REMEMBER THE SOUND OF CASSETTE?
Tape cassettes have yet to get the same retro love as vinyl, although there is a mini-resurgence in reel to reel players. This week's great news is that you now actually relive the 70s and 80s without having to fork out for a used Walkman and cassettes.
I was eight years old when, in 1979, Sony unleashed the Walkman upon the world and in doing so, revolutionised the way we listened to music.
Your music collection was now portable, and you could enjoy your tunes privately wherever you were – roller skates were, thankfully optional. Sorry, Sir Cliff.
Granted, being wired for sound may not match the quality of the today's digital audio, but there is still space to be able to look back to those halcyon days of our youth.
Let’s face it, I still enjoy the snap, crackle and pop of an LP spinning on my turntable, and I still have a soft spot for the aesthetics of a compact cassette.+
This week's great news is that you now actually relive the 70s and 80s without having to fork out for a used Walkman and cassettes. All you need to do is head over to a website called WebCassette.
Load in your favorite digital music files and the system will then proceed to degrade the sound quality, back to a time before compact discs hit the market.
You can even dial in your required quality, or lack thereof, of the cassette tape, the quality of the cassette player’s motor, and the performance of the playback heads.
Whether this gets you misty-eyed as you transport yourself back to your BMX-riding childhood or makes you realise how lucky you were to be born in the digital age will probably rely on your age.
Either way, it’s a bit of free fun.
Jay Garrett
StereoNET’s resident rock star, bass player, and gadget junkie. Jay heads up StereoNET as Editor for the United Kingdom and Europe regions. His passion for gadgets and Hi-Fi is second only to being a touring musician.
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