2.8M views · Feb 1, 2016 · 22:46 · 5 HN recommenders · 9 mentions · discussed 2016–2025
Techmoan's beginner introduction to the compact cassette, testing metal tapes and Dolby S noise reduction on a Sony TC-S1 deck. He checks whether a cassette can sound close to a CD when good tape and equipment are used.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters cite it whenever cassette quality comes up, as proof that cassettes sound good with decent gear, metal tape and Dolby noise reduction.
“They are more than capable of sounding great with the right tools.”HN comment, 2025
“TechMoan on YouTube has a great video on cassette tapes”
Techmoan's video on cassette tapes
TechMoan on YouTube has a great video on cassette tapes - granted he's got thousands and thousands of dollars worth of audio equipment. this video
“Here's a great video on the subject”
Cassettes sounded better than remembered with good tapes and noise reduction
> They sounded bad. Cassettes weren't _that_ bad. The problem is that there were essentially different grades of tapes and players that supported different noise reduction techniques, and people tend to remember the ones played back with low end gear. Here's a great video on the subject: this video
“you can get pretty decent sound output”
Type IV cassettes with Dolby S give decent sound
>"As others have attested there is nothing good about tapes." Tapes weren't as bad as you may think/remember, at least not from an audio point of view, if you Type-IV cassettes and Dolby S noise reduction you can get pretty decent sound output: this video I personally preferred MiniDisc, but I don't see them making a resurgence, probably lots of proprietary parts of the tech owned by Sony.
“They're worth watching”
How to make cassette tape sound very good
Matt from Techmoan did a couple of videos about how to make cassette tape sound very good: link link They're worth watching but to be honest it hasn't made me want to convert all my music to tapes. Edit: The link I was actually looking for is: this video
“This is an interesting watch if you've got the time.”
Interesting look at cassettes
this video - "better than you don't remember". This is an interesting watch if you've got the time.
“They are more than capable of sounding great with the right tools.”
Discussion of cassette quality, arguing good gear makes them sound great.
Take a look here[0] for a discussion about cassette quality. TL;DR: Like many of us you probably had shitty equipment and shitty cassettes. They are more than capable of sounding great with the right tools. [0] this video
“A video on the subject of cassette tape audio quality from Techmoan”
Techmoan examines how good cassette audio quality can really be.
A video on the subject of cassette tape audio quality from Techmoan: "Cassettes - better than you don't remember" this video
“With decent equipment, cassettes sound fantastic”
Shows cassettes sounding fantastic with decent equipment.
With decent equipment, cassettes sound fantastic this video Unfortunately all the cassette mechanisms (and cassettes themselves) manufactured and sold new today are complete garbage. And the old ones need a lot of (physical) maintenance to get back into spec.
“When recorded and played back with dolby noise reduction, it sounds pretty damn good!”
Cited as support for cassettes sounding good with proper equipment.
Tapes are exceptionally durable when cared for properly. Here's a video of a guy that tests for loss of quality after 1,000 plays. link Quality is indistinguishable from the first playback. Tapes have a bad reputation because most people used them in the cars, which is the equivalent of storing them in an oven on a daily basis. A lot of car stereos were very cheap, and that lead to a lot of cassettes being damaged when they would have been fine otherwise. Regarding the quality argument. Again, it's going to depend on the media and the equipment. I have a very nice Marantz tape deck, and I use chrome tapes with it. When recorded and played back with dolby noise reduction, it sounds pretty damn good! this video I say this as someone that also owns a very nice turntable and has a digital FLAC media collection, so I'm not married to tapes in any way. They're just something fun to goof around with (and mostly to give my kid a more tangible experience with playing music at home). Regarding convenience, I can't argue that they're the least convenient media. That said, I'm an album guy, so I like to listen to recordings in their entirety most of the time.
