Cassettes & Vintage Audio

Some stories from the Hi-Fi world sound too good to be true. This is one of them: In a remote warehouse, there were 70 original, unopened boxes containing AEC C81 turntables – high-quality direct-drive turntables from the early 1980s. "New Old Stock," as the experts say. Now, they are gradually being released for sale.

Claus Bücher, who runs a Hi-Fi studio in Taunusstein, discovered them. The warehouse had been rented by his late friend, Hermann Hoffmann, who had brought over a thousand AEC turntables from Japan to Europe. In 1983, a C81 cost 1,285 German Marks – a time when the CD was becoming a "savior" and turntables suddenly seemed outdated to many.

Technically, the turntable is more interesting than its appearance suggests: It features a direct drive from the Japanese cult brand Micro Seiki, a 1.5 kg aluminum platter illuminated by a red lamp with four stroboscopic rings (33⅓ and 45 RPM, each for 50 and 60 Hz). Hartmut Perner from Wiesbaden, who previously worked at Lenco, helped with the refurbishment: Two dried-out capacitors in the power supply were replaced, and instead of the originally intended Decca tonearm (the last 100 of which have disappeared), a Lenco L75 from the same era is now installed – complete with a "corkscrew" for the anti-skating weight and the nickname "level crossing."

In a listening test with an Ortofon MC X10 cartridge, the vintage turntable sounded relatively soft, largely neutral, with a wide soundstage, plenty of dynamic range, and good timing. Compared to a modern Clearaudio Concept Signature, it sounded smoother, but without any dropouts. One criticism: it is quite susceptible to vibrations. Price: €1,450 without cartridge, €1,750 with a calibrated Ortofon MC X10 cartridge, plus a one-year warranty.

What I particularly like about this is the concept: it's not a retro reproduction, but genuine devices from that era, carefully refurbished – and there are only 70 of them. Those who want to see one in person: Claus Bücher will be exhibiting at the Finest Audio Show on October 17th and 18th at the darmstadtium in Darmstadt. More information: https://www.cba-audio.de/

Source: LowBeats

I heard that cassette tapes are quietly making a comeback, so I dug my old deck and tapes out from the back of the closet. Before CDs took over, cassettes were the only way to "record" music. Air-checking, waiting to catch a song as it played on the radio, and the days of borrowing rental CDs and dubbing them onto cassette all come back to me as if it were just yesterday.

One of the joys back then was choosing tapes. TDK, SONY, maxell, AXIA, That's — even within the same normal position there were several grades, and I could lose hours just looking at the cases and designs. I'd push the recording level on the meter right up to the edge and switch on Dolby noise reduction. That's how I made my own "best-of" compilations, one tape at a time.

Looking back now, I think it was exactly that effort that created the attachment. The frustration when a tape snapped and cut off in the middle of a song, the agonizing over where the break between side A and side B would fall — I loved all of it. I never did manage to get my hands on the Nakamichi DRAGON I longed for, but I'm happy to learn that TASCAM and others still make cassette decks today, which gives me an excuse to digitize the tapes I recorded long ago.

Source: JATO online shop Magazine

An AV Watch article told me that Magnetic Laboratory (Jiki Kenkyujo) is releasing a new music cassette called "Normal Position/Type-I". It costs 1,100 yen each and goes on sale on October 13. Quantities are limited, and it is sold only at its direct store, MAG-LAB.

Pre-sales will take place at the Magnetic Laboratory booth during the event "CASSETTE WEEK MARKET 2026" on October 12, where visitors can also listen to samples. It is positioned as the second new cassette tape after the "High Position/Type-II", released in July 2026.

The highlight is the use of high-density magnetic material. It is said to have excellent characteristics even among Normal Position (Type-I) tapes. According to the article, it offers body in the low and mid frequencies as well as good high-frequency response, with a flat frequency response across the whole band. The index card follows the same design as the High Position/Type-II: silver index on black, with writing space on part of the front and on the back, plus one index sticker included. The tapes are assembled at the domestic facility "Jiki-ken Cassette Laboratory", one at a time.

What pleases me personally is the fact that fresh tape for cassette decks is being made in Japan. However well you service a deck, it loses half its joy if you cannot get tape for it. I will wait for the owners' impressions of how it actually sounds.

I suspect there are plenty of deck owners here too. Do you usually use Normal or High Position tape?

Source: AV Watch

On Antyweb I came across a column by Konrad Kozłowski about the return of a legendary cassette. Maxell, working with the Disk Union chain of shops, is producing the UD-60U again, a Type I ferric tape that competed with Sony and TDK products in the 1970s.

The UD series debuted in 1970, and the original UD-60U offered 60 minutes of recording time. The reissue keeps the old look but adds new black and red colours that echo Disk Union's palette. For now the tapes are sold only in Japan, so fans in Europe and North America will have to make do. A single cassette costs 990 yen, roughly 23 zloty, and a set of three costs 2,900 yen, about 68 zloty.

Disk Union's reasoning is interesting: before the digital era, swapping cassettes was the basic way to share music, and the company also suggests recording from vinyl records to get the characteristic sound of a tape.

The author points out that Type I tapes are not the best choice for hi-fi recording, since chrome Type II or metal Type IV are better for that. But they are a great fit as a data medium for 8-bit computers such as the Commodore 64 with its Datassette, the ZX Spectrum, the Amstrad CPC, the BBC Micro and the MSX. Maxell has revisited its history before: in 2016 it released cassettes in retro packaging, and in 2025 it made a first batch of UD-60U with Disk Union that attracted a lot of interest.

What I like most is that someone is still making brand-new blank cassettes. Do you have a favourite tape type for recording?

Source: Antyweb

Here is a lovely piece of retro-tech silliness: a camera that saves its pictures on an ordinary audio cassette instead of an SD card. The build comes from Jordan Blanchard.

An ESP32 with a camera module takes the picture, and a small screen shows a live preview while you frame the shot. The digital image is then turned into analog audio and recorded onto the tape, using the slow-scan television (SSTV) idea that radio amateurs have used for decades to send pictures as sound.

Playback is handled by an RP2040, which captures the audio as the tape runs and rebuilds the image. It uses several tricks to keep the reconstruction faithful to the original, and an optional serial connection lets a computer take care of the final processing step. The pictures keep the unmistakable SSTV look, which comes from the analog medium itself. The cassette deck is custom built too.

The write-up doesn't list image resolution, tape speed or transfer times, so those details are left to the project page. Even so, I enjoy the way it treats a cassette as a data medium again. For anyone who collects decks, it is a reminder that these machines can still do surprising things.

Source: Hackaday

The Son-Vidéo.com blog published a long piece in March 2026 about the return of the cassette, and I enjoyed reading it. The starting point is a format that many people thought was buried first by the CD and then by streaming, yet it is attracting young listeners again. They want something they can hold in their hands and a slower way of listening.

The article begins with the history. Philips introduced the compact cassette in the 1960s, and it settled into hi-fi systems, car radios and portable players before Sony and Philips’ CD replaced it in the 1980s and 1990s. Today the cassette has come back as an alternative choice rather than a mass format. Some artists still release albums in limited runs, and the association Intertapes digitises anonymous cassettes that have been found or abandoned, which it treats as cultural testimony.

The author links this to an “analog lifestyle” trend. Faced with digital saturation and automatic recommendations, people pick a side, and they listen to an album in its original order, with a sound that is imperfect but warm. He also cites a January 2026 CNN article about analog hobbies.

The hardware suggestions are concrete. For listening on the move, there is the entry-level Muse M-152, the more refined FiiO CP13, or the We Are Rewind player. For home, there is the Teac W-1200 deck, which connects to a hi-fi system, and the Teac AD-850-SE/B, which combines a CD player and a cassette deck with MP3 recording over USB.

What stays with me is the passage about compilations recorded off the radio, where you often missed the start of a track. That imperfection is exactly what gives them their emotional value. The cassette will probably never become dominant again, but its return invites a more mindful way of listening.

Source: Blog Son-Vidéo.com

As AM broadcasts slowly disappear, plenty of old tube radios are turning into shelf decorations. A project covered on Hackaday this week tries to change that: Gareth Davies built a small AM transmitter around an ESP32-S3 that pulls an internet radio stream and sends it out so a vintage set can pick it up again. The code is on his GitHub repository called esp32-am-transmitter.

What I find neat is how little hardware is involved. There is no dedicated RF chip. The RF is generated as a pulse chain straight from a GPIO pin, and a 3D-printed box holds a widely spaced wire coil that radiates just enough for a nearby radio to receive it. The output sits at 200 kHz, in the European long wave band, though the article guesses that a higher medium-wave frequency could probably be generated too.

The comments are as interesting as the build. Readers point out that a bare GPIO pulse train has no filtering, so harmonics can reach well beyond the intended frequency, and the creator himself admits it may not be legal in many countries. Others suggest gentler routes, such as a small FM transmitter feeding a radio's FM input.

So this is a lovely idea to read about, but if you want to try something similar, check your local radio rules first and keep power very low. It is a good reminder that restoring old audio gear is not only about the hardware, but also about keeping a way to feed it something worth hearing.

Source: Hackaday

Hifi.nl has a report by Ruud Jonker on the Supatrac tonearm, heard at the shop Rhapsody, supplemented by a conversation with inventor Richard Braine. I found the inventor's story the most beautiful part, because it starts with old equipment.

During the lockdown Braine received old gear from a neighbouring house: a LEAK Stereo 20 and two Garrard 301 turntables from 1963, fitted with SME 3009 arms and Ortofon SPU cartridges. He sold the LEAK amplifiers on eBay and kept the Garrards. He wanted to give them better arms. He took the Well Tempered arm as a starting point, found it too polite and a bit dull, and designed his own version. At fifteen he had already bought a second-hand Linn Sondek with an inheritance of 300 pounds.

The core idea sits in the bearing. The pivot point has been reduced to a single point facing the cartridge, and the arm hangs from two wires that meet at an apex. That should mean little friction and a lot of freedom sideways and up and down. That it would be better than the best ceramic ABEC bearings is Braine's own claim. The tube is carbon fibre with parallel fibres and is still made in London. There are several lengths; the standard version fits Rega, Linn, Technics and SME, and mounts for other turntables are made to measure.

At Rhapsody the arm (the Blackbird and the Nighthawk) played in a set with Marten Coltrane Statement Quintet speakers and a Döhmann Helix Two MK3. The reviewer calls it one of the best analogue demonstrations he has experienced, but stays cautious: the result comes from the synergy of the whole system. Braine himself says vinyl is very stable and will still be good in five hundred years, unlike magnetic tape. In a world of collectors of old tapes and records, that remark stays with you.

Source: hifi.nl

Hackaday's Al Williams wrote up a restoration that I found oddly satisfying: a Heathkit AJ-43C stereo tuner from around 1965, rescued from a recycle bin by RCD66, who documented the whole job in a YouTube video.

The tuner was in rough shape. Every electrolytic capacitor tested bad, which is no surprise for a unit of that age. Rather than chase individual faults, RCD66 chose a full rework: most of the parts were pulled and replaced, and the germanium transistors were tested so that any that still measured good could go back in. Several of the circuit boards got attention, and the original zener-diode power supply was swapped for a more modern design.

Al Williams calls the full rework the smart approach for a unit like this, and I tend to agree. When everything of one type is dead, replacing the lot is quicker and more reliable than fixing them one by one. The kit originally sold for $130, so there is something nice about a part of that history being saved from the junk pile.

The article does not say how the finished tuner sounds, so you have to watch the video for that. In the comments, one reader pointed out the separate AM and FM tuning knobs, the three-gang AM tuning capacitor, the multiple dual-tuned IF stages and the trimmable stereo demultiplexer, and suggested replacing the FM RF input transistor to improve sensitivity.

For anyone who collects or repairs old receivers and tuners, it is a good reminder of how much careful engineering sits inside these 1960s kits.

Source: Hackaday

Hackaday's Jenny List pointed to a video that is right up this board's alley: a full service of a Realistic cassette deck by the YouTube channel Ken's Shop. It is an unedited bench session, which she describes as relaxing to watch, and Ken estimates the deck dates from the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Her argument is that these decks are well built and common on the second-hand market, and that the work involved is usually rarely more than a bench session away. The typical jobs she lists are cleaning and lubricating decades-old mechanics, replacing belts that may be worn, and adjusting azimuth, the alignment of the heads, if needed. It can be fiddly, but it is fixable with relative ease.

The comment thread is worth a skim too. One reader notes that old electromechanical decks lasted nearly forever and were easy to service, while newer logic-driven ones are more prone to failure and harder to fix. Another is looking for a parts manual for a Realistic SCT-24A, model 14-613, and another describes owning an AKAI GXC 46D bought around 1974 that still works, with links to manual archives at audio-database.com and hifiengine.com.

What I like about this is the reminder that restoration does not have to start with an expensive project. A service of belts, lubrication and head alignment is often what separates a drawer ornament from a working deck. The original video is on YouTube under Ken's Shop (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQM_7QyXq_o).

If you have a deck waiting for its first service, what is on your checklist? Post the model and I will gladly dig for a manual.

Source: Hackaday

A piece in Correio Braziliense made me stop and think. Discogs, known as a digital catalogue of records, is set to move into physical music consumption by launching a portable cassette player under its own brand. The news was first reported by Music Ally and passed on by the site Moneyhits.

The article argues that the cassette revival is more than nostalgia. It would be a prestige strategy aimed at an audience tired of digital ephemerality, especially Gen Z, who would value the feeling of ownership and the experience of listening to a whole album without skipping tracks. In the author's view, Discogs knows what collectors want, so it could stop being just a catalogue of data and prices and start providing the consumer experience itself.

The piece also says tapes are cheaper to produce than vinyl, with attractive margins, and that independent labels as well as Warner Records and Sony Music could release limited editions that sell out quickly and feed a resale market. London and Sao Paulo are cited as examples of independent scenes.

To be fair, the text is more analysis and opinion than reporting with data. There is no device price, no sales volume and no growth figures, so claims like selling out in minutes remain unproven. Still, I find it relevant that a collectors' platform is getting into making the device, because finding good players has always been one of the format's bottlenecks.

If you collect tapes or restore decks, tell us here: what does the cassette still need to stop being a niche?

Source: Correio Braziliense

As a cassette and tube radio enthusiast, I never miss stories like this. In Konya, 67-year-old Abdurrahim Ceviz has been repairing electronics for half a century, bringing gramophones, tube radios, reel-to-reel tape recorders and old televisions back to life.

He started as an apprentice in 1972 and opened his own shop after military service. He especially restores 80–100-year-old radios without damaging their original construction: wooden cases are renewed, and tubes and missing parts are completed. In his own words: “We try to bring the old back to life so that it isn't thrown away.”

What moved me most is that the antique craze isn't only about collecting, it's about rescuing devices that would end up in the trash. The new generation makes it hard, but the grandchildren help, and apprenticeship schools give hope too. In a digital age where everything escapes to the cloud, I find it very precious that someone still repairs the mechanics of a reel-to-reel by hand.

If you have a working deck or tube radio at home, sometimes the best “upgrade” isn't buying a new box — it's finding the right craftsman.

Source: Yeni Meram