TAPE DECK NOSTALGIA

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

Hello FMs
Owning a tape deck has been a wish that I have been cherishing for so long ( may be from my school days). I had a tape recorder in my childhood and I forgot the brand . I used to buy cassettes of my favourite genres and even had often ordered shop owners to fill blank cassettes with the tracks I like. Later in my college days I got a Philips two in one and continued listening. But from 2000 I stopped buying cassettes as I began listening to CDs though vinyls have been all through my life. However, tape deck is something that I always long for. I can remember the Philips and sonodyne decks which were found in most of the cassette shops. Over the years I have collected cassettes and my two in one stopped working years ago. I have been reading about tape decks in our forum and thinking some day I shall buy one atleast for nostalgic feelings. Some days ago I chanced to see a thread where a member shared his feelings about tape deck and also how he bought one for him here. One of our members reached out to me with an offer and I readily accepted it. I have bought a basic Teac tape deck( model W-505R) to feel my bygone days when collecting a single song was not so easy and was not at all a push button affair either. I have hooked it with my Philips active speakers as I don't want to engage my marantz WD combo in any work other than playing TT and DVD player. So far I am happy with what I have received. All day long I have been listening to my past . I am indebted to HFV and specially to FMs@Jayant-S, Anirban420, and Mahi . FM jayant-s 's writing was an eye opener to me while Mahi and Anirban supported me whole heartedly.
Regards

 

[Jayant_S]

So far I am happy with what I have received. All day long I have been listening to my past

And long may that feeling last! Music is an extension of our emotions and the memories attached with these emotions are priceless. Very glad to hear about your positive experiences going back to tapes

 

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

Yes ,agreed with what you say. Music is all about emotion and to some extent our by gone days. Again I want to express my gratitude to FM Bloom@83 for his support. I disturbed him for a couple of time with my noob questions and he always answered my curiosity .
Regards

 

[Deleted member 15865]

Bhaskar, congrats on the acquisition and wish you hours of nostalgia and listening joy. Just curious as to whether there’s still any source of pre-recorded cassettes available in Kolkata (if anywhere that’s where it might be)? Or are you planning to record some on your own?

 

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

Hello
Sachin ,I have no idea as regards source of pre recorded cassettes in Kolkata but one of my Kolkata audiophile brothers suggested to search at Lenin sarani . Will surely do it. I have also casseettes that I had collected over the years. Some are branded while some others were ordered to be recorded from vinyls some 25- 30 yrs ago. First I shall search for those in my locality just as I did many times for collecting vinyls and CDs.You may be surprised to know that to an even unknown person I ask how he listens to music and what are his sources. If I smell that he has vinyls and he is leaning towards digital media , I request him to give me his precious vinyls. I shall do the same for cassettes for sure.
Regards

 

[A K Bhattacharjee]

Bhaskar, congrats on the acquisition and wish you hours of nostalgia and listening joy. Just curious as to whether there’s still any source of pre-recorded cassettes available in Kolkata (if anywhere that’s where it might be)? Or are you planning to record some on your own?

Sachin, you may find prerecorded cassettes at Lenin Sarani, Kolkata. At the same time, go through the site "Vinylworld.in" They sell prerecorded cassettes regularly. Sometimes sealed pack cassettes are also available.

 

[srenjith]

Can contact our fellow member Harshad. He was having a lot of sealed hindi cassettes.

 

[reubensm]

Tapes are fun, although I did not have access to reel tapes in my younger days, my first tape recorder was a beat up discarded Philips Radiorecorder 22RR482. It was given to my father by a friend in 'dead' condition and my and I made it work. I think it was around 1985 or so. Later we built our own stereo cassette player using a local mechanism, which was later upgraded to a mechanism salvaged from a Panasonic cassette recorder. Good old days.

We used to have a lot of fun making mix tapes, and used to indulge in non-commercial tape trading as well. I was not into bollywood tapes and used to buy mostly English CBS, Magnasound, etc tapes using pocket money. I think the first CBS tape which I bought was Michael Jackson's Thriller and the first Magnasound tape which I bought was AC/DC's Blow up your Video.

 

[anirban420]

Cassette tapes are fun, no doubt. But on a serious note, they are musical too. It IS the other analogue media that Indians can easily access not ruining their bank balance. If a well-recorded (or pre-recorded) cassette is played in the proper way using a standard player (Dec+Amp+Speaker or Walkman+Headphone), it sounds fantastic. Yes, the mechanical (or electro-mechanical with logic control) tape transports are among the most complicated things in the audio world. Moreover, the "Minimalistic" approach of walkman transport is another constrain. But, if you take care of it, it can give us "Audio-gasm" - that is what a music-lover should look for.

There are many albums which were only released in a cassette. Also, many easy to find albums in cassette might be hard to find in Record, CD or lossless digital way. And for academic listeners, there is also scope for exploring the cassette-world through various mini-researches.

 

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

@anirban420
Second your opinion. Yes, among the analogue media tape deck is nice. I can't compare it to CD or vinyl but can say that it is capable of producing a fine music to please a serious listener. Of course there are some good casse ttes which are close to vinyls and even better than their vinyl siblings. For example Bollywood movie songs Maine pyar Kiya, Dance Dance and many more. Atleast to my ears both these two movie songs sound beautiful when I listen to cassette whereas the vinyls of these mentioned movies sound average or below average to me. Above all there are songs in different languages including the regional ones which are released on cassettes only. Another thing which you perhaps have forgotten to mention is that in past during the hay day of tape deck or two in one we used to record our own performance , like recitation, songs or any conversation with our family members or friends. I have atleast 10 cassettes which my late father recorded some 40 years ago and those are with me till date . IMO tape deck has the same importance as TT and it has the power to satisfy a listener .
Cheers

 

[anirban420]

Of course there are some good casse ttes which are close to vinyls and even better than their vinyl siblings. For example Bollywood movie songs Maine pyar Kiya, Dance Dance and many more

Right, I have roughly compared Maine Pyar Kiya first edition cassette with first edition CD, and Saregama web-store downloaded WAV. The cassette is way better than the CD or WAV. Being the first Indian movie OST released in CD, there might have happened some technical constrain during the mastering/production of Maine Pyar Kiya CD.

there are songs in different languages including the regional ones which are released on cassettes only.

Correct. I have a few officially published cassette-only Live Albums also along with usual cassette-only album releases.

we used to record our own performance , like recitation, songs or any conversation with our family members or friends.

Yes, that was a very use of cassette. In fact, the recording capability in a pocket-friendly way was one reason for cassette popularity in India. I also possess a recording of my family in cassette, possibly dates back to 1974. I have kept it safe and yet to digitize it

 

[jmascreen]

I have vinyl/cassette and CD of maine pyar kiya all first edition of them the vinyl sounded the best. A friend of mine didnt agreed to this and i have taken my copy of vinyl to his place and compared my copy sounded better. To check this further I brought couple more copies but none turned out has good has initial one.
Dont know the reason though

 

[anirban420]

Dont know the reason though

MPK was the first-ever Indian OST released in CD, as I have told earlier, this might be the cause of bad sounding CD due to technical novice-ness about CD technology.

 

[ANILKUMAR]

My childhood days have been mostly filled with listening to the Tapes and records, when my dad plays them.I used to sit like "Nipper " the dog in HMV logo.

To the best of my memory the first tape player my dad had was a bed type Sony (ofcourse Mono)-Sony TCM 260-around 1977-79.This one had a mic ... we used to sing and dad used to record..nice old days.. Another good thing was a mono ear phone(just for one ear), listening through that was like a magic to us.

Second one was a Spool Tape Recorder Sony Stereo Center 230(1980 or so), which I am using till now ...only the belts needed some change.. otherwise...,touchwood, the head is still playing fine ....

After few years when two-in-ones got introduced, dad got a Sony CFS-85S "ZILBA'P , some one from Dubai brought it. Wow, what a sound it could produce. We listened to Giorgio Moroder, BoneyMs and ABBA .. all these sounded so astonishing.. especially the "From Here to Eternity" of Giorgio and Night Flight to Venus , Rasputin and oceans of fantasy from BoneyM and Man Machines(We are the Robots song)...

Next one was an updated version of Sony ZILBA'P . The beauty of this set was the buttons are hidden inside a small hydraulic sliding door and they popout like magic...

Then came the days of Two in ones with HoneyComb speakers(APM series). Dad got SONY CFS-9000. The Bass was so good and by then we were teen agers.. Michael jackson ,Tharangini cassetts and mix tapes started ruling...

Then for the first time Dad gave us a Tape deck SONY TC K4 SILVER for our own use , so that we do not disturb his own machines.
We made out own speaker box for it....used to play it loud... As it was a big village ancestral house, playing loud in one corner of it seldom reach dad's ears...

Mostly we had SONY made tape recorders as Dad was so fond of Brand "Sony". Akai's, Sanyos and Kenwoods also had some short stints.
When someone comes from Middle east, they bring some costly sets and they used to bring it to our home and it stays there for couple days.. so that dad can experence and explain most of its functions to them....

In that way we would have seen and experienced so,so many tape recorders...till I went away from home for doing college study...

Real Nostalgia.Very hard to forget all those golden ,olden days and I am living those days now with 4 tape drives(Sansui, Sharp,Sony & Nakamichi) and two spool drives (Sony & Akai)..and a huge collection of English and Indian language cassetts.(ofcouse, my wife does't like all these occupying the house and calls me a Junkyard guy)

Just before writing this I was playing Everlasting Love Songs Vol 9 (Magnasound,1995 )....in my low profile Sansui D 180 deck...but is very musical to my ears ...
Long live tapes...and records...

 

[Bloom@83]

My childhood days have been mostly filled with listening to the Tapes and records, when my dad plays them.I used to sit like "Nipper " the dog in HMV logo.

To the best of my memory the first tape player my dad had was a bed type Sony (ofcourse Mono)-Sony TCM 260-around 1977-79.This one had a mic ... we used to sing and dad used to record..nice old days.. Another good thing was a mono ear phone(just for one ear), listening through that was like a magic to us.

Second one was a Spool Tape Recorder Sony Stereo Center 230(1980 or so), which I am using till now ...only the belts needed some change.. otherwise...,touchwood, the head is still playing fine ....

After few years when two-in-ones got introduced, dad got a Sony CFS-85S "ZILBA'P , some one from Dubai brought it. Wow, what a sound it could produce. We listened to Giorgio Moroder, BoneyMs and ABBA .. all these sounded so astonishing.. especially the "From Here to Eternity" of Giorgio and Night Flight to Venus , Rasputin and oceans of fantasy from BoneyM and Man Machines(We are the Robots song)...

Next one was an updated version of Sony ZILBA'P . The beauty of this set was the buttons are hidden inside a small hydraulic sliding door and they popout like magic...

Then came the days of Two in ones with HoneyComb speakers(APM series). Dad got SONY CFS-9000. The Bass was so good and by then we were teen agers.. Michael jackson ,Tharangini cassetts and mix tapes started ruling...

Then for the first time Dad gave us a Tape deck SONY TC K4 SILVER for our own use , so that we do not disturb his own machines.
We made out own speaker box for it....used to play it loud... As it was a big village ancestral house, playing loud in one corner of it seldom reach dad's ears...

Mostly we had SONY made tape recorders as Dad was so fond of Brand "Sony". Akai's, Sanyos and Kenwoods also had some short stints.
When someone comes from Middle east, they bring some costly sets and they used to bring it to our home and it stays there for couple days.. so that dad can experence and explain most of its functions to them....

In that way we would have seen and experienced so,so many tape recorders...till I went away from home for doing college study...

Real Nostalgia.Very hard to forget all those golden ,olden days and I am living those days now with 4 tape drives(Sansui, Sharp,Sony & Nakamichi) and two spool drives (Sony & Akai)..and a huge collection of English and Indian language cassetts.(ofcouse, my wife does't like all these occupying the house and calls me a Junkyard guy)

Just before writing this I was playing Everlasting Love Songs Vol 9 (Magnasound,1995 )....in my low profile Sansui D 180 deck...but is very musical to my ears ...
Long live tapes...and records...

Growing up in the late eighties and nineties , I had a similar experience with our Sonodyne Uranus tape deck- speaker with cassettes from Michael Jackson to Manna De.
Those were the days ...

 

[drkrack]

Those were the days ..

Ah 80-90s were the ultimate days.
For me, Born in orthodox family, listening to devotional / Indian classical music most of the times was a routine. Even movie music albums will be like "Bhajans from Films " or " Movie Songs based on Ragas " etc. Had a Philips TT at home which had mainly Bhimsen Joshi LPs. A Mono Tape Deck was at home with a Radio. The Concept of Pocket Money was quite Alien During Schooling; so there was no question of buying cassette of personal choice. There used to be a long list of things to buy ( from Dry Cells, Kites, Maanja, Cricket Bats, Cycle Accessories, Pens, Shuttle Racquets, Sports Magazine for Posters) so Cassettes had a tough time finding their way in that list, The list which is usually remembered by heart and recollected when a visiting Uncles handed over some cash for toys. We were out playing most of the times in the free time, so this lazy activity was never considered worthwhile.

Things changed a lot with joining college, got first Walkman as a gift for Getting a merit seat in a prestigious college and surplus money from scholarships along with Pocket money to splurge upon. Thus begin a never ending journey of love for cassettes. Phil Collins was a First cassette, MJs Dangerous, followed by Series of AR Rahman. Though didn't understand a bit of Tamil, I used to buy most of His Cassettes on Release day. Used to Listen the whole album many times, so every song released during those days was etched in memory forever. Making mixtapes was a unmatched fun. Whole lot of college days were remembered for buying the cassettes, mixtapes etc. A Nostalgia which strikes whenever I stumble upon a cassette which I owned earlier. Had a Proper Locally made Deck with 2 Large Speakers with 10 Band Equalizer which roughly translates to the customization of sound to personal preference and beginning of Audiophile listening. Playing with 10 band Equalizer and remembering which album sounds best with what EQ settings was a full time occupation during listening hours. Got a discman as a gift from Brother returning from USA, And switched over to Cds and headphones listening as soon as Post graduation started around yr 2001. Next 10yrs was Cds or music from PC and Ipods Basically Headphones. Slowly Moved away from headphones & Started again with Pioneer HTIB 11 yrs ago once I could afford a spare time, and it's been a most learning and enjoying journey. I was never shy of experimentation so the pursuit continues.

 

[Kannan]

I have ventured again into cassette playback. Took more than a month to clean up all old cassettes (mostly the retro period) using the old cotton swab over the tape head trick and free the mechanics for smooth playback.

I have also procured a couple of tape decks all properly serviced by Mr. Syed, a salute to his patience.
I also recently got a walkman as well in very good condition and a pair of Sennheiser HD599.

Reliving the youth way of listening, especially the retro Hindi songs is indeed full of joy. Most of them just don't sound as natural in digital as they do in a tape (of course Vinyl will be even classier). After many years I am now consistently listening to a lot of oldies.

 

[Bloom@83]

Ah 80-90s were the ultimate days.
For me, Born in orthodox family, listening to devotional / Indian classical music most of the times was a routine. Even movie music albums will be like "Bhajans from Films " or " Movie Songs based on Ragas " etc. Had a Philips TT at home which had mainly Bhimsen Joshi LPs. A Mono Tape Deck was at home with a Radio. The Concept of Pocket Money was quite Alien During Schooling; so there was no question of buying cassette of personal choice. There used to be a long list of things to buy ( from Dry Cells, Kites, Maanja, Cricket Bats, Cycle Accessories, Pens, Shuttle Racquets, Sports Magazine for Posters) so Cassettes had a tough time finding their way in that list, The list which is usually remembered by heart and recollected when a visiting Uncles handed over some cash for toys. We were out playing most of the times in the free time, so this lazy activity was never considered worthwhile.

Things changed a lot with joining college, got first Walkman as a gift for Getting a merit seat in a prestigious college and surplus money from scholarships along with Pocket money to splurge upon. Thus begin a never ending journey of love for cassettes. Phil Collins was a First cassette, MJs Dangerous, followed by Series of AR Rahman. Though didn't understand a bit of Tamil, I used to buy most of His Cassettes on Release day. Used to Listen the whole album many times, so every song released during those days was etched in memory forever. Making mixtapes was a unmatched fun. Whole lot of college days were remembered for buying the cassettes, mixtapes etc. A Nostalgia which strikes whenever I stumble upon a cassette which I owned earlier. Had a Proper Locally made Deck with 2 Large Speakers with 10 Band Equalizer which roughly translates to the customization of sound to personal preference and beginning of Audiophile listening. Playing with 10 band Equalizer and remembering which album sounds best with what EQ settings was a full time occupation during listening hours. Got a discman as a gift from Brother returning from USA, And switched over to Cds and headphones listening as soon as Post graduation started around yr 2001. Next 10yrs was Cds or music from PC and Ipods Basically Headphones. Slowly Moved away from headphones & Started again with Pioneer HTIB 11 yrs ago once I could afford a spare time, and it's been a most learning and enjoying journey. I was never shy of experimentation so the pursuit continues.

I had the same journey as yours before I finally settled on my dedicated stereo setup. Earliest and fondest memories were of father playing LP of Talash and Guide on vintage Philips TT. Had a Sony Walkman phase with fav cassettes , spent almost entire pocket money buying all Beatles cassettes , Simon and Garfunkle, Elton John all played endlessly on the Sonodyne Uranus setup and later on Sony Mini HiFi which were the rage those days. Then landed with job in 2006 and 10 years of digital music on iPods / other branded DAPs on a variety of mid fi headphones from Shure , Sennheiser, Bose ...... after which went back full circle to turntable setup , CD Player setup.

 

[Bloom@83]

Reliving the youth way of listening, especially the retro Hindi songs is indeed full of joy. Most of them just don't sound as natural in digital as they do in a tape (of course Vinyl will be even classier). After many years I am now consistently listening to a lot of oldies.

Enjoy the 599. I have the 598SE. Very natural timbre and open sound as only circumaural headphones can do.

To your last point - going back to vinyls precisely for the same reason. It’s an indescribable joy hunting for Burman da’s Talash LP second copy when the first one has been with us for 30 years bought by father.

 

[Kannan]

Enjoy the 599. I have the 598SE. Very natural timbre and open sound as only circumaural headphones can do.

To your last point - going back to vinyls precisely for the same reason. It’s an indescribable joy hunting for Burman da’s Talash LP second copy when the first one has been with us for 30 years bought by father.

I too have the 599Se version. Initially the base was lumpy and the mids too warm, now it has settled down very nicely, now sounds reasonably balanced and nice for long listening and superb comfort. The SHP9500 is also on the way.