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Before the arrival of recordable CDs, dubbing music compilations onto cassettes was a slow, laborious process. Especially for audiophiles. I spent much time sourcing for good tape decks, aligning the head azimuth, tweaking the recording bias/sensitivity, lusting after the high-end Nakamichi machines, and buying the most exotic formulations of Chrome and Metal tapes from TDK, That's and Sony. It took so much to get so little out of those flimsy acetate strips (Dolby HX, Dolby-C), careful setting of recording levels, adjustment of record and playback azimuth, calibration of the deck's electronics to the tape's sensitivity and frequency response characteristics to avoid Dolby mistracking or other sonic anomalies. The music sure sounded good, but searching and cueing through songs was a boring process. Mold and fungus seemed to accompany the hobby, and even my most expensive tapes were affected if I didn't dig them out for a round of playback every few months. Granted, the intense and continuous study and exploration of cassette tape-recording technology was kinda fun and rewarding at times, but I was glad to see it all become moot.