Which audio manufacturer would be most receptive to a petition to develop a hi-fi cassette deck?

As we all know TEAC/Tascam is the only audio manufacturer that has a serious cassette deck to offer. There's a hot - but interesting - debate going on at TapeHeads.net whether TEAC's cassette deck is worth it to be considered as serious HiFi or not. Nonetheless, you can read between the lines the passion, love and - especially - hope that TEAC should refine and upgrade it's cassette deck in performance and quality.

Is TEAC the one to pick up the glove? And is TEAC willing? What do you think? Are other audio manufacturers quietly watching, waiting or ... maybe... is there a work in progress?
Should it be Yamaha? Marantz maybe? Could Douk Audio be poked? Does FiiO maybe have the recourses?

What should be the best way to approach the audio manufacturer? Social media? A mail? A petition? Connections with the big boss?

Do you think the people who work at Yamaha are reading Stereo2Go? Tapeheads maybe? Are employees at Marantz maybe secretly developing a nice deck at their own free time at friday-afternoons ? Are audio manufacturers connected to the tape forums in some way? Do they know we exist?

Surely some audio manufacturer must have the same love and passion!
Share your thoughts!

 

Do they know we exist, I am sure they do? But will they stick their neck out and invest multimillion £ € $ etc, I don’t think so the market is too small for the outlay they will need to make topflight decks. They will never recoup the R&D money.

As well as the market being tiny, the other thing holding them back is lack of good quality new cassettes.

For me to even look at a new cassette deck, they would have to be better than my Nakamichi CR-7 and the cassette quality will have to equal or better than my stash of TDK MA-XG’s.
To do this will take serious determination and serious amount of money, which means the end product will be very costly. Which I am sure only a tiny amount of people in the already tiny market will pay. So anything high-end is a non-starter.

 

cassette is finished it's great as a novelty but that is it, the only good format is a free one, im sick of paying for things i have had hundreds of times before, same as tv

i agree 100% with toocool

 

I don't own a high-end cassette deck like a Rotel or Nakamichi. It must be really great to listen music to! I do have happily a nice Marantz SD2020, JVC TD-W201 and Philips N5421 for twenty years or so. Probably on the lower side of midrange, but I consider them as HiFi decks.

The sound my decks reproduce is great and zero problems as i am a heavy music listener. I am recording my music on RTM, Maxell and Analog Fidelity ferro tapes for my mixtapes and buying cassette-albums at Discogs and Bandcamp and after a concert.
I still can be surprised how good and warm the music sounds - as do my friends, - and the joy of buying a cassette album

Here is a nice article on Flood Magazine about Recording the Masters teaming up with artists and music labels. De Bandjesfabriek also teams up through it's own music label: MusicOnCassette.

 

Like Radio Raheem said, Cassette has had its day and is now on borrowed times.
Sadly a lot of members on Tapeheads are deluded in thinking Cassette can make some sort of a comeback. They are thinking because Vinyl has gotten big again, Cassette can do the same.
The big difference between Cassette and Vinyl is, Vinyl never really went away plus there are still turntables made at all price points. On the other hand, how many Cassette decks are still being made?

I would never advise anyone new to get into Cassettes now, why would you get into something that is on life-support? But if you already have plenty of Cassettes and you can find a good deck and a technician to service it for you, sure go for it.

I have loads of Cassettes and well-maintained deck, so it’s a no brainer to keep my hand in.
Nostalgia has nothing to do with it for me, Cassettes can and do sound fantastic if all is well. As in good well-maintained equipment and top-quality source to record from, without good sources it becomes garbage in garbage out.

 

I see your point - i think i'm a bit deluded too , but also a little surprised reading the reactions. Thanks for the reality check!

From my perspective and experience cassette culture never was dead, in fact it's very alive, it's definitely undead, so no need for life support !
As a DJ i make mixtapes, offering music that's not on CD or Spotify. It's probably the music scene (indie) i'm in where music on cassette tapes has big support to distribute music from not well known bands or acts. From young people to older, there's not much difference. Or maybe it's a regional thing? Also the repair community is very much alive and there are highly skilled people if your cassette deck needs a service or repair.

I would gladly see TEAC doing an upgrade of it's current cassette deck, midrange HiFi is sufficient in pair with Maxell for example to spotlight the love for music on cassette!

 

Hey SantiOriginal sorry to be the bearer of bad news, hopefully I am wrong. Like you I would like to see Cassette get big again. The non-availability of new good affordable decks / cassettes etc is not helping.

 

My suggestion based on what has happened before would be Technics.

Eleven years ago when vinyl was reaching the end of a long decline their parent company Panasonic discontinued the famous SL-1200 turntable and the Technics brand name. Just six years later, due to popular demand they released a new SL-1200 despite having to make entirely new tooling having scrapped the original.
Now they seem to make three distinct models at different price points.

Something to bear in mind is that if a company like Technics released a high end cassette deck it wouldn't be cheap. As a guide I would say, take a high end Technics cassette deck price from the past, feed it through an inflation calculator then double it to make up for limited numbers. The cheapest new SL-1200 (the MK7) is around £800 and I would expect a high end cassette deck to be similar.

I don't know how it compares, but a contemporary review of the SL-1200 MK6 claimed it was the best turntable you could buy for under £2000 so maybe some people would think £800 for a brand new cassette deck built to a similar standard to the SL-1200MK7 would be worth paying.

Before anyone comments, I don't think you can compare the new and second hand markets although the price of a mint condition piece of older equipment like an SL1200-MK6 probably dictates what people are prepared to pay for a new MK7.

Thinking about £800 for a turntable, or a cassette deck, how many people pay £800 for a watch when a £10 Casio is perfectly good for telling the time ? HiFi manufacturers need to try and appeal to similar high spenders.

 

Sure Mister X it’s okay to disagree.
Boomboxes will not do it and the 3 or so new decks being made at the current price will not do it either.

I do care about sonics and as much as a lot of people don’t care about sonics. You will find out they will soon say no to paying any amount of money for a boombox or home deck, that a similar digital deck at a fraction the price sounding much better.
People may be nostalgic but having to pay through the nose for it, most people will say not paying that.

 

+1 to what @TooCooL4 had to share! First things first - SL-1200 is NOT the Best TT ever made, although it did help DJ culture survive through the Dark Ages of DIGITAL...

Absolutely ALL hi-end manufacturers nowadays sell TurnTables, even Shiit Audio made one this year! Why?... Real Simple - good vinyl sounds WAY better than the best Hi-Rez digital files... I had a good luck to have unlimited funding for my hobby until a few years ago and my $20k Naim-ed/Keel-ed Linn Sondek playing "King Super Analogue" LPs (and I collected them all!) sounded better than any CDs or hi-rez files, or SACDs played into the same amp/speakers

cassettes? pre-recorded cassettes??? Cassettes Saving The Day? You must be joking!!!

Let's be reasonable: we have $500 R2R tapes nowadays but no Nakamichi-(not hi-speed)-prerecorded cassettes. So, unless you have @TooCooL4 setup to record from LP onto cassette (and @TooCooL4 once mentioned that his setup is not even Hi-End!!??!!, he is a funny Dude!!!) then you are listening to a low-end analog or "perfect" digital with some extra W&F. Which I personally like, that is why I have a few boomboxes for my 'beer and boomboxes' Friday Night drinking sessions


As my audio-guru Art Dudley once said: "I Love Distortions!"

BUT: let us not confuse our love for gizmology with our attempts to reproduce Bruckner in our listening room

 

Ha ha Jorge as good as my system is, yes I do consider it more Mid-Fi than High-End. Since I have heard and experienced many High-End setups, so I can call my system more Mid-Fi.

 

i DONT CARE WHAT THE SYSTEM SOUNDS LIKE AS LONG AS IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN A BLOODY M70 LOL

sorry about the caps.....so it's official George is high end, Tocool is mid end and i am flipping mickey mouse as usual lol

 

Radio Raheem you crack me up , nothing wrong with Mickey Mouse.

 

Yes, Technics definitely could manufacture a solid high quality cassette deck . If Technics would do it, i'm sure they would never go for less then a high end deck like it's other beautiful audio portfolio.

Onkyo/Pioneer are in very bad weather, so that's definitely "not a chance" . JVC/Kenwood maybe? JVC offers a boomblaster - far away from the m70 days - and Kenwood offers some micro HiFi systems. Both JVC and Kenwood rather invisible, they were so popular back in the day!

Maybe Dual or Thorens? They are known by their successful HiFi quality turntables. And both Dual and Thorens made cassette decks in the past which were highly regarded.

 

all in good fun my friend apart from the m70 part lol, i can rest easy knowing i have 3 grands worth of speakers otherwise i wouldn't qualify in this Race

George has 22k worth of wires and a bulb loose lol you have a 10k turntable and i have 3k speakers imagine them all combined lol

 

Radio Raheem I have never heard an M70, so can't comment.
The turntable is more than 10K, just the tonearm is 6K.

 

jesus christ toocool you're just as mad as George lol, can we see you're amp, hey you can't take anything with you so wtf lol

you aren't missing anything with the m70 my friend i was flipping glad to give mine away for free seriously lol

all i need is a measly 4k and there are 2 m90's and a crown you can have lol...im after the top monitor audio four grand second hand...i will get them before i die lol

 

Yes I am just a little mad .
I am just running Spectral Audio Pre & Power see here

Here is the tonearm Dynavector DV 507 MKII

Radio Raheem sell some kit and you can have the Monitor Audio Speakers.