cassettes CAN sound better than vinyl.

@redwoodaudio 

"my MC Hammer adams family cassingle?  Put your money where your mouth is."

What on earth are you talking about? Is this some kind of famous thing like Fermat's Last Theorem? Or just ...?

My cartridge sounds good, respectable even, from the moment the stylus is dropped.

At 30 minutes it sounds better. At 60 minutes better yet. At 120 minutes, sublime. A cassette recording made at 120 minutes sounds better than the cartridge when the cartridge is cold.

IMO.

Let’s think of the ways in which a CR-7 could be better than vinyl. Let’s assume that the Nak’s important caps have been bypassed by styrene or teflon, drive mechanism is belt rather than gear, and that the machine is otherwise to spec, and Dolby is not engaged; at least not Dolby C.

If one records a record onto a very good metal tape, say TDK MA (metal frame), or MA-XG (ceramic frame), then the difference between original and casette is small. Certainly less than the difference between a cold and a fully warmed up phono and cartridge.

So, if you carefully warm up your CR-7, your phono, and your cartridge, say 8 hours, 8 hours, 2 hours respectively, then your recordings should be better than a cold phono and cartridge. IMO.

So why don’t I do it? I like variety, and my cartridge may be immortal. And, oh yes, lazy, lazy ...