Greetings Ray, Whilst I agree the cassette has only a short life to live, I do not think it will totally die. I mean, the same has been said about vinyl and now, the market in vinyl is certainly on the up at present. There are new turntables coming out according to both my own contacts in the business and what I have been reading in the hi-fi press. It was said 78 rpm would die, well, for the mass market, this has certainly been true but there is still a large minority who regularly play at this speed. I believe the cassette will always be around in some form but as for the mass market, yes, much simpler and supposedly intelligent systems are likely to be much more in evidence. Ray, I was interested to read in one of your messages of your recent purchase of Nakamichi and Revox cassette equipment; I have two Revox r/r machines and three Nakamichi cassette machines. I have two BX300E machines purchased in 1985; they've both now recently had new heads (about three years ago), new transports (about the same time) and are on their third set of motors but they've proved to be excellent workhorses, without masses of bells and whistles but what they do, they do extremely well. The third Nakamichi machine is the 680ZX which is a dual-speed machine, no longer available due to court action, it was discontinued in 1982. This machine gives an extremely commendable recording quality far and away above what might be expected at the slower 2.375cm/s and, in fact, setting up properly, I have easily fooled a person who reckons to be an "audiophyl" comparing the cd of Peter Herford playing the Sydney Opera House Organ in Bach's Tocata and fugue in D, against a metal tape, no dolby, recording the same piece at 2.375cm/s and they've opted for the tape over the cd. The hiss level on cassette *can* be reduced substantially if you set the machine up properly , use good and well maintained equipment (my 680ZX was cleaned, demagnetized, fully up-to-spec, being just about at the end of their production). I've heard some absolutely revolting computerized material, but then I've heard some really fantastic sound too. All the best from: Colin R. Howard. ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq