Hey, I'm new to the boom box world! And absolutely love it! I was just curious, the one boom box i own doesnt yet work ha!

I understand half the novelty of it is playing tapes, which is awsome, but whats the sound quality like compared with modern media?

Does it ever annoy you, or do you all connect ipods and things through the radio etc...

hey welcome aboard The sound quality to cd/mp3 is ok, better than vinyl (records). But like you said its a novelty and with it there is more distortion.

Helo jack, welcome, most of audiofile people got a diferrent sense for sound quality, some of them like how sounding a vinyl gramophone records, some people love a MP3 etc.

We like a magic of portable magnetic tape/radio sound.

i think MP3 is fine, it's a media which really easy to carry around. sounds ok....
but you may discover the "real voise" of your boombox by playing a original cassette tape...not those recorded by yourself
or try some MP3 w/192kbps+ quality
that's way better~!!

I own and have made lots of tapes... Even back in the day when I was heavy into tape playing and recording music to cassettes, I always thought it was a wack format. Every time I had to fast-forward, rewind, flip tapes over, and pull tape outta rollers 'cause every now and then they got ate up , I would wish for somethin' better.

Lookin' past CD and MD (which was my main format for years) player/recorders, mp3 came along... To me, it's the best format out there because of the convenience factor. Those who worry about mp3 sound quality should adjust their rips to a more lossless or uncompressed format. Straight up, I don't wanna go back to the cassette days.

Still, with all that being said, in order to truly enjoy the experience of owning a boombox, you've gotta load it with a (hopefully) high quality cassette and press play 'cause that's how it should be done.

quote:

Originally posted by baddbill:
hey welcome aboard The sound quality to cd/mp3 is ok, better than vinyl (records). But like you said its a novelty and with it there is more distortion.

For me, sound quality for vinyls are far better than cd/mp3...

quote:

Lookin' past CD and MD (which was my main format for years) player/recorders, mp3 came along... To me, it's the best format out there because of the convenience factor. Those who worry about mp3 sound quality should adjust their rips to a more lossless or uncompressed format. Straight up, I don't wanna go back to the cassette days. No No

I have all my recordings based on FLAC format. And yes, I´d rather not going back to cassette days.

Boom boxes are good, but in another point of view, the best way to enjoy the cassette sound is playing them in a good cassette deck Nakamichi Dragon and the likes

quote:

Originally posted by MONOLITHIC:
I own and have made lots of tapes... Even back in the day when I was heavy into tape playing and recording music to cassettes, I always thought it was a wack format. Every time I had to fast-forward, rewind, flip tapes over, and pull tape outta rollers 'cause every now and then they got ate up , I would wish for somethin' better.

Lookin' past CD and MD (which was my main format for years) player/recorders, mp3 came along... To me, it's the best format out there because of the convenience factor. Those who worry about mp3 sound quality should adjust their rips to a more lossless or uncompressed format. Straight up, I don't wanna go back to the cassette days.

Still, with all that being said, in order to truly enjoy the experience of owning a boombox, you've gotta load it with a (hopefully) high quality cassette and press play 'cause that's how it should be done.

Well said!!! I couldnt agree more

Ye I cannot wait to geta boom box that works, so I can try it out. Just dont have time or money to fix my current one!

I'm going boot sale 2moz to try n find one! Hopefully pick up some good tapes aswell! WOOP

It depends on the boombox.
The JVC has installed good deck inside some of the boomboxes they've produced.
838 and M-70 delivers great quality using well recorded tapes.
Also, like a cd player tape deck needs manteniance. The main difference is that when the optical pick-up is burned, no sound until you change it. A tape deck will keep running but at a lower quality. They need to be adjusted after long hours of playing, cleaning and many other jobs. If you do the homework the tape will sound fine !!!!
That looks silly now. I mean, solid stated supports will kill all other media that use some mechanical aid, like CD, MD and tape of course exept HDD based players.
That's because the HDD will always have higher room than a memory with a great reliabilty.

And if you don't want MP3, you can still enjoy .wav raw file with sample rates higher than 44100. That's more than CD quality.
Most of players are HDD based with 30G or more room to keep music without any kind of compresion.

I'm going back to tape or vinyl with all my music wherever possible.

I've got hundred of thousands of mp3s and I listen to them regularly, but even 190kVBR or 320kVBR ones lose a lot of the sound stage. All depends what your listening to of course, I listen to pop, 80s, 70s, deathmetal, hardcore, grindcore, rock, hip hop, house, disco, techno, electro, etc, and usually all in the same day. I've learned over the years what formats I enjoy the most for each style and vintage.

What woke me up to vinyl's superior sound was I'd had been listening to a Genesis album for weeks on end on my ipod, I knew it and loved it intimately, they were 320kVBR mp3's too. I managed to pick the album up on vinyl and as soon as I put it on I couldn't believe how flat and dimensionless the mp3's sounded by comparison. I ended up doing side by side tests and it really showed up how lossy the mp3 format is. This was a watershed moment for me as I realised how conditioned my ears had become from listening to mp3s for years on end.

From then on I've seen mp3's as a 'taster' or 'preview', if I like the album on mp3 I'll endeavour to find the record or tape, but that only goes for albums pre-1990.

If an album was recorded after 1990 theres a very good chance it was done in a digital studio and therefore theres no analogue-to-digital loss in the source, so the mp3 done off a CD is adequeate quality most times.

I've not got 'the best' equipment or anything, but I figure if I can notice a difference like that it must be even more pronounced on higher end equipment.

Hahah, that said I spend hours a day listening to a 56kbpr stream from flashbackradio.com. All formats have their pluses and minuses and as said by MONOLITHIC the ghettoblaster experience should always be on tape for the full effect. I plan on buying another MD player/recorder this year and revisiting glorious ATRAC too as I loved using the format in the early 2000s.

In this day and age where companies think it's ok to charge people for mp3 singles when at the same time the full vinyl album or tape goes for the same price on ebay one has to really ask the question of how much quality your happy sacrificing for convenience.

Just my personal observations and experiences.



Rock On.

Must read for any discussion about the quality of MP3s vs. other types of media. Basically, crap in = crap out.

I have made loads of recordings from vinyl into the computer (using old version soundforge 7 and keeping recording peaks below -1db) and saved as 320kbps MP3s and they sound fantastic on my mid/high end system. As the link above discusses, it really all boils down to how the music was originally mastered.

I've then taken some of those MP3s and played them back and recorded onto tape, and they sound great... It all depends on how the original recording was then ripped into the computer and how much compression was used. MP3s can sound rich and dynamic too.

IMHO, for your best boombox tape-listening experience, you should consider getting yourself a decent home tape deck for making your master recordings. It doesn't have to be a $600+ high end Nakamichi Dragon, Revox or Tandberg, either... I've seen plenty of lower-end decks in working condition sell for around $50 on the bay... and as long you get one that works properly and from a reputable seller, it should make better recordings than you'll get from 99% of boomboxes.

Also, try to at least use decent type II (chrome or cobalt-based) tapes as they generate less hiss and give more dynamic range than cheap normal tapes. Based on what is readily available for not much money, I've seen Fuji DRII's routinely selling for as low as $14.99 for 10 tapes. Those are great tapes. Another decent option is the current Maxell XLII or TDK SA.

And when recording, try not to let that VU meter peak higher than +4 or so. If your source sounds good, then your tape will too! You may even feel that the analog version has an added warmth to it that was not there before!

Personally, I love tapes, and will never stop using them!

heres the deal. i can walk into a thrift shop and walk out with twenty albums on a good day for ten bucks. most of the tapes have only been played a few times. so as long as they playback in a nice fashion i am happy.
i dont think a boombox playing a tape sounds better than a decent hifi set up playing vinyl.
but it does have its own charms and nuances.
a excellent tape deck will make excellent tapes.
recently i have been using my dbx single band expander that does wonders for making tapes. it really gives a entirely different sound when you are bouncing a record or cd to tape.
i lucked out on scooping that piece and while i had no idea what its intended use was i was pleasantly suprised to see how it totally made the tapes i recently recorded with it sound.
it gives your tapes more of a live sound to them. it sounds fantastic. anyone who likes to make mixed tapes should try to get one of these dbx single band expanders. i think you will be amazed with what it does to the sound of your mixed tapes.
now as for tape vs mp3 i like a good tape much betteri do not care much for digital alliasing of mp3s much. to me a mp3 sounds like the entire mix it going through a flanger on a good system it is really noticeable. i kind of feel sorry for a lot of people who have never listened to any real hifi gear that think they are getting the best sound from thier ipod through the tiny tinny earphones they listen to.
a good tape deck through a good amp and speakers sounds extremely nice.

I really do enjoy putting media onto tape because for some reason the music seems to breathe a bit more and have a bit more life to it. The same goes for vinyl but even more so especially when it comes to dynamics between loud and soft sections of a song. Its worth the slight inconvenience of the medium itself.