1981 Sony CHF 60 Audio Cassette

Sony CHF tapes were among the very first I used for my own recordings after I hit my teens. They were good, if basic, normal bias cassettes with quite a warm sound, but also an acceptable amount of definition for a Type I range-propper. Pretty noisy though.

The two other cassette models in the 1981 Sony Type I range were the Sony BHF, and the Sony AHF. The BHF was a noticeable upgrade on the quality of this CHF. And the AHF was a hugely improved, essentially pro-grade product of very high quality – coming with a much higher price tag.

I’ve got a fair old few Sony CHFs, and the material on them ranges quite widely. At one end of the scale there are some all-too-clear renditions of my own instrumental tracks, played on a Bontempi B370 organ. At the other, performances by chart bands of the day, recorded from the TV, with a cheapish tape recorder placed in front of the set’s speaker, and my family jabbering away in the background.

1982 Memorex MRXI C90 Audio Cassette

This one took a bit of searching out. It’s a 90 minute Memorex MRXI (or MRX1), bought at the end of 1982. I’d bet that a fairly hefty proportion of these normal bias tapes ended up in the bin, as did the shells for most of mine. I liked the sound of these and used them almost exclusively to record rehearsals for the very first ‘band’ I was in, through the winter and into the spring of 1983. The MRXIs were bold, they could take a good amount of level, and they had considerable quantities of treble for a normal bias tape – albeit around the region of 6 KHz rather than much higher up in the spectrum like a chrome tape. It was a hard sound, which gave our rather polite instrument setup some much needed teen cred.

1982 BASF Chromdioxid II Audio Cassette

BASF’s chrome Type 2 tapes had a great reputation in the early 1980s, courtesy of their very well defined treble response, which suited the era’s quest for super-high fidelity. It is of course hilarious looking back on the size of early ’80s ghetto blasters from the viewpoint of the 21st century, where everything is expected to fit into the pocket.