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Alright, I'll be mellow and civil. I promise.

And I'll explain how I interpreted your original post.

Excerpts:

"Please! Let it go... it's over. Cassette is, and always was an inferior recording format. Its claim to fame, at one time, was its portability."

This looked to me (and still does) like an inflammatory statement intended to raise the ire of cassette users. Open reel tape is more "over" than cassettes. I can still find the occasional new cassette easily. But, it is on it's way out.

"Granted, it's still portable. But given its propensity for mechanical flaws, tape wear, and lack of available replacement parts for even top-notch portable machines of the day, let alone your car stereo deck, why on earth would anyone continue to use the format for everyday playback?"

Because they like to. And they're entitled to that. Actually, I have more problems with open-reel tapes flaking than my cassettes.

"I still own and use several (both professional and consumer) cassette decks which all operate flawlessly. But seriously, other than transferring old, sentimental, or rare recordings to more permanent media, why on earth would anyone want to use these machines for in the home reproduction?"

Because finding tape for open-reel machines is a pain. And some people like cassettes. I'm one of them, though I don't record on them much anymore. I have both open-reel and cassette. And I use cassette more than open reel. For me, there's not enough sonic difference to warrant spending a fortune on blanks for my reel decks. So they go mostly unused. Most of my recording is done to CD, though.

"I'm so sick of hearing about Nakamichi tape decks. Shut up already."

That's where I got pissed. If you don't want to read about Nak cassette decks or whatever, fine. Telling others on a tape forum to "shut up" about tape-related matters is not your job.

"Unless you've got more money than God, there's no way to make them perform to factory spec. They didn't even do that two years after purchase."

They're good enough for most, and certainly good enough for me.

"Even if you found a Nak Dragon in a hermetically sealed, temperature controlled container sealed at the factory from 1980, you'd never get the tapes recorded on it to play correctly on your walkman, car stereo, or any tape deck other than another (factory perfect) "high-end" Nak for that matter."

You have a valid point there. They don't typically sound as good on another deck.

"Are we ever going to get an OPEN REEL forum??"

Another valid question. I dunno.

The way I interpreted your post was as an insult to those who use cassettes. That their input and questions weren't important, and therefore they should just "shut up".

I thought you were going out of your way to be a jerk, and it pissed me off. Perhaps I overreacted. But no matter how many times I re-read your post, it still looks like a slam. Maybe that wasn't your intent, but that's the way I took it.

Someone expressing their opinion that "thing a" is better than "thing b" is totally fine. Posts about some format or music or thing I'm not particularly interested in doesn't bother me in the slightest. I just don't read those. I only really get genuinely irked when one guy with one opinion comes along and tries to hamstring the exchange of ideas by telling a large segment of the board to shut up.

Hopefully, that'll explain it adequately and you'll understand why I got annoyed.

Our hobby is supposed to be fun. I apologize and hope we can bury the hatchet.

Cheers,
Bob :-)

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