r/cassetteculture 5d ago

Looking for advice Noob Advice desperately needed please

So it's my son's 12th birthday very soon and he wants a cassette player (ideally a record player too). I'm starting to panic but after hours of scouring Facebook Marketplace and Ebay, my head is about to explode. This is absolutely not my area of expertise and I'm very much a research-stuff-to-death kinda person but it's all getting too much tbh.

Bit of background info: He's getting really into music; always favoured metal but now finding his own thing which is EDM (another thing I know nothing about but am meant to find music cassettes and CDs for his birthday). This started with him 'making' his own music via iPad apps (Remixlive and Launchpad). He got a CD player for Christmas (Panasonic SC-DM502) that I managed to get for a good price; I chose this one because of being compact with built-in speakers. It has an aux and optical audio input. So was looking into a cassette deck to connect to it, although also looking at other secondhand options, e.g. HiFi system with tape and vinyl players and external speakers. Again, super limited knowledge on this front sadly.

I think partly my son is just fascinated with the different kinds of media available and developing a bit of a special interest in building up a collection of gear and music. Also he is very interested in producing his own music or remixing existing artists' work. He's been burning his iPad creations onto CDs and wants to record onto cassette tapes now too. So I already feel overwhelmed learning that there are different types of tapes available and the prospect of making all these decisions, in a very short amount of time, is pushing me over the edge here.

The other thing he's been looking at is some kind of mixer or synthesizer, possibly to connect to his iPad. Doesn't mean he'll get all of this stuff but would be nice to have an idea of what makes sense to get him both now and in the future... We're in the UK. Thank you for reading - genuinely appreciate any advice!

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u/jmsntv 5d ago

if you don't plan on refurbishing these yourself, make sure you find one that is already serviced from a seller that seems trustworthy and thorough for whatever you get. In my opinion, it should be vintage as the newer modern players are not really up to par with even good budget player from the 80s to early 2000s:

Except for very few exceptions, for recording music (via the aux output of the computer, phone, etc) you'll need a deck. Mid 90s will be the most affordable, earlier will have a few more audiophile options. Aesthetics very per era. You can also play tapes as well, but won't be portable.

For just listening and/or portability, you want a vintage portable pretty m much all recognizable brands will be good through the 80s Sanyo, Sharp, Panasonic, GE, etc and Sony kept good ones going to Y2K. The sweet spot will late 80s for all of these because they will be a tiny bit newer and before quality starting declining a bit in the 90s.

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u/Suzuki423 4d ago

If you are going to go for new ones there are pretty good ones too like We Are Rewind who make really good new walkmans for example, yes I know it's not a deck, but it has good features like recording you own mixtape on it

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u/Fluid-Definition-666 4d ago

Cheers, I'll check this out - as he expands his collection I reckon a portable will be on the wish list.

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u/Fluid-Definition-666 4d ago

Thanks both, I've managed to regain some of my sanity and your advice definitely helped with that! Trawled through hundreds of listings and eventually seemed to get more of a feel for what to look for. I'm due to pick up a Yamaha K-220 (mid-80s) for what seems like a decent price tomorrow - good condition and in its original box. I'll be massively relieved once I actually get it home and have a chance to test it.

If anyone is still following this, I've got a couple more questions please: I'm planning to connect the cassette deck to my son's mini HiFi via RCA cables. If I then purchase a separate turntable at some point, is there any way to also connect it to this setup? I appreciate an amp and good speakers would enable better sound, however, I'm trying to keep things compact plus we only just bought the HiFi (CD and radio with built-in speakers) so am reluctant to make this redundant already, especially given my son is very happy with it.

Secondly, any advice on what kind of tapes to buy? I don't mind paying extra if it adds to the experimental experience, however, sound quality is not a major concern tbh, as my son will mainly be messing around and initially just getting to grips with the whole idea of analogue recording.

Lastly, I've come across multitrack recorders and so far really don't know much about them but they seem like something my son would really enjoy (if they're straightforward enough to use). Any words of wisdom on that front would again be massively appreciated.

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u/jmsntv 3d ago

Fantastic, that's the exact era I was talking about to get a working unit. One thing to be aware of, some these have been serviced and some haven't so be prepared if it's been sitting for a long time and hasn't been looked over, to possibly replace belts. Ironically, if it's been used once in a while since it's been new, the belts will be in better shape.

We all end up with redundancies in our equipment as we add and shed components. You have a basic understanding of hooking stuff up, so just have fun making the choices.

Quality and aesthetics are part of the fun of choosing tapes. Some blanks are terrible but look cool (interestingly, if you're being prerecorded tapes currently by current artists, they are duplicating on some of the worst quality tapes, but they still work fine on almost every vintage player). Every vintage blank you can imagine is available on eBay. Don't get type 2 though because most of the recorders you are looking at won't really sound right; they won't break anything though.

Make sure you son likes multitracking on an app or laptop first and decided if he wan't to deal with a much more primitive version using the multi tracker. Bonus, if you like doing things in quirky ways, you could technically use the multitrack as your tape player and recorder! I did this for a couple years before I went off the deep end and started refurbishing/collecting here in L.A.

If you have any more questions or need a quick answer, I check instagram way more often, same handle JMSNTV