You’re not supposed to use alcohol to clean your cassette deck, right? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Farley]

Thinking about those maxell bricks, and the arguments like we have now with dvd players (maxell vs. tdk, and then adding sony, basf, etc, and metal vs. chrome, etc.) ahh, those were the days. I love tapes! Remember those briefcase like 30 tape cases, and in high school you were the contents of your tape case, and you would spend hours reorganizing it? ahh...

 

[John Pine]

Kevin: I remember ooohh to well. The Maxell XLII-S 100 and the Sony UX-Pro 90 were my favorites. I remember one time after school I accidentally left my "suitcase" on top of the car and drove out of the parking lot. Luckily, the case didn't pop open and I just had to replace a few plastic cassette holders. Man....I was so pissed off that I had done something so stupid. It never happened again though.

Yee: Now that I've got a working tape deck again I'm playing back compilation tapes from as far back as 81 & 83. Scary.....I know. They sound ok, BUT my tapes my tapes made after 93' recorded in Dolby C still sound very good on this new deck! I even dug out my Head Demagnetizer, but the battery is dead of course.

Kevin B: Used to know an engineer that worked for Honeywell and lived in California.

Racheal: Good info, thanks Rach!

 

[Rich Malloy]

It's been awhile, but I used to clean my heads with Everclear. Dunno if this is advisable, so don't rush off to the liquor store, but it seemed to work.

 

[Chu Gai]

Vodka.

 

[Rich Malloy]

But, see, Everclear is 200 proof. :p)

 

[Mike_Skeway]

Speaking of the old Maxell bricks, I still get them, but I do have a purpose for them, it is a very convenient and cheap method of making practice session recordings from the board.

You can still find the tape cleaning 'fluid' at Rat Shack and most electronic stores that still sell the tape bricks. At least around here.

 

[Chuck Kent]

Rachel is 100% correct. Go for the 91% version, not the 70% rubbing alcohol. Most 70% I've seen contains lanolin. That's the goo that stays behind...

 

[John Pine]

Can you buy the 91% stuff at the drug store or Walmart?

 

[Chuck Kent]

Yeah, shouldn't be any problem.

 

[Bob Segno]

Speaking of cassettes.I just found an old box I didn't know I had in the garage about two weeks ago with recordings as early as 1969!The rest were from mostly the seventies.Like a kid in a candy store I played them on my Nakamichi DR-10.Truth be told, they sounded pretty damn good after all these years.A little more bass then I would like, but I played them without any noise reduction and they honestly come real close to CD quality. Of course I don't feel CD's are a match to anything analog. Just my opinion being from the old school and still use my reel-reel(Teac) and my cassette deck for transfering from cd's to get a better sound.Who said analog is dead! And yes, I have a turntable and albums too....

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I have a Nakamichi CR-7A that definitely doesn't get used as often as I'd like...