about tapedeck
Tapedeck.org is a project of neckcns.com, built to showcase the amazing beauty and (sometimes) weirdness found in the designs of the common audio tape cassette. There's an amazing range of designs, starting from the early 60's functional cassette designs, moving through the colourful playfulness of the 70's audio tapes to amazing shape variations during the 80's and 90's. We hope you enjoy these tapes as much as we do!

about audio tapes
The compact audio cassette medium for audio storage was introduced by Philips in 1963 under the name Compact Cassette. Although there were other magnetic tape cartridge systems at the time, the Compact Cassette became dominant as a result of Philips' decision (in the face of pressure from Sony) to license the format free of charge. It went on to become a popular (and re-recordable) alternative to the vinyl record deck during the 1970s. During the 1980s, its popularity grew further as a result of the Sony Walkman, with cassette sales overtaking those of LPs. (Vinyl overall remained ahead due to greater sales of singles, although cassette singles achieved popularity for a period in the 1990s).

The mass production of compact audio cassettes began in 1965 in Hannover, Germany, as did commercial sales of prerecorded music cassettes (also known as musicassettes; MC for short). The system had been initially designed for dictation and portable use, thus the audio quality of early recorders was not well suited for music. Some early models also had unreliable mechanical design. As time went on, various improvements (in particular, the introduction of Dolby noise reduction) resulted in the format being taken seriously for musical use.

Although its use in the West has declined as a result of more advanced technologies, it remains widespread, and is still the dominant medium for listening to music in many third world countries.

In essence, the audio cassette is simply a cassette-based (and smaller) version of the older reel-to-reel tape format. It consists of two miniature reels, between which an oxide-coated plastic tape, or magnetic tape, is passed and wound. These reels (along with some other mechanical parts) are held inside a protective plastic shell.

Four single audio tracks are available on the tape. These are paired to produce two stereophonic tracks – one played when the cassette is inserted with its 'A' side facing up, and the other when it is turned over (with the 'B' side up), thus mimicking gramophone records.

(Source: Wikipedia, right here. Wikipedia Copyright stipulations apply.)

send us your tapes
Have you got some cool audio tapes lying around? Send us a picture then, we'd love to get e-mail from you!

Please take a picture of your tape on white background from straight above without using a flash. The tape should measure about 800x600 pixels on the image. Please try to use as little JPG compression as possible (quality 10 or better when saving from Photoshop) and send the files to tapes@tapedeck.org

Thanks you all so much for the contributions tapedeck.org has already received - without your input this site would be impossible. Thank you very much: Alexandru, Diego, Ahmed, George, Dominik, Marcello, Jouse, Pascal, Niko, Jaromir, Tim, Paul, Luciano, Marc, Andreas, Colin, Alexander, Roland, Maurice, Sven, Radu, Daniel, Scott, Reinhard and Ronny!



SONY_EF_blau_90 audio cassette tape

sony_cdit_90 audio cassette tape

sony_metalmaster_60_111214 audio cassette tape

SONY_EF_blau_90 audio cassette tape

sony-hf-90 audio cassette tape

sony_ux-pro_90_111214 audio cassette tape

sony_cditii_74 audio cassette tape

sony_ef_rot_90 audio cassette tape

SONY-UCX-S-60_MCiPjH_121006 audio cassette tape

sony100 audio cassette tape

SONY_EF_90 audio cassette tape

SONY-WALKMAN-60-ferro_MCiPjH_121006 audio cassette tape

sony_ux-s_sfu_90a audio cassette tape

sony_ucx-s_90_1 audio cassette tape

sony_classic_54 audio cassette tape

sony_ux50_chiara audio cassette tape

SONY-WALKMAN-100_MCiPjH_121006 audio cassette tape

sony_cditii_60 audio cassette tape

sony_hf_46___year_1988_aprox audio cassette tape

sony_hf60_080515 audio cassette tape

sony_metal_master_60_1 audio cassette tape

sony_hf60_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_hf90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_ucx-s90_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_ux_90_ii audio cassette tape

sony_hf-s_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_fxi90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_fx60_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_hf_90_071201 audio cassette tape

sony_hf_90_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_hf_60_i_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_ux_s_60_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_ux60_071201 audio cassette tape

sony_ux90_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_ucx-s_90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_ux_ii_90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_hf-s60_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_ux-es_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_ucx_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_hf60_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_hf-s90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_hf-s60_super_ferric_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_fxii90_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_metal_sr_90_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_super_ef_90_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_ux_pro_90_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_metal_master_iv_60_b_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_metal_master_iv_60_a_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_metallic_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_hifi_60_071201 audio cassette tape

sony_hf_60_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_hd_f90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_fx90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_walkman_60_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_-_hf60_3_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_-_hf60_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_-_ux-s60_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_fecr_90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_cd-it_pro_74_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_-_ux60_080417 audio cassette tape

Sony_ZX90_111227 audio cassette tape

Sony_UX-S_60_111227 audio cassette tape

sony_super_metal_master_60 audio cassette tape

sony_esprit_100_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_EF_60_111227 audio cassette tape

sony_-_hf60_super_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_-_hf60_2_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_cdit_ii_90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_cdit_ii_74_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_cdit_ii_64_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_firma_50_111227 audio cassette tape

sony_cdit_i_90_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_bhf60_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_ef_90_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_ef_90_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_c_90fecr_081001 audio cassette tape

sony_chiara_ux70_071126 audio cassette tape

sony_ahf_080417 audio cassette tape

sony_ef60_071201 audio cassette tape

sony_chf90_071201 audio cassette tape

sony_bhf60_071126 audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape

audio cassette tape


tapedeck.org responsive layout

after changing the ad layout (which only supports the site and does NOT make me rich, by the way) on tapedeck to inline, tape-sized ads i was finally able to make tapedeck even more responsive: sizing your browser now gives you 1, 3, 4, 5 or 6 columns of tapes, depending on the space available. go ahead and try it! a few pics are on facebook

Isolating Tapes 101

[photo album] http://on.fb.me/MX2BHS — isolating this denon tape was a real piece of work. Still, properly isolated tapes make better tees! Remember that. New Stuff coming soon to Tapewear!

Updates first on Facebook

to stay up to date with the tapes we post, be a fan of tapedeck on Facebook — all updates are posted there first, sometimes days before officially appearing on the site! on Facebook, you'll also get updates on the tapes we're going to post in the future: the shape of tapes to come.