Cassette Tape Player: Have One?
Having personally witnessed the progress of personal portable audio equipment from the big cassette tape player to the walkman to the cd walkman to the mp3 players and mp4 players, I found it surprising that I still can see some folks lugging along these portable cassette tape players in their belts. I thought it has gone the way of the dinosaur.
Probably because of my assumption that they’re gone, I have not noticed that cassette tapes are still visible in the shelves of some music stores. After the subject of a cassette tape player was brought up by some friends in our latest get-together, I am again noticing that these relics are indeed still alive and still selling. I thus thought that as long as there are still cassette tapes in music stores, there still likewise would be cassette tape players. I recall that in our latest house cleaning I noticed a few tapes bundled in some boxes somewhere. I think those were Pimleur(?) cantonese language tapes which I bought after my aunt who got married to a Cantonese businessman in far away Malaysia visited us with her daughter. Since the tapes were still in good condition, I didn’t throw them away thinking that my kids or some friends might someday take an interest in learning cantonese. Nei hu ma?
Not only are we talking about actual music stores still displaying these players, they are similarly present online too. Google tells us that there indeed are still a considerable number of people searching for a cassette tape player online. Its other names include ‘cassette deck’ and ‘tape recorder’.
You can read more cassette tape player information from wikipedia.
Tagged with: cassette recorder • cassette tape player • tape deck
Filed under: Everyday Life • gadgets
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I never see people using them anymore but I was just thinking about them the other day. I’m old enough to remember before cassettes and was thinking about one of the first ones I had – I played it over and over until the tape just broke.
I still see some people using portable cd players though, rather than mp3 players.
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I noticed that also. There are still available cassette tapes in the music stores and I find it really amusing.
There probably are still material (e.g. music) in cassette tapes that don’t have CD counterparts.
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I wonder if the people you saw with cassette players actually had cassettes: there are quite a few mp3 player and mp3 hacks that involve making an mp3 player look like a walkman.
Err…ok, not sure. But why make a thumb-size player look like a cigarbox-sized walkman? Ahmm… making good use of abundant space? 🙂
As long as there are cassette tapes in record bars and players in appliance stores, these pieces of recording will stay unless there would be a complete phase out which I think isn’t happening not anytime soon.
Your post reminded me of my cassette tape collections back in the days when UltraElectroMagneticPop was still a fad in my teens.
I miss playing them but honestly, switching a cassette’s recording into playable CD is very costly locally.
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Cassette to CD. It is indeed costly at this point, although like most services of this type, it probably will slide down in time the way VHS to CD or DVD did. There are particular tapes in my collection which I would like to transfer from cassette to cd. But I would only do that soon as I find that there are really no CD counterparts available in the market.
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Yeah, I still have one, but it is dusty. There was something unique about having to flip the side of a cassette over, the same thing for vinyl records.
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The old times. 🙂 One thing I dislike about cassettes though is the way the tapes get ‘eaten’ into the roller of the player. And you can never be sure if the pitch of the songs are right because the rate of rotation of the motor is not exactly ascertainable. Even more reason for me to convert all my favorite tapes from cassette to CD.
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You know what is weirder than that? There was a time when you couldn’t find a record player, but now when you go into stores they have them for sale again?
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Case of a fad or style fading away then coming back after a few years or so?
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I also thought that they are all gone, but just last night I saw one. 🙂 Amazing. Maybe I can still use the old cassette tapes. Haha.
Hi, thanks for the info. Regarding your last point, I would very much like instructions on how to “replace the motor or rubber belts inside it, and/or make other repairs.”
I still have one… in my car. The stereo has a built in tape deck, an option I don’t think the manufacturer still supports.
I was looking at a new radio, and the one I like the most doesn’t even have a CD player.
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