Dear Kannan, kindly explain this procedure to clean the old fungi deposited cassettes. Is that the way which will not affect the tape surface? Thank you.
TAPE DECK NOSTALGIA
- Thread starter Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra
- Start date
anirban420
Well-Known Member
It is very nice to read your experiences about the musical journey of life @ANILKUMAR @drkrack @Kannan @Bloom@83
My journey was also similar. My father used to play records through HMV STEREO 666. Later, my uncle attached a DIY deck mechanism with pre-amp to it for playing cassettes. It was fun for me to see the record arm moving from the periphery of record up to the centre. Nevertheless, during cassette playback, it was also fun to observe the fast rotating take-up reel during the start of a side slows down when it reaches the end. I enjoyed starring the operation of mechanically complex tape mechanism producing a smooth sound. Till date, I look at the moving reel during cassette playback, and it is still fun for me.
I got a Santosh deck from my father in 1998. However, due to meagre pocket-money, I mostly make mixtapes from local recording shops with hit songs. Also, I am thankful to my friends, who lend me a generous amount of cassettes at that time. Besides that, whenever I visited someone's place, I look for their audio playback system and listen to them. 1998 was the dawn of FM stations in Kolkata. I listened to FM in search of new good songs.
I was always interested in DIYing. I made a DIY deck during the year 2000. I still have the deck. However, I did its complete internal renovation in 2013. It sounds fantastic.
I got my first CD player in 2002. It was Santosh VCDR-20061, a deck type 3-in-1, ACD/VCD/mp3, cassette and radio player. That was the era of mp3 music, and I switched to it. A local shop here used to sell original CD rip 128kbps mp3 CDs. The shopkeeper had a good collection of CDs at that time. He was the source of my music at that time. I still have those mp3 CDs. It helps me to locate a song now.
Slowly I moved to music listening through mobile phone using those mp3 files. The habit of music listening via headphone grew that time. Moreover, since I did not have any potable player in 90s, headphones were my childhood fantasy. Cassettes faded out. Later on, I concentrated on computer audio. Audio CDs came in between the journey with the computer. Almost for the last 15 years or so, I am a listener of digital music with via mp3/ACD/WAV/FLAC. After the popularity of youtube, I started using it too. And suddenly, cassettes came back in my life. The reason was mostly nostalgia. I found the astonishing world of cassette again after re-entering it. "Cassette-specific analogue sound" is not my love though, at this moment, I am a happy digital audio listener. Since I listen mostly to Hindi and Bengali songs of the 90s onwards, my sources' choice matches my taste with ease. For cassettes, I mostly search for cassette-specific albums/songs that were not released in other media, hit cassette albums released on odd labels, Dolby cassettes, cassette whose CD/lossless/record siblings are rare and cassettes those sounds are better than their other media format siblings (I already discussed MPK cassette earlier in this thread).
Vinyl records have its place everywhere in between all these explorations. I restored my father's HMV in 2014. However, I do not use it now.
Presently I am a complete portable gadget user. I use CD, lossless files, cassettes and online streaming as my sources. I have a few Sony and Aiwa cassette walkmans. Among these, I use the Sony WM-BF65 the most due to its packed features such as Dolby B, 3-step Bass Boost, Normal/Chrome/Metal tape type selector, Auto Reverse (seldom use this feature though) and the most important, its sound quality. My other Sony WM-FX193 is also a feature-less, yet good sounding walkman which was very popular in the Indian market during the late 90s. For CD playback, I mostly use Sony D-NE319 Diskman or my computer. And I should not forget to mention my computer soundcard "Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium" in this regard which is serving me for the last 12 years with its amazing sound and enormous tweaking capabilities. I use my computer and mobile phone both for lossless files or streaming music listening. I use a few different models of Sennheiser and Sony headphones along with these gadgets.
That is my musical journey to date.
PS - We have a cassette-related WhatsApp group having HFV and non-HFV members throughout India. If anyone is interested in joining that group can contact me in PM.
My journey was also similar. My father used to play records through HMV STEREO 666. Later, my uncle attached a DIY deck mechanism with pre-amp to it for playing cassettes. It was fun for me to see the record arm moving from the periphery of record up to the centre. Nevertheless, during cassette playback, it was also fun to observe the fast rotating take-up reel during the start of a side slows down when it reaches the end. I enjoyed starring the operation of mechanically complex tape mechanism producing a smooth sound. Till date, I look at the moving reel during cassette playback, and it is still fun for me.
I got a Santosh deck from my father in 1998. However, due to meagre pocket-money, I mostly make mixtapes from local recording shops with hit songs. Also, I am thankful to my friends, who lend me a generous amount of cassettes at that time. Besides that, whenever I visited someone's place, I look for their audio playback system and listen to them. 1998 was the dawn of FM stations in Kolkata. I listened to FM in search of new good songs.
I was always interested in DIYing. I made a DIY deck during the year 2000. I still have the deck. However, I did its complete internal renovation in 2013. It sounds fantastic.
I got my first CD player in 2002. It was Santosh VCDR-20061, a deck type 3-in-1, ACD/VCD/mp3, cassette and radio player. That was the era of mp3 music, and I switched to it. A local shop here used to sell original CD rip 128kbps mp3 CDs. The shopkeeper had a good collection of CDs at that time. He was the source of my music at that time. I still have those mp3 CDs. It helps me to locate a song now.
Slowly I moved to music listening through mobile phone using those mp3 files. The habit of music listening via headphone grew that time. Moreover, since I did not have any potable player in 90s, headphones were my childhood fantasy. Cassettes faded out. Later on, I concentrated on computer audio. Audio CDs came in between the journey with the computer. Almost for the last 15 years or so, I am a listener of digital music with via mp3/ACD/WAV/FLAC. After the popularity of youtube, I started using it too. And suddenly, cassettes came back in my life. The reason was mostly nostalgia. I found the astonishing world of cassette again after re-entering it. "Cassette-specific analogue sound" is not my love though, at this moment, I am a happy digital audio listener. Since I listen mostly to Hindi and Bengali songs of the 90s onwards, my sources' choice matches my taste with ease. For cassettes, I mostly search for cassette-specific albums/songs that were not released in other media, hit cassette albums released on odd labels, Dolby cassettes, cassette whose CD/lossless/record siblings are rare and cassettes those sounds are better than their other media format siblings (I already discussed MPK cassette earlier in this thread).
Vinyl records have its place everywhere in between all these explorations. I restored my father's HMV in 2014. However, I do not use it now.
Presently I am a complete portable gadget user. I use CD, lossless files, cassettes and online streaming as my sources. I have a few Sony and Aiwa cassette walkmans. Among these, I use the Sony WM-BF65 the most due to its packed features such as Dolby B, 3-step Bass Boost, Normal/Chrome/Metal tape type selector, Auto Reverse (seldom use this feature though) and the most important, its sound quality. My other Sony WM-FX193 is also a feature-less, yet good sounding walkman which was very popular in the Indian market during the late 90s. For CD playback, I mostly use Sony D-NE319 Diskman or my computer. And I should not forget to mention my computer soundcard "Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium" in this regard which is serving me for the last 12 years with its amazing sound and enormous tweaking capabilities. I use my computer and mobile phone both for lossless files or streaming music listening. I use a few different models of Sennheiser and Sony headphones along with these gadgets.
That is my musical journey to date.
PS - We have a cassette-related WhatsApp group having HFV and non-HFV members throughout India. If anyone is interested in joining that group can contact me in PM.
It is quite simple. Just place a small piece of dry cotton between the head and the tape. I used a mechanically working but otherwise condemned tape deck for it.
Next maximise the motor speed for playback.
Tapes with higher residue will need multiple cleaning, but I will not recommended more than 3 or 4 full runs. If even after that the residue is visible in the cotton, better to ditch the cassette.
In my case the issue was only in a few cassettes as they were stored well.
Thank you. It'll be helpful.
reubensm
Well-Known Member
Its funny but most of us have gone through similar journeys. In the 70s, dad had a DIY cassette player (built with a Paros cassette recorder mechanism, a Philips design head preamp and an inbuilt power-amp which was essentially a clone of the Philips 22rh580). This ran through his main system (I believe only the head preamp output was used and the power-amp section was un-used). I actually dug up an old picture from the 70s when we were all kids. I am seated near the turntable (Garrard SP25 mk1). This was before the deck arrived at home.
and then i remember in the mid 80s, the cassette craze set in and i had a small collection, here is another old pic which i dug out from those times, i also had a complete stereo DIY system (not in the pic) by then. I still remember, I was posing with a Skid Row Magnasound cassette. Fun times
and then i remember in the mid 80s, the cassette craze set in and i had a small collection, here is another old pic which i dug out from those times, i also had a complete stereo DIY system (not in the pic) by then. I still remember, I was posing with a Skid Row Magnasound cassette. Fun times
arunkvivek
Well-Known Member
Audiophile from childhood! You have a bit of Billie Jean MJ in that Sepia picIts funny but most of us have gone through similar journeys. In the 70s, dad had a DIY cassette player (built with a Paros cassette recorder mechanism, a Philips design head preamp and an inbuilt power-amp which was essentially a clone of the Philips 22rh580). This ran through his main system (I believe only the head preamp output was used and the power-amp section was un-used). I actually dug up an old picture from the 70s when we were all kids. I am seated near the turntable (Garrard SP25 mk1). This was before the deck arrived at home.
View attachment 54412
and then i remember in the mid 80s, the cassette craze set in and i had a small collection, here is another old pic which i dug out from those times, i also had a complete stereo DIY system (not in the pic) by then. I still remember, I was posing with a Skid Row Magnasound cassette. Fun times
View attachment 54413
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