Why Don't More People Collect Cassettes? - Tape vs Vinyl 

Which type of audio player did you grow up using? One of my oldest memories is riding around in my dad's work truck (he worked for Budweiser XD) listening to his collections of old Irish tunes on cassette. For some reason I really enjoyed Jolly Tinker by Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers haha!

When people start collecting CDs the ways they collect vinyls and cassette, that's when I know my childhood has become retro and I'm old. 🤣

I really believe that each format has a culture all its own. Cassette culture is very rich and even contains subcultures within based on genre; for example cassettes were important to hip hop in the 80s and 90s much how cassettes were important to metalheads and punk fans. There's just something about cassettes, from the color of the tape, the photos and lyrics within the j-card, it just makes for great analog packaging of music and creates an experience separate but still parallel to vinyl and CD.

I prefer cassettes. Those were the days I'd really listen to music, hear every song and really connected with the music. When CDs arrived that's when I'd start skipping and going straight to the hits, ect. Streaming is even worse.

As somone who only just got into cassetes i love the sound of the end off cassettes where it goes from a hiss which stops on each channle and then you hear the deck make a *click* and a *clunk* and then silence. Honestly is like watching a really good movie where your just sit back in the credits and go "wow... that was nice".

Decent cassettes sound incredibly well with a high end deck, but even with a cheaper one. I have a lot of old tapes from the 90s made on East-german "HiFi". When I put them in a new TASCAM deck my jaw dropped! I had in my mind that hissing boom box sound. But they sound really good! Even after 25 years! With an upper class deck (in my case AIWA AD-F810) and decent cassettes (TDK SA, BASF Chrome Super II, Denon) you'll get results you will not believe if you don't hear it! Even without Dolby virtually no hiss. If you don't tell somebody that's tape he'll think it's from CD! When tape disappeared in the early 2000 that technology was mature and at a final point. It couldn't get better any more. Digital music was and is more convenient. But the sound often isn't better. Even with high bit rates. You can put thousands of tapes on an USB stick and the sound is ok. The quality will stay that way. That's it! If you like music and sound, sooner or later you want something to grab on. Vinyl or tape. This imperfect analog hardware that makes music come to life ...

Dear Tape Lovers, Greetings from India. Middle aged or senior citizens who are tape addicts will appreciate and comprehend that the analogue tapes from BASF, TDK, SONY & AXIA if recorded from good source and on a decent tape deck from Technics (965, AZ7, TR777 & 979), Nakamichi (DR-10) and Sony (ES) series (I have such models) may easily surpass the vinyl any day. Using a recording for commercial use may be a crime but for personal use has always been legal. Agreed, that a tape recording can never sound better than source but the ability of tapes to be recorded in limitless options can satisfy the appetite of most demanding audiophiles. Settings of Bias, Treble and Vocals is limitless with a good tape deck and if you may get hold of some good DAC such as RME DAC ADI-2 FS or a streamer like new Arcam ST60, try recording a contemporary track and you will be stunned with the output of a Chrome or Metal tapes. The hiss is what makes it special, but if you scorn the same, playing tape on any good deck, even without any sound suppressing options such as Dolby or DBX, the hiss sound is nearly non-existent. Music sounds more melodic and warmer on tape, more than vinyl. Not that vinyl is bad either. They both are tangible and much warmer compared to best digital music from any digital source. All you need is some good money and some luck to find a tape deck and invest a little in blank tapes, what you will hear will certainly make you realise, what you have been missing in music so far in life. Long Live Tape and Long Live Music.

I love pre-recorded music on cassette. Less hassle than the ritual of wiping static from a record and cleaning the stylus before playing. Especially dig the clunk and whir of the cassette deck buttons when you press rewind and play. I’m a fam of most formats though including CDs and streaming. It’s all music anyway.

The thing with sound quality is you can always do better - regardless of the format you're using. On decent (but not expensive) equipment, I listen to (and still buy) CDs, cassettes, MP3s, and LPs without worrying the comparative differences. I remember people in the early 1990s dumping their record collections only to regret it later. Today, people are dumping entire CD collections for a couple hundred bucks. That's the big point to focus on with physical formats right now: CDs are the most durable, convenient, easy to transport, and easy-to-digitize. They are also the easiest format to find and the cheapest to buy.

I've started making the transition to vinyl again after all these years (I grew up with it). My reasons are a combination of all of the things said here. I like the warmth of the sound. I like the ritual. I the larger size of the album cover and sleeve and that there is a lot of information on it that is completely absent from digital streaming. I like that there is a connection between me and the physical music.

People who think cassettes are lo-fi haven’t used a quality deck. Metal tape encoded with Dolby S or DBX has a better dynamic range and frequency response than CD. Even prerecorded type 1 tapes are better to me than CD, but I prefer all analog formats over digital

CDs will make a huge comeback down the road.Why?Whats old always becomes new again.Plus, the Cassettes collectors today,who are still collecting cassettes, will inspire future cassette collectors to keep collecting cassettes of tomorrow.👍Cassettes are still fun to collect and it all comes down to how you the cassette collector, store ur cassettes and how you handle them.If you take good care of ur cassettes and treat them right, your cassettes will definitely take care of you.They said cassettes are only good for 30 some years? Well how come my cassettes are still playing today?And alot of my cassettes are way over 30 years old.Always keep ur cassettes in a safe environment.Meaning out of the sunlight or moldy basements, or hot atics.Always rewind ur cassette after playing them.Store away properly.😃👍God bless cassettes and CDs.😀👍✌❤

Each format has its own use. Records have high sound quality, also, they are not affected by magnetic fields. Reel to reel tape is good for preserving records (record a brand new record to tape, then listen to that tape instead of wearing out the record). Also, I can have long playing tapes (up to 3 hours per side), so I need to flip/change them less often compared to records. I can also record the songs I want to a tape, not necessarily from a record I own (a borrowed recording, the radio etc). Cassettes are similar to reel to reel tapes, with the difference that they are a bit lower quality and shorter maximum playing time, but cheaper and portable, so I can play my music in my car or just outside. Also, at least where I live, a lot of music (that I like) was released on cassette only.

Best part I like about tapes is, I can fine-tune them when recording, making them sound LOUDER SHARPER and CLEANER than CD's and Especially MP3's!

Another really interesting and informative video! Cannot wait to see more of these. I also love the thumbnail!

I like how cassettes are smaller and usually cheaper than Vinyl. I also love how they have end labels, making them more displayable on a shelf. And, with the right equipment, they can sound amazing. The only downside is that some tapes warp or wear out and aren't really playable anymore, but they're cheap enough to replace when that happens.

The 'machine eats tape' story mostly comes from cheap tapes used in cheap car stereos. These decks are very low quality, and due to being installed in a car, which rattles around, is exposed to humidity and heat and maybe even people smoking inside the car, the dirty mechanism caused the tape to get stuck. Also, I'm not so sure about what you said about longevity of tape. I have cassettes from my dad which are almost 40 years old and they sound perfect, indistinguishable from a CD, whereas some of my vinyl records I bought second hand can sound very muffled on sections that have been played very often. Nevertheless, great video!

A well recorded Metal tape on a high-end deck always sounds much nicer to me than an LP. And yeah, far cheaper and convenient. Cool video.

My favourite way to listen to music is actually the Minidisc, which has almost CD quality sound but with the sturdiness and durability of a cassette, especially for portable players or car head units. Also the fact you can edit the discs yourself on your equipment with the touch of a button, to cut tracks perfectly of a continuous live recording you made yourself for example, using nothing more than your home deck or portable recorder, without having to rip or capture it to a computer to edit there. The antishock mechanism is also perfect for portable and car units, making it virtualñy impossible to make a track jump at all... And all in a very compact and easy to handle design.

Glad to hear someone else who understands cassette recorded analog media for the purpose and warmth of it. I had to recently throw out all my CD's that I made in the 2010's. They just would not work in any player anymore. It's like they where slowly being erased over time losing data and skipping. I still have plenty of personal cassettes i made years before and they ALL still work fine. The cassette deck I made them on died but it was easy to buy a refurbished cassette deck from eBay from a reputable buyer who repairs mostly tape decks. The tapes sound as good as day one and are 15to 20 years older than the CD's. If you want to store your audible memories do it on a cassette tape. They will still be around years from now and so will the equipment to play them on. My oldest cassette is over 54 years old and still plays. I think that is enough for a lifetime and then some for whoever to discover it. My outdoor time capsule tape (Maxell UR 90 clear shell) was buried in the soil in a zip lock bag in an air tight container 30 years ago and still plays just as it did when new. Try that with a CD or MP3 player and see if they still work.

Cassettes have always been my thing. I’ve picked up hundreds of unspooled tapes when they used to be out along the streets and roads and would put them all back together and play them. Sound quality wasn’t my big concern. I just enjoyed hearing what was on them as cast away sounds. To this day I’ll hear a clean clear recording of a song and remember some of the unique wrinkled areas, stretches, and spots where the song was broke in two ( or many pieces depending on the condition of the tape ). I played some broken tapes enough times for those damaged areas to set deep in my mind. Of course with all that scotch tape, I had be sure to clean my boom box’s capstan, pinch roller and head often.

Got them all! And all of them can still move your soul in different ways. Certainly some formats are stuck with a specific generation (LP's and 8-tracks on 70-80's, cassettes on 90's and Cds by the mid-end 90's) but the average collector admires the aspect of holding onto something while the listening experiences goes with every listening you get on your favourite format. Cassettes are special, since with most home devices of the time, you could record your fav song from the radio or just add another one and do a personal mix and put it while you drive on holidays or anywhere (maybe the beginnings of the playlists?). One thing is sure, each hold its ground up until today! Still see and know about several Deadheads still listening their cassette tapes. I can't resist to listen a Blu-Ray in Hi-Res or with a 5.1mix (Steven Wilson's are surely the ones to get on this department) but to grap an LP, put it on and just lay down and let that music blow your mind is quite the experience anyone can enjoy.

Toronto Canada AKA The 6ix🇨🇦 Great topic love the reasoning I've been a DJ for years now and I grew up on cassettes vinyl and CDs📀 but my daughter who is now 14 and some of her friends are crazy about vinyl and cassettes! My kid has a cassette tape collection which is pretty impressive👌🏽She's a big fan of Motown, Disco & Old school hip hop and loves Billie eilish which she also has on cassette tape I asked her why is this such a big deal to have them on Old school cassette🤔 she tells me because it sounds warmer to her ears she says these days everyone is in a rush 😒 and digital music is sharp and quick but with analog it makes you take the time to listen to the instruments and vocals in a relaxing way...😏Great Channel keep up the good work!💯

Personally, I love all physical mediums. Each one has its own pros and cons as you described really well, so great job. If I were to add something to your analysis, I think one could make an argument that certain genres of music are not really well suited for tape (I'm talking the portable players here), while others can be straight up just fun to listen to on tape. For me, I've got some old Jim Croce tapes that remind me of my dad and him playing guitar, so listening to those tapes are really fun for the nostalgia. Also certain genres that are sonically busy can drown out the hiss that comes from tape. I feel like tape really suffers with music that really needs quiet and loud moments (e.g. classical would probably not be fun to listen to on tape unless you have an amazing tape deck). Anyway, that's my two cents. Thanks for the analysis.

Vinyl will never die. The number of times a new format comes a long but vinyl never disappear, never.

I love cassette because it makes me remember my father because he loves to collect cassette, walk me to the cassette store and grab something that he or I like, and I think I was raised near the end of the cassette era. Now after finishing my collage, I start to collect cassette again, because I couldn't afford one before. Recently I bought an old Player and some Japanese song record. I'm not really comparing about the sound quality but, I think that doesn't really matter as long I enjoy the content of it. But I guest you can't really compare Vinyl and Cassette sound quality because, the one that release on the market are using the Type I Cassette instead of Type IV (that have low noise with a CD like sound quality). For me, having a physical copy of a song or album that you love is there was some satisfaction that you can't describe. My opinion is if you really aiming for sound quality or audio fidelity, you sound go for high end digital audio. In this old media, you will find hiss or noise (Cassette) and popping or crackling sound (Vinyl). You can't really get a clean audio from it. But just like the ending, "Do what you want". Love it.

I collect Audio Compact Cassette Tapes! Have over 4,000 Different Types Styles Colours Brands of Cassettes in my collection. Not to mention, never stopped recording audio on Cassettes, still do till this day, since you can buy blank tapes at almost any store today. Audio Compact Cassette Tapes remain my number one format for music Reproduction.

I collect Cassette tapes and what i enjoy the most is the bootleg market... Sometimes i find fan made versions of albums that are better than the original version, with a better art, including posters and even bonus tracks (like in deluxe Editions). I mean, isn't a cassette exclusive but i see that the cassette collectors enjoy the fan made versions and support the production. Cassettes are portable, has that lo-fi quality that many people enjoy (of couse, it depends on the gear) and are cheap, you can buy great albums way more cheaper than CDs or Vinyls and still has the analogue charm.

Woah, great video! Saw in recommended and after watching shocked to see how many subs u have (Id thought you'd be a big channel like techmoan). Definitely subbing and I recently started collecting cassettes in the past 3 months, up to about 60 rn because how cheap they are that's why I started buying them. Also going into record stores some good albums will just sit there because not a lot of people are looking for cassettes which makes it better for me lol.

Been into tapes (and vinyl) for 40+ years (and about 30 years into CD's, used MIniDisc in the late 90s too)... NEVER EVER had a tape eaten by the equipment. I have more CD's that are unplayable due to CD rot, or even vinyl records (even though I love them) that skipped right out of the factory because the grooves literally were too close together (even I should admit that on a few thousand it's less than 10 albums that have that problem). So I keep asking myself: what crappy equipment or tapes have people used to primarily remember tapes being eaten by the player, or even winding cassettes with a pencil (since all pencils in Belgium are too small to even do that - even during the haydays of cassette: the 1980s, we used to use a specific model of - very cheap - ballpoint pen to do that). But I just like cassettes (not the prerecorded ones) because it has a lot of the advantages of vinyl (yes it is High Fidelity, if you use good cassettes and invest in good equipment - no need for super expensive -, but it's also a tactile format, and even more conventient in use than vinyl). Even with pretty basic Dolby C the tape hiss is minimal, and with Dolby S it's hardly noticeable. But still, if I'd wanted digital, I'd use it (and I often do, too).

In the 70's when I bought a new album, I used to record it on to cassette on it's first play and still pristine. No dust, little or no static, no scratches etc. The album would then go away and stay perfecto. I could listen to the album on my hifi system or in the car, with no concerns about damage, because I had the perfect back up. Often after listening to it, I would decide I only bought it for the single and did not like the album. As the LP was still unblemished I got a much higher resale. When CDs came along I got into that genre too, but held on to the LP's. Then came mini disc, my LP's came out yet again and were recorded on to those and my cassette player in the car and walkman were replaced. Along came MP3 then FLACs and another recycle with next recording of my 33's, but then what was the point of keeping them after that? I sold my Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference for a decent profit after owning it for 40 years. I now source my music from a SSD hard drive, via a Blu Ray player into a Yamaha amplifier and then on to my current speakers. Their technology is much the same after all this time. However. Did I enjoy Meddle - Pink Floyd on LP, of course. On cassette, yes. On mini disc, too right. On CD excellent. MP3 was ace and FLAC may be better, but my ears are 68 years old now and therefore untrustworthy. I even enjoy it, played badly, by ear, on my guitar or piano. It is not the format that counts, but what you are listening to. Oh and I rarely listen to music in my car now, it's mostly audio books on MP3 at 96 - 128 kbs. Music is for my stereo hi fi system only.

That's why I love Bandcamp right now. Any purchase of a physical album grants you access to the digital in any format including lossless. Also shout-out to the We Are Rewind cassette player that recently got hated into oblivion. Yes the motor noise is apparent but the thing is solidly built and sounds great, is SUPER convenient, and although not designed to be portable you can place some rubber feet from Amazon on the bottom and then set it anywhere. It costs quite a bit but it's worth it imo. And it records and plays in stereo. That alone is amazing nowadays.

I love both vinyl and cassettes!!

I think many are overlooking the elephant in the room. How many people do you know personally that own their own record lathe? I think some do not hold cassettes with the same regard as vinyl because you can't record onto vinyl. Lacquer master blanks are expensive and lathes are hundreds of times more expensive. A record can be seen as something never done by a "layman" and scene as always professionally produced.

Loved your narration and text. Congrats!

In the 80's I prefered vinyl because of the booming sound and huge sleeves (and when they were glossy and not matte) they were a joy to touch and almost to smell. But my sister preferred tapes because they were smaller and because they didn't wear, the sound remained pretty much the same at every listen not like vinyl who would degraded with every listen. Those were our arguments in the family back in the day. Today we both love CD's for their durability (my first CD bought in 1992 is still in mint condition, pretty much) and the sound without wear is remarquable. Plus the CD instant track random access is surely a plus. But eventually both of us appreciate now MP3's more because we can carry them everywhere (in our cars on flash drives or in our phones and computers when we travel).

Cassettes can sound great if you have a good deck and, ironically, if you record your own rather than buying commercially dubbed cassettes. They're objectively even "warmer" than vinyl. However commercial music cassettes were dubbed _en masse_ at really low quality, aimed at teens like me who played them back on cheap Walkmans and boomboxes where it just didn't matter that much. If audiophiles used magnetic media at all they stuck strictly to very expensive "reel to reel" tape machines. But if you have some good quality Type IV blanks and record your own, dubbing in real time from the source with Dolby B noise reduction implemented properly, audio cassettes can actually sound quite wonderful. One issue nowadays is that literally nobody makes quality new cassette decks anymore &nobody makes high quality Type II & Type IV blank cassettes either so you're stuck with second-hand products or "new-old" stock of wildly varying quality.

For me, the most defining characteristic of a Vinyl record is the fact that don't require ANY source of electricity to play, but it does definitely help if you do and good luck finding an old player that does it's thing with only the stored potential energy of a spring and acoustic sound enhancement

I mainly collect cassette tapes(cause i grew up using the format, and the sound is amazing to my ears even with the hiss. I haven't had any issues with them. (I have auto-reverse deck, so i don't have to get up and flip the tape myself.) I also record my spotify playlist onto some good quality Maxell chrome tapes and TDK tapes. And then i collected CD's. Also about the hiss..there's Dolby Noise Reduction, which lower the hiss, and no tapes can last 50 years if taken care of properly. Trust me i have tapes from the 70's that still sound like new.

I love all three, for me its like a tangible things. Plus i was born in 03. I still remember vhs at Hollywoodvideo. Plus the thing I also like about collecting them all is that they fill different roles. Records for when you aren't really going anywhere, Tape for when you want a analog sound but limited on space or time plus you can pick it up again where you left off, and CD for convenience. They all should be loved and people respected for collecting what they love, be it looks or any other reason.

I moved for employment and within 5 years commuted for 90 minutes each way back to where I moved from. I recorded radio programmes and listened to them the next day on the train. So built up a large collection of off-air recordings (audio dramas documentary as well as music programmes). Recent I got a 1990s B&O system with a HX Pro and have been impressed with the quality of reproduction particularly of live recordings including those made on other decks with Dolby B and C. I have even managed to find sealed original recordings over 30 years old that are remarkably good now. Is the cassette, type 1 ferric in Dolby B up to the vinyl or CD possibly not, I can't really say. The music was so compelling in any format I too quickly got into listening to the music and not the equipment and that is all I want from any music playback. There is one aspect that is very different. You can buy an inexpensive to insanely hi-end brand new turntable for vinyl but a decent to hi-end cassette deck has not be manufactured for decades.

At 00:45 what is the album with the lady lying down?

Really enjoyed the video! Personally, if I really want higher fidelity from, I guess entry level equipment, I’d go with tapes as vinyl records can sound very sibilant and distorted, especially on the inner grooves. Overall, when it comes to vinyl, both the media and the players are more expensive than cassette equivalents, especially that maintaining a turntable is more costly than maintaining a cassette deck or portable player. With all this being said it doesn’t really mean that vinyl isn’t just as enjoyable as cassettes, but probably one of the reasons why I lean a bit more towards cassettes is that I pretty much grew up with them, while vinyl is a lot newer to me.

Nice video :) I don't know how I would see the cassette if I was young nowadays, but with my user experience from vinyls, cassettes, CD, MD, and smartphones, I find cassettes to have features still relevant today, including the infamous tape hiss if you're ASMR-sensitive ;) [note : I still use my phone most of the time, which is a bit of a shame actually because it means I became lazy ;) ] Of course I'm not saying cassettes are the one and only "grail medium" but it can be a good option to consider if you're curious or, like me, enjoy the fun of interacting with it. Depending on the hardware, sound quality can be very good, not bad enough to be a problem today, especially given the built quality of default earphones you get with most devices XD. Some hardware not easily affordable in the past are today (excluding really iconic devices suffering from grotesque speculation on eBay) and we can get better sound quality now (but don't use USB walkmans for quality ^^). It's a resilient medium, as even when part of the tape is eaten you can still repair it (with just scissors and adhesive tape) and limit the disaster. Scratches on the surface are less likely to happen than on a CD and what you'll lose with age is basically frequency range, but you'll still be able to read the media, even if the quality went bad. Scratches on a CD or vinyl are less forgiving, and a data error on a file can make the entire track unreadable more easily. And hard disc disaster *does* exists (and as we witnessed a few monthes ago, even datacenters *do* burn down). Something to consider too is the durability of the players/recorders, portable cassette units usually runs with standard AA our AAA batteries, and models using a gumstick battery by default have a battery adaptor included, so more freedom on power supply. That said, belts and capacitors are a weak point. Also, operations are easy, and no buttons get locked for the amount of time required by unwanted ads. And no privacy data mining :) Oh, and they even work without network ! Hardware buttons (on most walkmans) are usually recognisable by touch and you can operate the device with a minimal loss of focus.

I learned that their were 3 different classes of the pellets used to make the record . Some has the highest quality that when you pulled it out of the inner sleeve it would have no dust lint from the sleeve. BUCK OWENS GREATEST HITS VOLUME 2.Fit this so well the record looked brand new. The sound was as equally awesome. Records are better than tapes but are more easily damaged. Tapes had wrapups more to poor quality players than being bad tapes.You can argue which is best. Records are better with tapes a close second. I like the tapes because many used the high end tape to make the recording match the record quality. This was started in the 1980s to boost sales because of the Walkman being a hit with terrible battery life. That's another story 😎

I hope cassettes make a huge comeback I love collecting 8tracks vinyl and tapes yes it is very addicting

You need more views. Subscribed. Also, I think I heard you say record labels started getting away from vinyl in the early 80s. It was more like late 80s or early 90s, once the cost of manufacturing CDs went down.

When I listen to 80s City Pop, such as Mariya Takeuchi, Junko Ohashi, Anri, Tatsuro Yamashita, and many others, I do have another separate RU-vid tab opened, so a hiss can be played in the background, and I also have an Equalizer Chrome Extension and a pitch/speed control extension for RU-vid videos, to make the music sound like listening to sound like it's on cassette tape, since it's "80s Japanese Pop." I feel the hiss and that lo-fi sound of cassette tapes fits this music era VERY WELL, compared to Vinyl Crackling, which in my opinion, belongs in an older era than the 70s and 80s. Personality, I simulate the background noise of music format when listening to older music on RU-vid based on the era of both the music, and the format. It really enhances the vibe of the era of the music I listen to when it was released on that format ONLY, way before releasing it on CDs.

:) the local thrift store sells cassettes for 3/$1! After repairing my dads old Nakamichi Cassette Deck 2, I’ve been having a blast finding old cassettes at the thrift stores. I was very surprised by the quality that old higher-end decks can reproduce! Nothing like the boom boxes and car cassette decks I grew up on. I enjoy ripping my fresh vinyls onto a new old stock high end tape (usually type II, but some of my favorites get the type IV treatment). So I have a pretty bad ass old record collection, and many have only seen the needle one time! Cassettes are dope man, I hope they’re here to stay.

One of my cassette decks (Yamaha K-520) is able to skip tracks like a cd. You still have to wait for it to fast forward but it's much more convenient as you just hit "next" and it does the rest.

At first, I got into collect cassettes as a joke lol, my friend buys rare coloured vinyl exclusively, more for the collectors mentality, so as a joke I found a brightly coloured cassette tape in a record store and started mocking him and bought it cause it was cheap and I could stick it in my pocket 😂 I was always into 80s video games and tech anyway so once I had nothing to play my new tape in I instantly got a deck and tape set up and now I exclusive buy physical music releases on tape, fell in love the the clunk of the buttons when you press play and having to actively get up and turn to side b makes me focus on the music more 😁

It's so important to use the right tape for your machine and the results will be amazing. Chromium or metal do best. With an automatic Calibration possibility you will get the best result for every cassette.

I just got a cassette player that someone was selling for very cheap on OfferUp and I couldn't resist. I've been dying for a way to listen to all my parents' old cassettes on an actual nice system, not just the old crappy boombox we have. What an experience, my parents have two Bob Marley and the Wailers cassettes and played through my -decent- system they sound incredible. Much warmer than CDs with more character (and much cheaper and easier to set up than a vinyl system). I'm definitely gonna go cassette digging next time I hit the thrift store. I'm sad to say it seems like the days are gone of people owning stuff. This new digital transformation is making it so that you are never the owner of anything. Want to watch TV shows or movies, monthly subscription. Want to listen to music, monthly subscription. Everything is a rental now, I think this is why I am getting so much more into older mediums because you actually own the things, potentially forever! I understand there is a level of convenience to all the new age digital stuff (I mean just look at how I'm broadcasting this message), but there is also a level of satisfaction that can't be matched.

I have a huge cassette collection and know others who do. You need to get out more.

this is a great video ! although the point about the tape lifespan being 30 years isn't exactly accurate, I personally have a tape from 1979-ish that still plays fine and even sounds pretty good, and I've heard lots of other similar experiences with old tapes. I believe there's even a vwestlife video actually testing it

It is indeed very convenient and easy in today's time to listen to music because of the music streaming platforms brought to us by the internet. There is no need to individually purchase each album or single of your favorite artists. By simply paying a subscription fee, you can listen to any music you desire. However, despite the modern way of listening to music, you still long for the physical record that may deteriorate over time but holds memories of the past, especially of your youth. Having a collection of records is a testament to your love for the art of music, and while buying albums of your favorite artists may have been expensive, there were plenty of options available due to the thriving music industry, as artists used to earn more from records back then than they do now.

Cool video. I like your voice. Cassettes were my first audio format, being hewn in the 80's. I remember being excited by CDs, but once I got a CD player, I was really disappointed. Sure, skipping tracks was cool... but skipping was not. I couldn't walk around with a CD player and listen to music. I couldn't play it in my car while I was driving without it skipping. Oh my gosh, I left my CD in my visor holder and the face ripped off and it's ruined due to the heat; I dropped it and now it has a scratch and it skips 10 times on my favorite song. I think Minidisc impressed me more, but it was expensive and I guess patented(? like the 8track?) and ultimately failed to catch on. These days I do the bulk of my listening right here on YT+. I have a small vinyl collection. It's fun and interesting. Beautiful art. Mostly newer stuff, synthwave and techno. Some mix club vinyls (vinyl moon; love it but had to cancel for a while $). I'm like 25% nostalgic music and the rest is constantly evolving. I'm open to cassettes. I think they were a pretty good format. From what I understand one of the biggest issues is a lot of them were not produced on quality cassette tapes? Frankly, I have a lot of good memories, sitting by the radio waiting to catch a song and record it on cassette. Making mix tapes for myself and my friends and girls :) Certainly if you were playing on a home theatre, the sound quality of CDs was fresh and bright, but I could have done without them. AOL CDs made good coasters :D I think I would be fine if music were never on CDs, just data. My old CD collection is laying around but it's scratched and not nostalgic or special and I don't bother with it. On the other hand I still cherish my cassette mix tape from Mrs. S, that no longer plays since it wasn't a high quality cassette recording...

I like cassettes, I don't know why. I could say that is the portable experience of listenning a full album, but I do it with digital music too. I have a big collection of digital CD quality FLAC music, have vinyl, but I like cassettes.

I destroyed and re recorded too many cassettes when i was a child. I guess i will start getting some vinyls since i never experienced that.

I know for a fact cassette tapes last 40 + years. I have pre-recorded cassettes from the late 1970's and blank cassettes that I recorded vinyl albums as far back as 1981 that still sound great. I shouldn't say the pre-recorded tapes sound "Great". The quality got much higher by the mid-1980's. Cassettes like Princes "Around the World in a Day" & Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" are excellent quality recordings.

The recording process was quite different between vinyl 33rpm records and pre-recorded commercial compact cassettes. The former were stamped individually from a press that was imprinted with the analog waveform of the original master tape. The latter were run off in faster-than-real time recording processes often multi-generation of tapes removed from the original master tape. They were often copied on cheap tape stock without Dolby or dbx noise reduction. As a result, most LPs sound better than most pre-recorded commercially manufactured cassettes. On the other hand, the cassette medium CAN have comparable fidelity; BUT ONLY by using a quality 3-head cassette with appropriate adjustments (bias, azimuth, etc.) and a quality tape formulation (type II or type IV) and recording the source in real time with well-set noise reduction. Most folks don't have the equipment or the interest/patience to get the most out of a cassette recording.

For me I always used cassettes. I'm a so called gen x-er. I had some records and some CDs back in the day but I liked to mess around and edit on audio tapes (attempting and failing ) to make Paul Hardcastle style sounds. The recordability of cassettes appealed to me and I also pretended to be a radio DJ playing my tracks commentating on friends playing sports etc. I only gave up cassettes when I had to get rid of bag loads of recorded on blank cassettes when I moved house about 13 years ago. And now I'm slowly getting back into it. Though I actually think mixing analogue cassettes and putting onto my PC to edit is the best of both worlds. Acts as a back up and allows for editing (keeping the analogue sound without filters).

When I was a kid cds were what was popular at the time. Cassettes were still widely sold and cars didn't really have CD players in them yet. I had a portable tape and cd player. As an adult I listen to several forms such as vinyl, CD, and digital. I think as far as convenience goes digital will always win because you can get it on your phone, TV, and computer. I do also collect a lot of vinyl because I like the sound and the large artwork and jackets that come with them.

I love the way nice cassettes look when playing in classic machines but most people are not interested in the engeneering of mechanisms. Truly hifi systems have always been niche and even though vinyl is popular, the popular players are all those cheap systems because the mainstream which companies target (since that's where most money is made) don't really care about wow and flutter amongst other things. Also tapes are inconvenient since you do not have random access (for most people that's a big turn off) and finally a good sounding turntable is MUCH cheaper to build than a good sounding tape deck. Most people wouldn't want to open their wallets to spend a lot on a high end deck because in the end, vinyl as well as tapes are just a novelty today.

I Listen to Compact Cassette Tapes on a Daily Basis, And They Still Sound Amazing Crisp Clear. I have Cassettes From 1968, Which Still Sound Good. I Don't Remember Having Any Problems With Compact Cassette Tapes.

I always liked the hiss. Thing I did not liked w casettes was you had to constantly flip them or blindy fast frwd them. Now I want to go back to them cause I start to appreciate Albums more and because vinyls and casettes are harder to skip tracks than cd or DAP players, you mentally go in such listening state.

I love the sound when you close the deck and press play

I've recently started collecting cassettes and despite knowing that the sound quality won't be as crisp as vinyl or as convenient as digital; the enjoyment I get from finding new music, different songs and making my own mixtapes makes them worthwhile for me. I love learning more about the things I enjoy and cassettes have been at the forefront, but I'm enjoying the various music formats my parents and even grandparents enjoyed, which is a plus in my eyes.

I never had a good pre-recorded cassette. They always seemed to have some kind of problem; tape squeal, hiss, and almost always in a different order than the record. I would always record my albums on cassette with high quality tape. They seemed to sound so much better.

I'm assuming you don't want to take up the space and spend the cash (which I totally respect). If you thrift a lot you should (I hate telling others to "should" btw) grab a cassette boombox or even a deck (which is the way better option IMO) to test whether or not you think they hold up. I really did love how professional you sounded when you said something about finding the right facility to test the theory. This video rocks by the way.

I think the reason people look down on cassettes today is because of their bad memories with them. Unless you were rich or had rich parents, you were stuck with a cheap Walkman or radio/cassette player, which contained cheaper mechanisms that put out inferior sound quality, and had the tendency to eat tapes. Put a tape in a Walkman and then into a high end deck like a Nakamichi or Technics, and I guarantee you that you’ll be amazed by the difference.

I only got cassettes to record on and play them in the car. My cherished collections are on record albums and Cds. I used to like CDs in the 1980s when they were recorded lower. I hated when they started making CDs all louder sounding and cold.

Io ci tengo e sono appassionato anche del disco e del compact disc,ma la mia passione più grande e' la cassetta,ho delle cassette che hanno un suono PERFETTO!.complimenti per il video,molto bello

Bands were mastered on tape in the recording studios back in the day.They would cut the record off that master. So yes, tape can sound really good. They can sound better than vinyl.

Holy shit, this video was amazing. Very informative and genuine. I personally love collecting both. I find cassettes to be cute and dope looking. Although I dont listen to them. Vinyl, I listen to tho.

Sometimes it is the music that dictates the format. I listen to a lot of dungeon synth and for the most part it is only available on cassette (and as digital files on bandcamp). It is a pretty lo-fi style anyway, so will sound good even on a lower quality cassette deck. I do try to buy most of my music on vinyl if possible since I like the bigger art work, plus a lot of spoken word stuff I listen to comes with big booklets and posters. As for CDs, sometimes that format is also dictated by the music. I also listen to a lot of underground Japanese idol music which is predominately available on CD only. I don't worry to much about my music sounding perfect as I am well aware I have a pretty tin ear, so I am not deluded into thinking I am some sort of audiophile. Just a big fan of music and any format works for me as long as I can play it. Shoot, I even have a couple releases on 3.5 floppy disk, lol.

For me it's not about sound or aesthetic. It's about just being able to hold the albums I love in my hands and listen to them off the physical albums when I'm in the mood to. Just feeling closer to the music that I love. But sound? I'm not an audiophile at all, I don't really care. I just love music and I appreciate the difference in audio quality, to me there is no "better" or "worse" sound quality. It's all great for different reasons. And the aesthetic? I mean... sure I love looking at them but literally nobody I know in person likes my music, so it's not going to spark any conversations.

Love cassettes, not as much vinyl but that certainly wont stop me from collecting them

There's something special about tape!!!

I personally love cassettes for their sizes and yass, its sound quality!

I just love to pull an album out of my shelves putting them on and just hearing that little thump as the music starts

There are cassette tape collectors out there. I heard on the radio about one guy in Kentucky that has a collection of 27,000 cassettes. I have no idea how true that is. Myself I have amassed quite a collection over the years which I still use. They're easy to store and carry, many prerecorded tapes can be bought dirt cheap at yard sales or second hand stores, and they are quite rugged as long as they're kept away from strong magnets. The tape players are also more rugged than CD players.

I want to post a video comment: currently listening to a cassette from 1973. Sounds great! It’s the cassette decks that need care before they destroy your tapes. Clean them, check the belts, don’t leave tapes in them when not playing. 8-Tracks are flimsy!!!!… but I LOVE them.

You also forget to add reel to reel half inch tape that was available before compact cassettes..I've been collecting these over the last 30 years and they sound magnificent...low noise floor and of you use a high end tape machine to run them they really do give vinyl a run for their money.

I collect both! Love buying new cassettes and collecting cassette decks

I love collecting cassettes cassettes are really awesome and I love collecting vinyl and CDs there is nothing like holding onto something physical the artwork the music everything and I love the warm sound of vinyl and turning up the volume and hearing that snap crackle pop I also love hearing the hits on the cassette tape it’s very authentic I grew up on cassette tapes and I got into CDs and I got into vinyl records my new favorite record now it’s 78th and they’re really fantastic even though they’re made out of shellac but I think that should have a huge come back and I wanna do my part to make sure that it happens even blank blank cassette tapes are awesome I love recording them especially the 120 minute ones.

I was buying music when both LPs and cassettes were "in fashion". The very few store bought pre-recorded cassettes I bought back then were inferior in quality to the LP records. I had much better luck buying the LP and transferring it to a high grade blank cassette, and using that copy for "portability". As a result of my making copies, most of the original vinyl I bought back then is still in near "pristine" condition. Yes, I still have every LP I ever bought, close to 600. Made the switch to compact discs in the mid 1980's, since it was before the days of duplicating a CD directly, I made cassette copies of those also.

The argument that cassettes didn't sound as good as 8 tracks doesn't sound right to me. While it's true that cassete decks with Dolby were expensive over the years the price fell dramatically. In 1993 I bought a nice Kenwood dual tape deck for about $150. A very reasonable price. And I still have some of the recordings I made it to this day. If I've said it once I've said it a million times. A good recording needs 3 things. 1. The knowledge to make a decent recording. 2. A decent quality tape. 3. A decent deck. Unlike 8 tracks a cassette won't interrupt your song to change channels. And cassettes are making a comeback.

LP isn't portable home use only. For high mobile lifestyle you need cassette, CD and so on...

I had my cassette phase from about 1987-1993, than I switched to vinyl.

There's hiss on vinyl as well though ... EVERY analogue format degrades over time. Aside from that amazing video !

I disagree with the 30-year lifespan of cassettes, I have tapes that are 35+ and they still sound perfect.

I love cassete tapes :) Theyre a lot better than people realize

The hissing of the tape... I know I'm from 2004 but I miss it

I started getting into casettes for a few reasons the first one was the feel, more complex than just throwing a song up on youtube, so you actualy want to listen to the music you have gone thru the effort of putting on, but also less delicate than records, you dont have to baby them. Second is the ability to tinker, but no requirement to, you can spend ages fucking about with settings and tape types, and stuff like that, or you can just stick something on and listen to it and its going to sound great either way third was the ability to record and rerecord your own stuff, unlike with records, so I can just record my own playlists onto tape, and dont have to worry about it being interupted, or internet issues, or ads, or anything. Tape goes in, music I want goes on with no bullshit.

People may simply have the bad memories of cassette tapes as a faint treble. maybe because they bought cheap cassette tapes and had a cheap cassette recorder and did not record with noise reduction so the sound it became noisy

Growing up in the 80s, I had mixed reactions with cassette tapes. Sometimes they would sound amazing and other times like crap. I now know it's because of (1) the formulation of the tape itself, (2) the device and settings that records the tape, (3) the device that plays the tape, (4) the technology behind the tape (eg. Dolby B/C/S, HX-PRO, Digalog, etc.), and (5) the whether the device that plays the tape can take advantage of the encoded technology. The vast majority think tapes are simple. They are not. And that's why I collect cassettes: I'm still learning new things about something I should have known in the past.

I’m twenty-six. I grew up driving old trucks with cassette players. And I liked the look of boomboxes. And the argument of vinyl vs digital piqued my interest. Cd makes me feel distant from the music. I cannot really immerse myself in it. Constantly adjusting the volume or skipping over songs. Same for when I’m listening to music on the iPhone. I feel irritated and tired after a few songs. Vinyl does have those added layers and nice sound quality, but in my personal opinion, it doesn’t have the power- the rawness that a cassette in a quality boombox possesses. Less cumbersome than a round-table too. All I gotta do is reach out from my bed to my radio on the nightstand to adjust settings.

Question 🙋‍♂️ 🙋 why does cd 💿 have runtime but vinyl and cassette tape don’t have music 🎼 🎵 🎶 runtime numbers?

I bought three formats over the years