomorrow.

[guids]

Your wife likes to do it to the blues? does she have a sister?

[cow_phunk]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i'm just glad i dont have to shell out an unnecessary amt of funds > $100 for a car stereo w/ input jacks for the ipod.

[/ QUOTE ]

The car I'm getting next year from my friend has a 6 CD cartridge player so I probably won't bother with an iPod input. I'm not sure the convenience of an iPon/iNano outweighs the degraded sound.

gf and I both have 8gig iNano's. Most of our music is ripped from my CD collection using Exact Audio Copy and converted to MP3 at an average 190 VBR bit-rate or so using the LAME back-end (I do know about some new stuff, I just didn't realize how useless my old stuff was /images/graemlins/grin.gif ).

I bought the inexpensive basic cables to hook up the iNano's directly to both the living room and bedroom stereos (for fun showing new songs in the living room and to easily play my latest "bada bing" mix in the bedroom). Anyway, the living room stereo is half decent and we can really tell the difference between the same song using MP3s and the .wav file the original CD.

~ Rick

[/ QUOTE ]

ripping in vbr should cause very little differences in audible quality. screw w/ the settings and you'll find something that's gonna sound real close to the cd. the problem is people who take the mp3(lossless), convert to wav, rip it, then convert it back to mp3 somewhere else. lossy>lossless>lossy is a huge quality degradation. i'm hard pressed to believe you're noticing a major difference on a home system, like really hard pressed. if you are rip at a higher rate. i went through the lossless phase, its not worth the hassle.

edit: btw, you're probably going through the standard headphone out jack, which is gonna cause a loss of quality based on your wiring.

[Ray Zee]

went from cars in the 60's that had 45 and 78 record players in them. thats right an album spinning in a case under the dash. to 8 track tape players. both of which sucked. then on to cassette tapes. well with a good player like a nacamici you get better sound than any disc as the highs and lows are what they should be.
i still have vehicles that take tapes and listen to them and still have two players, a nacimici and a yamaha, hooked into my home system. the tapes i have had for up to forty years and still sound great. will the new disks still be even playable then.
alot of my cd disks work great for hanging in the limbs of fruit trees and scare the deer away.

[Phat Mack]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
...we didn't have iTunes back then, kids...

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the real sick divide on 2+2 is those of us who actually owned and used eight track tapes!

I'd bet it amounts to less than 1% of registered users.

~ Rick

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's a quiz for the children on the forum. A few years ago, I owned a 1958 Buick, and drove it when I took out a girl in her early 20s. She looked at the dashboard, which was chrome and looked like a cross between a spaceship and an espresso machine, and then asked if should could turn on the radio.

I said fine, she turned it on, waited a few seconds, and turned it off. I asked her why she did that, and she said, "It's broken!"

Wtf? Why did she think it was broken?

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
ripping in vbr should cause very little differences in audible quality. screw w/ the settings and you'll find something that's gonna sound real close to the cd. the problem is people who take the mp3(lossless), convert to wav, rip it, then convert it back to mp3 somewhere else. lossy>lossless>lossy is a huge quality degradation. i'm hard pressed to believe you're noticing a major difference on a home system, like really hard pressed. if you are rip at a higher rate. i went through the lossless phase, its not worth the hassle.

edit: btw, you're probably going through the standard headphone out jack, which is gonna cause a loss of quality based on your wiring.

[/ QUOTE ]

In both rooms I bought a $4 cable that goes from the headphone output on the iNano and splits to RCA type jacks (red and white plugs). In the bedroom stereo (with a cheap $100 Technics stereo receiver) I originally plugged the cable into the phono jack on the receiver. That sounded bad so I switched to the tape input which sounded better. In the living room I have a decent Harmon Kardon receiver and I plugged the similar cable into the auxiliary input on the receiver.

In the living room I just retested a clean sounding song on a CD against the same song played through the iNano that was converted to .mp3 using EAC/LAME. It's hard to A-B since you need to fiddle with the volume controls to equalize volumes (I'm sure you know that louder usually sounds better unless the components or source isn't' close in quality).

After trying to equalize the volumes and listening for a few minutes I would say it's close.

Also from your edit above I assume your saying that the more expensive iDock type devices for connecting your iPod to a stereo use the USB connection on the iPod and this sounds better than the headphone jack.

My original comparison listening probably didn't equalize volumes well and may have used some cuts that were ripped at 128kb using inferior software.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
List of songs on Bada Bing mix pls.

[/ QUOTE ]

We planned on refining the 5 star blues playlist last night then posting it for you but my computer sub-woofer sort of blew up so we didn't get a chance.

I do know she/we like some of the following cuts best:

Duke Robillard
Album: Blue Mood
Link to Amazon samples: http://tinyurl.com/2qp7uu
Fav cuts:
- Love Is a Gamble
- I'm Still in Love With You
- Born to Be No Good

Albert Collins
Album: Collins Mix: The Best
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2veq69
Fav cuts:
- Tired Man
also likes "Blues for Stevie" but I can't find the link right now.

Ronnie Earl:
Album: The Colour of Love
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2q99bv
Fav cuts:
- 'Round Midnight
- Mother Angel

Roy Buchanan:
Album: Sweet Dreams
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2ssexg
Fav cuts:
- Five String Blues
- Turn to Stone
- Down By the River (live)

Anyway, stuff like that works for us. Gotta go, still might post a blues mix later or in another thread.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Wtf? Why did she think it was broken?

[/ QUOTE ]

Because it didn't in fact serve espresso.

~ Rick