Oddly enough the cassette is still better than all these horrible sounding digital devices like MD, DCC, MP3, etc. I own one of kenwoods top of the line MD's and the flexibility is nice, but its bad digital-thin and anemic sounding. A good high quality cassette deck probably isn't a bad idea. They have made some advances in the analog arena that don't get much note these days: aside from Dolby S, pioneer's cassette decks digitally recalibrate the signal, there are more accurate mechanical/tape drives, better head material, and better tape formulations. Not to mention, regardless of the digital used, MP3 etc., you've got to worry about poor A/D convertors so that don't even get the maximum amount of info onto the inferior formats. Ya cassette is dead, but if depending on recording needs it may still be a good choice.
