Dirt Cheap Cassette Decks - To Tape or Not To Tape

When I built my thrift store stereo, I added a cassette deck.  I reasoned that the cassette deck only cost me $15 and it would allow us to play the couple dozen music cassettes that we still own.  A couple of mini systems in my inventory have cassette decks as well.  Since I sometimes find music cassettes for only 55 cents at one of my local thrift stores, I figures that a cassette deck would keep an entire music avenue open for me. If I really want to be hip, I can also try cassette-only indie music labels.  There are quite a few reasons to keep the cassette format alive.  You can read more here -

Music Cassette Tapes Are Coming Back

However, there is one significant drawback to cassettes.  I just remembered it recently when I popped a new to me Duran Duran  Seven & The Ragged Tiger tape into the old JVC mini stereo on my desk at work. Tapes are a fragile media for recording music.  When old tapes and old cassette decks meet, you can get distorted sound or a messy jumble of tapes.  In the case of my Duran Duran tape, I just got horribly distorted warbled music.  I was only out a whopping 55 cents, but you've got to consider the psychic trauma!

Ultimately, if you are trying to minimize the cost and size of your system, it's easy to ditch the cassette deck.  But, if you want to plunk down a couple of quarters and take a chance on an old cassette tape, an old tape deck doesn't cost much!  Even this new one is pretty cheap: