PREVIEW

AssetID: 34286654

Headline: TapeLess Deck Streams Music On Vintage Hi-Fi

Caption: Old skool hipsters put down your coffees now - a tapedeck that streams your digital music has gone on sale. The Tapeless Deck is the brainchild of Poland-based Artur Młynarz, who wanted to combine his love of old hi-fi equipment with modern streaming technology. The result is a repurposed vintage system in which a provided smartphone is permanently mounted. Utilising dedicated software, it features an animated cassette screen simulation, with over 30 changeable cassette skins adding to the effect. The touchscreen controls allow you to play MP3s, Flac files, or stream from players such as Spotify, Tidal, Dezeer and Pandora. Some models also allow internet radio players and FM radio. Every Tapeless Deck is individually made by Artur to create what he calls a "unique, handcrafted masterpiece", with models priced around £170. He removes some of the deck mechanisms to fit the phone which is electrically modified and connected to deck circuits to imitate standard deck behaviour, e.g. working level meters, some regulations, adjustable output level etc.. the system is charged automatically when the deck is in use. Artur explains: "I love old HiFi equipment - mainly because of its fantastic sound, but I also admire the mastery of engineers who create such fabulous constructions. Before era of digital CD players, cassette recorders were most advanced masterpieces of engineering craftmanship. It was real art, to create precise and sophisticated mechanisms without using any CAD software or computer simulations. Today we can meet many of them - broken, damaged, forgotten. Could there be something more beautiful than giving them a new life? That's why I started the MP3 TapeLess Deck Project. "I'm a graphic artist, copywriter, designer and blogger. I love my job and spend most of my work listening to the music. My second passion is DIY with HiFi equipment. Why not to combine these interests? For many years I have been passionate about collecting vintage HiFi equipment. I clean, renew, repair and restore to life old amplifiers, decks, tuners, loudspeakers and other stuff. One day I came up with an idea to mount a smartphone into a broken tape recorder and use it as a vintage-looking digital music player. MP3 TapeLess Deck Project was born."

Keywords:

PersonInImage: Artur Młynarz