From Buzzfeed (compiled from Reddit):
Millennials Are Sharing Things They Bought For Themselves As Adults They Couldn't Get As Kids, And My Inner Child Is Soooo HappyQuoteAdmittedly, adulthood isn't everything millennials thought it'd be when we were kids. We've got to go to work, make our own doctor's appointments, and sometimes even talk on the phone. However, there's one thing that makes it all worth it: being able to spend your adult money on whatever toy or silly thing you've always dreamed of — without anyone telling you "no," "not right now," or "we have that at home."
In a Reddit thread from u/Alarming-Offer8030, millennials were asked, "What did you buy from your childhood you couldn't have back then?" and based on the responses, we are all out here having a true childhood Renaissance. Let your inner child have a little fun and see for yourself.
FULL ARTICLE HERE (https://markholtz.info/2v7)
I can relate to this since I had German parents who were quite "frugal".
We had kids, so we sort of lived a little vicariously through them.
For example: my wife liked Hello Kitty things, so she bought a lot of those kinds of items and my daughter liked it. And then she turned 10-11, and it all went in a box for donations. My wife saved most of it, and surprise...Now she enjoys it again as she's getting nostalgic.
For my son, a lot of Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars. Usually I'd pick those which I was interested in as gifts, but also let him chose what he likes. (He's outgrown them...for now) Sometimes I'll see one in a store that catches my fancy, but that's like one a year. Unlike fanatics, none of them are in original packaging. He was also big on Lego for a while, but that's cooled.
I'm not big on buying myself stuff for the sake of it, but suddenly I have more income to buy all those old manual Canon FD lenses that were way out of my reach 30-35 years ago, but have not yet pulled that trigger.
Tons of NASCAR diecasts, although I got a few of those as cereal box prizes as a kid.
Rear wheel drive vehicles.
Booze
I own far more video games that I've wanted now than I did when I was half my age (10).
Quote from: Dirt Roads on July 20, 2024, 04:37:16 PMQuote from: Max Rockatansky on July 20, 2024, 04:14:33 PMRear wheel drive vehicles.
Manual transmission. :bigass:
Those were on the table in high school. The thought was that manual transmissions taught instilled better driving abilities.
My mom had this prevailing theory that FWD was safer in the snow than RWD. While not inaccurate I can't say that personal safety was ever really my bag. That's how I ended up with a lame ass Sunbird when I was fifteen. The eventual loophole was buying a truck which had 4WD.
Quote from: noelbotevera on July 20, 2024, 04:38:39 PMI own far more video games that I've wanted now than I did when I was half my age (10).
Can't really say that I had much of a notion to buy games I didn't own as a kid. The primary reason would be the late 1990s proliferation of 8 bit and 16 bit console emulators took off right as I was entering high school. Why pay for obsolete console software when it was free on the high school library hard drive?
Just spent $20 at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Beyond my wildest dreams to spend that much at an arcade when I was a young kid.
Lots and lots of books. Most saved from thrift stores and library sales.
Quote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 08:40:04 PMJust spent $20 at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Beyond my wildest dreams to spend that much at an arcade when I was a young kid.
I have no problem dropping more money at arcades for the kids but there's so many more redemption games compared to "skilled" video games (no points/tickets) that I find it harder to want to waste my money. Though I'm still a sucker for Skeeball-type games and the classic coin-ops from the 1980s-90s.
Quote from: Bruce on July 20, 2024, 08:51:43 PMLots and lots of books. Most saved from thrift stores and library sales.
Went on a eBay spree a few decades back to collect old Autocourses I was missing. I used to ask for them as birthday gifts every year but went back to fill old gaps from the 1980s and recent times. Stopped that after I realized I wasn't reading the new ones much, and the much earlier editions were hitting triple digits in auction.
Quote from: formulanone on July 20, 2024, 08:55:45 PMQuote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 08:40:04 PMJust spent $20 at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Beyond my wildest dreams to spend that much at an arcade when I was a young kid.
I have no problem dropping more money at arcades for the kids but there's so many more redemption games compared to "skilled" video games (no points/tickets) that I find it harder to want to waste my money. Though I'm still a sucker for Skeeball-type games and the classic coin-ops from the 1980s-90s.
Pfft. I'm not giving my kids $20 for the arcade. They make their own money now.
Quote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 09:10:17 PMQuote from: formulanone on July 20, 2024, 08:55:45 PMQuote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 08:40:04 PMJust spent $20 at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Beyond my wildest dreams to spend that much at an arcade when I was a young kid.
I have no problem dropping more money at arcades for the kids but there's so many more redemption games compared to "skilled" video games (no points/tickets) that I find it harder to want to waste my money. Though I'm still a sucker for Skeeball-type games and the classic coin-ops from the 1980s-90s.
Pfft. I'm not giving my kids $20 for the arcade. They make their own money now.
US Mint or Bureau of Engraving and Printing? :bigass:
Quote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 09:10:17 PMQuote from: formulanone on July 20, 2024, 08:55:45 PMQuote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 08:40:04 PMJust spent $20 at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Beyond my wildest dreams to spend that much at an arcade when I was a young kid.
I have no problem dropping more money at arcades for the kids but there's so many more redemption games compared to "skilled" video games (no points/tickets) that I find it harder to want to waste my money. Though I'm still a sucker for Skeeball-type games and the classic coin-ops from the 1980s-90s.
Pfft. I'm not giving my kids $20 for the arcade. They make their own money now.
Mine are in the teenage years. One with a job and other not old enough to join the workforce. Arcades are now 2-3 times a year, at most. They're all out of the Birthday Party Circuit at this point.
Quote from: noelbotevera on July 20, 2024, 04:38:39 PMI own far more video games that I've wanted now than I did when I was half my age (10).
With shame, I have a tremendous backlog of unplayed Steam games. And, it's for the same reason why I haven't purchased a home console.
Quote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 08:40:04 PMJust spent $20 at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Beyond my wildest dreams to spend that much at an arcade when I was a young kid.
I've been in North Dallas for 5½ years now, and I
still haven't been to the retro arcades here. Of couse, if you know where to look, you can find the ROMs for those old arcade games to play on your computer.
Fair chance I dumped $20 into Street Fighter II machine a handful of times before the SNES version came out. That game had a really competitive scene at the arcade in Danbury, CT in the early 1990s. If you wanted to get good then you had to pay to learn how not to suck.
A real drumset.
A Kirby Puckett jersey (I got a baby blue throwback)
I bought the little mini-NES that was for sale a few years ago. I really wanted an NES as a kid, but my parents got me a Sega Genesis instead which was also awesome.
Plastic storage containers. One of the things I wanted to avoid when I moved into my own place was that inevitable box of mixed cables, plus other things. Initially, it was using el-cheapo tool boxes from Fry's Electronics and Harbor Freight to store the different types of power cables, DisplayPort cables and adapters, HDMI cables and adapters, and USB power bricks that I keep accumulating. Five years ago, I had obtained this twenty-drawer rolling cart (https://amzn.to/4bRajhN) with the left side having ethernet cables and the right side having USB cables, but it didn't work out too well and the drawers kept falling off the rails, so I replaced it with two of these 10 drawer rolling carts (https://amzn.to/46cX360) that were more expensive but are better built. I also got two of these carts with wheels (https://amzn.to/3WwMcRe) to store stuff. I've also been hitting Wal-Mart for the Sterilite Latch boxes and using those to store items. (The 2.5 quart container lists for $8.31 online, but is less than $2 at the store.) I also saved some Altoids cans and re-using them to store small items.
Of course, everything is labeled, and I have a DYMO Letratag 100H Handheld Label Maker that either sits unused for several months or is constantly used for a day or so. It's a slight pain to use, but the labels are so clear.
Why do I mention this? Because my mother would say in the past that "I'm wasting my money" and would those these items in a junk box that inevitably end up in the garage. She would rather use a garbage bag to store the holiday wreaths instead of a wreath container that would better protect the wreaths and make them easier to carry. Also, plastic containers to better store the ornaments. Sure, it's a little more expensive short term, but cheaper in the long term. Some of the Christmas bulbs are so old, the coloring is flaking off.
Quote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 08:40:04 PMJust spent $20 at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Beyond my wildest dreams to spend that much at an arcade when I was a young kid.
$20 lasts a whole day there depending on how you spend it.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on July 20, 2024, 04:52:59 PMCan't really say that I had much of a notion to buy games I didn't own as a kid. The primary reason would be the late 1990s proliferation of 8 bit and 16 bit console emulators took off right as I was entering high school. Why pay for obsolete console software when it was free on the high school library hard drive?
That's an entire generation before me, but the same question could be asked now (why pay for consoles + console games when you can pirate?). I think some classic games are better on a controller than on PC; something like Sonic 2 or Sonic 3. These days, in the era of USB controllers, playing on a console is moot (though the Switch is famous for having a ton of exclusives) when it's easy to reconfigure controllers and remap buttons.
Quote from: ZLoth on July 20, 2024, 09:57:04 PMWith shame, I have a tremendous backlog of unplayed Steam games. And, it's for the same reason why I haven't purchased a home console.
Man, I used to be a huge homer for the PC. Then I bought a good controller for the Nintendo Switch, and amassed a library of JRPGs that are fun to play on a controller. I can't imagine playing something like Elden Ring on a PC; tried it, and it is cumbersome at best. To be fair to PC gaming, are RTS games like Halo Wars 2 better on PC than a controller? Obviously, yes.
I got pretty adept at playing platform games using typing position. I used the directional keys for movement but my NES emulator set up was:
Select: A
Start: S
B: D
A: F
Quote from: SectorZ on July 21, 2024, 08:24:47 PMQuote from: Rothman on July 20, 2024, 08:40:04 PMJust spent $20 at Funspot in Laconia, NH. Beyond my wildest dreams to spend that much at an arcade when I was a young kid.
$20 lasts a whole day there depending on how you spend it.
Lasted me 3 hours.
A 1/5th scale R/C HPI 5B buggy. Except I wasn't a kid when I wanted one -- I was 30. I bought it when I was 44. I was preparing to start a business at the time and $1000+ for an R/C car wasn't in the budget.
Weed.
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on July 20, 2024, 10:10:52 PMFair chance I dumped $20 into Street Fighter II machine a handful of times before the SNES version came out. That game had a really competitive scene at the arcade in Danbury, CT in the early 1990s. If you wanted to get good then you had to pay to learn how not to suck.
Blanka is a beast. A good player using him is nearly unstoppable.
Quote from: noelbotevera on July 20, 2024, 04:38:39 PMI own far more video games that I've wanted now than I did when I was half my age (10).
Same is true for my CD and cassette collection. I remember ordering a ton of them from Columbia House, back when it was the big trend in retail. Since I can no longer play my old cassettes in my car anymore, I just record them to a blank CD and that way, I'm still able to enjoy them on a long road trip.
There were video games I could dominate with just a quarter for 3 hours or until I got tired of playing them in the 1980s. Cheapest entertainment ever.
Blows my mind that I could download those whole programs in 2 seconds on my modern laptop.
You went to them. They didn't come to you like they do now.
Quote from: Henry on July 23, 2024, 09:32:38 PMSince I can no longer play my old cassettes in my car anymore, I just record them to a blank CD and that way, I'm still able to enjoy them on a long road trip.
You digitized analog cassettes? I can't say I've ever heard of anybody doing that. Do you rip them to .wav or .mp3 format? When I make CDs, I download .flac files of the songs and convert them to .wav files and burn them to CDs. .flac files are lossless and a CD burned with .wav files that were .flac sourced, so you get CD quality. CDs made from lossy formats like .mp3 sound noticeably worse than CDs made from lossless files, especially on a good sound system.
Quote from: bugo on August 07, 2024, 01:21:49 AMQuote from: Henry on July 23, 2024, 09:32:38 PMSince I can no longer play my old cassettes in my car anymore, I just record them to a blank CD and that way, I'm still able to enjoy them on a long road trip.
You digitized analog cassettes? I can't say I've ever heard of anybody doing that. Do you rip them to .wav or .mp3 format? When I make CDs, I download .flac files of the songs and convert them to .wav files and burn them to CDs. .flac files are lossless and a CD burned with .wav files that were .flac sourced, so you get CD quality. CDs made from lossy formats like .mp3 sound noticeably worse than CDs made from lossless files, especially on a good sound system.
I'd like to convert some of my mixed tapes to CD, but there's a problem: I typically used 90- or 100-minute cassettes and you can't fit that much on a CD. I have a Pioneer CD recorder hooked up to the main stereo system downstairs, so it records directly from the cassette tape (well, piped through a receiver, but you know what I mean) without dealing with file formats and other such issues.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 07, 2024, 07:41:34 AMQuote from: bugo on August 07, 2024, 01:21:49 AMQuote from: Henry on July 23, 2024, 09:32:38 PMSince I can no longer play my old cassettes in my car anymore, I just record them to a blank CD and that way, I'm still able to enjoy them on a long road trip.
You digitized analog cassettes? I can't say I've ever heard of anybody doing that. Do you rip them to .wav or .mp3 format? When I make CDs, I download .flac files of the songs and convert them to .wav files and burn them to CDs. .flac files are lossless and a CD burned with .wav files that were .flac sourced, so you get CD quality. CDs made from lossy formats like .mp3 sound noticeably worse than CDs made from lossless files, especially on a good sound system.
I'd like to convert some of my mixed tapes to CD, but there's a problem: I typically used 90- or 100-minute cassettes and you can't fit that much on a CD. I have a Pioneer CD recorder hooked up to the main stereo system downstairs, so it records directly from the cassette tape (well, piped through a receiver, but you know what I mean) without dealing with file formats and other such issues.
Long ago I replicated all of my old cassette 'mix' tapes and use the .mp3 files in my car. Meets my needs very well.
Mike
I should also have clarified that another reason why I would want to record the cassettes directly to CD is that when I made mixed tapes, I was very good at either minimizing or eliminating the gap between tracks. I have one tape where the final chord of one song cuts directly into the first sound of the next (just total dumb luck they matched up almost exactly to sound seamless). Maybe it's petty, but that's something I'd want to preserve. I suppose the solution is just to turn a particular mixed tape into a two-CD set, one disc for each side of the tape, if the cassette itself is too long to fit on a single CD.
Or I could, you know, just put the cassettes in the car and play them instead of complicating matters, assuming cassettes I recorded as long ago as 1989 would still play.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 07, 2024, 11:45:08 AMI have one tape where the final chord of one song cuts directly into the first sound of the next (just total dumb luck they matched up almost exactly to sound seamless).
A friend of mine was a disc jockey at a local radio station in high school, and he believed that a "Good D.J." should always know the first chord and note of every song, and match/queue it up perfectly with the last chord or final note of the previous tune. He couldn't do it every time, and he would really get upset.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 07, 2024, 11:45:08 AMI should also have clarified that another reason why I would want to record the cassettes directly to CD is that when I made mixed tapes, I was very good at either minimizing or eliminating the gap between tracks. I have one tape where the final chord of one song cuts directly into the first sound of the next (just total dumb luck they matched up almost exactly to sound seamless). Maybe it's petty, but that's something I'd want to preserve. I suppose the solution is just to turn a particular mixed tape into a two-CD set, one disc for each side of the tape, if the cassette itself is too long to fit on a single CD.
Or I could, you know, just put the cassettes in the car and play them instead of complicating matters, assuming cassettes I recorded as long ago as 1989 would still play.
One thing that always bugged me about Great White's "Twice Shy" cassette was the very long gap after the last song on side A and when you could finally flip it to side B.
Quote from: GCrites on August 07, 2024, 02:46:17 PMQuote from: 1995hoo on August 07, 2024, 11:45:08 AMI should also have clarified that another reason why I would want to record the cassettes directly to CD is that when I made mixed tapes, I was very good at either minimizing or eliminating the gap between tracks. I have one tape where the final chord of one song cuts directly into the first sound of the next (just total dumb luck they matched up almost exactly to sound seamless). Maybe it's petty, but that's something I'd want to preserve. I suppose the solution is just to turn a particular mixed tape into a two-CD set, one disc for each side of the tape, if the cassette itself is too long to fit on a single CD.
Or I could, you know, just put the cassettes in the car and play them instead of complicating matters, assuming cassettes I recorded as long ago as 1989 would still play.
One thing that always bugged me about Great White's "Twice Shy" cassette was the very long gap after the last song on side A and when you could finally flip it to side B.
It's like the cassette even knew playing "Baby's on Fire" was going to be in poor taste in the future.
One I forgot to mention earlier was my wife's recent obsession buying vinyl records. She's gotten big on checking for record stores wherever we go.
Quote from: Dirt Roads on August 07, 2024, 01:09:42 PMA friend of mine was a disc jockey at a local radio station in high school, and he believed that a "Good D.J." should always know the first chord and note of every song, and match/queue it up perfectly with the last chord or final note of the previous tune.
Wouldn't that require all the songs to be in the same key? Or at least in keys with some kind of relationship (e.g. one song a 5th higher than the other)?
Some artist records a song in C, another in D, and they won't line up. And what if one of them is in a minor key?
Some songs modulate in the middle, which gives more options.
Quote from: GCrites on August 07, 2024, 02:46:17 PMOne thing that always bugged me about Great White's "Twice Shy" cassette was the very long gap after the last song on side A and when you could finally flip it to side B.
Assuming you know what the last song is, why wouldn't you just hit the fast-forward button to run it to the end of the side? Of course I get why it would be annoying the first couple of times until you're familiar with the album to know when the side has ended.
I'm aware of a Sonic Analysis feature in Plex (https://support.plex.tv/articles/sonic-analysis-music/) which analyzes your music library and provides smooth transitions when in random play mode. I wasn't able to take advantage of this until this year because the library wasn't available in FreeBSD.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 08, 2024, 09:23:00 AMQuote from: GCrites on August 07, 2024, 02:46:17 PMOne thing that always bugged me about Great White's "Twice Shy" cassette was the very long gap after the last song on side A and when you could finally flip it to side B.
Assuming you know what the last song is, why wouldn't you just hit the fast-forward button to run it to the end of the side? Of course I get why it would be annoying the first couple of times until you're familiar with the album to know when the side has ended.
Busy doing other things and/or the FF feature is acting up
Something I bought for myself as an adult that I couldn't get as a kid - international travel.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 08, 2024, 09:23:00 AMQuote from: GCrites on August 07, 2024, 02:46:17 PMOne thing that always bugged me about Great White's "Twice Shy" cassette was the very long gap after the last song on side A and when you could finally flip it to side B.
Assuming you know what the last song is, why wouldn't you just hit the fast-forward button to run it to the end of the side? Of course I get why it would be annoying the first couple of times until you're familiar with the album to know when the side has ended.
That's the inconvenience/annoyance caused by the dead space on one side of a cassette. Thought you were old enough to have lived through that sillyness. *whirrrrrrr--ktk* Crap. *goes in search of a pencil*
Quote from: Rothman on August 08, 2024, 02:12:03 PMQuote from: 1995hoo on August 08, 2024, 09:23:00 AMQuote from: GCrites on August 07, 2024, 02:46:17 PMOne thing that always bugged me about Great White's "Twice Shy" cassette was the very long gap after the last song on side A and when you could finally flip it to side B.
Assuming you know what the last song is, why wouldn't you just hit the fast-forward button to run it to the end of the side? Of course I get why it would be annoying the first couple of times until you're familiar with the album to know when the side has ended.
That's the inconvenience/annoyance caused by the dead space on one side of a cassette. Thought you were old enough to have lived through that sillyness. *whirrrrrrr--ktk* Crap. *goes in search of a pencil*
Not sure I follow your point. I get that you're referring to the occasional problem where the cassette tape would unravel for whatever reason, but are you saying that you refrained from fast-forwarding to the end of the side past the dead space for fear that the tape would unravel? Because I never did. If I wanted to fast-forward, I did so.
I didn't buy a lot of pre-recorded cassettes, though, for various reasons, including that they seldom sounded as good as the LP records. Plus some pre-recorded cassettes rearranged the track lists to better balance out the length of the two sides and I found that annoying. So I was more likely to use my own blank tape to make a copy of a record (or, for a while, a CD), and if I did that I often just added something else to the end of the side to fill in the blank space.
Quote from: GaryV on August 07, 2024, 09:53:04 PMQuote from: Dirt Roads on August 07, 2024, 01:09:42 PMA friend of mine was a disc jockey at a local radio station in high school, and he believed that a "Good D.J." should always know the first chord and note of every song, and match/queue it up perfectly with the last chord or final note of the previous tune.
Wouldn't that require all the songs to be in the same key? Or at least in keys with some kind of relationship (e.g. one song a 5th higher than the other)?
Some artist records a song in C, another in D, and they won't line up. And what if one of them is in a minor key?
Every station has to break for station identification at the top of the hour, and then there's also ad breaks, DJ banter breaks, etc. So you can play songs of different keys before and after the break.
Quote from: Dirt Roads on August 07, 2024, 01:09:42 PMA friend of mine was a disc jockey at a local radio station in high school, and he believed that a "Good D.J." should always know the first chord and note of every song, and match/queue it up perfectly with the last chord or final note of the previous tune.
Quote from: GaryV on August 07, 2024, 09:53:04 PMWouldn't that require all the songs to be in the same key? Or at least in keys with some kind of relationship (e.g. one song a 5th higher than the other)?
Some artist records a song in C, another in D, and they won't line up. And what if one of them is in a minor key?
Quote from: Scott5114 on August 08, 2024, 07:38:43 PMEvery station has to break for station identification at the top of the hour, and then there's also ad breaks, DJ banter breaks, etc. So you can play songs of different keys before and after the break.
Admittedly, I know very little about music other than being able to follow the notes up-and-down the music scale. That means that I'm pretty decent at sangin' in Appalachian shape notes, and I can hold my own sangin' baritone chords in Mountain music, where you improvise to find a pitch that blends in well (usually between the tenor and bass, but sometimes not).
Anywhoosit, my D.J. friend was quite adept at "pasting" songs together on the fly, sometimes queuing up a song and skipping a few beats on the intro to get the right blend. It was common to blend a 45 single with a 33-1/3 LP album track. But one time when I was in the station, he said "watch this" and yanked an old 78 RPM and blended a rock song into a jazz classic by skipping notes at the end of one and the beginning of the other. He was an electronic genius and ended up working for the phone company.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 08, 2024, 02:25:28 PMQuote from: Rothman on August 08, 2024, 02:12:03 PMQuote from: 1995hoo on August 08, 2024, 09:23:00 AMQuote from: GCrites on August 07, 2024, 02:46:17 PMOne thing that always bugged me about Great White's "Twice Shy" cassette was the very long gap after the last song on side A and when you could finally flip it to side B.
Assuming you know what the last song is, why wouldn't you just hit the fast-forward button to run it to the end of the side? Of course I get why it would be annoying the first couple of times until you're familiar with the album to know when the side has ended.
That's the inconvenience/annoyance caused by the dead space on one side of a cassette. Thought you were old enough to have lived through that sillyness. *whirrrrrrr--ktk* Crap. *goes in search of a pencil*
Not sure I follow your point. I get that you're referring to the occasional problem where the cassette tape would unravel for whatever reason, but are you saying that you refrained from fast-forwarding to the end of the side past the dead space for fear that the tape would unravel? Because I never did. If I wanted to fast-forward, I did so.
I didn't buy a lot of pre-recorded cassettes, though, for various reasons, including that they seldom sounded as good as the LP records. Plus some pre-recorded cassettes rearranged the track lists to better balance out the length of the two sides and I found that annoying. So I was more likely to use my own blank tape to make a copy of a record (or, for a while, a CD), and if I did that I often just added something else to the end of the side to fill in the blank space.
I remember the good old days of buying blank cassettes and using them to record from the radio (pausing every time the station went to a commercial break), school concerts and albums that I'd borrow from the library (which I rarely ever did). The opposite problem for me occurred when one side of the cassette would end in the middle of a song, and so I would have to wait for the next one to record again. When I digitized my tapes to CD, I made sure to omit the truncated songs so as to avoid the clumsy transition from one track to the next. Since the majority was 90-minute tapes (with 60, 100, 110 and 120 mixed in), I often found it challenging to fit all of my content, but having more CDs on hand than cassettes certainly helped my cause.
My Denon DRS-610 cassette deck, which I've had since 1992, is still hooked up to the main stereo downstairs, although I haven't used it in several years. When I was in college, visitors to my apartment were confounded when they saw it because they wanted to know why there were "two CD players." The cassette loads in a horizontal drawer (see image below found on eBay via a Google search) and when the drawer was closed, they thought it looked like a CD player.
(https://i.etsystatic.com/22424837/r/il/6204fe/4571676582/il_300x300.4571676582_3rbb.jpg)
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 09, 2024, 09:03:38 AMMy Denon DRS-610 cassette deck, which I've had since 1992, is still hooked up to the main stereo downstairs, although I haven't used it in several years. When I was in college, visitors to my apartment were confounded when they saw it because they wanted to know why there were "two CD players." The cassette loads in a horizontal drawer (see image below found on eBay via a Google search) and when the drawer was closed, they thought it looked like a CD player.
(https://i.etsystatic.com/22424837/r/il/6204fe/4571676582/il_300x300.4571676582_3rbb.jpg)
That certainly is weird! Also, what kind of cassette is that? It certainly doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before.
Quote from: Henry on August 09, 2024, 10:37:45 PMQuote from: 1995hoo on August 09, 2024, 09:03:38 AMMy Denon DRS-610 cassette deck, which I've had since 1992, is still hooked up to the main stereo downstairs, although I haven't used it in several years. When I was in college, visitors to my apartment were confounded when they saw it because they wanted to know why there were "two CD players." The cassette loads in a horizontal drawer (see image below found on eBay via a Google search) and when the drawer was closed, they thought it looked like a CD player.
(https://i.etsystatic.com/22424837/r/il/6204fe/4571676582/il_300x300.4571676582_3rbb.jpg)
That certainly is weird! Also, what kind of cassette is that? It certainly doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before.
I have no idea what sort of cassette it is because, as I noted, I found the picture online rather than going downstairs and taking a picture myself.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 09, 2024, 09:03:38 AMMy Denon DRS-610 cassette deck, which I've had since 1992, is still hooked up to the main stereo downstairs, although I haven't used it in several years. When I was in college, visitors to my apartment were confounded when they saw it because they wanted to know why there were "two CD players." The cassette loads in a horizontal drawer (see image below found on eBay via a Google search) and when the drawer was closed, they thought it looked like a CD player.
(https://i.etsystatic.com/22424837/r/il/6204fe/4571676582/il_300x300.4571676582_3rbb.jpg)
Quote from: Henry on August 09, 2024, 10:37:45 PMThat certainly is weird! Also, what kind of cassette is that? It certainly doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before.
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 10, 2024, 08:38:49 AMI have no idea what sort of cassette it is because, as I noted, I found the picture online rather than going downstairs and taking a picture myself.
If it "real", it is a TEAC Cobalt 52X from the mid-1980s that was considered a throwback back then. The reels came in several different colors. Nowadays, the used ones are highly sought after, demanding as much as $500 a pop. Buyer beware! There are actually brand new reel-to-reel cassette tapes being sold today (cheap!) that look similar, including one sold under the Pioneer brand (not sure if it is licensed or a knock-off). Might be worth buying the knock-off for about $10 each just to have something that looks old-fashioned in an empty tapedeck as a decoration.
Through the 1990s I had a Pioneer cassette deck that I was really proud of. The sound was close enough to CD-quality for non-discerning listeners, and I used Dolby C which cut the tape hiss to zero.
I used it several times in the process of DJ'ing parties (I catalogued all my songs by BPM and I got good at cueing it up) and it worked like a champ. Sadly, it eventually bit the dust and nobody could figure out how to fix it.