Ken Kessler:
www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/international/soundstage-uk/1055-the-cassette-revival



I may have to polish up my BX2....

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

My Pioneer CT-95 with Dolby S is still in use, albeit not that often these days, as I have several tapes not yet replaced by cd or vinyl.

early release of the phoenix foundation's album, give up your dreams, came with a 4-track cassette ep.

My Nak ZX-7 is going strong. I bought it from a friend a few years ago. He had kept it in its box for years and when I got it, both pinch roller swing arm bearings had seized. It was a total nightmare to get the front panel off and remove the mechanism so that I could free and lubricate it. I changed the belts at the same time. It took a very long time to do it all but now that it's back together and aligned, it sounds superb. I've listened to it compared to quite a few of the other Naks and it has a wonderful dynamic freedom that's so hard to get out of cassette. I have a live recording from ABC FM of Miles Davis in Melbourne in 1988 recorded on a Nak (think it was a BX-300) which rocks!
Cassette as a medium today? The advantages of tape would be no rumble, good frequency response on Nakamichis, completely analogue and cassettes are portable. The disadvantages are numerous...having to wind through the tape to find a particular track, noise, a bit of harmonic distortion, storage, tape oxide shedding and tape head wear issues. I see open reel decks and their new recordings making a comeback due to their great sound. Properly done cassette is also good, having that 'tape' sound. Perhaps the new open reel recordings could also be put onto high quality metal or CrO2 cassettes so that they are less costly to make; and far more people will hear good analogue, due to them willing to put up with the foibles of a cassette machine rather than a reel to reel one. What do you think?

AMR-iFi R&D

there are brand new recordings on open reel ?
i've only seen re-issues.

to get high quality pre-recorded cassettes you need to dub in real time and use high qualitytape stock.
the equipment and time is available at a cost but metal and high bias tape (there were few true chrome tapes) are no longer made.
there is a tape manufacturer in china but they aren't producing high quality stocks.

i also have a nak zx7, it plays well but i suspect the recording side has early symptoms of orange cap disease

I'm dreading having to open my -7 up again and replace them all too.
Yarlung Records and Opus 3 are releasing new R2R titles, along with some other indie labels. Check out theverge.com. It would be good if they could release HQ properly dubbed cassette versions too. Then there could be sufficient demand to re-manufacture quality tape.

AMR-iFi R&D