Welcome to the website

of a HiFi-enthusiast!

From Vinyl & Cassettes to Minidisc and 8-Track. They all get their fair share of attention here. Read the stories behind various old audio devices and their mediums which I share on this website.

I have been involved with cassette tapes since 2007, supplemented in 2010 by vinyl to make it a hobby in 2013. Though the hobby doesn't stop with just music and their physical media.

The devices are often outdated, no longer work properly or generally require regular maintenance and attention.

I share my experiences with analog, digital and obsolete media here, from the past and present to general information and repair.

Information for new visitors:

First of all welcome to the website! I founded the website in 2019 to tell you and other readers about the many different audio formats that have been used over the years, with information about operation, explanations of use and even repair reports to help the tinkerer with his own repair.

I try to tell the information, repairs and blogs as interesting as possible, this means that sometimes I bring things with a bit of humor that may go out of context since I don't always like to take things too serious. Because of this some articles may read like a story, an experience from my own perspective.

The website is currently managed and edited by me alone, this way you don't have to sign up or subscribe to anything and you won't suffer from any distracting ads or sponsors, unless I personally think it's worth mentioning one. Think of the website as a kind of Wikipedia for outdated sound media!

I regularly check the website for errors and correct them as soon as possible, though sometimes it may happen that the overall information is incorrect, I often base things on my own experience and what the internet can tell me. If you find an error, contact me! After which I will check the error and correct it if necessary. At the bottom of this page you can find the latest edits for this website, if you want to know if something new has been added to the site, you can find it there.

As my native language is Dutch, it can (and probably will) happen that my spelling and choice of words is not always correct, my English is not bad but also not as good as my Dutch writing is. I have to translate large portions of text through a translate tool, and check these to correct parts that seem out of place. I intend to update the English version as soon as I finished changing or adding something on the Dutch version, this is a time consuming process and may take 'a day or two' to translate and/or update.

The pages on this website can be found (for the computer user) on the left in the sidebar. Mobile users can access this bar by clicking the three stripes in the top right corner of the screen.

The website is built to be read on the computer, so it is possible that the layout is not always presented as intended, therefor sometimes it can help to tilt your mobile, unfortunately I can't do much about this myself, my apologies for this.

Thank you for visiting and have fun on this website!

General messages:

March 16, 2023: I've noticed I'm not receiving any filled contact forms lately, but I do receive filled in surveys. After a quick inspection I've noticed my main webmail was no longer working, probably due to switching domains. The contact page is up and running again and filled forms that haven't been answered yet will get a reply from me soon.

February 2, 2023: A 'quick' note to all readers for the English version. I am still noticing a lot of small and some very big mistakes if it comes to the use of words or overall spelling. To give you a small idea about how the English pages on this website are formed. I have to manually reconstruct every page form Dutch to English. This not only include all the photos, but also every block of text that you may read (expect for notes like these which are newly written).

I have to copy every block of text from my native language, translate these with a translate tool and check them line by line, word by word to correct any mistakes that might occur.

For instance the Dutch word for tape (as in a overall cassette tape) is 'bandje' which may translate to 'tire' or 'strap' or any other thing that isn't referring to a cassette. The same goes with reel ('spoel' or 'band' in Dutch) which may translate to 'coil', 'rinse' or again 'tire' or 'strap'.

Also the overall structure of a sentence in Dutch may differ a lot from English, some words are put before the other while it's the other way around in English.

In short, Dutch is just a over complicated language to break down and to translate in English.

If you ever see any of these strange sentences or the wrong use of words, keep in mind. It's the translate tool in conjunction with the difficult language to translate that are to blame.

As a final note, I like having spelling and sentences accurate and correct, whether it's in Dutch or English. I regularly read back my own pages in both languages to be sure that what I wrote is correct.
Also, don't hesitate to contact me if you find a page with a large amount of misspelling or weird sentences. I'll might have overlooked the entire page and will correct it as soon as possible!

November 23, 2022: It might be interesting to give a 'small' update on the current state of the website:

Everything is going well! I get a fairly large number of visitors (between 150 and 300 per day) which makes it worthwhile for me to keep working on the website. I also see more and more visitors from outside the Netherlands, since the launch of the English version, the number of readers per month has increased by 2000 visitors! Because of this I know that the English version is certainly worth keeping up and running, even if it costs me twice as much work.

Furthermore, I have put a lot of time into the website in recent weeks, it comes and goes with waves. Sometimes there is a daily update, sometimes work stops for a few weeks, it depends on how much time and energy I have to put into the website.

For example, I've put a lot of work into improving the information pages lately. The vinyl page has been almost completely rewritten and is well on its way. The most popular page on the website about the reel to reel machine has also been supplemented and improved. I've even started the microcassette info page which still has plenty of work to do. The information page about the 3M Cantata 700 is currently silent, the device and its cassettes are now in storage, I want to finish the other pages before I start.

Finally, I took the focus away from the repair pages, I have a few more repair pages in production that are nearly finished, but the number of visitors to these pages is quite low compared to the rest, and it is also much more work to write these pages compared to an information page.

For the time being, the website is going well, I'm getting more and more compliments through my inbox (thanks to the people who took the time to do this) and I've bought and locked the domain name (tapehead.org) untill 2027. Also to mention that the old domain (tapehead.nl) expires on December 30 and therefore no longer leads to my website. Everything else remains the same with the only possible difference that the English version becomes the new main page. The Dutch version remains available and is still the main version for me from which I work on the website, after all I only update the English version when the Dutch version has had an update.

Finally, I would like to ask again if you 'the readers' would take the time to fill in the survey, it will only take you a few minutes, you are not committed to anything and it will give me a better idea of ​​what you like to view on the website.

Thanks for reading and enjoy reading!

Let me know your opinion about the website! Click on the image below to go to the survey.

When you submit your completed survey, you will be treated to a special page on this website!

Blogs:

Last 10 edits:

• May 14, 2023: Finally added page 2 of the Wega B4610 repair blog.
• May 12, 2023: Added info on the repair page: Compact cassette, chapter 7: The cassette makes noise.
• May 4, 2023: Small changes.
• April 24, 2023: Small changes.
• March 27, 2023: Small changes in vinyl information page.
• March 25, 2023: Added and translated new blog.
• March 24, 2023: Small changes to the Elcaset information page (mostly making it up-to-date).
• March 19, 2023: Small changes.
• March 16, 2023: Trying to get the contact page working again (filled forms are not being put through).
• March 11, 2023: Translated repair page for Sony WM-R202 (somehow forgotten to translate this page) and added some progress to this repair. Also continued translating page two of the Wega B4610 repair. To end with some minor grammar corrections.

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