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.