I have a great Pioneer dual deck dubbing cassette machine which I bought many years ago. I'm pretty sure it still works, although I wouldn't want to be anchored to that in my house.

The great thing about cassettes is their portability. I still have a few old long unused Walkmans upstairs somewhere. Some of them might actually still work. 

But I still think my not-quite-as-ancient MP3 player is a lot more convenient, if that's the route I'm going to take!

Chrisphen wrote:

Yeah, the hipster record stores have been carrying new and used cassettes for a few years now. Shitty sound quality makes a comeback!

I never cared for the sound of pre-recorded cassettes, either. I always thought they had kind of a "freeze-dried" quality, with maybe the exception of those distributed by CBS Records (now Sony Music) back in the '80s, which were dubbed onto chrome cassettes. Vinyl was my format of choice until I could afford a CD player.

Now watch the record companies retail the price of cassettes around the $30-$40 mark like they did with vinyl records a few years back, hoping people will appreciate the "nice, warm sound" of ferric oxide.



PJ

Binson Echorec wrote:

Cassettes had the luxury of portability in an age where portability was rare - but still limited to 120 minutes of music. The 10,000 or so songs stored on the microSD card in my phone matches the portability and far outstrips the capacity of a cassette.

Anybody unironically buying a cassette in 2025 is doing so to be trendy. No different than those ridiculously over-sized sippy-cup Stanley mugs.

I admit that I liked cassette for the car.  I usually recorded mixed cassettes on Type II tapes using processing through a PC-based automation system, so the tapes were pretty loud and full sounding.  The cassettes sounded easily as good as FM, and outside of heat, lasted better than burned CDs do.

I don't have USB capability in my 2017 Micra, so I still burn the odd mixed CD.

Anyone who worked in radio news in the 70s and 80s remembers those workhorse Sony machines. They came with a shoulder strap for carrying to assignments, a mic input (and a separate built in mic), a VU meter and a top loading slot for the cassette. We used them at CFTR for years and they were extremely reliable. 

I can't quite find the model number or an accurate pic, but they were everywhere back then. Great for recording interviews, scrums or background sound. Wish I still had mine!

newsguy1 wrote:

...I had a cassette player in the 1990s model Pontiac Sunflower.


 

Fixed it for you. 😁

newsguy1 wrote:

The most popular tape deck for radio news was the Sony TC 5000. 

Yes, that's it! The TC5000. Also the TC-142. What wonderful, durable machines. Battle tested in the worst conditions of weather, press conferences, noisy protests and more. 

I remember when CFTR's Tricia Wood was conducting an interview with the president of the company making a drug called Bendectine. It was harming patients and the business would not admit it. When she started asking hard questions he didn't want to answer, he surreptitiously kicked the mic cord out of the front of the machine, which was sitting on the floor during their back and forth. 

What he didn't know was that the machine had an embedded mic. It caught the rest of the conversation and although we had to work to boost the audio, he was caught in the act, thinking it wasn't being recorded. 

Now where did I put those alligator clips?

The TC-142 at Radio Museum

RadioActive wrote:

newsguy1 wrote:

The most popular tape deck for radio news was the Sony TC 5000. 

Yes, that's it! The TC5000. Also the TC-142. What wonderful, durable machines. Battle tested in the worst conditions of weather, press conferences, noisy protests and more. 

I remember when CFTR's Tricia Wood was conducting an interview with the president of the company making a drug called Bendectine. It was harming patients and the business would not admit it. When she started asking hard questions he didn't want to answer, he surreptitiously kicked the mic cord out of the front of the machine, which was sitting on the floor during their back and forth. 

What he didn't know was that the machine had an embedded mic. It caught the rest of the conversation and although we had to work to boost the audio, he was caught in the act, thinking it wasn't being recorded. 

Now where did I put those alligator clips?

The TC-142 at Radio Museum

I remember this story about Tricia Wood’s interview when the mic got deliberately kicked the mic cord out but the interview was picked up on the embedded mic, it was quite the story among the media! Those Sony TC 5000 were workhorses and could take a beating, like most Sony pro equipment back in the day. Thanks for reminding me about the Bendictin interview. (Love the non-digital VU/Batt indicator!)

Yes I still have many of my tapes. You can't have them.

For a long time YouTuber Techmoan has been searching for a modern cassette deck that delivers reasonable performance in terms of wow / flutter, accurate speed and frequency response. Apparently there is only one manufacturer making the mechanism that plays / records the cassette and it is not very good. This  mechanism is used in all current cassette units. I don't think he has found a modern unit at any cost that do justice to a quality recording. If you want a deck with decent specs it will have to be an older model.

By their nature cassette decks are very mechanical; there is a lot going on while the tape is playing. Motors, pulleys, belts, clutches, gears, solenoids and sensors working together. The more features like auto-reverse, track skip etc. the more complicated the mechanics become. 

Over time the belts stretch / slip / deteriorate as does the rubber tires on the clutches, sometimes the fragile plastic gears crack and fail and the motors wear out. These can be a nightmare to service if even possible. Parts? You can get belts and tires other stuff probably from a donor unit. I don't know if you will be able to find someone who is willing to work on it. If so expect to pay a good buck. Often the first sign of trouble is the machine will struggle to rewind or fast forward a tape.

The 70's and 80's brought us some wonderful cassette decks with very high performance; it is unfortunate time catches up with the mechanics. Of all the 'classic' audio gear cassette and reel to reel decks are the most mechanical and challenging to keep in good working order.

Last edited by darcyh (August 21, 2025 11:14 am)

Someone is still making cassette players - this time, with Bluetooth. 

This Bluetooth-Enabled Cassette Player Is My Favorite Nostalgic Gadget of the Moment