Nostalgia...

Is that lucifer responding to the WWW?

So which tapes sounded the best? I remember the quality of blank tapes that bought varried massively.

I was always a huge fan of BASF Chrome Extra II, and TDK SA...

The "That's" tapes were ok, while they lasted...

I think I used those TDK CDing ones for ages. To me they sounded really good but I've no idea now. Remember the cleaning tapes with the little bottles of cleaning fluid?

the BiB ones! had to wait at least 2 mins after cleaning the deck with one of those or the tape would wrap itself round the pinch roller!!!

So...when did you stop using tapes and why?

For me it was when I got my first CD-writer in my PC in '98 (that ran at a breakneck 2-speed, or roughly 45mins to copy a cd...)

Nostalgia's not what it used to be.

And linking into another thread, there's a perfect non-relevant signature in the making...!

I gave up on playing tape about 4 years ago. By then I'd replaced most of the stuff I had on tape with CD or MP3.

My tape deck gave up on recording many years before it gave up on playing. Instead I used an Akai VSX1100 nicam VCR for audio recording. It sounded much better than Philips Compact Cassette. TV licensing made me buy a license for it too, even though I had no TV or aerial. It still had a tuner you see.

Has anybody else used nicam for audio only music without a PCM?

8 Track Cartridges, Reel to Reel, U Matic, Beta, 78 RPM, Crystal sets, Gramaphone horns, wax cylinders, player pianos? Any mad users, anyone nostalgic for those?

Yup, I used to use a JVC HRD725EK Video recorder as my tape deck as the sound quality was far superior to cassette.

Getting nostalgic thinking of working in a Hi-Fi shop, lining up the TDK tapes from normal, through chrome, to metal - D, SA, SA-X, M...  Brilliant

FBSF, that site, I am sorry to say, is incredible, that's what you call a labour of love.  I must admit that a site like this will be amazing in 10 years time when I am trying to explain to my daughter what 'tapes' were...

Yup, sure is.

It got me looking through my old tape collection to see if there were any on there I had and they didn't!

Funny though, I can't see Maxell.  Must be there.....

TDK, TDK and yet more TDK. Great tapes. Used to really enjoying going into Harrow Audio hi-fi shop and choosing a selection which were always neatly displayed on a shelf behind the counter.

Can`t remember the exact year but at one point there was a strong rumour that blank tape prices were set to soar in an attempt to lessen the amount of home taping going on. It never happened.

Used to use blank tapes quite a lot but never felt guilty about cheating the music industry as for every blank tape I bought I was probably buying five vinyl albums and ten vinyl singles so I felt I was more than doing my bit.

Mind you, often wondered how many copies of `Bat Out Of Hell` by Meat Loaf might have been sold (I`ll use this album as a good example) if home taping never existed/wasn`t possible. I`m certain that for every person I knew who owned this album another two or three had it but only a copy on a blank cassette. Of course some of those people might well have bought a copy in time anyway but it`s just a thought.

Yeap. TDK man myself.

I recognise a fair few of the TDK tapes listed. Just threw mine out....they were copies of vinyl that I could play on ghetto blasters when out with my friends (drinking over the park) or in the car. Can't remember buying too many pre-recorded tapes except, perhaps, at gigs.

groberton:

Funny though, I can't see Maxell.  Must be there.....