The long and short of it is, modern cassette decks continue to be pure concentrated ass. Spending four or five hundred bucks on one of these steaming piles is a complete joke. Find a well-kept deck from the 1980s instead.

The new open reel decks, however, are maniacally well made, and insanely beautiful in some cases. You won't like the price tag though. You're looking at around $40k for a playback-only deck.




This guy's build-up to the unveiling of the gorgeous Metaxis & Sins reel-to-reel decks is extremely long and annoying. Skip to 7:45 for the eye candy. To be honest, I'd love to have any of these machines. But spending a few extra thousands for recording as well as playback seems stupid. Recording was a standard feature of tape decks back in the day, unless it was a Walkman.

Well it's kind of like the reintroduction of record players and records to the mass consumerism.

Some people think it's cool, but it'll only ever be a niche thing, that's my guess.

They'd do well to recreate the old systems...

As you know, those who are aware of the glory of old stereos can become pretty obsessed with them...

https://www.sectual.com/thread-16952.html

That's an entire thread of me drooling over and bragging about my Pioneer SX-980, having absolutely no idea what the fuck I'm talking about, no concept of how it works, no idea how to repair it if the need ever arose.

Do I see the glory? Do I want more? Do I want it forever? Yes.

Am I 100% powerless when it comes to understanding/fixing the stuff, knowing how to even set it up? Yeah, 100%.

So I think that it could be a great thing to bring this old, powerful, time tested and proven tech back and just admit that the stereos of today are pure trash.

There is no comparison.

But we're gonna need all the experts to NOT DIE before they tell us how to work this shit, and we're gonna need new people trained in setting up and repairing these systems.

People need to get serious about sound again.

For a long time, Fred Marrs was the only name you needed to know for replacement belts for any brand and model of hi fi gear, but his entire inventory was destroyed in a fire.

http://marrscommunications.com/

For repairs or full restoration of vintage audio gear, Pacific Stereo, owner of TapeHeads.net, is your guy.

http://www.tapeheads.net/

(08-08-2021, 01:43 PM)Dev Wrote: but his entire inventory was destroyed in a fire.

OooOoOoOooo that hurts...

(08-08-2021, 01:43 PM)Dev Wrote: For repairs or full restoration of vintage audio gear, Pacific Stereo, owner of TapeHeads.net, is your guy.

Thanks, it's good to know there's some potential help out there if anything ever goes wrong!!! I'd need a house call though.

I clicked on his site and this is the pic that was on the page...

http://www.pacificstereo.net/tapeheads/I...750647.jpg



Can we go back to being that cool as a society again? Plz, thnx.

(08-08-2021, 01:48 PM)Mister Obvious Wrote: OooOoOoOooo that hurts...

More than you know. Before I put my stuff in storage, belts and other rubber parts on my gear suddenly started disintegrating. I don't know if there was something in the air or what. It was fucking bizarre. I had intended to contact Marrs eventually, but it looks like it's too late now.

(08-08-2021, 01:48 PM)Mister Obvious Wrote: I'd need a house call though.

Probably won't happen. You'd have to ship it to him.

(08-08-2021, 01:57 PM)Dev Wrote: Probably won't happen. You'd have to ship it to him.

Yeah the bigger problem than the unit itself failing is all the shit it's hooked up to...

It's a clusterfuck and I'd never be able to figure it out.

So I take the "enjoy it while it lasts/all things must pass" attitude...



But I will always do my best to make sure the unit itself is protected as well as possible.

Let's get 40+ more years out of it.

You're gonna need to have the capacitors replaced every 30 to 35 years. I've done that myself on some of my gear. And I'll make a house call, but only for you.

That actually makes me feel a lot better to tell you the truth.

I gotta know there's SOMEBODY out in the world who knows how to work on this and would have me covered if things went south.

And God bless you for having this knowledge...

Try to pass it on to somebody young (and male), in person.

Just don't let it die, man... somebody's gotta hold the line.

It's general knowledge among electronics nerds that electrolytic caps go bad around the 30 year mark. All the young guys fucking around with vintage gear already know it.