Prerecorded Cassettes, digitaly mastered

[user510]

I recall back in the late seventies I was listening to cassettes a lot in my system. I had a Dual C939. Mostly, I made recordings off Lp to cassette and played the tapes in the car or in the home.

At some point I got into buying prerecorded cassettes. Fast forward (pun intended) to early 'eighties and now we find lots of prerecorded tapes with the phrase "digitally mastered" on the label. I bought some of these and found them to sound fine in my system back then. Of course the gear I had was Japanese made mid-fi stuff....except for the Thorens TD160.

So my question to those of you still using Cassettes is this:
Do you use these digitally mastered prerecorded cassettes or do you seek out the all analog tapes?

tia.

-Steve

[Scorpion8]

I use them all. Digitally re-mastered, pure analog, XDR.... it's all good music to be enjoyed. Some of them from smaller recording labels like Windham Hill still sound superb after 25 years.

[todd33rpm]

Yeah, it's whatever happens to land in my lap. I'm a bit more of a stickler for chrome whenever possible, but I've been known to grab a few things for historical interest at the thrift store if nothing else.

And, as I think Bob Ludwig put it in the mid-1980s, I'd rather listen to a well-made analog recording than an indifferently made digital one (the reverse seems to be also true nowadays...good sound is good sound, regardless). I think the trick is that the manufacturers tended to upgrade to better tape stock around the time digital took hold, under the impression that cheap tape couldn't handle the material, so I think the improvements are in the tape and not so much whether is was digital or analog mastering per se.

[zenith2134]

Yeah, I have a Clapton Unplugged cassette that says "Direct from Digital" on it.

Sounds great. Digital isn't the enemy, but alot of times, people screw it up so much that it appears to be.

And once its on analog tape, it sounds pretty darn good regardless. Unless of course the mastering is totally far-gone and dynamically squashed. But hey, that happens with pure analog recordings as well.

[lordxale]

...but I've been known to grab a few things for historical interest at the thrift store if nothing else

I had a case of that today, in fact. I was at the local GW and I found Rick Astley's "Whenever You Need Somebody."

In case you're out of the loop (I believe this has been discussed here before, and VinylDavid did a YouTube video of the actual LP playing on his system, but just in case):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

I've heard this song so much it's almost starting to sound good.

Almost.

[todd33rpm]

I had a case of that today, in fact. I was at the local GW and I found Rick Astley's "Whenever You Need Somebody."

In case you're out of the loop (I believe this has been discussed here before, and VinylDavid did a YouTube video of the actual LP playing on his system, but just in case):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

I've heard this song so much it's almost starting to sound good.

Almost.

My surprise recent historical find was a cassette copy of Bruce Cockburn's 1979 album Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws, on A&M, ca. mid-1980s, I think. (The vinyl was on the Millenium label when first issued; I had no idea that Cockburn's recordings were licensed through A&M.)