1993 TDK SA-X 60 Super Avilyn Audio Cassette

The early to mid 1990s TDK SA-X 60 audio tape was the upmarket high bias product in the range. TDK had notably used their own Super Avilyn tape coating for high bias Type II cassettes right through the era when chrome was the most popular Type II formulation. But by the time this cassette was manufactured in the early 1990s, most rivals had dropped chrome and followed the TDK path, adopting a cobalt-ferric mix of some sort.

1987 BASF Chromdioxid Extra II 60 Audio Cassette

The BASF CR-E II audio cassette (or Chromdioxid Extra II, as it was identified on the outer packaging), filled the space in the range previously occupied by the Chromdioxid II. Despite the ‘Extra’, this tape was still BASF’s standard CrO2 offering, and I couldn’t really tell any difference between this and the previous Chromdioxid II. The CR-E II arrived in 1985, even sporting the same basic colour scheme as its predecessor, although the grey label on this cassette had a sort of metallic effect which changed the shade of grey as the shell was moved in the light.

The Type IV Metal Audio Cassette

The metal-formulated audio cassette hit the scene near the end of the 1970s, as the answer to a number of problems with previous tape formulations. The standard ferric-oxide (Type I) tape had typically rendered poor high frequency definition, with pervasive noise, meaning a woolly sound without much presence or zing… except where you didn’t want it – in the hiss.