Siouxsie & the Banshees – Tinderbox Cassette 1986

The only thing wrong with this album as far as I’m concerned is that it’s not long enough. There aren’t really too many albums you can say that about. Of course, whether four tracks per side really is long enough for an album depends on the length of the songs and whether or not you like them, but I’d say this is definitely a bit light on quantity given that it was released and sold as a full LP.

BASF LH Extra I Audio Cassette (1984)

BASF were very well known for their high bias chrome formulation cassettes (see the Blank Tapes category for numerous posts relating to those), but they also made some very nice normal bias Type I tapes. A case in point was this, the LH Extra I, probably made in 1984.

Sony AHF 90 Audio Cassette (1981)

The Sony AHF was an excellent normal bias cassette from the renowned hi-fi manufacturer.

At the dawn of the 1980s, there were three normal bias ferric oxide tapes in the Sony range.

The CHF was the basic offering. Light on treble definition, fairly noisy, and low in price – but in its class, still pretty good value.

The next step up was the BHF. This had noticeably better treble response, and whilst noise/hiss wasn’t exactly minimal, it was certainly more under control than with the CHF. The price was typically around 30% higher than that of the CHF.

Stepping up again to the most expensive Sony ferric, you found the technically superior AHF.