Fond memory of TDK cassettes

Andy Clough:

Still have several cases full of cassettes in the loft from my student days - can't bear to part with them, even though I no longer own a cassette deck.

exaclty the same!

chebby:

A wee bit obsessive I suppose...

A wee bit????? 

Diamond Joe:

A wee bit????? 

Anyone with a seperates 'hifi' (as opposed to a ghetto blaster or micro system) was already an 'obsessive' by default.

Yes, I also used to put all my LPs back in sleeves and back in the shelf after playing, and cleaned my stylus and sometimes used a carbon fibre brush to dust records too.

I also 'maintained' my cassette deck and looked after the cassettes. Not 'hip' to have records that played without pops and scratches I suppose, or to have cassettes that always worked. But I derived more pleasure from my music by not having distractions like ruined tapes and records.

Did writing the track listings on a compilation cassette sleeve and knocking out the tabs (to prevent accidental erasure) make me an obsessive as well? It sure beat rummaging through a stack of unmarked tapes (without cases) when trying to find the one you wanted.

chebby:

All of my old cassette decks (brace of Technics, Sony WM-6DC, Yamaha KX-580) all behaved impeccably. In fact two - the Sony and the Yamaha - are still in regular use.

I never used any other brand than TDK (SA, AD, SA-X and AD-X) and used a TDK head cleaner and - occasionally - a TDK de-magnetiser.

I only ever used distilled water on cotton buds to clean the rubber 'pinch wheels' for fear of them 'perishing' or going out shape. (Developing 'bald' spots from use of alcohol on the rubber instead of water).

In 26 years I never had a tape get jammed or unspool itself inside a machine. But then I only ever used 90 or 100 length and never C120. I also ensured every cassette was spooled to the end of a side before putting it away (always in it's case) and always 'tensioned' the tape by pressing rewind before playing it. I also never left a tape 'paused' for more than a few minutes. (Again, I didn't want the non-rotating capstan pressed up against the pinch roller for too long in case it deformed.) 

A wee bit obsessive I suppose but I never lost a recording and my precautions never really took much time.

 

Hi Chebby,

 I to was the proud owner of the Sony professional and the Yamaha back in my good 'ole student days. In fact still have the Sony and my brother now has the Yamaha which is still used on a daily basis!... They don't make em like they used to.

Likewise with TDK tapes, the only one I managed to lose was mangled by the cassette player in my old Escort estate.

I am in the process of copying some of my tape collection to computer ....it's a long winded process and I am now wondering why I am bothering! Maybe I should be selective and find a decent mp3 download site.

Still at least the Sony is still useful for recording interviews, life in the old dog yet!

I have nearly around 100 cassettes scattered around various locations, I still play the odd one now and again, and am impressed what Dolby HX pro could do on a TDK metal C90.

My faves were TDK SA, though even their legendary "flat" response to oooh about 10KHz didn't cure the *legendary* steep low pass audio filter that was an Amstrad Tower System 40 from Littlewoods catalogue..... 

My Denon DRM 500 is now connected to a Pro-ject phono box v. All ready to rip some cassettes which I can't find a cd or download of. I used to love making compilation tapes of my singles. Trying to guess the right moment to release the pause button so you didn't have a big gap before the start of the music. Also trying to guage the amount of tape left so you could choose a song the correct length to fit. The suspense as the song was fading and there looked to no tape left on the spool.

I also used to tape the 'In Concert' programme on a Saturday evening on Radio 1. I've a good few that I was at... All About Eve, The Alarm, The Mission, Big Audio Dynamite, The Cut

Most of mine were Maxell especially the chrome tapes XL-II in the shiny gold packaging.  Luckily I had the Kenwood Cassette Deck that would calibrate itself to whatever brand but my Akai HX-3 worked well with Maxell.

For some reason with my Sony Reel to Reel it was BASF when compared to the Sony and Philips reels.  Maxell did still manufacture Reel Tapes in the 80's but I still preferred the older BASF versions.

chebby:

All of my old cassette decks (brace of Technics, Sony WM-6DC, Yamaha KX-580) all behaved impeccably. In fact two - the Sony and the Yamaha - are still in regular use.

I never used any other brand than TDK (SA, AD, SA-X and AD-X) and used a TDK head cleaner and - occasionally - a TDK de-magnetiser.

I only ever used distilled water on cotton buds to clean the rubber 'pinch wheels' for fear of them 'perishing' or going out shape. (Developing 'bald' spots from use of alcohol on the rubber instead of water).

In 26 years I never had a tape get jammed or unspool itself inside a machine. But then I only ever used 90 or 100 length and never C120. I also ensured every cassette was spooled to the end of a side before putting it away (always in it's case) and always 'tensioned' the tape by pressing rewind before playing it. I also never left a tape 'paused' for more than a few minutes. (Again, I didn't want the non-rotating capstan pressed up against the pinch roller for too long in case it deformed.) 

A wee bit obsessive I suppose but I never lost a recording and my precautions never really took much time.

 

+1  one of the biggest sins with a tape deck IMO. I always put cassettes fully tensioned back into their box, and more importantly into the machine with a quick twist on my index finger on the drive (take up) spool, whilst holding the other tight. I had to think about that, as it became committed to memory muscle over many years practice

TDK still make SA90.

I still have loads of cassettes from my DJ days, they still sound remarkably good.
Someone gave me a Philips DCC machine some years ago so I can actually extract a digital signal from the playback transport and feed it straight into my receiver - sounds pretty damn good considering the vintage recordings were mostly sourced from my trusty Hitachi D-5500 cassette recorder back in the day. 

There is a minor cassette revival at the moment. Labels including The Tapeworm and Sloow Tapes and lots of stuff in the ambient/drone sort of area. Mostly pretty limited and of minimal interest but quite interesting.

Stones Throw have released a few bits on tape as have Domino (The Dirty Projectors' last album). I also think the last Goldfrapp LP got an MC release for Record Store Day.

chebby:

TDK still make SA90.

Indeed they do and along with the AD, was the star of their lineup for me. Back in the 80s an SA was around £2.50-£3 depending on where you bought one (for a C90). Fairly pricey in its day.

chebby:

TDK still make SA90.

Another one for your 'Goldrn Oldies' list then chebby!

TDK metal C90 - legendary!

I was gutted when I binned them but I still have the vinyl "masters" and I couldn't throw out the NAD deck.

Could be going to Ebay with the amp in a loft clear out. I would rather they went to a good home than the land fill

Still have my Nakamichi CR-1E and between me and Mrs. S. a load of TDK cassettes (black) - having looked, some of the stuff on them I haven't got in any other format Looks like I may need to get some new versions of Pink Floyd's "Masters of Rock", etc...