You knew that stuff was getting real when you ponied up for some TDK SA-90 blank cassettes

Proof that you can find (almost) anything on the internet: Behold, the Vintage Cassettes museum. 

Wow.  I tried to convince a friend, as he was cleaning up the estate of another friend, that he should offer up the boxes of sealed 3 1/2 inch floppy discs.  I think he tossed them.

I grabbed a Zip Disk from the trash the other day because it brought back memories.

In reply to pinchvalve :

I preferred the superdisk drive, only 100M but would also read standard 3.5 disk

As for tape format, I don't like to admit what I pay for DATS these days. 

I had a very vivid, detailed dream about a week ago, in which a friend and I were discussing who made the best blank tapes, Maxell, TDK or Memorex. I remembered exactly how each different cassette case looked and felt.

I was always a Maxell fan, but I liked Memorex cases.

BASF PRO 2 CHROME

pinchvalve said:

I grabbed a Zip Disk from the trash the other day because it brought back memories.

So I’ve still got both SCSI and parallel Zip drives here along with some loaded discs. Too bad I got rid of the Win95 machine last year. 

I also have a tape with a school project on it - anyone got a VIC-20?

Everyone knows who made the very best floppy disks:

Which ones were dark gray with gold writing? Maxell? Memorex? Those were the E36 M3.

Being able to draw stuff on them with paint pens separated your mix tape from them berkeley bois'

In reply to poopshovel again :

That would be the Maxell.  I used to buy the 90 minute XLII's by the 5 or 6 pack (whatever it was) down at the Ames when I was a teenager, and put all my records on them.  Played them on an old Pioneer Supertuner I had in my '77 Suburban.  

I still have a Snoopy suitcase somewhere full of those old tapes.  

I have so many of these kicking around in a box somewhere. They may not have been the best quality, but they LOOKED radder than rad!

Dudes.

Maxell UD XL II 90s were the only tape to use.  I used to buy these things by the case:

And if you really liked the album (or the girl), you'd spring for the XL II-S:

Uggghh, memories of the dreaded unspooling of the tape:

Duke said:

And if you really liked the album (or the girl), you'd spring for the XL II-S:

Epitaxial or GTFO!

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

We bought a cabinet and contents at an estate auction for $1.  In all the papers we burned were new sealed 10 packs of 5.25" floppies.  Cleared around $60 on ebay for those.

Since the recent 2001 Prius acquisition, and finding that there's really no good way to install a headunit, I picked up a Pioneer home component deck and have been making mixes off spotify with tapes donated by a buddy's aging parents. Lot of those "rad" Memorex tapes and a bunch of NEW SEALED Maxell D-90/SA-90s. 

The nostalgia is beyond delightful but the sound quality is... not great. 

 

In reply to ThurdFerguson :

I recall reading somewhere to never ever buy tapes longer than 90 minutes, as the 100 and 120 minute tapes used thinner tape which didn't hold up as well.  Some decks would eat them, too.  I never had a problem with the Maxells, and sound quality with Dolby C was actually decent.  The other nice thing about the 90's was each side was about the perfect length to put one 2 sided LP on.  

Never liked the Metal cassettes, either.  Too much $$ per tape and low end didn't seem as strong.  

Been a while since I've bought any...

TDK SA-90 was my go-to.  Seemed the best ratio of quality to price, although I had quite a few Maxell UD XL II's.  No complaints.  Tried some Denon high bias cassettes after I bought my Denon 3-head deck, but the cassettes seemed to suffer from drop-outs.

I probably still have a 100 recorded cassettes laying around here somewhere.  Almost certainly a few sealed blanks.  The Denon deck still works too.

Radwood perfect

Still recall the final casesste I ever bought (Ministry: Land of Rape and Honey) and the first CD I ever bought (Front Line Assembly: Tactical Neural Implant).

Also, today i learned that Radio Shack still exists, but they do not sell cassettes, at least not according to their website.

I'm so old I owned an 8 track recorder, so I could play my mix tapes with my floor mounted Craig Powerplay unit in my 66 Plymouth.

Haven't seen a blank 8 track tape for a while.

I still use an old 4track tape deck for writing songs. I don't think I will ever replace my Tascam 234. On its 3rd set of belts already!

Cassettes are getting crazy expensive and hard to find. I am happy when I can pay less than $5 a pop for new media that is quality type 2 or better. I eventually just found a guy with a ton of high quality type 2 and metal/chrome tapes in a lot, and bought a degausser. Should be set for a while. 

Sell those sealed ones, or send em to me! Yes I am serious. Reel to reel too! They arent making quality tape anymore, and hipsters are back into it. 

P.s. the real hifi nerds remember that any tape longer than 45-60 or so was made thinner, and wasnt as clear or loud as the 10-30min tapes. If you wanted exotic sounds like, low bass, or high hats, you had to watch your levels and bias too. 

Did anyone else turn the Dolby noise reduction off, because a bit of tape hiss was better than losing all the high notes?

Talk about a topic from the very bottom of my brain...

In reply to pinchvalve :

Does it have the click of death?

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

I always felt an outlier, but I hated Dolby. Always muffled things, at least on my equipment. <shrugs>