Thats a great read and thanks for sharing. I often think about my old Sharp Cassette component. Had it hooked up to my Technics SA-400 receiver and spent many hours recording all my albums on TDK tapes. Those sure were fun times.
Just got rid of my old Nakamichi 480 that I’d had for some 35 years. Loyal and well used. My 2003 Subaru Forester is the only tape player I own. Sigh,
Owned one of these babies. Bought on Camp Butler (Marine Base with a killer hifi store at the time) Okinawa in 1978. I was an airman stationed at nearby Kadena Air Base. Over 300 yen to the dollar back then. Felt relatively wealthy on the island given my youth. Loved that machine. Often wonder how it would sound to me now.
I have a Nakamichi 500 and an LX5. I keep thinking of listening to them but then I can’t think of a sound reason why. It makes me sad. There is a Nakamichi Dragon within my grasp but then again, why?
I’ve got a Nak 500 as well that’s in my storage room - I can’t bring myself to sell it, but I don’t have any intention of using it.
I’ve got a Nak Cassette Deck 2 sitting in a closet. I was thinking about having it repaired because some of the punk bands I listen to are selling cassettes instead of CDs. After reading that article, not sure if it’s worth it.
I used to record all my albums, I used Dolby C and later on DBX. I guess if I want to hear my old turntable and cartridge again I could play the tapes. I have many recordings that only exist on my cassettes so some day, if I get older, I may transfer them to digital. For fun. These are old radio shows I did or shows others did. Plus quite a few compilation tapes that I and others made. I have the decks they were made on so…
Yamaha KX-670 (3 head & 3 motor) was the last tape player I ever purchased. It had bias adjustment and play trimming. Also, it was remote controlled. Currently stowed away with a bunch of tapes (DG, Philips, WB, MCA Records etc.) that probably no longer sound good.
My Dentist told me that when he moved into his new offices his three young female assistants found an old Sony TC series portable recorder in a closet. They solemnly set it on his desk and asked, “What is that?” None of them had seen a player OR a cassette before.
I still have my Sansui DW-10 cassette deck that I bought in '86. It still works. I only know that because I have a few demo tapes of a band my brother was in at that time. I played them recently to see if the tape deck worked. I am going to covert them to digital for him… someday.
I probably have about 100 or so cassette tapes from back in the day, but I cannot bring myself to listen to any of them. I probably have all of them on CD anyway. I believe I have a couple of live concerts I taped off the radio, but that would be the closest thing that I might like to hear again.
After more than 2 decades in storage, a friend accepted this cassette deck as a gift. He likes it, though it does not sound as glorious as his Nakamichi 