knudsen (02/22/83)
I too make many tapes of albums (mostly purchased) for my car, as well as to put a few favorite cuts from each album together (everything from rock faves to a tw0-hour "dinner music" casette of soft classics). Theoretically, you are ripping someone off if you tape an album if the prerecorded tape is also available for purchase. HOWEVER, in my experience, all prerecorded commercial tapes are POOR! Given the record album, you can use the Shack's cheapest tape, a ceramic cartridge, and a $99 tape deck without Dolby and get consistently better recordings than you can buy. My own gear is a little better than the above, so... Once in a while I'll buy an on-sale tape of Linda Ronstadt's Greates Hits or such; it only takes about 5 minutes for my auditory cortex (in my head) to adapt to the hiss, weird spectral imbalances, etc. I like mostly classical and jazz, and would NEVER pay list price for any such tape. Or for decent rock, for that matter. BTW, does anyone remember the the old days when even rock albums had some printed descriptions of the personnel, music, etc on them? I sure miss the pre-post-literate era ... I guess most buyers of rock alboums read English as well as the artists read music. mike k