Early 1970s Scotch Dynarange C-120 Audio Tape

I was quite flippant about the performance when I posted a photo of a Scotch Dynarange C-90 in 2012, but it’s often very hard with old tapes to evaluate them properly, since so little is known about the recording conditions, and there’s little or no space to record new sequences for test purposes.

Gladly, however, I’ve now unearthed an early ‘70s Scotch Dynarange C-120 with plenty of blank space on Side B, so I set about establishing what these 40+ year-old stalwarts are like when it comes to preserving a known quality of signal.

Rolling Stones – Voodoo Lounge Cassette (1994)

One of the reasons bands like The Rolling Stones have enjoyed such longevity is that they’ve created and played from the listener’s viewpoint. They’ve never appeared bothered about looking clever, or skilled as musicians. All that matters in the music is

Philips Chromium Dioxide Audio Cassette: Für Elise

This is another really nice example of a high quality chromium dioxide pre-recorded cassette tape. It’s a Philips compilation entitled Für Elise – The Magic of the Piano, which includes works by a raft of composers including Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mussorgsky, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Brahms, Schubert and Gershwin.