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Dolby isn't licensing their NR tech anymore, so "new" cassette players sound hideous. AND there is only one company making the mechanical movements, and they're
by oceanghost 7y ago
Dolby isn't licensing their NR tech anymore, so "new" cassette players sound hideous. AND there is only one company making the mechanical movements, and they're not very good quality.
I found this out when I was trying to archive some books on tape and had to resort to buying 20-year-old decks, as opposed to new electronics which I naively assumed would be better. There are some decks with something equivalent to dolby B which I believe was a 9db roll-off.
- wwweston 7y agoShouldn't any NR tech from the 80s/90s be out of patent now? I'm sure a lot of cheap decks would neglect enhancements anyway, but why would licensing still be a hurdle?
- oceanghost 7y agoI honestly don't know. What I've said about the movements / Dolby I learned from Techmoan.com, who I assume to be reliable.
- NikkiA 7y agoShould have expired decades ago - B was introduced in 1968, there's no way that would still be patented. But since it's only a simple high frequency boost/cut it probably wasn't ever patented, just protected with trademarks to the point where if you can only call it 'generic NR' and not 'dolby B' or 'dolby C' noone would be interested. S and HX Pro were more complex, but S was rare on consumer gear, and HX Pro is more than just NR.