1992 BASF Chrome Extra II 60 Audio Cassette

BASF maintained their commitment to chrome as a Type 2 formulation into the 1990s, and this was how things were looking in 1992. The BASF Chrome Extra II was the ‘entry level’ chrome tape in the range. It had a very typical BASF sound – quite glassy, with so much weight at the extremes of the frequency range, it was almost as if some of the midrange had been scooped a little. If you liked that sound, this was a great value tape, proving itself a lot more resistant to drop-outs than early ’80s BASFs in my experience.

1987 Maxell XLII-S 60 Audio Cassette

Okay, so I’ve been raiding my 1987 drawer for cassettes today. I used Maxell XLII-S tapes for a number of important projects in the late 1980s, and they really were a special product in their day. The casing design was clearly well ahead of its time, and the cassette instantly feels super-rugged the moment you pick it up. The resilience of the tape itself was phenomenal with the XLII-S, rendering drop-outs virtually non-existent. A bold sound, low noise, and no difficulty at all in taking high volume levels with these. And just look at the lack of gobbledygook on the cartridge. No fancy science words necessary to convince the public that these cassettes were good. You merely used them, and you could tell.

1987 Sony HF 30 Audio Cassette

In latter 1985, my normal bias tape of choice became the Sony HF – in particular the HF 30, as I normally went for as short a tape length as I could get away with. But by 1987 – the year of this HF 30 – I was almost invariably using Type 2 high bias cassettes; typically Maxells. However, amid my phase of Type 2 dedication, a local producer offered to record some tracks for a mate and I, after we’d started collaborating as a musical duo. The producer supplied our copies of the recording on these HF 30s. This tape, then, is quite an exception within my collection – particularly as the ’87 HF 30 is different from the ’85, which I have in abundance.