Price of New Blank Cassettes

Transistorized

Transistorized

Member (SA)
I'm just going to drop this here for anyone else who is frustrated with the price of new cassettes these days.

If cassettes making a "comeback" means I have to pay 12 to 20 dollars for an XL-II, then I wish people would lose interest and move on. I've started buying used quality tapes and erasing them but then you run into tapes that have a section that was chewed on, etc.. I used to buy NOS Sony HF series type I to record on but here lately they have been hit and miss when it comes to being decent. Some drag, some fluctuate high then low on treble during playback yet I can grab a 15 to 20 year old XL-II and record onto it and it's perfect.

Looks like I am going to have to start recording over older more reliable cassettes rather than paying out the nose for a new one.
 
floyd

floyd

Boomus Fidelis
I have noticed if you buy new older blank tapes in bulk you can save a lot of money . you just have to shop around.
I did buy 5 brand new Sony hf 60 high fidelity blank tapes at a thrift store for $1.25 for all 5 lol . I was shocked when I saw them and they thought they were worthless and only charged .25 each.
If people run the price up on something just because they think you want I just won't buy it and I'll look around until I find what I need at a reasonable price.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Transistorized
Transistorized

Transistorized

Member (SA)
floyd said:
On a side note if you have tapes that have screws on the corners to hold the tape together these screws come loose over time and of you periodic tighten these screws the tape tracks better.
Click to expand...
I might try this.

I have also kept a few shells that have screws so if a cheap cassette starts dragging, I can transfer the tape to a new shell and sometimes that can fix that issue
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ghettoboom767 and floyd
goodman

goodman

Member (SA)
Transistorized said:
Looks like I am going to have to start recording over older more reliable cassettes rather than paying out the nose for a new one.
Click to expand...
I do exactly that - I record on old cassettes.
A few years ago I bought about 20 TDK D 60 and 20 SONY FH 60 cassettes, from a library sale. They had audiobook recordings on them.
In recent years, some of my friends have given me their old cassettes and cassette players.
In this thread there are pictures of these cassettes for future recordings:

www.boomboxery.com

Goodman's Audio Cassettes Collection

Last week I found this TDK cassettes in very good condition: TDK D-C60 - 01 by ivosn TDK D-C60 - 02 by ivosn TDK D-C60 - 03 by ivosn TDK D-C60 - 04 by ivosn TDK D-C60 - 05 by ivosn
www.boomboxery.com www.boomboxery.com
 
  • Like
Reactions: Transistorized
S

smeltedcheese

Member (SA)
I went on a NOS Type II buying spree a few years ago. Maxell, Fuji, TDK, Sony -- any respectable brand I could find for a reasonable (highly relative, I know) price.
 
  • Like
Reactions: floyd
Transistorized

Transistorized

Member (SA)
My 3 Head deck seems to be able to make even a cheap cassette sound good. The only issue I am having now is the NOS tapes I have been getting seem to be faulty in some way. There is a new cassette available called RTM but I am not sure of their quality. They aren't cheap but I was thinking about giving them a try one day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: smeltedcheese
goodman

goodman

Member (SA)
Transistorized said:
The only issue I am having now is the NOS tapes I have been getting seem to be faulty in some way.
Click to expand...

What do you mean? I haven't had any problems with old branded cassettes (Sony, TDK, etc.).
I've only had problems with non-branded regular cassettes. They are transparent with yellow or other colored reels.
Some have had mechanical problems with the reels tightening and others with the quality of the recording...


05 Cassettes Different 2 by ivosn

Over the years I've bought and recorded many cassettes on different devices and they also sound different.
Some good, some not so much... For me, that's part of their charm.
I think the main reason is in the different settings of the head azimuth on the different boomboxes.
That's why sometimes the high frequencies are lost or the sound is poorer and flatter...

On the other hand, the new cassettes, both in appearance and mechanics, do not look any different:

store.recordingthemasters.com

Blank Cassettes RTM C60

Experience high-fidelity analog recording with the RTM C60 Cassette Tape. Offering 60 minutes of recording time (30 min per side), it features the legendary SM900 formulation for exceptional clarity, low noise, and durability. Perfect for music recording, mixtapes, and archival storage.
store.recordingthemasters.com store.recordingthemasters.com

The tape may be new and have good performance, but I have no intention of buying such cassettes.
As I wrote before, I have a huge amount of old cassettes and I will use them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Transistorized and floyd
Transistorized

Transistorized

Member (SA)
@goodman

I have had issues with a few of the NOS Sony HF series cassettes I got a while back from eBay. It's hard to say what environment they were stored in. It greatly has a lot to do with how well they hold up even when new. Unfortunately, you never know how they are going to perform until you record on them and find that they are binding or that the high frequencies go in and out while playing.

For this reason I have been a little reluctant to purchase any NOS that I am unsure how they were stored. I may just be better getting newer cassettes that are fresh versus NOS. I am sure there are lots of NOS tapes that are just fine and maybe I just ran into a batch that was stored improperly but this makes the second batch from eBay that I haven't had much success with. I know my player is in top shape as it records fine on the cassettes that I have that I know are in good shape and were always stored in climate controlled environments.
 
S

smeltedcheese

Member (SA)
I haven't noticed any issues with sound quality but some old, unopened cassettes are a bit sticky the first time I try to use them. They don't want to turn in Play or Record mode and will activate the auto-stop. After I spool through each side using FF, they seem to work fine, though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: floyd and Transistorized
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom