So how many of you out there still listen to your "obsolete" music media, i.e. vinyl records, cassettes, etc.
You know it's been 25 years, right? Still carrying bulky boxes of this stuff everywhere you move?

I still have a handful of records, but no record player. I gave it to a friend, who has lots more records,
but went many years without a way to play them. I think I bought it at KMart around 1986.
What's really funny is that it came with a built-in 8-track player. Still works, though!

Each media had its peculiarities. Records could get scratched, which could mean that it would get stuck on
a certain song verse. Or they might melt in the hot summer and warp, and sounded freaky and distorted
the next time you played them. You could use them as TV trays in front of the TV then.

Cassettes sounded great at first. Then they would start to hiss and squeal when they were played too often.
The cassette would sometimes get "eaten" or even snapped in half. I remember trying to splice a
cassette back together with a small piece of tape.

I even remember one of the parents fiddling around with a reel-to-reel tape player when I lived at home.
Now that looked really tricky to work with.

8-tracks were a different animal. They had 4 "sides" or programs. This meant the song order was often
very different than the original record album.

8-tracks were abominable! Terrible fidelity, and that awful CLICK midway through a long song. Ugh!

Cassettes were convenient, and offered better fidelity. I never owned a reel-to-reel, in the day, and yet wish to high heaven I had. Vinyl record albums were the standard fare of the day, and I've several hundred, mostly rock 'n roll. Their sound quality was top notch, yet one had to realize that with each playing, the record grooves deteriorated a little. Young folks today don't realize that back in the Sixties, Seventies, and up to the mid Eighties, one had to decide which "side" to listen to, side A or side B.

Also, sadly, the art of record albums has gone the way of the horse buggy. CDs started it, with their much smaller sized physical format, and today one simply downloads the artist's latest production, rarely even seeing the associated artwork.

In the past several (7-8) years, I've been buying factory produced Beatles reel-to-reel tapes. Not to listen, but for their scarcity. RtoR's are among the rarest of the formats, and when I was a young guy, I knew if I encountered an older person with a RtoR system, I was in the presence of an audiophile.

The RtoR's are a large portion of my Beatles memorabilia collection.

I love vinyl and have an ever expanding collection...can't beat that raw sound.
CD's still rule...never been around to see an 8 track.

Sounds like you still listen to vinyl. Some audiophiles claim that records have a much fuller range of sound than CDs.
I remember the pop, crackle and hiss. Sometimes you could hear it on the radio when the DJ played a record.

I agree vinyl album artwork is sorely missed. Remember gatefold albums, and colored (non-black) vinyl?
Some people like to buy the album just to frame it and hang it on the wall as art.

There are many thousands of vinyl records that have not been issued on CD, and never will be, due to lack of consumer demand.
Hopefully with digital downloads, vast libraries of music that have not been commercially released in decades will be available.

Not only did the LISTENER choose which "side" to listen to on vinyl, part of the art of making one was song order. Which one ENDS side One, what to lead of Side Two with, etc...

I still say " so-and-so's latest ALBUM"....

Bill S.....well its a real long last name, when producing Eagles albums used to use the space between the last song and the label to etch in on the vinyl. "VOL is 5 track live" on Hotel Calif means the five instrument tracks were recorded once, all at the same time on Victim of Love. "Is is 5 Oclock yet?" on The Long Run was a reference to which time of day they could imbide in whatever their pleasure may be.

Oh yeah, I forgot that vinyl records sometimes had writing in the vinyl itself, near the label in the center.
Usually the messages were really funny or bizarre.

I think the 8-track had to have 4 programs of equal length. Hence the "chop" in the song middle. Forgot about that one, too
Thanks for reminding, guys.

Yeah , to be honest it is quite expensive with the vinyl but it makes me appreciate it more.,The art or design of the vinyl is worth it too.
Cassettes are really nice ,especially demos.I like 7 inch on vinyl too...lots of splits.

Wish I knew more about the 8-track my paw paw has beta max which is pretty old school, but all of the tapes had 'XXX' on them. HAHA..
It was a cool little device though I wonder what happened to it.

I still have around 400 albums on cassette,and when I'm in the mood for something that I haven't replaced yet with a digital copy...I'll dig one out and listen to it.

I remember driving along on the highway doing a "road trip"...with two double sided cassette holders (30 tapes each side),and being able to keep my eyes on the road,one paw on the steering wheel,the other paw running across the individual cases...counting as it went to reach the tape that I wanted to pop in.Yes,I kept my cassettes in a specific order.

I started collecting vinyl this year, I wouldn't call is obsolete either I'd take analogue over digital recordings for just about anything.

I think all of the mediums have their advantages and I like it when I see artists releasing their music on whatever medium they believe suits their sound instead of what technology is most recent at the time.

I'm also too young to have seen an 8-track.

Believe me...you're not missing anything.

8-Tracks weren't all that great,although I know a few people that still have some...along with a working player.

Vinyl LP's were great.And,since there are many people out there that still own a lot of them,there are several companies that still produce turntables.My roomie has a turntable,although the needle is getting worn down (time to get a new one).He's got about 50 LP's on vinyl...and I think I've got maybe 10.I used to have many more back in the day...but switched over to cassettes because they were smaller and lighter...as well as portable.

Anyone remember pic discs on vinyl? I think I've only had a couple like that from back in the day but it may not be y'alls cup of tea..
Venom,Autopsy,Impetigo...Ahhh the classics HAHA ..No, but the marbled and colored discs or limited copies make it really exciting to
collect upon..You'd be surprised how much some of these go for making it more desirable in a sick way..I guess you kind of get addicted
to it ..
The 8-track didn't look too handy to have nowadays so I guess we aren't missing out on too much.
The only time I remember seeing one was in a movie called ''The Stoned Age" where these dudes are jamming to Blue Oyster Cult on it and
flipping it over..I even think I remember it getting eaten..does 8-track have the same insides as a cassette but wider?

You never flipped over an 8-track.You just plugged it in and let it go.

The insides were similar,but different.I can't remember what it looked like exactly,but it was basically one large reel,that as it wound out,also wound in.

So it was like the old school Nintendo cartridge? Did you have to blow in them? Now I wanna see one of these in action haha..how is the sound? Not worth having today?

I still have about six carrier bags of vinyl. Mostly picture discs, some of the best looking are iron maiden's. I've been looking for somewhere to buy old cassettes lately to play in my car but haven't had any luck finding any.

I got a friend who has alot of original demos on tape ..He will also make you something on tape that you request for 2 bucks with his free 'zine about local music..mostly New Orleans bands because that's where we are from but if you like any of that old school music like Exhorder then he is your man for cassettes..I can get something for you if you just give me some bands you like..otherwise his name is Paranoize and is a highly respected local who mainly keeps with the old school..He has a variety of tunes but the 'zine is just local based...most of the demos are too..

Ya vinyl albums art work on the cover and innersleeves was fantastic. I still have a few and luckily Half Price Books carry quite a few at each of their locations. The sound is definitely more earthy than digitalized CDs or MP3s. I still have quite a few cassettes too but sold many at CD Exchange and other stores in the past. There were only vinyl around as a child, I've put many a quarter into jukeboxes back in the day, but by time I started buying music for myself, I only purchased a few vinyls, some 12 inch singles with all the remixes of a song, but cassettes took over soon after, then CDs...

Anyone here listen to phonographs or music boxes?

Even though I listen to MP3...and have loads of CD's.
I have to say vinyl for me is the best. It's audio luxury.
I know it's something some people say to be cool... but I don't care..I love the sound.
I have an old 60's record player with a diamond tip stylus and built in 'Valve'
what a sound! so, warm...

Beatles.. Floyd...

We have quite a collection of vinyl records in our house (LP's and singles) but have had no player for a long time to play them on.
A lot of the LP's we have are from the 60's (showing my age LOL). I thought about selling some of them at one point, but changed my mind as I decided they would be too awkward to post and besides, a lot of them belonged to my late brother and have sentimental value.

We also have two or three cases with cassette tapes in and some of those go back to the 60's as well, we have a few cassette players in the house but haven't used them in a long time.

Does anyone here remember the old 78's - now there's a blast from the past 'his master's voice' I think the record label was, it was a sort of brown colour and had a picture of a dog sitting next to a gramaphone player - if my memory serves me well, as I was only young at the time

RCA.


As for cassettes, yes, they were convenient, and their fidelity a quantum leap ahead than their 8-track predecessors. Yet all magnetic media will lose some of their "punch" over time.

78s and 45s ^__^ I still have one from The Cure with Love Song on the A side and Babel on the B side.

My parents own 100's of old records. EVen though I can get any of it on cd I love to play the records.

8 Tracks
I had many 8 track tapes and 3 working players back when I was little kid in the 70's. I totally forgot about the annoying click during long songs as well. My parents gave me what was left of their 8 tracks when my dad started going crazy buying vinyl. I say they gave me what was left of the 8tracks because when my sister was little she decided to see if they would play in the toaster... LOL.

I've got a modern digital 8 track ADAT machine. I bought it for over $1000 in the early 90's... that's obsolete already... I probably couldn't get $100 for it on ebay.

Does anyone remember the portable 8 track players... the ones that looked like you were carrying a round a dynamite blaster. I had one of those... LOL.

I love my vinyl.

Don't let's forget their tendency to constantly "drag" (tape speed too slow) and "double-track" (hearing two different songs at once). Gawd, I hated 8-tracks!

For those of you too young to remember these formats, I have added some images from the internet:

8-tracks and car player:

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachment


Reel to Reel tape box and player:

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Also, in my original post, 25 years meant that this was when the first music CDs were commercially released.
Vinyl records and CDs coexisted for a few years afterwards in mainstream record stores.

New cassettes started to become hard to find in the 1990's.

My current collection sports 24 Beatles factory reel-to-reel tapes, including two of the pictured Hard Day's Night. I've about twice that many of various other rock 'n roll tapes, purchased through eBay. Again, I don't play these, they're merely a portion of my Beatles memorabilia collection. I've many, many LPs and 45s, and various retail displays. Perhaps my best piece is an untorn 1966 Beatles concert ticket to Suffolk Downs, a Massachusetts race track.

Growing up I'd listen to Big Band and Swing music of my Dad's on his reel-to-reel player. He also had a bunch of recordings of Air Force meetings. Never listened to them - pretty boring for a kid. Of course they had tons of records too, though nothing 'cool.'

About half of my music library is on cassette. I still have every mix tape every friend every made for me.

I still have quite a bit of music on vinyl; mostly 78s. I also have some 45s, one of which is the song, "Touch of Grey" by The Grateful Dead on grey vinyl.

I really enjoy all my CD music, but when I want to really feel my music I put on my Vinyl’s Lps and there is nothing as cool as my Extended Blue Oyster Cult song of Godzilla it Rocks it’s just a part of the feel to bump to Vinyl’s Baby!

Grod Zilla! Grod Zilla! Grod Zillia......... Zilla.......... Zilla!

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down


Oh no, they say he's got to go
Go go Godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla, yeah

Pavot

Did anyone mention before CDs, there were LDs. Its the same as a CD only as big as a record. Short-lived though.