I still use 8-track tapes. Squeal and binding on those is usually caused by deterioration of the lubrication in the tape backing.

Oh I was being sarcastic. I’m from this century I don’t even use CDs anymore let alone tapes or a tracks.

lol! {black}:laugh:

Doesn't matter much to me what century it is, 8-track rules! 🙂

Easy and cheap enough to clean the head on most cassette players with a Q-tip and some isopropyl alcohol (preferably 90% or better). Clean the capstan and pinch roller as well.

The last time I cleaned the head on a cassette player was...I can’t remember!

I did it just a few days ago. Easy peasy, at least if the head is easily accessible. Some car stereos have the tape head recessed to the point where you have to open the thing up to get at it. (Even if I were so inclined I don't have time to digitize my extensive collection of analog music and I'm too cheap to buy it all again in digital form.)

is your cassette music getting lower pitched every time you listen to it?

Yeah the home stereos were easy to clean.. I’ve never cleaned one inside a vehicle though. I hear you on continuing to hold onto records & cassettes though..

@mountainmanjoe, I've found that cassette tapes hold up surprisingly well overall. I have some that are 50 years old that still play well. Every once in a while of course one goes bad. In most cases I'll have the album on vinyl as well and can just record another tape to replace it. (Doesn't happen often so it doesn't take up a lot of time.) I don't notice any real pitch difference with multiple plays but you do tend to lose high frequency hearing as you get older. I do demagnetize tape heads periodically as well as cleaning them which helps preserve the tapes.

On the other hand, 8-track tape cartridges are considerably less reliable than cassettes due to their continuous-loop construction. (People make fun of them today but 8-Track tape was originally developed by Bill Lear of Lear Jet fame as a high-end mobile audio system for private jets, yachts, and limos. It was an improvement on Mad Man Muntz's earlier 4-track cartridge system.)

I had children's stories on vinyl, and then a cassette collection when I was a kid, and I listened to them well into the 90s. I used to tape songs off the radio. I heard that they can gradually stretch over a long time, but never noticed it myself. Maybe they solved that problem.

Usually it was the extra-length tapes that had the stretching problem, like C120 (120-minute) cassettes due to the thinner tape used. The most popular length tape was C90 (90 minutes, 45 per side) since it was just about the right length to hold a vinyl record on each side of the tape. Never had any stretching with those. Like anything else the key to longer tape life is using a quality product rather than the cheapest thing out there.

Interestingly vinyl has made something of a comeback in recent years and sales have been steadily increasing. Turntables, needles, and cartridges are readily available and there are lots of new vinyl releases. I don't think that will be happening with cassettes or 8-tracks though. 🙂

I think these 100s were the tapes I used to get because you could fit a CD on them. But I had some 90s too. I filled them up with heavy metal music haha.

I was never a huge fan of vinyl. Always clicking and popping and not very portable.

Vinyl is not very portable but there are no clicks or pops if the record is in good condition. Particularly now that vinyl is a niche rather than mass-market item the quality has gone up and heavier vinyl is frequently used in pressings. None of the new releases I've purchased in vinyl over the last few years suffers from clicks and pops. Portable battery-operated players are of course available for a semblance of portability, I have one of these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbLH2uCdTD0

No thank you. No matter how good the vinyl is, records will always degrade over time, the sound reproduction will never be perfect. Players have too many moving parts that break or wear down. It takes up a lot of space. It's completely obsolete. The only thing keeping it alive is that it's fashionable.

Well, my primary player is over 50 years old and its moving parts have not broken down yet. Maybe in another 50 years. 🙂 With good quality equipment wear on the records is minimal. Obsolete is in the eye of the beholder, vinyl is still the primary audio source in this house.

how many needles have you bought? obsolete means it has been superseded, and I think it definitely has been. Even the now defunct CD overcomes all the drawbacks of vinyl.

Needles are just a wear item, like brake pads on a car. A diamond stylus is good for about 1000 hours of play. In this domicile vinyl is not obsolete because it has not been superceded. Q.E.D. 😛

OK, so it's music that requires maintenance to enjoy, and sounds a bit colored.
Even though vinyl is obsolete, I respect that you get enjoyment out of it.
I also enjoy handwriting with a fountain pen, and nice analog wristwatches. People look at me funny, and some can't read a clock to save their life, but they still ask me for the time and praise my handwriting.

By the way, if you think playing music off of vinyl discs with a needle is a bit daft, what would you think of playing video that way? Believe it or not, there was a commercial video disc player from RCA that worked that way, Selectavision CED. (It has been affectionately referred to as "needlevision" by devotees.) It is probably the nuttiest consumer electronics tech to actually make it to market from a major company and enjoyed a brief moment of popularity in the early 1980s. I have one and it still works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpX8d8zRIA

I've seen that. Pretty nutty. Someone should try to put video on wax cylinder.

Lou Ottens

I knew that cassettes came out of Philips but not who inventor was. At the time of their introduction cassette tapes were revolutionary though initially they were considered only good enough for voice recording due to narrow track width on 1/8" wide tape and slow tape speed of 1-7/8 ips.

RCA developed a tape cartridge system in the 1950s that resembled the Philips cassette but used 1/4" tape at a speed of 3-3/4 ips and was much larger. (I have a few of the tapes but no player for them.)

apparently R2R is making a comeback too