Analog, Cassette, R-R, and Co-mingling of Such

Posted by Inmate51 on September 11, 2013 at 09:27:54

In Reply to: "Weightless" posted by Dave Pogue on September 6, 2013 at 06:44:09:

LOL!

You guys are cracking me up with your jib-jabs at each other. :)

But, seriously, really...

An Aiwa, Akai, Denon, Fujimoto, Nakyourmichi, Sony, Teac, Tandberg, Whatevervox cassette deck all fail due to the technical constraints of the format - tiny track width, slow tape speed and extremely thin tape. There's no getting around it. Now, if you've got a cassette machine which runs at, say, 7-1/2 ips, and uses the "full" tape width to store only two tracks instead of four, then, by golly, you'd have a more convenient format than the typical consumer reel-to-reel machine (4-track, 7-1/2 ips on 1/4 inch tape), with similar fidelity.

Don't misunderstand - I have many cassettes, primarily Maxell and TDK type II/high bias (CrO2, not metal), which I enjoy on my Harman/Kardon TD202, and they sound quite good. But really, it's not even close to 15 ips 2-track, or even 7-1/2 ips 4-track (which is quadruple the tape speed and double the track width of cassette).

Regarding your reel-to-reel copies sounding better than the cassettes they were made from... It's clearly possible that they sound different (in fact, it's likely), but "better" is in the ear of the beholder. As the old saying goes, you can't make a silk purse from a pig's ear. Which, in this case, simply means that you can't intentionally & predictably improve upon the sound of the original simply by copying it to a different format. The sonic quality of the new format copy, with its somewhat different tonal balance, may or may not be judged to be "better", simply because it's different. Some people may judge the copy to be more to their liking, and others may judge it to be less to their liking. But there is no escaping the fact that tape hiss and various distortions cannot be removed or reduced simply by making a copy, without incurring a commensurate change in the desired audio signal.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - International Cassette Store Day - tom.dennehy 05:33:49 09/06/13 (16)

I bought a couple of cassettes. - jusbe 17:13:00 09/10/13 (1)

Bought a few more. - jusbe 22:34:27 10/11/13 (0)

You obviously don't have ... - Dave Pogue 05:58:30 09/06/13 (13)

RE: You obviously don't have ... - tom.dennehy 06:02:38 09/06/13 (12)

And you're OBVIOUSLY not committed to analog :-) - Dave Pogue 06:32:24 09/06/13 (11)

RE: And you're OBVIOUSLY not committed to analog :-) - tom.dennehy 06:37:19 09/06/13 (10)

"Weightless" - Dave Pogue 06:44:09 09/06/13 (9)

Analog, Cassette, R-R, and Co-mingling of Such - Inmate51 09:27:54 09/11/13 (8)

RE: Analog, Cassette, R-R, and Co-mingling of Such - Dave Pogue 09:39:03 09/11/13 (7)

RE: Analog, Cassette, R-R, and Co-mingling of Such - Inmate51 09:58:55 09/11/13 (6)

This is wearying. - Dave Pogue 10:35:53 09/11/13 (5)

What was the commercial cassette worth noting? - jusbe 02:51:29 09/12/13 (3)

RE: What was the commercial cassette worth noting? - Dave Pogue 05:11:02 09/12/13 (2)

And another one to note.... - kootenay 16:09:32 09/13/13 (0)

Thanks. - jusbe 22:43:02 09/12/13 (0)

RE: This is wearying. - Inmate51 14:27:03 09/11/13 (0)

Follow Ups

Analog, Cassette, R-R, and Co-mingling of Such - Inmate51 09:27:54 09/11/13 (8)

RE: Analog, Cassette, R-R, and Co-mingling of Such - Dave Pogue 09:39:03 09/11/13 (7)

RE: Analog, Cassette, R-R, and Co-mingling of Such - Inmate51 09:58:55 09/11/13 (6)

This is wearying. - Dave Pogue 10:35:53 09/11/13 (5)

What was the commercial cassette worth noting? - jusbe 02:51:29 09/12/13 (3)

RE: What was the commercial cassette worth noting? - Dave Pogue 05:11:02 09/12/13 (2)

And another one to note.... - kootenay 16:09:32 09/13/13 (0)

Thanks. - jusbe 22:43:02 09/12/13 (0)

RE: This is wearying. - Inmate51 14:27:03 09/11/13 (0)

Analog, Cassette, R-R, and Co-mingling of Such

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