“Walkman” for the 21st century

I am not saying that I am going run out an buy one. And I do love Spotify.

But one of the good things about tapes and vinyl is the restriction even a cd or minidisk.

Like it’s nice to commit to 15songs or whatever, whether that be an album or a mixtape. Nowadays I spend more time skipping than listening.

A well crafted mix tape is chef’s kiss and nothing now comes close to recreating that experience

And I do love Spotify.

Be careful what you wish for… out and out copyright infringement does a lot more for music than the likes of spotify.

I love the concept of all the music at your fingertips. I am aware of the issues of Spotify.

The French team wouldn’t be connected to BIC would it? The BIC pen was perfect for winding chewed up tape back in.  I’ve still got a generic Walkman in perfect working order but I doubt many of the tapes still play. Crap format.

The Bluetooth thing doesn’t make sense. If you get one of these, you want people to see how cool and retrohip you are, so need to have the old school wired headphones to advertise the fact. 

FWIW it comes with a short pencil for the insert and tighten thing.

So typical of STW responses. Sea kayaking – ho ho ho.

Crap format.

Looking back maybe.

But it’s a damn sight better that trying to listen to an LP on the bus!

And the tascam 4 and 8tracks (not to be confused with 8-track format) of yor were a massive deal. Literally being able to multitask at home rather than needing a studio or a seriously expensive reel to real multi track recorder.

100% purley a “style” fashion item….
Performance has been super seeded by, cd walkman, minidisc, MP3, phones etc.
Was great 40 years ago. Not now. It’s a no from me.

‘Developed by a French team’. Oh, the development hours that must have gone into giving us almost exactly what we were mass-producing in the 80s.

I can kinda see the point of the vinyl revival. Nice thing to own, decent sound quality etc. Cassettes have zero redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Here’s a warning from history:

Hang on. That’s one of only two great Cliff songs.

But one of the good things about tapes and vinyl is the restriction even a cd or minidisk.

With you on that, quality>quantity.

Still have 2 minidisc player/recorders in the loft I think. They’ll be on their way back soon!

Love it when people completely uninterested and out of touch with new music and how other people listen to music dismiss something out of hand. But hey, welcome me! to the internet.
but yeah, £140 is pretty crazy, I’ll continue to play cassettes at home. I have no desire to play them on the move, but I’m sure a few do.

It’s the new thing, just seen thisfrom Fiio

https://www.musicradar.com/news/fiio-cp13-walkman-style-personal-cassette-player

Just use one of the iPod shuffles i have in my desk drawer…but my phone with BT earbuds is 1000% in everyway unless I was sat in a kayak or something.

Absolute crap.

There are no decent tape mechanisms available anymore.

Love it when people completely uninterested and out of touch with new music and how other people listen to music dismiss something out of hand

Just what I was thinking.  The kids are buying tapes because small bands are selling their music on tape as a way to actually make money from their music rather than $00000.1 on streaming services.

Weirdly, I have a Sea Kayak and can’t listen to any tunes on it.

Weirdly, I have a Sea Kayak and can’t listen to any tunes on it.

Have you thought about getting a portable cassette player?

Love it when people completely uninterested and out of touch with new music and how other people listen to music dismiss something out of hand. But hey, welcome me! to the internet.

Quite the opposite, I think. Most of us grew up with tapes and are pretty expert in their use, having been there from when they first appeared through to the end. I know of no-one who mourned them when they disappeared.

The kids are buying tapes because small bands are selling their music on tape as a way to actually make money from their music rather than $00000.1 on streaming services.

I go to loads of ‘small band’ gigs and haven’t yet seen anyone selling tapes, just CDs and vinyl. Are tapes that much cheaper to produce than a CD, or is there something about CDs that young people don’t like?

It is not about whether they are good or bad (they are bad), it is about who is listening to and who is selling tapes.

I know of no-one who mourned them when they disappeared.

They didn’t, that’s the point.

It is not about whether they are good or bad (they are bad), it is about who is listening to and who is selling tapes.

Sorry, I edited my post and got interrupted, so it wasn’t a quick edit!

I go to loads of ‘small band’ gigs and haven’t yet seen anyone selling tapes, just CDs and vinyl. Are tapes that much cheaper to produce than a CD, or is there something about CDs that young people don’t like? Because I’m assuming that it’s young people buying this horrible format? Or old people with a music centre still lurking monstrously in the lounge? 😀

squirrelking
Free Member

Still have 2 minidisc player/recorders in the loft I think. They’ll be on their way back soon!

I sold mine last year, for more than I paid for them new. And a couple of boxes of sealed discs I found likewise, I got about £3 a disc for em. Madness but I am happy to take part.

I know of no-one who mourned them when they disappeared.

I don’t miss cassettes but I do miss my Nakamachi 582 a bit. That was a fabulous piece of kit and coupled with decent chrome or metal tape did a pretty good job recording records. Being 3 head it was possible to do immediate A/B tests switching between incoming and recorded signals. The difference was minimal. To achieve this it had a built in tone generator for optioning head azimuth and bias for different types of tape.

I do still have a Sony Walkman Professional in the dark recesses of a cupboard somewhere.

The kids are buying tapes because small bands are selling their music on tape as a way to actually make money from their music

Which kids where.

They were using CDrs for that 20 years ago.

As per other posts, cassettes are shite. If we’re going to resurrect a physical format then it should be mini-disc. It was great and extremely tough

It doesn’t matter if they’re shit. They’ve been resurrected and people have been buying them for the last few years. The little record shop near to where I used to work was selling a fair few and now list them on their website.

Yep, plenty of idiots out there. It’s a format with no redeeming qualities. What’s next, VHS?

It’ll be non electric bikes for cycling next.

You heard it hear first.

The only good uses for cassettes were for taping top 40 songs off the radio and so you could listen to music in the car.

…and of course copying Spectrum and C64 games.

I do still have a Sony Walkman Professional in the dark recesses of a cupboard somewhere.

Be careful if you ever decide to dig it out and give it a try using modern powerful alkaline batteries as the voltage will fry it, only use enloop rechargeable, as I found out with my unit which renders it unrepairable as parts are no longer available, and if powering with an aftermarket power supply make sure it’s negative polarity. 

Ah I do have an aftermarket PSU and yes I was aware of the polarity. I wasn’t aware of the battery issue. Ta.

As per other posts, cassettes are shite. If we’re going to resurrect a physical format then it should be mini-disc. It was great and extremely tough

The players were fragile pieces of garbage though.

All mine wore out really quickly.

It is not about whether they are good or bad (they are bad), it is about who is listening to and who is selling tapes.

I highly doubt that cassettes are being sold for profit reasons – better of with a qr code with a direct link to paying for a download.

It’s far more likely they are being seen as edgy, nonconformist, fashion items, much like the player itself.

The things that we know are crap from our youth have now just become ‘retro’.

God knows, just what I have read from a couple of sources. Buying a physical tape is more of a momento from the gig than taking home a QR code, the bands can presumably produce tapes more easily than CDs or Vinyl and therefore make some money from them so everybody’s happy – apart from some old gits on an MTB forum who don’t feel the format is optimum

It’s a real honour to be amongst a panel of multi-disciplined, non-prejudiced and open-minded experts. Bravo!

As the OP, I’ve weighed up the balance of feeling from the comments and here are the results:

An finally, my sincere apologies for my oversight regarding the device’s profound unsuitability for providing music to sea kayak to.

Buying a physical tape is more of a momento

A novelty item then.

I highly doubt that cassettes are being sold for profit reasons – better of with a qr code with a direct link to paying for a download.

Ofcourse they are. See also t-shirts and posters. A tangible thing.

Christ some of you lot are boring miserable sods. Who give a shit? Buy it don’t buy it it’s hardly the worst thing someone could buy.

the bands can presumably produce tapes more easily than CDs or Vinyl and therefore make some money from them so everybody’s happy – apart from some old gits on an MTB forum who don’t feel the format is optimum

I had a quick chat with a colleague this morning who is

a) young

b) in a band

c) plays gigs

d) has just signed a recording contract

Yes, his band sells stuff at gigs. No, they don’t sell tapes because

a) they cost the same as CDs to produce

b) only dicks buy them. (I’ve paraphrased here!)

From the horse’s mouth…. 😀

Maybe people buy cassettes because they want to.