1984 Sony UCX 60 Audio Cassette

This was a tape which certainly had the looks, but did it have the sound to match?…

1984 TDK SA 60 Audio Cassette

The TDK SA 60 was a really nice Type 2 high bias tape with a round but well defined sound. It also seemed a pretty durable piece of manufacture, and this one, whilst not having been played regularly since I moved its content to digital media in the late 1990s, does still sound very good – well over a quarter of a century after it was produced. ‘SA’, incidentally, stood for Super Avilyn, which was the receptive coating formulation TDK used on the actual tape.

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.