I was watching videos, among which included Techmoan and also National Audio Company... and it seems that new cassettes are recorded without Dolby and are coming in at type I (but don't carry the digalog logos either). I'm buying the Guardians of the Galaxy to hear just what these recordings sound like... and also that NAC is manufacturing its own tape. So I dropped NAC an e-mail, and they very kindly found the time to respond. Here's most of what I got back this morning and I thought I'd share the info. Can't wait to hear the tapes. This is going to be an interesting year for cassette...
I wonder what implications NAC's inhouse super ferric tape wil have on tape prices. Hopefully those crazy prices on ebay will drop as everyone flocks to new tape stock.
It'll be that age old battle... a new formulation from a company that, albeit very experienced in tape, is their first foray... against older formulations from companies that have been doing tape for decades. I, for one, am looking forward to getting hold of things, and seeing how a type I bias without NR faces up against old formulations. What I'm more excited about is whether this is good enough to make it viable to bring back cassette players properly... in particular, portable. I believe that it was the poor quality of the commercially available cassettes that killed tape as a format. Will the same thing play out now? Good quality cassettes on a good quality tape unit has potential in the market place. I, for one, have found myself sat in front of my digital collection, completely swamped by what to play next. The cassette, CD and vinyl are a journey. Interesting times ahead.
Interesting news indeed... I cannot wait for @walkman archive tests on these "Super-Duper Ferric" tapes! Knowing that we are deep into marketing hype nowadays, I do not expect much. But it would be nice to be wrong!!
At the same time I wonder if distortion is maybe the reason why independent artists like tape. If they want picture perfect clarity, CD's already exist. But with tape, you get a nice blanket of hiss that oozes warmth, you aren't getting perfection, but rather the music just sounds better in every way.
@Command8 +1!! Background hiss, W&F, the pleasure of cleaning heads and pinchrollers every few days, whats not to like?!! Keeps my "idle hands" from shopping for yet another "greatest" DAC or streamer
Thank you for keeping us informed with the latest in NAC's production line, Michelle. The non-Dolby-encoded new releases on pre-recorded cassette are good. My example would be Keith Richards' "Crosseyed Heart." I even dubbed a track from the tape to a mix tape compilation, I recently did, and I don't think the recipients clued in the track was dubbed from a pre-recorded tape. Nando.
I've been listening to my Guardians of the Galaxy tape and despite of having been recorded on cheap tape, it sounds good to me. The tape housing however, is really, very cheaply made and most likely will not stand the test of time, that I am sure of.
I think it’s more like cassette is cheap to produce and it a physical media, a lot of people want physical media these days.
I don’t think that will happen as who apart from us want to call cassettes around, most people will use their smart phones.
And she has her own ghettoblaster a sanyo m7700k she can carry around! Next step find her a cool girly mini ghettoblaster i am still searching preferable color pink!
Why the "girly pink?" I thought we'd moved beyond gender stereotyping years ago !!! Black or silver is much better. Or red. Had a nice Sanyo in a gorgeous red.