# Rebirth of Audio Cassettes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976 "2011-09-11T20:59:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/1 "2011-09-11T20:59:48Z")
I read recently that low-on-cash garage bands are cutting albums on cassettes, instead of CDs (to save money). Is this true? Nobody I know plays cassettes anymore, although you do see blank cassettes still for sale. Related question: in the early 1990’s Philips came out with a digitally coded audio cassete system-it was called “DCC”-does this format still exist? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/2 "2011-09-11T21:43:08Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I read recently that low-on-cash garage bands are cutting albums on cassettes, instead of CDs (to save money). Is this true? Nobody I know plays cassettes anymore, although you do see blank cassettes still for sale. > Related question: in the early 1990’s Philips came out with a digitally coded audio cassete system-it was called “DCC”-does this format still exist? I have heard that Vinyl sales have actually gone up in the last few years. From Nothing to Almost But Not Quite Nothing, but still up. Cassettes, as far as I know are still dead. A few years ago I had a yard sale and set out a bunch of the cassettes I had since High School. A guy drove up and bought a ton of them. He told me he had an old car that still had a tape player in the radio and could never find cassettes for sale. And that was a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/3 "2011-09-11T21:45:06Z")
I can’t remember where I read this, but I read that vinyl records are now more popular than they have been at any point since CDs became mainstream, in other words, in the last fifteen years. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/4 "2011-09-11T21:45:47Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I read recently that low-on-cash garage bands are cutting albums on cassettes, instead of CDs (to save money). Is this true? Yes. There’s a record store near me that has a small cassette section, which I think is mainly local independent bands. I’ve bought a couple cassettes at concerts, too. They’re fairly popular in the noise/experimental music scene. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/5 "2011-09-11T21:47:07Z")
My experience with the shelf-life of cassettes, I would say it’s not likely that they are making a comeback. Tape stretches and can be damaged and the audio quality isn’t anywhere near digital. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/6 "2011-09-11T21:50:23Z")
How on earth could a tape be cheaper than a CD? ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/7 "2011-09-11T21:58:42Z")
Cds are so inexpensive, I’d be surprised to learn that you could save significant money using cassettes. The dubbing process is much slower and once you’re done, who even has a cassette player to listen on anymore? If they are using cassettes I’d put my money on it being some misguided retro trend, not a cost-saving exercise. Much like Polaroids seem to be making a small comeback, despite the poor image quality and the limited life of prints, in a digital age where there are other options for instant (or near instant) prints that don’t suffer these drawbacks.Polaroids are just retro-cool at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/8 "2011-09-11T22:03:26Z")
Up until something like the early 90s, cassettes were somewhat more expensive to produce than CDs. Which is of course why you paid extra for CDs! (Ah, the American consumer. So wise.) And then it got worse. For a band doing its own pressings, there’s standard ads in the back of magazines that quote prices based on size of run, how nice of a cover you want, etc. So the costs of these things is pretty common knowledge. But no more. CDs can be burned in “for sale after the show” quantities in a small shop, complete with color printing on the disc, etc. Not all that expensive (again, a lot of factors to figure in). But audio CDs? Forget it. The blanks will cost more than the finished CDs alone, never mind duping and printing. They’re not doing it for the economics. It’s for the “cool” factor and stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/9 "2011-09-11T22:06:07Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Related question: in the early 1990’s Philips came out with a digitally coded audio cassete system-it was called “DCC”-does this format still exist? No, Phillips discontinued DCC in 1996, citing competition from Sony’s Mini-Disc format. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/10 "2011-09-11T22:12:28Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > Much like Polaroids seem to be making a small comeback, despite the poor image quality and the limited life of prints, in a digital age where there are other options for instant (or near instant) prints that don’t suffer these drawbacks.Polaroids are just retro-cool at the moment. For real? I was under the impression that Polaroid film was no longer in production. Kind of hard to make a comeback with a non-existent product, though I do see a lot of digital pictures that are manipulated to look like they were taken with Polaroids. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/11 "2011-09-11T22:18:15Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > But no more. CDs can be burned in “for sale after the show” quantities in a small shop, complete with color printing on the disc, etc. Not all that expensive (again, a lot of factors to figure in). Those technically aren’t CDs, they’re CD-Rs. Similar formats, but a lot of music collectors perceive proper CDs as superior. CD-Rs are cheaper than cassettes, but there are probably cases where CDs aren’t. You still can’t get real professional CDs in extremely limited editions (say, 50 copies), so I think that’s mostly where tapes win out economically. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/12 "2011-09-11T22:26:47Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > For real? I was under the impression that Polaroid film was no longer in production. Kind of hard to make a comeback with a non-existent product, though I do see a lot of digital pictures that are manipulated to look like they were taken with Polaroids. The Impossible Project is manufacturing film for Polaroid. In the last 12 months we’ve had young people coming into work along if we sell Polaroid film (we don’t), a product I was never asked about in the four years prior. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/13 "2011-09-11T22:46:43Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > No, Phillips discontinued DCC in 1996, citing competition from Sony’s Mini-Disc format. And Sony’s Mini-disc bit the dust shortly after. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/14 "2011-09-12T10:44:25Z")
For what it’s worth, I have a quote here for replicating CDs. > [@](#): > > 1,000 4/4 full color CD’s/Booklets printed for only 750 (.75 per CD). The booklet includes a 4-panel (2 panels on each side) piece that is folded and placed in the front cover of the CD jewel case. It may include text/artwork on all 4 panels. The CD itself can be full color as well and will feature an “offset” style print. I don’t think you could get cassettes that cheaply. But it is analog and retro. And hard to rip. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/15 "2011-09-12T13:06:03Z")
IMHO, Cassettes offer the same thing that vinyl does… A warmer sound, since it’s analog… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/16 "2011-09-12T13:16:56Z")
So if you record a CD from a tape, do you get the same “warmer sound”? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/17 "2011-09-12T13:29:22Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > So if you record a CD from a tape, do you get the same “warmer sound”? Sure, if warmer sound means a lot of hissing in the upper registers. I actually wonder if there’s something else people like, as that’s the main difference I hear both in cassettes and records. If there’s some warming in the EQ, I sure I can’t hear it over the hiss or scratchy sounds. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/18 "2011-09-12T13:49:46Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > So if you record a CD from a tape, do you get the same “warmer sound”? Nope…You would have what we used to call an AAD CD ( **A** nalog tape recorder used during initial recording, mixing/editing, **D** igital mastering) in the 1980s. The mastering process tended to take out the background noise, which in my day and to my ear gave it the “warmer sound”. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/19 "2011-09-12T19:36:47Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Sure, if warmer sound means a lot of hissing in the upper registers. > > I actually wonder if there’s something else people like, as that’s the main difference I hear both in cassettes and records. If there’s some warming in the EQ, I sure I can’t hear it over the hiss or scratchy sounds. There’s a lot of truth to that – I’ve never had a high-end turntable/cartridge or cassette player. But tape compression is very real – vide all the studios that still use tape (whether from engineering philosophy or customer demand) – and, arguably, desirable. All my vinyl is shot to shit and my cartridge doesn’t do it any favors, but excepting the “prestige” collector/audiophile types who want bragging rights, there might be something to the sonics of a perfect vinyl copy with a great cartridge and turntable. Me, I don’t care, and I don’t know, and I’m happy with a low-fi mp3 for just trucking around with, and the demi-scientist in me thinks there’s no theoretical basis for favoring vinyl VS a well-mastered digital. Then again I either make my own instrument/speaker cables or buy bog-standard “interconnects” (I guess that’s what “they” call them). Hell, I use lamp cord for my audio speakers, and it sounds fine to me. I listen to the music, not the sound. I’d be very surprised if cassettes made any kind of come-back – my only deck now is an old Dictaphone-type machine with only an 1/8" headphone out, and I’d bet most people have similar or worse equipment. At least mine has pitch control! ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976/20 "2011-09-12T22:51:53Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > a well-mastered digital. Sadly, not sure where to get these anymore. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rebirth-of-audio-cassettes/595976.md?page=2)