Any other cassette fans?

[bosshoss]

I never lost my love for high quality cassette decks and tapes. This week I snagged a beautiful condition Sony TC-D5M from a seller in Bulgaria. It's shown here with my vintage Nakamichi 1000. Both units are the best of their kind, with amazing build quality and sound. Plus they are beautiful.

The Sony is portable and operates on 2 x C size batteries. The Nakamichi is not portable - it is heavy!

 

[Michael W]

I used to lust after Nakamichi 3 head players when I was a teen. I would loiter around hi-fi shops & walk off with glossy brochures, which was as close as I ever got to owning one. I used to love cassette mix tapes & the days of listening in the car, but hated how easily the tapes could get tangled & once that happened they were never recoverable, so I'm glad I don't have to deal with them anymore. I think I threw most of them out when I moved.

 

[gregk25]

The Nakamichi is a thing of beauty and of course was always out of my price range. Only managed to have the dad of a school-pal bring along a Sony WM-D3 from a business trip to Japan. That must have been around '87. It was as expensive as the rest of my teenage "stereo" in total. I recorded countless small punk gigs with it and was surprised about the decent quality. As Michael I threw these live-tapes out while moving around, and now wish I hadn't.

 

[mr. splendid]

I still have the Nakamichi 680 ZX I bought back in the day , with TDK MA cassettes it sounded so good that I ended up selling my Revox B77 reel to reel . Unfortunately after years of great service the automatic azimuth alignment broke down . Two botched repair jobs by different "specialists" left it in an unreliable condition , but it still sits in my hifi graveyard . I also still have all of my cassettes .

 

[Rich Strauss]

I still have my Nakamichi BX-300 bought in the 80s. It was Nakamichi's first "affordable" 3 head deck at $750. It still works great. I still have my cassettes.

 

[bosshoss]

I also had a Nakamichi 550 when it was first released.

https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/61994932343231513/

Dad got it for me duty free when he went overseas. I used to use it to tape live gigs, such as Radio Birdman at the Heffron Hall in 1975. And Lou Reed live in Sydney (guesting at a Flo & Eddie concert, which I still have somewhere). I also taped AC/DC at the Bondi Lifesaver in 1975, but gave the tape to a friend who never returned it.
My outstanding memory of the Nak 550 (besides its huge size and weight) was how incredible it sounded, when I walked through the streets of Sydney at night after working at White Light Records. I was carrying the brand new Nak 550 and wearing high quality Sony headphones. I was playing Mick Ronson "Once Bitten Twice Shy" which was just released in the UK and had been delivered by airfreight to the store that same day. The reason I remember is because the effect was so surreal. Listening to loud, unheard rock music while walking down the city streets, past the curiuos faces of crowds of shoppers who no doubt could hear the music escape from the headphones as it pounded my ears. I remember thinking "this is the future". And it was, when the Sony Walkman was released about 3 years later. But I doubt if the Walkman ever sounded as loud, incredible and surreal as the Nakamichi 550/Sony headphone combo in 1975.

 

[Rythmn Boy]

I've got a JVC TD-W254. I bought it over a decade ago. I remember the salesman telling me it was one of the last mainstream cassette players in production. It's always been good, but I don't use it that much anymore. I really should digitise more cassettes because I do have some rare stuff that I am worried will not be playable anymore

 

[MopTopMike]

I gave away 90% of my cassette tapes to a forum member.
I kept some that were made by collectors back when you had to trade a 60s garage tune to receive a 60s garage tune that you never heard before or wanted to get that wasn't on a compilation. I digitized the handful of songs I do not have on 45; have a few more tapes to go thru,
Don't care about recording and playing cassettes anymore, tired of repairing them, lousy fidelity...

 

[vinyl01]

I have a DENON DR-M10 I still use now and again to transfer tapes.

 

[Jim]

I used to have high end tape decks and used Maxell or TDK cassettes. A great way to trade music indeed.

However tapes got stretched, a 45 minutes side started to last 48 plus minutes and got jangly. Got rid of all my cassettes as well of my tape desks. I have digitized all of my 45's and really love it as well as cd's. So much easier than forwarding tapes.

However a very warm remembrance to the cassettes days remains, that's where it all started for me being introduced to fabulous garage tunes in trade for cool Dutch beat tapes.

 

[Rythmn Boy]

This could be of interest to cassette fans. Obituary for Lou Ottens, inventor of cassette tapes.

He died recently. RIP Lou

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/11/lou-ottens-inventor-of-the-cassette-tape-dies-aged-94