I've set up my hi-fi in the lounge and was happy just to have the amp, the CD player and the radio tuner connected up. But there are a few albums that I really like that I only have on cassette. So tonight, I brought down my trusty Denon cassette deck (same model shown in the photo)...
First tape I put on was the album "World Shut Your Mouth" by Julian Cope. It's one of my favourites, but the recording sounded horribly distorted with the pitch going up and down (as if the tape was speeding up then slowing down). Arse! Second tape was "Autogeddon" by Julian Cope and that sounded fine. Stopped that after a minute, and tried "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk -- another of my favourites. Sounded great for 2 or 3 minutes.... then it sounded drunk and slurred... then it just stopped. The Cocteau Twins sounded perfect. But "The Whole Story" by Kate Bush sounded abysmal.
So it looks like some of my cassettes have reached the end of their life.
Rather than going bonkers and replacing everything with CD, I think I'm just going to have to discover what's fecked by playing the albums that I want to listen to. If they play fine, then I can stick with the cassette for now. And if they're screwed, I can go off and search for digital replacements, although I could be in for some unpleasant surprises -- the cheapest Amazon price that I can see for "World Shut Your Mouth" on CD is £27, and even at that price, it's a second-hand disc sent from the US. :cry:
First tape I put on was the album "World Shut Your Mouth" by Julian Cope. It's one of my favourites, but the recording sounded horribly distorted with the pitch going up and down (as if the tape was speeding up then slowing down). Arse! Second tape was "Autogeddon" by Julian Cope and that sounded fine. Stopped that after a minute, and tried "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk -- another of my favourites. Sounded great for 2 or 3 minutes.... then it sounded drunk and slurred... then it just stopped. The Cocteau Twins sounded perfect. But "The Whole Story" by Kate Bush sounded abysmal.
So it looks like some of my cassettes have reached the end of their life.
Rather than going bonkers and replacing everything with CD, I think I'm just going to have to discover what's fecked by playing the albums that I want to listen to. If they play fine, then I can stick with the cassette for now. And if they're screwed, I can go off and search for digital replacements, although I could be in for some unpleasant surprises -- the cheapest Amazon price that I can see for "World Shut Your Mouth" on CD is £27, and even at that price, it's a second-hand disc sent from the US. :cry:
