Remember last week I told you about this book and how I will record a song of each of those albums from the 1980’s section? Well, I did it! It took (8) C-92 CRO2 cassettes, 187 tracks, 12 Hours and 15 minutes of the best 1980’s music representation. It was a very interesting journey, full of music and groups I didn’t even know they existed.
I used my dedicated “super-server” my youngest son custom made for me and look into each and every album of the book’s 1980 section. I selected a song of each one based on the popularity of the track and the book recommendations.
I used my Nakamichi CR-7 for this specific project because of the excellent sound and the automated features, specifically the auto-fade at the end of the cassette tape. That way, after presetting a proper level, I just left the machine and server do the rest. Later on I listened to all of them at my office’s system consisting of a Nakamichi 700 ZXE, Jolida 202 tube integrated and a pair of Mordaunt Short monitors. I programmed cross-fades of 10 seconds for a non-stop experience.
I recorded the tapes on my basement recording studio at home. Besides the powerful server, I have some other peripheral equipment as well. Platinum Audio Studio Monitors, KRK Pro mixing powered monitors courtesy of my son William, a classic Crown and member of the AES Hall of Fame prize the fabled DC-300 A II, Nakamichi CR-7, Nakamichi ZX-7, Crown CX-822 open reel, EAD 1000 DAC, Arcam One CD Player,etc…
It took me about a week, but now I want to take my own favorites and record a long play reel tape with my Crown CX-822, using the new ATR Tape MDS60.
I must say that the open reel sound compared to the cassette is by far superior in sound stage, presence, blackness behind the music, space and everything else, BUT, if we take into consideration the cassette tape properties against the 1/4″ open reel tape and speed difference I must say that the cassette tape developers achieved a historical angular stone in the history of audio. Of course, this Nakamichi CR-7 is not what you can call a “common” cassette deck, but still, a very nice sound indeed!
Long Live Analog!
Carlitos Guzmán, Senior Contributor Writer
audioimpressions 
Hi, where did you get those cassettes from? I’ve been looking everywhere for them. If you don’t do you know what they are called?
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Those cassettes were custom made for me on my former Cassette Duplication plant back in 2000. Those are the Shape Mark 10 shells no longer in production. I loaded it with maxell XL-II. Thanks!
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