Over the past year or so I have been walking down the road of vintage media. I’ve rediscovered cassette tapes (I know, why bother right?) and vinyl. I also tried out other “dead” media like the DAT tape, Digital Compact Cassette, Minidisc, and HD DVD.

I’ve picked up a Sony CDP-302 (CD Player), Denon DCD-1430 (CD Player), and a Sony MDS-JB930 (Minidisc player). I am also using an NAD 712 receiver, Technics RS-M234x cassette deck along with a couple of Nakamichi cassette decks (BX-125 and DR-3). For DAT machines I have all Sony machines (DTC-59ES, DTC-790, and a DTC-A7). And lastly, my Digital Compact Cassette is the Optimus DCT-2000.

I have also found a few SACD discs and am using a couple of Oppo players to listen to them, the DV-970HD and the DV-981HD. They sound great although they are a little older so can’t play Bluray discs. For Hi-Def video I have picked up a Toshiba HD-A30 player. The other video media I have is the CLD-V750 laser disc player. Nutty eh, all that obsolete media. It’s fun though, most of these were bought on the cheap because they didn’t work. I repaired and restored them all to full operation except for the DCC player which won’t record on digital tapes or play/record the analog ones. There is a play/record board that is faulty and they are REALLY hard to come by since I’d need a dead donor machine to scavenge parts from.

One day I’d like to have all this gear setup in a media room where I can pick an 8-Track, a DAT, HD DVD, vinyl, or a favorite cassette tape and play it sitting in a comfortable recliner. Until then, I’ll have to settle for the sofa in the basement.