Forever Geek » tape

Would you still buy a tape deck? Pioneer will sell you one

Andy — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:55:51 +0000

When was the last time you played a cassette tape? I mean, the compact consumer version, not some digital master tape.

Chances are it was the early- to mid-90s.

The best thing about the cassette tape for a long time was the fact that it was so easy to record your own audio onto it. In fact, we still talk about the “mix tape” even though now you can burn it to a CD or DVD or simply store it digitally in iTunes or stream it from Spotify.

Looking back, though, that was about all that was good about the tape (if you’re feeling nostalgic, take a look at some Walkman photos back in the day when they played tapes).

The quality was inferior to vinyl, right from the start, and it deteriorated the more you played them. Try to play a duff tape in a dodgy player and it soon turned into brown ferric spaghetti.

Some manufacturers must think that there’s still some demand for the cassette. Take Pioneer, still making its CT-W606DR double auto-reverse cassette deck available.

Yeah. Double. High-speed dubbing FTW!

Perhaps there are people who still have cassettes lying around. My advice would be to get them transferred to digital storage as soon as possible. Maybe Pioneer’s solution is the way to do it, but at $229 it’s not a cheap way of doing it.

Other features include a ton of Dolby noise reduction, a music search (ahhh, the whirring of cassette tape being fast forwarded or rewound).

The nineties flavour continues:

“includes CD-Deck Synchro for easy recording from a CD player”

Yes, recording from a CD player.

Tape lives!

Product page (Via)

Go retro with the tape-based iPod case

Andy — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:50:42 +0000

If you’ve any old cassette tapes left over after building that floor lamp then you might want to try stuffing your iPod into one, just like the guys over at Contexture Design in Vancouver have.

The great thing is that each unit — a glorious mix of new and old — is likely to be unique, given that they’re made up from any old cassettes left lying around.

Each one fits a 4th generation iPod nano inside. Any of the larger models just aren’t going to fit inside. Maybe a DIY project: alternatively pick one up for $41 (Via).

Turn your old VHS tapes into a table lamp

Andy — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:54:17 +0000

We’re well and truly past the end of the VHS era, but it’s possible you’ve still got a few of those bulky tapes lying around.

One solution (after you’ve turned your video player into a toaster) is to create a table lamp or two.

Made from seven VHS tapes, it has to be used with CFL bulbs so that it doesn’t overheat.

I suppose if you get bored and still have a player, you could prise these lamps apart and try playing one of the tapes.

Etsy (via)