1983 Memorex HBII 60 High Bias Audio Cassette

I must say I got a serious buzz of excitement when I finally unearthed this. I knew I had at least one old 1983 Memorex HBII (High Bias II) audio cassette kicking around somewhere, but my huge hoard of old possessions is in such disarray that searches have long since fallen into needle-in-haystack territory.

1986 BASF LH-EI 60 Audio Cassette

Propping up the range of BASF audio cassettes back in 1986 was this LH-EI – a base-level Type I with an attractive look, and a significantly better sound than you might expect. It is a bit on the noisy side, but nowhere near as bad as some direct rivals, and the frequency range is impressive indeed for a tape occupying such lowly territory. This is certainly not a tarted-up ‘voice recording’ product. It’s fine for music. Quite different in tone to Sony’s HF. The BASF LH-EI is brighter (comparatively strong brightness was typical for a BASF tape).

1984 BASF Chromdioxid Super II 60 Audio Tape

What an attractive beast of a tape this was. Very eye-catching in its black plastic casing with black label and shiny gold lettering, the BASF Chromdioxid Super II 60 of 1984 was a leading Type II consumer cassette of its time. The sound was similar to that of the standard Chromdioxid II, but ‘prettier’, with what I felt was a nicer midrange. Despite the sparkly zing at the treble end, and some nice deep bass, this was still a sweet sounding tape, with a good, full, roundness. Sadly, these were a bit on the pricey side for youngsters to be buying in bulk, so I only got a few of them.