Is Cassette tape sounds good, better than CD? Or even vinyl?

 

I have been listening to music since 1978, when vinyl was the dominant format. Over the past 50 years, I have explored various formats, including vinyl, CDs, and cassettes. I also have experience with reel-to-reel tapes, which I believe offer the best sound quality. However, original reel-to-reel recordings can be quite expensive, so I primarily use vinyl as my main source of music.

 

Recently, I have taken up collecting vintage cassette decks because I believe they can sound better than vinyl in some cases. There are many vinyl enthusiasts who often claim that cassette decks "eat" tapes and produce a lot of hissing noise. Some even argue that even the cheapest turntable can outperform my cassette deck.

 

I recently posted a message on Facebook about vintage cassette decks, asking why I still enjoy using them. I was pleased to find numerous supportive comments, which reassured me that I am not alone in my appreciation for cassette decks.

 

Here are some of the comments I received:

 

These are some of the comment.

1.      Two wheels are better than one !

2.      Cassette are awesome 。  

3.      No, he never has listened to a good cassette deck. Maybe his experience is one of the early pre-recorded tapes. I had a friend ask "who the hell listens to cassettes anymore" I guess other than her ignorance, she had never listened to Mitsubishi Dragons, oh well John Meyer in terms of what type of source we prefer to listen to, yes. But to make an empirical statement that vinyl is superior to tape, particularly a cheap vinyl setup, just reveals a deep ignorance of the technological facts.

 

4.      Correct! A friend - self-confessed cassette hater, owner of some really high-end Hi Fi, listened to one of my decks (average quality 1990s two head Yamaha) with a pre-recorded cassette and was astonished!

5.      A well-recorded cassette on quality tape from a digital source with proper use of Dolby NR (or dbx if you like) can absolutely beat the sound quality from even the best LP on the best TT with the best cartridge.

 

6.      Yes, simply like that: The cassette sounds better (even at lower quality). Insiders know that.

7.      Cris Schulze just the commercial  World kill the good

Cassette music Media as no one invest on manufacturing hin end cassette deck. I make mix tapes on my Teac to play in my Toyota on my Blaupunkt. I earnestly don't care what anyone else thinks about it.

 

8.      Some of my Cassettes sound better than my Records, depends how it's recorded and on what system it's being played on

 

9.      A good cassette deck, properly aligned to the tape used, using high quality tapes and recorded properly from any source, including vinyl, will produce great results.  There could be some minor trade offs, but excellent nevertheless. That's ok. We don't want everybody to know what we know... 😉 I have some cassettes that I recorded with my BEOCORD back in the eighties that still sound amazing. Bob Hadden l was just listening to a recording of Love Over Gold made in 1984 on fairly modest equipment and it still sounds great.

 

10.  My first cassette deck was an Advent, which I enjoyed a lot. Then, I got a Nakamichi, and enjoyed that, even more! I also added a dbx noise reduction unit which really lowered the noise floor.

 

11.  I’ve been slowly assembling my “retirement” system and decided that the spot that the cassette occupied should be a digital server/streamer in this generation.

 

12.  I do still want something as great as the Nakamichi was and am probably going with Aurender.ACS10. It comes with up to 24TB of storage and the ability to rip all my CDs to that huge SSD drive so everything but my LPs will be accessible from my listening chair. After all, this is the retirement system!-)

 

13.  Then we hope he spends a fortune buying audiophile grade stylus and re-issues of popular LPs over and over.

 

14.  Whenever somebody says something like that to me I just say "you are not doing it right".

 

15.  Tell the guy that he's absolutely right and that he should stick to the turntables. In that case we have one competitor less for the wonderful tape decks 😁 And if he won't listen then ask him how he would imagine a turntable in a car - that being before the CD-player was invented 🤣

 

In my opinion, I dislike the crackling sound of vinyl, while I barely notice the hissing of cassettes. Thus, I prefer cassette tapes. Records require RIAA equalization to suppress low frequencies during recording, which can distort the original musical form. Setting up a turntable for optimal performance is almost like rocket science, and the cost can be ten times higher than that of a cassette deck. The Nakamichi, with its magnetic head azimuth alignment, can reproduce recordings faithfully.

 

When I listen to cassette tapes, I find it more relaxing. Vinyl is less user-friendly; maintaining a good cassette deck requires regular tasks like cleaning the heads and washing the tapes. The drawback is that it's not easy to manufacture a high-quality cassette deck, and if a new production lot were to be made for the Dragon model, I believe the price would start at around HKD$100,000.

 

I own the HK Wing Sing Tsai Chin "Old Song" cassette tape (Taiwan edition) and the Sanyo B series CD of the same title. It sounds best on my Nakamichi 1000ZXL or Dragon. My vinyl system consists of a Wilson Benesch ART turntable and a Koetsu Onyx cartridge, which is more of an average setup than a high-end one.

 

You might wonder how a cassette deck sounds. It’s warm, comfortable, has a wide range, is vivid, natural, pleasant, and offers a more stereophonic experience. You have to listen to believe it.

 

My Current Collection:

 

Akai GX95

Braun C4

Harmon Kardon CD291

Marantz SD551

Nakamichi 1000ZXL x2

Nakamichi Dragon x1

Nakamichi CR7

Nakamichi CR40

Nakamichi LX5

Pioneer T-1000

Revox H1

Revox B710 MK II

Teac 112 Mk II x3

Teac V9000

Teac Z6000

Yamaha KX-1200

Conclusion:

In terms of faithful reproduction, I rank the formats as follows: reel-to-reel, cassette tape, vinyl, and then CD.

 

— HK Snob

錄音帶的聲音好嗎？比CD好，還是比黑膠好？

 

自1978年以來，我就開始聆聽音樂，那時主要的媒介是黑膠唱片。在這50年裡，我使用過不同的音樂格式，包括黑膠、CD、錄音帶，還有一些開卷錄音的經驗，我相信開卷錄音是最好的。不過，使用原始錄音材料的開卷錄音機非常昂貴，所以我仍然將黑膠唱片作為我的主要音樂來源。最近，我開始收藏優質的錄音帶播放機，原因是「它的聲音更好，有時甚至比黑膠還要好」。當然，黑膠的粉絲很多，他們通常會說錄音帶播放機會「吃掉」磁帶，並且有很多雜音……最近有人說，即使是最便宜的黑膠唱機也能超越我的錄音帶播放機。

 

我曾在Facebook上發了一條消息，關於「復古錄音帶播放機」，有人問我為什麼還在聆聽這種設備。結果有許多評論，讓我高興的是我並不孤單於這個錄音帶的世界。

 

以下是一些評論：

 

1.      兩個輪子比一個更好！

2.      錄音帶真棒。

3.      不，他從未聽過好的錄音帶播放機。也許他的經驗只限於早期的預錄磁帶。我有朋友問過：「誰還在聽錄音帶？」我想除了她的無知，她從未聽過三菱的磁帶，唉，約翰·梅爾在我們喜歡的音源上，沒錯。但要說黑膠比磁帶優越，特別是便宜的黑膠設備，這正顯示出對技術事實的深度無知。

4.      正是如此！一位自稱討厭錄音帶的朋友，擁有一些高端音響，聽了我的一台（1990年代的普通雙頭雅馬哈）錄音帶播放機，驚訝不已！

5.      一盤高品質的錄音帶，來自數字音源，並正確使用Dolby NR（或者dbx，如果你願意），絕對能超越即使是最好的黑膠唱片和最好的唱盤。

6.      是的，就是這樣：錄音帶的聲音更好（即使在較低的質量下）。內行人都知道。

7.      商業世界摧毀了優質的錄音帶媒介，因為沒有人投資於製造高端錄音帶播放機。我在我的Teac上製作混音帶，然後在我的豐田車的Blaupunkt音響中播放。我根本不在乎別人怎麼想。

8.      我的一些錄音帶的聲音比我的唱片更好，這取決於錄製的方式和播放的系統。

9.      一台好的錄音帶播放機，正確調整到使用的磁帶，使用高品質的磁帶並從任何來源（包括黑膠）正確錄製，將產生出色的效果。雖然可能會有一些小的折衷，但依然很出色。沒關係，我們不希望每個人都知道我們知道的… 😉 我有一些錄音帶是我在80年代用BEOCORD錄製的，至今聽起來仍然很棒。鮑勃·哈登，我剛剛在聽1984年用相當普通的設備錄製的《愛在金色時代》，聽起來依然很棒。

10.  我的第一台錄音帶播放機是Advent，我非常喜歡。後來，我又買了Nakamichi，享受得更多！我還添加了一個dbx降噪單元，真的降低了噪音。

11.  我一直在慢慢組建我的「退休」系統，決定錄音帶應該被這一代的數字伺服器/串流器取代。

12.  我仍然希望找到一個像Nakamichi一樣出色的設備，可能會選擇Aurender.ACS10。它配備高達24TB的存儲，能將我的所有CD壓縮到這個巨大的SSD驅動器上，這樣除了我的LP外，所有東西都可以從我的聽音椅上訪問。畢竟，這是我的退休系統！-)

13.  然後希望他花一大筆錢購買音響級的針頭和流行黑膠的再版。

14.  每當有人對我這樣說時，我只會說「你沒有做對」。

15.  告訴那個人他是完全正確的，他應該堅持使用唱盤。在這種情況下，我們就少了一個競爭者，讓那些美妙的錄音帶播放機得以存在😄 如果他不聽，那就問問他，想像一下在車上使用唱盤——這是在CD播放器發明之前的事🤣。

16.   

在我看來，我討厭黑膠唱片的爆米花裂響聲，我幾乎聽不到錄音帶的雜音，所以我選擇錄音帶。黑膠唱片在錄音時需要經過RIAA來抑制低頻，並需要在唱放階段重新生成原始音樂，這會在某種程度上造成與原始音樂形式的失配。設置一個唱盤系統就像是NASA的火箭科學，如果你想做到完美，幾乎所有的變數是錄音帶播放機的10倍。而Nakamichi的優勢在於它們的磁頭方位調整，能夠忠實再現錄製的音樂。

 

在聆聽錄音帶時，我更感放鬆，黑膠並不如錄音帶那麼方便。更具體地說，要播放一盤好的錄音帶，還需要定期工作，比如清潔磁頭、轉輪和清洗磁帶……

不過，製作一個好的錄音帶播放機並不容易，如果能生產出新的Dragon，我相信價格至少會在HKD$100,000以上。

 

我擁有HK Wing Sing Tsai Chin的「舊歌」錄音帶，台灣版的Tsai Chin「舊歌」錄音帶，最佳聲音來自我的Nakamichi 1000ZXL或Dragon。我的黑膠系統是Wilson Benesch ART TT和Koetsu Onyx碟針，並不高端，但算是平均水平。

 

你可能會問錄音帶播放機的聲音怎麼樣？

它溫暖、舒適、範圍廣、鮮艷、自然、愉悅且更立體…… 聽了才知道……

 

我的當前收藏：

Akai GX95

Braun C4

Harmon Kardon CD291

Marantz SD551

Nakamichi 1000ZXL X2

Nakamichi Dragon X1

Nakamichi CR7

Nakamichi CR40

Nakamichi LX5

Pioneer T-1000

Revox H1

Revox B710 MK II

Teac 112 Mk II X3

Teac V9000

Teac Z6000

Yamaha KX-1200

 

結論

就忠實再現的百分比而言，我認為首先是開卷錄音，然後是錄音帶，黑膠和CD。

 

HK Snob

 

 

Rev 1

I have been listening to music since 1978, when vinyl was the dominant format. Over the past 50 years, I have explored various formats, including vinyl, CDs, and cassettes. I also have experience with reel-to-reel tapes, which I believe offer the best sound quality. However, original reel-to-reel recordings can be quite expensive, so I primarily use vinyl as my main source of music.

 

Recently, I have taken up collecting vintage cassette decks because I believe they can sound better than vinyl in some cases. There are many vinyl enthusiasts who often claim that cassette decks "eat" tapes and produce a lot of hissing noise. Some even argue that even the cheapest turntable can outperform my cassette deck.

 

I recently posted a message on Facebook about vintage cassette decks, asking why I still enjoy using them. I was pleased to find numerous supportive comments, which reassured me that I am not alone in my appreciation for cassette decks.

 

Here are some of the comments I received:

 

These are some of the comment.

1.      Two wheels are better than one !

2.      Cassette are awesome 。  

3.      No, he never has listened to a good cassette deck. Maybe his experience is one of the early pre-recorded tapes. I had a friend ask "who the hell listens to cassettes anymore" I guess other than her ignorance, she had never listened to Mitsubishi Dragons, oh well John Meyer in terms of what type of source we prefer to listen to, yes. But to make an empirical statement that vinyl is superior to tape, particularly a cheap vinyl setup, just reveals a deep ignorance of the technological facts.

 

4.      Correct! A friend - self-confessed cassette hater, owner of some really high-end Hi Fi, listened to one of my decks (average quality 1990s two head Yamaha) with a pre-recorded cassette and was astonished!

5.      A well-recorded cassette on quality tape from a digital source with proper use of Dolby NR (or dbx if you like) can absolutely beat the sound quality from even the best LP on the best TT with the best cartridge.

 

6.      Yes, simply like that: The cassette sounds better (even at lower quality). Insiders know that.

7.      Cris Schulze just the commercial  World kill the good

Cassette music Media as no one invest on manufacturing hin end cassette deck. I make mix tapes on my Teac to play in my Toyota on my Blaupunkt. I earnestly don't care what anyone else thinks about it.

 

8.      Some of my Cassettes sound better than my Records, depends how it's recorded and on what system it's being played on

 

9.      A good cassette deck, properly aligned to the tape used, using high quality tapes and recorded properly from any source, including vinyl, will produce great results.  There could be some minor trade offs, but excellent nevertheless. That's ok. We don't want everybody to know what we know... 😉 I have some cassettes that I recorded with my BEOCORD back in the eighties that still sound amazing. Bob Hadden l was just listening to a recording of Love Over Gold made in 1984 on fairly modest equipment and it still sounds great.

 

10.  My first cassette deck was an Advent, which I enjoyed a lot. Then, I got a Nakamichi, and enjoyed that, even more! I also added a dbx noise reduction unit which really lowered the noise floor.

 

11.  I’ve been slowly assembling my “retirement” system and decided that the spot that the cassette occupied should be a digital server/streamer in this generation.

 

12.  I do still want something as great as the Nakamichi was and am probably going with Aurender.ACS10. It comes with up to 24TB of storage and the ability to rip all my CDs to that huge SSD drive so everything but my LPs will be accessible from my listening chair. After all, this is the retirement system!-)

 

13.  Then we hope he spends a fortune buying audiophile grade stylus and re-issues of popular LPs over and over.

 

14.  Whenever somebody says something like that to me I just say "you are not doing it right".

 

15.  Tell the guy that he's absolutely right and that he should stick to the turntables. In that case we have one competitor less for the wonderful tape decks 😁 And if he won't listen then ask him how he would imagine a turntable in a car - that being before the CD-player was invented 🤣

 

In my opinion, I dislike the crackling sound of vinyl, while I barely notice the hissing of cassettes. Thus, I prefer cassette tapes. Records require RIAA equalization to suppress low frequencies during recording, which can distort the original musical form. Setting up a turntable for optimal performance is almost like rocket science, and the cost can be ten times higher than that of a cassette deck. The Nakamichi, with its magnetic head azimuth alignment, can reproduce recordings faithfully.

 

When I listen to cassette tapes, I find it more relaxing. Vinyl is less user-friendly; maintaining a good cassette deck requires regular tasks like cleaning the heads and washing the tapes. The drawback is that it's not easy to manufacture a high-quality cassette deck, and if a new production lot were to be made for the Dragon model, I believe the price would start at around HKD$100,000.

 

I own the HK Wing Sing Tsai Chin "Old Song" cassette tape (Taiwan edition) and the Sanyo B series CD of the same title. It sounds best on my Nakamichi 1000ZXL or Dragon. My vinyl system consists of a Wilson Benesch ART turntable and a Koetsu Onyx cartridge, which is more of an average setup than a high-end one.

 

You might wonder how a cassette deck sounds. It’s warm, comfortable, has a wide range, is vivid, natural, pleasant, and offers a more stereophonic experience. You have to listen to believe it.

 

My Current Collection:

 

Akai GX95

Braun C4

Harmon Kardon CD291

Marantz SD551

Nakamichi 1000ZXL x2

Nakamichi Dragon x1

Nakamichi CR7

Nakamichi CR40

Nakamichi LX5

Pioneer T-1000

Revox H1

Revox B710 MK II

Teac 112 Mk II x3

Teac V9000

Teac Z6000

Yamaha KX-1200

Conclusion:

In terms of faithful reproduction, I rank the formats as follows: reel-to-reel, cassette tape, vinyl, and then CD.

 

— HK Snob

Cartier Satos is back

 

昨晚8:00 時光寳盒YouTube live Abel 問開那－些卡地亞表我們喜歡的？我不言而喻Tank 和 Santos 喇！

70年代末，三大主打瑞士表王，Patek推出Nautilus、AP的Royal Oak賣翻天、VC的222復刻差唔多60 兩銀。Piaget今年復刻的原版Polo也近七十兩銀，奢華運動錶當道。卡地亞今年拍得滿堂紅，黃金Crash (我理解佢係Crashcash crash my cash )拍壹百七十銀，近排亦見卡地亞Santos 價格開始上升，升覆吾少喎！六年前我有－隻全金Santos (原版華爾街電影中Gordon Gekko 手上那只). 賣了比個BOA 的泰國banker 朋友六兩銀！今日這個表不便宜了！前日去廣華街Target 取老友代購的5167 途中經過P&F 問江仔窗櫥窗隻Santos 全金表有小月相的多少錢，：”十三兩八！” 再問原來只係石英的！嘩😳Santos 升了不少。

兄弟， 我們知道勞力士掉了三成了，卡地亞可以講係逆市而上，果然唔簡單喎！究其原因，而家啲人潮流興簡約細小啲半中古董，另外，錶友比勞力士雞鵝盈燒玩咗咁多年。 從前嘅Lover －部份而家變咗做Hater 啦，”易時” 也不時說永遠不再買新勞力士，唔知佢會唔會唔會姣婆守唔到寡；遲啲自己靜🐔🐔地去買隻新Rolex 呢？😆, 我唔係吾鍾意勞力士，只不過係希望搵到啲啱價錢 如King Midas 青金石！特別的掃把頭棺材仔之類！再講…. Santos的特色在於錶殼和錶帶設計版版正正，用多平面切角呈現光影變化，不規則的的金鏍絲釘擺位，可以想尤如愛彼Royal Oak那樣以平面帶出各角度的強烈光線反射。此錶當年也成為潮人，金融業和一些富二代playboy的致愛。

HK Snob

為什麼我們喜歡保持忙碌

  

為什麼我們喜歡保持忙碌

研究表明，個人感知的忙碌程度與他們的自我價值感以及他人對其社會地位的看法有密切關聯。選擇總是忙碌的人往往會感到被需要、受到重視，這提升了他們對自己的感覺。

 

在文化上，對社會地位的看法也發生了變化，物質物品不再是唯一的社會地位指標。現在，忙於工作、過度勞累且缺乏休閒時間的人被視為地位較高。

 

此外，一些人總是忙碌是為了避免或麻痹痛苦的情感和情況。保持高度忙碌使他們無法專注於潛在的困擾或不適感。

 

雖然保持忙碌可能提升我們的自尊心，但如果我們忙碌到無法進行自我照顧、與摯愛的人共度時光，並享受自由時間，這對我們的整體福祉可能造成危害。脫離工作或不必要的義務，有意休息和為自己留出時間，可以顯著提升我們的生活質量。

 

如何將自我價值與工作脫鉤

過度安排自己，使我們總是忙碌，會對身心健康產生負面影響，也會影響我們維持健康關係的能力。

 

忙碌與生產力

忙碌與生產力往往容易混淆。如果我們很忙，可能有很多事情要做，但這不一定意味著我們有效率或在生產上有所成就。生產力是指能夠完成任務或完成某事。我們不需要忙碌才能生產。

 

忙碌與我們如何花時間有關，而生產力則更多地涉及我們所完成的事情。

 

總是忙碌的影響

保持忙碌可能對我們的生活產生多方面的影響，包括情感和身體健康、關係以及健康的工作與生活平衡能力。

 

情感健康

當忙碌被美化和鼓勵時，我們可能會因各種義務、承諾和責任而過度延伸自己。如果我們無法完成任務或履行義務，可能會感到內疚，或覺得自己辜負了自己或他人。如果我們的自我價值感源於生產力和完成任務，則感到自己不夠好會影響我們對自己的看法。

 

過度忙碌可能導致壓力增加和自尊心下降，進而引發更嚴重的心理健康問題，包括焦慮症、抑鬱症和物質使用障礙。

 

研究還發現，中等到高程度的忙碌可能會導致老年人的用藥依從性下降，這對他們的情感健康可能是有害的，特別是當藥物是為心理健康問題開的。

 

身體健康

忙碌可能導致我們為了完成任務而犧牲身體健康，包括不優先考慮運動或未能獲得足夠的睡眠。我們也可能會忽視或推遲就醫，以應對身體健康問題。

 

關係

繁忙的日程可能使我們幾乎沒有時間與他人建立有意義的聯繫。這會讓忙碌的人感到孤獨和被孤立，周圍的人有時也會因為缺乏可用性而感到被拒絕或生氣。

 

關係需要所有參與者的時間和精力。被多重義務拉扯可能讓我們感到壓力，無法與他人充分互動，這使我們難以支持和培養與摯愛的健康關係。

 

如果我們的日程過於緊張，與朋友、家人和配偶的關係可能會受到影響。

 

工作與生活平衡

不斷保持忙碌可能會導致工作與生活平衡不佳，影響我們在健康的工作和家庭環境中茁壯成長的能力。這種平衡對每個人來說都是獨特的，但總體而言，擁有平衡時，我們會感到對時間的支配更加掌控和舒適。

 

相反，如果工作與生活的平衡被打破，我們可能會經歷倦怠，感到過度勞累、筋疲力盡，與社交和家庭生活脫節。工作與生活平衡不佳還可能導致慢性壓力，影響我們的心理和身體健康。

 

忙碌並不總是壞事

公平地說，忙碌的生活並不總是與負面後果相關。例如，一些研究發現，隨著年齡增長，忙碌與認知優勢有關，包括：

 

更快的認知處理

改進的情節記憶和工作記憶

更強的推理能力

更強的知識結晶化

當忙碌對生活產生負面影響時，這就成為一個問題，包括對健康（無論是心理還是身體）有害，損害我們的關係，或造成工作與生活的失衡。

 

克服總是忙碌的建議

每個人對於「過於忙碌」的定義都不同。如果我們感到過度勞累、壓力過大或精疲力竭，將健康和福祉放在首位是非常重要的。雖然改變優先事項和時間安排可能感覺困難，但這樣做可能會提高心理和身體的健康，並增進與摯愛之間的聯繫。

 

以下是幾個克服總是忙碌的方法：

 

練習正念：這有助於我們與自己聯繫，無評判地觀察自己的想法，讓自己保持平靜。如果感到不知所措，正念還能幫助打斷思緒的奔騰。

計劃一次度假或留在家中的假期：重要的是在這段時間內不要安排活動，以便我們能夠充電。

花時間與摯愛相處：將這視為優先事項。這樣能幫助我們感到連結、被愛和充滿活力。

每天花些小時刻來欣賞自己：這可能包括給予自己積極的肯定或每天記錄一件感激的事情。

與他人設置界限：說「不」是可以的。犧牲自己的福祉以過度延伸自己可能會在長期內帶來嚴重的後果。

記住自我價值不來自於忙碌：想出一句表達自我價值真正含義或自愛理由的口號，每天朗誦。

設置提醒，呼吸一下，花些獨處時間：這可以是簡單的手機通知或在家中放置一張便利貼，以便經常看到。

諮詢治療師：如果日常生活變得困難，或整體生活質量下降，這尤其重要。

設定適當的期望：關於能夠輕鬆承擔的事情，並記住這可能會隨時間變化。

努力找出不適感：如果忙碌被用作避免不愉快的想法或感覺的工具，則需努力找出問題。如果這看起來太過壓倒性，請尋求治療師的支持。

將工作或繁忙時間分段安排：重要的是在一天中留出時間給自己，哪怕只是短暫的休息，並故意與工作斷開聯繫。

我們都應該為自己留出時間，無論是長途度假還是一天中的小休息。這是提醒我們自己，我們是值得的、有價值的個體.

HK Snob

Cassette deck and Red Wine

The statistic shows annual music cassette album sales in the United States from 2015 to 2018. In 2018, 219 thousand music cassettes were sold in the United States, marking a significant growth in sales despite cassettes being a niche item. Sales have been on the increase since 2015 and have almost tripled in the last three years. 

This could be in part due to the collectable nature of the cassette, something you just can't get with streaming. Tapes are also often a lot cheaper than other collectibles such as CDs and vinyl, which makes them a cost-effective choice for music lovers of all ages. 

Despite the far superior audio quality that today's streaming apps and smartphones offer, cassette tapes and players are making a comeback, perhaps not because of their audio quality, but for other reasons. Those of you who have used cassette players during the 70s, 80s, and 90s, will remember that the sound is quite distinctive. 

New cassette player makers Fiio and Sony, you can see a few models under different brands displayed at Lane Crawford, IFC. They are made for fashion and fun, but are not seriously good in sound reproduction. 

If you are an electronics engineer, then you probably know that the complexity to design and fabricate a good cassette deck is 10X more complex than making an integrated amplifier. As a cassette deck has an amplification amplifier, recording amplifier, Dolby recording and playback circuit, bias setup, either manual or automatic, to preset the optimum biasing current for the magnetic head. Plus, the more important mechanical driving system. If you have owned a Nakamichi Dragon, you will see how many pieces of electronics complement, and the complexity of Azimuth, bias, and other features. 

How is the sound of a good cassette deck?

It is free from those annoying tick-tak noise of a vinyl, it is more fluidity, it is more mellow, it is more musical. 2.5D dimension as compare wit CD’s 2D dimension. The cassette deck could be better than the vinyl especially you don’t know how to properly sets up your turntable. 

Amongst those 20 cassette decks I have these are some of my favourite 

Nakamichi 1000 ZXL – king of the cassette, 40 pounds huge size like a MacDonald microwave oven, it is like the Chateau Lafife 1982 well balance, mellow and complicated, never fair your, keep tastier in time, it is more of a full 2.5D dimensional music especially on good source of original recording.

Nakamich Dragon – about 22 pounds in weight, very compact the prince of all cassette deck, it is a manual bias set up gear 4 motors

Sound is more or less like Chateau Mouton 1959, it is dynamic, bass is adequate and not muddle. Treble is well balance, beautifully balance, Strong in character, fully function because of auto reverse function, more function than the flag ship 1000 ZXL 

Teac Z6000 is a massive machine, weight 36 pounds, manual bias set up comparable to Z7000 which is auto biasing. Both are rare and expensive to find one with good condition. It is the Chateau Margaux 1982 – nice favour, complete smell of rose, mud, lead and charcoal and it is perpetually coming into your taste bud in the whole course of drinking. The sound of the Z6000 is powerful, you don’t feel sound is coming form the loudspeaker as it is full of your room. I am using ATD with just 5inches of woofer unit… But I feel the bass is rocking my sofa!

Love to play with Z6000 

Revox H1, someone may criticize that B710 MK II is best from Revox, I have both , but I found that H1 has given me a super comfort in using it purely for listening, it has all automatic level control and bias. Wide range of frequency response typically wide range music, clear and well defined musical note of the German style, It is the Haut Brion. One of the strong characteristic kind of wine, with above average good colour, long lasting favour and pleasant taste…

How about Tanberg 3014 well, I can not have one yet, many people say that it is the best but I have to listen to believe it.

What is the best wine? DLC ? Yes  but I have not tried due to high price. That is the same as the limited 100 pieces of Gold limited Nakamichi 1000ZXL. Price is same as the  Domaine de La Romanee-Conti 1988 US$20,999, that is the dream gear for me… It was told same as 1000ZXL, with special selected component including the magnetic heads!

HK Snob

 

卡帶機, 葡萄酒

 統計顯示,2015年至2018年期間,美國的年度音樂卡帶專輯銷量。在2018年,美國售出21.9萬張音樂卡帶,儘管卡帶屬於小眾產品,但銷量仍顯著增長。自2015年以來,銷量一直在上升,在過去三年內幾乎翻了三倍。 

這可能部分是因為卡帶具有收藏價值,這是流媒體無法提供的。與CD和黑膠唱片等其他收藏品相比,卡帶通常更加實惠,這使其成為各個年齡層音樂愛好者的cost-effective選擇。 

儘管今天的串流應用程式和智能手機提供了遠優於卡帶的音質,但卡帶和播放機正在卷土重來,可能並非由於音質,而是出於其他原因。那些在70年代、80年代和90年代使用過卡帶播放機的人都會記得,它的音質是相當獨特的。 

新的卡帶播放機製造商如Fiio和索尼,你可以在Lane Crawford和IFC看到他們推出的幾款不同品牌的型號。它們是為時尚和娛樂而設計的,但在聲音再現方面並不太出色。 

如果你是一名電子工程師,那麼你可能知道設計和製造一台優質卡帶機的複雜程度是製造一個綜合放大器的10倍。因為卡帶機需要有放大放大器、錄音放大器、杜比錄音和播放電路、手動或自動偏磁設置以調節磁頭的最佳偏磁電流,還有最重要的機械驅動系統。如果你曾擁有過Nakamichi Dragon,你就會看到需要多少個電子元件來實現,以及偏磁、偏移和其他功能的複雜性。

好卡帶機的音質如何?它不像黑膠唱片那樣令人討厭的咔咔聲,而是更加流暢、更加柔和、更加悅耳動聽。相比CD的2D效果,卡帶機可以達到2.5D的立體感。尤其是對於不知道如何正確設定唱盤的人來說,卡帶機可能優於黑膠唱片。 

在我擁有的20台卡帶機中,以下是我最喜歡的幾款: 

Nakamichi 1000 ZXL – 卡帶機之王,重達40磅,體積龐大如麥當勞微波爐,就像1982年的Chateau Lafife酒莊,口感平衡、柔和而複雜,永不衰退,時間越久越醇厚。它可以在優質的原始錄音源上呈現出更加立體豐滿的2.5D音樂效果。 

Nakamich Dragon – 重約22磅,體積緊湊,是所有卡帶機中的王子。它採用手動偏置設定,搭載4個電機。音質可以媲美1959年的Chateau Mouton酒莊,動態表現出色,低音飽滿而不渾濁。高音音域平衡優美,風格強烈,得益於自動反向功能,比旗艦1000 ZXL更加功能全面。 

Teac Z6000是一台巨型機器,重36磅,採用手動偏置設定,類似自動偏置的Z7000。這兩款都稀有難覓,狀態良好的更是難能可貴。它可以媲美1982年的Chateau Margaux酒莊 - 味道優雅,飄散著玫瑰、泥土、鉛和木炭的香氣,在整個飲用過程中,這些香氣不斷在味蕾上跳躍。Z6000的音質強勁有力,不像從揚聲器傳出,而是彌漫在整個房間。我只用了5英寸的低音單元,但我感覺低音足以搖動沙發!我非常喜歡玩弄Z6000。 

Revox H1,也許會有人批評B710 MK II才是Revox最佳之選,但我擁有這兩款,發現H1在純粹聆聽方面,給了我非常舒適的體驗。它採用全自動電平控制和偏置,頻率響應範圍極其寬廣,非常適合廣泛類型的音樂。音色清晰悅耳,具有德式風格。它可以比擬為Haut Brion酒莊出產的葡萄酒 - 一種風味濃郁、色澤出色、餘韻悠長、味道宜人的卓越佳釀。 

至於Tanberg 3014,我暫且還無緣擁有,但很多人都說它是最出色的。我必須親自去聆聽,才能下定論。 

什麼是最好的葡萄酒?DLC無疑,但由於價格極高,我還未有嘗試的機會。這與限量100台的金色Nakamichi 1000ZXL差不多同一個檔次。它的價格與1988年的Domaine de La Romanee-Conti酒莊出產的葡萄酒相當 - 20,999美元,這無疑是我的夢幻之作...據說它與1000ZXL一樣,採用了特選零件包括磁頭! 

香港的愛錶人