Ancient Technology

[Kevin]

I was at the thrift store the other day, and they had a big box of brand new cassette tapes. No label or anything. And the plastic looked new as well. They were 2 for $1. So I bought a couple.

My daughter and I have talked about cassette tapes, but you know what? She's never seen one in person until the other day. I explained to her how they work, and you had to eject the cassette and flip it over to play the other side. Or how the tabs on top were a simple way of write protection, but masking tape would solve it. And since it's magnetic tape, any magnet would ruin the music or recordings.

She thought technology was pretty fragile. No magnets, or the sun can warp a vinyl record for example.

Her latest (and last for the school year) photography assignment is "shadows." I thought a picture of the cassette tape being overshadowed by something like an MP3 player, or her phone, would make a nice picture. But she had different ideas.

It was just funny to me, that she'd never seen a cassette tape before. But honestly, I don't have a CD player anywhere, let alone a cassette tape player.

 

[hittman]

Auto reverse was the bomb back in the day ……

 

[gnappi]

Dolby noise reduction!

 

[GunnyGene]

I used those with my first PC for data storage back in '82.

 

[turd]

Cassettes were SO much easier and better sounding than 8 track tapes. Easier to store, also. We still have a bunch of them, but no players in the cars now. Still have an analog stereo system that uses them.

 

[41Dude]

Please be kind and rewind.

 

[Kevin]

She wanted me go go back and get some more.

One to give to a friend that hasn’t ever seen one either. And some more for an abstract art idea.

 

[AJGUNNER]

I stopped into a vintage music store recently. I think I am one of few that still buy CD's for music in the car. This store had them all---records in 45, and full size along with cassettes, CD, and yes even 8 tracks. I have over 100 cassettes that I have tried giving away. When I told the guy at the store they were mostly 70's and 80's vintage rock, he said to bring them by. Sounds like he will pay from 25 cent up to a buck each for them.

 

[WAYNO]

Our last two vehicles have stereos without CD or tape capability. Not even satellite radio. Seems the rage is streaming everything. I don't stream anything, so please, give us the option of CD's or cassettes.

 

[Kevin]

Our last two vehicles have stereos without CD or tape capability. Not even satellite radio. Seems the rage is streaming everything. I don't stream anything, so please, give us the option of CD's or cassettes.

I think it’s been this way for a while. I haven’t seen a CD player in a new car for a few years. Definitely since before Covid.

I was thinking about the “technology” just now picking up my daughter from school.

In 25 or 30 years, will she show me some piece of tech, that I can’t figure out how to use?

 

[arfmel]

I still have a truck with a cassette player in it, along with a boot box full of cassette tapes. The car stereo was made by Alpine. I live in Alpine, Texas. When my nephews were little kids, they thought I was way cool to have a car stereo named after our little podunk town.

 

[WAYNO]

Another thing... Since the mandate is for hands-free entertainment and communication... streaming, blue-tooth, etc. requires much more manual input than just slipping in a cassette or CD.

 

[MaxMan]

I think it's been this way for a while. I haven't seen a CD player in a new car for a few years. Definitely since before Covid.

I was thinking about the "technology" just now picking up my daughter from school.

In 25 or 30 years, will she show me some piece of tech, that I can't figure out how to use?

I think 2013 was the last year for most manufacturers.

 

[Jeepnik]

I actually miss CD players in vehicles. I have hundreds of CD's and now I have to transfer them to another device before my truck can play them.

 

[protoolman]

My 2022 Subaru still has a CD slot, although I have never used it.

 

[KIR]

I have over 200 cassette tapes, a Radio Shack portable player and a boom box that can play the tapes.
I also have, four still in original wrapping, of VHS tapes; two CD/DVD/VHS player-recorders.
I miss being able to play my cassette tapes in my old Plymouth Duster. I had to switch to CD's when I bought my 2001 Chevy S-10.
Almost forgot, I still have some 45's, 78's and 33 1/3 albums and a phonograph to play them on. The phonograph can also play 8-track tapes but only have one (Santana).
My newer laptops do not have a CD drive so I got an older lap with a CD drive and have made copies of all my CD's to save the originals after making copies for my truck and my Bose.
I donated my Trac-phone and flip phones to the battered women's sheltersome time ago.
I don't miss my Kodak Instamatic Camera as I upgraded to a Nikon Coolpix from a pawn shop.
It seems like I am always a little behind the times on technology.

 

[vito]

When my all-in-one PC died and I replaced it with a laptop, I felt uncomfortable not having a way to play or load a CD. I bought an external CD drive that plugs into the laptop with a USB connection. The only time I have used it so far, in the last two years, has been to load the TurboTax CD at tax time.

Years ago I gave my already grown kids all of my old records and my turntable and now I wish I had not done so. I still have a multi CD player that holds 100 CD's, hooked up to a powered speaker system, but I can't even remember the last time that I played any of my CD's.

Times change and we have to learn to change with it.

 

[peachhead]

I still have a crap ton of blank CD-R discs that I've never used. Also some 3.5 inch discs.
It wasn't too long ago that I chucked my 8 tracks and cassettes because I no longer had players that worked. Plus they were all getting brittle anyway.

 

[RoninPA]

Circa 1979, Keflavik NAS, Iceland. One of the most used of the hobby shops was the audio shop. Cassettes were coming into vogue (anyone that spent any time in SEA bought reel to reel machines when on R&R in Japan.) Everyone was using the audio hobby shop to transfer the reel to reel music they taped onto cassettes. By the mid '80's if you were stationed overseas, getting a good stereo system and speakers was just about a must due to the prices. All the systems had turntables and dual cassette decks, reel to reel were passe by 1985. I still have a VERY nice Kenwood system with Pioneer and Bose speakers and a lot of cassettes that we recorded music onto (it was not uncommon to swap LP's all around to get music). By the late 80's early 90's stereos were all digital and cassettes were passe as cd's were the way to go. And now cd's??? And now with streaming, satellite radio, etc. one has to wonder what the future will bring...

 

[PaulSoCal]

I was at the thrift store the other day, and they had a big box of brand new cassette tapes. No label or anything. And the plastic looked new as well. They were 2 for $1. So I bought a couple.

My daughter and I have talked about cassette tapes, but you know what? She's never seen one in person until the other day. I explained to her how they work, and you had to eject the cassette and flip it over to play the other side. Or how the tabs on top were a simple way of write protection, but masking tape would solve it. And since it's magnetic tape, any magnet would ruin the music or recordings.

She thought technology was pretty fragile. No magnets, or the sun can warp a vinyl record for example.

Her latest (and last for the school year) photography assignment is "shadows." I thought a picture of the cassette tape being overshadowed by something like an MP3 player, or her phone, would make a nice picture. But she had different ideas.

It was just funny to me, that she'd never seen a cassette tape before. But honestly, I don't have a CD player anywhere, let alone a cassette tape player.

Are you old enough to remember how cool this ad image was. It was for cassette tapes.

 

[foolslife]

I still have shelves full of LPs and CDs. But I gave several boxes of cassettes to my grand daughter.

 

[Bud0505]

Did you show your daughter how to use a pencil to rewind the tape after the machine ate it?

 

[Joe Chartreuse]

Vinyl is actually making a comeback due to audio accuracy. Unlike digital, transitional notes and tones are recorded. CD's are still used by some people people like myself in the entertainment industry because MP3 as a sound source mostly sucks. Admittedly, many can't hear the difference, but many can, and I get compliments on my sound at almost every show. Now thatr computer storage is pretty cheap some are using .WAV or other "lossless" files, which are no where near as bad as MP3s (which were never meant to be anything more than low space sampler files anyway).

Vinyl - Most accurate recording
CD- The very cleanest and clearest of sound, but being digital there aren't the transitional tones.
Dolby Tape - somewhere between CD and vinyl. Cleaner than vinyl, but retains transitions.
.WAV , KAR, .BIN and similar "Lossless" files are close to CD
MP3 Junk files, losing maybe half the audio information, and highly dependent on who creates them and how.

I know, I know. TMI. Apologies in advance. Couldn't help myself.

 

[blume357]

That's what I was going to say... Vinyl is back. I remember listening to an interview with the late Frank Zappa and he made the comment that MP3 was crap and then mentioned some type of digital format that 'they' should have adapted. I'm not a music file person but I remember when a friend got an 8 track tape player for his car... man that was something....but I learned a few years later that radio stations had been using them for years. My first computer used a cassette player and tapes to store information.... some Texas Instruments thing that I think was like 16K bites.

 

[PaulSoCal]

Vinyl is actually making a comeback due to audio accuracy. Unlike digital, transitional notes and tones are recorded. CD's are still used by some people people like myself in the entertainment industry because MP3 as a sound source mostly sucks. Admittedly, many can't hear the difference, but many can, and I get compliments on my sound at almost every show. Now thatr computer storage is pretty cheap some are using .WAV or other "lossless" files, which are no where near as bad as MP3s (which were never meant to be anything more than low space sampler files anyway).

Vinyl - Most accurate recording
CD- The very cleanest and clearest of sound, but being digital there aren't the transitional tones.
Dolby Tape - somewhere between CD and vinyl. Cleaner than vinyl, but retains transitions.
.WAV , KAR, .BIN and similar "Lossless" files are close to CD
MP3 Junk files, losing maybe half the audio information, and highly dependent on who creates them and how.

I know, I know. TMI. Apologies in advance. Couldn't help myself.

I love music. Thank God that a high bit rate MP3 doesn't bother me in the slightest. Low bit rate or poor A/D conversions drive me nuts. I prefer the "lossy" nature of the MP3 because I have a library of music larger than I would care to carry around on a device, but thanks to streaming, I can pull from my server from any place that has halfway decent internet connection. If they were all "lossless" conversions from A/D, that would not be so easy or fast. Even a "lossless" format can suffer from the A/D conversion unless the source is digital.

IMHO the best music was recorded before digital recording even became a thing so that isn't a factor in the majority of the music I listen to...

As far as recent vinyl releases go, I wonder how many times music has been converted from analog to digital then back again into analog for the pressing.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

I was a record collector for years before becoming a Ruger collector. I have about 8000 records in my basement. Mostly 1960s-1980s rock.

Of course, I've also got a brand new unopened box of 5.25" floppy discs. And a couple 8" floppies too. And a 5-platter hard drive pack from a Sperry Univac V77-800. Going further back, I have my dad's reel-to-reel tape recorder and his slide rule. Oh, and his lineman's telephone with the alligator clips and the rotary dial on the bottom.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

 

[Rat76]

I've got my Dad's slide rule.

It hung in his classroom until he retired. I also have the normal sized one to match.

 

[settup6]

This new technology has it's advantages. With Apple Music, I have 7423 songs downloaded on my phone, all music I've liked for over 45 years or more and still adding to it. With Bluetooth I can listen just about anywhere. And I tossed more than my share of tapes that had been eaten out the window of my car back in the day!

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

Rotary dial phones used to be the leading-edge technology of the future.