1989 Memorex CRX IIS 60 Audio Cassette

Memorex was a very shaky brand, with a poor reputation among some circles of aficionados. But Memorex tapes did sell, with the average consumer most probably buying them on the strength of the slick TV advertising they utilised. The UK’s TV ads of 1982 initially alerted me to Memorex tapes.

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.

1990 Sony UX 60 Audio Cassette

Given that the Sony UX was the most basic Type II audio tape in the manufacturer’s 1990 range, it was a really nice job. I found these very reliable for home multi-tracking, if rather uninspiring to look at and a little ‘wallflower’ in terms of tonal character. This Sony UX 60 feels reassuring when you pick it up, and is very uniform and smooth in its sound reproduction. The tape has an extra uniaxial formulation, but I’m not sure that this in itself was any cause for high expectations. The later Sony FXII 60 also boasted the extra uniaxial coating, but to me sounded thinner than the UX 60 and didn’t in my experience perform as reliably.