Cassette revival?

[Austrokiwi]

TLDR: Every so often I read that the Cassette revival is still happening. My recent experience suggests to me that what ever revival there may be is stalling and sputtering to a halt.   I just don't think there is enough infrastructure to support a real cassette revival

My experience:
Back in 2018 the vibes were cassettes were going to be the next vinyl (my, possible, exaggeration).  I like legacy Hifi equipment (DAT, RTR, DCC, SACD, and of course records) and with a couple of boxes of cassettes in the Basement I  obtained an old dual well Akai (it came with a GX636 RTR I purchased).  It sounded terrible and only lasted a couple of years before the belts wore out.     It wasn’t worth restoring and I sold it on Ebay.  Not wanting to hiff out our old cassettes I started to hunt for a replacement cassette deck.  

Doing  some research I gained the impression getting cassette decks serviced is an issue,  I was to find out that servicing more of an issue than I realized.  I discovered a company in Germany that dealt with Braun Atieler products and who claimed they serviced those themselves.   So I purchased a Braun C3 from them.   I remember my enthusiasm when I found cassettes, on the C3, sounded better than I remembered. However, despite coming with a nice service report stating all that has been done to the deck, in a week I was sending it back because, it didn’t record. I was sent a replacement and it recorded but it just didn’t sound as good.   After about a year of infrequent use. I realized the right channel was not as loud as the left, and the deck just sounded tired.   It was too late to send it back (I didn't try).

I did some more research, of course I thought about a Nak dragon, decided for the money, and my  predominantly play-only use, that it just wasn't  a deck I could take advantage of.   I could spend more on music if I set my sights at a much more realistic price level. I ended up settling for the RX series of Naks( I love the auto-reverse system). In advance I decided I wasn’t going to believe any claimed servicing, and any deck I purchased would immediately be sent to someone reliable for servicing and upgrading.    I then went hunting to find someone with a good reputation for Servicing cassette decks who lived near to me.  I found such a person in Slovenia.

I then I went hunting for a RX deck. I didn’t care which model as my only requirement was that it be in almost perfect cosmetic condition. It took a good few months until a very clean RX 202 came up for sale.   The seller claimed it had been serviced, insisted he play some tapes on it for me.   Although it was only a 2 head deck, it worked well, it sounded great( to my ears) had all its parts, and was in great cosmetic condition.    I purchased it and a week later it was sent off to Slovenia for servicing.    I had to wait 3 months before it got to the front of the queue.  

I received the deck back in the middle of last year and  finally had a well performing cassette deck. I may have thought it was Ok when I purchased it, but, on return, it was considerably better sounding than I thought possible. The cassette loading and flipping mechanism, that I thought was issue free was now faster and much crisper.  

I still had the Braun and after the experience of the RX202 I was sure the Braun C3 could perform better. It was sent off to Slovenia and I received it back (4 months later) in mid February (2024).  It also came back functioning and sounding better than when I had purchased it. That so called serviced C3 required pinch roller replacement (one of them had become petrified) a belt replacement despite the deck having been sold to me as already having had a belt replacement. Apparently only the cassette drawer belt had been replaced (more was done but I won’t going into that here.    

Now, because of perseverance I have two well-functioning Cassette decks, I actually enjoy listening to cassettes now.   I wouldn't do it again ( Huge pain in the rear end)    My two decks might last another 20 years( if I am very lucky) but when they need servicing again I suspect it will be even harder to find someone competent to do the work.

[ropie]

All my first albums were bought on cassette - it was the late 80s / early 90s and vinyl had given way to CD and I couldn't afford a CD player. They served a purpose but I would not go back to them - they're way too restrictive and easily destroyed.

CDs, on the other hand, are extremely nice little objects and I even prefer them to vinyl

[floppybootstomp]

Doing  some research I gained the impression getting cassette decks serviced is an issue,  I was to find out that servicing more of an issue than I realized.

When you say 'servicing' does this include a repair facility?

I ask as servicing of cassette decks is relatively straightforward (clean all moving parts inc. belt paths; clean head and pinch roller(s); adjust azimuth, if needed replace head; if needed replace belt(s); check all functions - I expect I've forgotten something here ) but finding somebody willing to repair them is somewhat problematic, shall we say.

I recently had a NAD cassette deck go faulty on me, it has no playback and the level bar indicators show no signal from tapes with recordings. I fear this may be a fault at PCB level. I phoned around half a dozen places offering Hi-Fi repairs and none were willing to even look at it.

I still have a fine functioning Yamaha deck and I will get round to attempting a repair on the NAD.

By coincidence yesterday evening I ripped two Maxell XLII C90s to WAV >> cda and now have two CDs of Pink Floyd at Knebworth 1990 and UFO at Knebworth 1985, both of which are excellent quality.

[Austrokiwi]

When you say 'servicing' does this include a repair facility?

I ask as servicing of cassette decks is relatively straightforward (clean all moving parts inc. belt paths; clean head and pinch roller(s); adjust azimuth, if needed replace head; if needed replace belt(s); check all functions - I expect I've forgotten something here ) but finding somebody willing to repair them is somewhat problematic, shall we say.

Includes repair ( even head lapping if required)

[Colin_EJJ]

Having used cassettes for many years, I find them easy to get on with and rather more enjoyable than messing about with computer files. There are good machines out there but you have to budget for a decent service. My two Tandbergs were done by a specialist who used to work for Tandberg UK (in fact, he serviced my open reel deck there in 1984!). I expect them to continue working well for many years to come.

But there are a lot of decks described as classic, high end etc on eBay which are anything but - as anyone who was around the first time around in the 1970s will be able to spot.

[seiki-g]

..Cassette recorder is still great, I am very satisfied with my B215 and the recordings are very good. Of course revised.