I loved MiniDiscs. I still have a deck and a Walkman. I copied my CDs so I could play my music in the car. You didn't need to worry about getting them in a jewel case or having someone break in and steal them.
Favorite obsolete formats.....
What are your favorite of these? I’m unsure if any stations broadcast in AM stereo nowadays. 8 track, Mini-disk, Cassette, VHS, CED, Beta, DAT, Reel to Reel, Am Stereo, Laserdisc, Quadraphonic, Dolby FM. Surely many formats have been overlooked.
71 responses Add your response
Everything analogue is what I miss. I have a finely tuned and customized Nak 682ZX that I play every other day. I make compilations off vinyl and cds. And I use $2.4k retail interconnects with it. And the very best cassettes - Maxell Metal Vertex. Most people have no idea how cassette deck can sound. No, it's not good R2R or comparable turntable. Biggest problem - you got diminished soundstage, but it's not bad. |
It wasn't a medium, but a source.....the lowly hand-held transistor radio that only played AM, but introduced many of us to the world of modern (for that time) music. Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Little Eva, along with many others that kept us up way past bedtime until the battery died. The fancy ones had leatherette cases, the sound was as low-fi as you could get, but it was a passport to rock 'n roll nirvana and cool personalities called DJs. |
cd318 got it right. "The sound of some of those cassette car units (1980s/1990s) seemed to be a lot better than what I now hear in many car CD players. That could just be my memory but there's no doubt that there were some very good car units back then." The Alpine 7347 (circa 1985) skyrocketed the high-end car audio industry with some of the best sounding car audio systems to date. Of course, great amps and speakers played just as important of a role. Even though the CD player offered a better signal to noise, the analog sound from the cassette was consistently smoother sounding. DAC was only in its infancy back then so grainy sound was what you got with the CD. High-end car audio systems today can be really good. However, the industry has shrunken due to how cars are made with the OEM system being integrated into vehicle functions. The audio enthusiast, however, will still pursue the products that integrate with the OEM designs and build some very impressive car audio systems. Listening to a top flight car audio system is really a great experience. |
@freedeez, "I swear some of my greatest listening experiences were with those cassette tapes." Me too. I even had one of those portable Sony Walkman players. Virtually every Sunday evening was spent listening to the UK top 40 with a loaded cassette. By the late 90s I'd upgraded my NAD tuner and switched from NAD cassette to to Sony MD but there wasn't that much worth bothering with in the charts. For me the final straw with cassettes came when they started putting the tapes into sealed housings instead of the usual ones with 5 screws. This made repair a real pain. I also didn't like how hot the cassettes got when played in the car. The sound of some of those cassette car units (1980s/1990s) seemed to be a lot better than what I now hear in many car CD players. That could just be my memory but there's no doubt that there were some very good car units back then. |
I still listen a lot to FM radio at home, as there are two local stations that have a good mix of their chosen genres (old time rock, old time country). In the car, it’s hard rock mostly. As for other formats, I don’t use them but keep the old equipment for sentimental reasons. I have two Sony VCRs that still work and a Technics cassette deck that works fine. A few months ago, I considered, then declined, purchase of a 40+ year old Teac reel-to-reel. The price was fine, but it would need to be gone over by a technician, which again could be an acceptable expense if I had tapes to play on it. I have fond memories of a Sony R2R I had during the 1970’s, but today there really isn’t need to record music on one when I can burn CD’s. Purchasing pre-recorded tapes for the big money they go for — no thank you. But R2R looks cool as well as being the best way to enjoy taped music. |
@yogiboy ...my brother had a later version of a 'car record player', bright chromy underdash trash. I suppose it would work acceptably if your suspension allowed one to float on down the highway, but this didn't in his 56 Chevy.... It could do broadjumps with a minor road wrinkle. No clue as to how many grams it didn't work at... Your memory test: 'Vibrasonic delay units'? A set of long springs within a equally long metal box? Gave the sound that 'echo' that was novel.... Until you hit a good sized bump.... The sound elicited by those springs hitting the inside of that box was 'memorable'...*L* |
In my hi-fi retail days I worked at Pacific Stereo, here in Southern California. That was from 1976 to 1982. I sold some L-Cassette decks and also some of those BIC T-1 decks, mentioned above. Both sounded remarkably good, for the day. I also watched them disappear from the market, and rather quickly. It's rather interesting to see how recorded music has evolved and gone from cylinders and early 78 RPM records, to early R2R, to 4-track and 8-track (nobody mentioned 4-track above), to high quality vinyl, to CD, to DAT, etc., and of course to i-Tunes and the such of compressed MP3 formats. And now, vinyl still seems to hold the attention of being the best in high end high-fidelity music playback. Though R2R is still king in the department of analog playback. And for the present we have added in streaming music. It can be very good, providing a high quality DAC. In my world, for the car I presently use CD and SXM. For the home I am strictly analog, with vinyl. I do plan on adding a streamer, a quality CD unit and DAC next year. Though I will likely maintain my analog preference, adding a digital front end to my system is probably a good idea for exploring more music and to enjoy my CD collection in the home. |
Aside from the clumsy storage size; I miss Laser Disks. Mostly because after inserting them; they would just play. Minimal amount of superfluous warnings and ads. It’s frustrating when playing children’s DVD’s to have keep pressing buttons or be subjected to endless advertisements, year after year, for discs you’ve already purchased. It was also nice to be able to read librettos and linear notes without eye strain. |
You guys beat me to the punch with Elcaset. I do remember listening to a really fabulous system (1980ish?) that had an Elcaset, it was actually excellent for the time. If memory serves it ran at double cassette speed, which would have been 3.25 ips. Can't say I miss it, but it really knocked me back at the time. Regards, barts |
Anyone remember this ball of fire? https://www.cassettedeck.org/bic/t-1 Or this one! https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/555840/highway-hi-fi-chrysler-car-record-player |
Worst of the current bunch? Darko and What Hi-Fi are the two that immediately spring to mind. Yep, Darko seems to be more concerned about appearing cool & hip. Reviewing equipment playing mainly electronic music...yeah, whatever. There are plenty of bands releasing albums on cassette & a few synth wave artists releasing albums on mini disc. |
8 Track tapes - flimsy construction but 1/4 inch tapes running at 3 3/4 ips sounded pretty good in my 69 Chevy Malibu. After that, TDK premium cassettes playing my homemade compilations sourced by my Dual 1215 turntable and Shure (?) cartridge and recorded on one of the first Nakamichi 1000 cassette decks with Dolby. Played on my then home system - Kenwood 5150 Receiver through KLH 17 speakers connected with zipcord - and in my cars with a Sony cassette player hooked into the cars' stereo systems and transferable between the two cars. One vehicle was a 1972 VW bus so I wore Beyerdynamic headphones (which I hooked up to the player myself) to drown out the engine and road noise. Wonderful memories as I played Pink Floyd's The Wall as I crossed the Golden Gate bridge every morning on my way to work or Moody Blues as I drove through the Jasper Provincial park in the VW when snowing in September. |
My first music purchases were 7" 45 RPM singles. That format was what teenagers for the most part bought in the early-60’s. Most albums at that time were a hit song and a bunch of filler. The exception to that rule were the albums by The Ventures (and other instrumental---mostly Surf---bands), The Beach Boys, and Paul Revere & The Raisers. At least that was true in my Northern California San Jose-suburb of Cupertino. Of course, the British Invasion changed that, and we for the most part stopped buying singles, the album now being much more than a hit song and filler. I discovered Goldmine Record Collector’s magazine in late-’76, and learned that there had been a number of non-LP songs that were issued only on the "B" sides of singles. The 7" 45 RPM format became quite collectible in the late-70’s, especially in the genres of Punk, New Wave, and Power Pop. Singles with picture sleeves became commonplace, and added to the fun of collecting. The first 45 I bought specifically for the "B" side was The Band’s "Ain’t Got No Home". "Get Up Jake" was recorded during the sessions for what became their second, self titled "brown" album, but was not included on it, remaining unreleased until it was stuck on the aforementioned single from the Moondog Matinee album. Another very collectible single was a mis-pressing of Dylan’s "Positively 4th Street". Instead of that song appearing on the "A" side, in it’s place was an outtake of "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window". The outtake version is a different recording than the one later released as an "A" side, and remained unavailable anywhere else until the CD reissue craze of the 1990’s. I have a collection of somewhere around 750 singles, but playing them is a pita. It’s like eating a meal that took you two hours to cook in five minutes! |
