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Analog vs Digital comparison
in DIY
I am sitting here listening to cassettes I recorded in 1989 off of vinyl I still own today, on a purely analog system. I swear it sounds way better than any digital version.
It sounds less harsh, less piercing, instruments seem more separated, mix sounds clearer, dynamics are tons better etc.
Anybody else hear this?
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I can't remember the last time I played a cassette.
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Wait, yes I can! It was something I only found on cassette, and I played it in the cassette deck of my old Magnum. I bet I used it once for a cassette over the 10 years I drove it. There however were road trips with cassette adapters and a satellite radio receiver....
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That doesn't help Ben, lol! Bet it sounded like dogsh!t too!
Nothing great, but not bad.
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At the risk of starting an analog vs. digital war, I will point out that CD is far more capable of dynamics than either vinyl or cassette.
The problem is one of mastering. A lot of rock CDs are mastered like dogshit, especially the early releases. Then the loudness wars hit and dynamic range took a backseat. Sucks since CD is so capable from a response range and from a dynamic range.
The reason your setup sounds so good is you copied what is likely a well-mastered album.
After listening to some good CDs all my cassettes went in the trash, which was unfortunate as I lost some songs I can't find any more.
Frank Zappa, Roy Clark, Gatemouth Brown, April Wine, Wishbone Ash, and others I can't remember...
It isn't analog, it's the original source material.
While I like the sound of my Dual turntables, I can honestly say that I never preferred a cassette over a cd ... ceteris paribus. YMMV
John, have April Wine on FooBar, although none of the others you listed.
I'd be interested in getting some April Wine. Not sure I understand the FooBar context. Isn't FooBar just a music player app?
I have a working single well Akai tape deck, and a dual auto reverse really fancy boom box. I can still play them if need be. I kept maybe 3-4 cassettes, because of otherwise unavailable content. When I started collecting music in 1991 or so, I went for CDs mainly, and really didn't use cassettes except for dub tapes and such before I had a portable CD player.
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I still have our old Yamaha dual cassette deck, although I haven't used it for years. We had around 100 cassettes which I gradually converted to CD with our snazzy "XP201" gadget.
Most were home made compilations and party tapes, but around 25% were retail tapes. Some were recorded on nice tape like BASF and had screws in the plastic, so that when the tape wound itself around the capstan you could more easily repair the tape. Some sounded OK, some dull, but it was hard to tell whether they sounded comparable to the LP as we usually didn't duplicate the music on the different formats.
The only exceptions were Hendrix Live at the BBC and The Beatles' "Rarities": the Beatles tape was awful, with dull and thin sound, no-brand tape and a poor printed jacket. The Hendrix double cassette was good, but lacked something in highs such as cymbals.
I recorded some music from FM radio on TDK chrome which sounded very good and didn't seem to lose much in quality, but I converted that to CD as well.
We mainly played them in our old Camry, the last car we had with a cassette player; now, you can't even buy a car with a CD player!
Geoff