Quality of cassettes brands over the years

[willdav713]

I'm having a pre-senior moment here...Does anyone remember the el cheapo brand of cassette (I think they made videotapes, too) that had sort of a rainbow pattern on the label? As I type, I'm thinking it might have been called Certron. Does that sound right?

Certon did have colors on their cassette "Orange" Guitar Strings looking on a black shell those were OK, They also had HD Tapes (Type I) with striped colors on them and had a HD-II Cro2 Tape sold at Albertsons during the early 90s, but the other Certron tapes you know the 4 for $1 60 minute tapes broke the first try and the dynamic range was horrible probally plays back -15db when set at +2 at record. Certon also made VHS but if the audiotape is junk, why buy the videotape.

Gemini made tapes and they were great (striped colors as well on the liner sheet)

 

[willdav713]

What do you think of the quality of various brands of cassettes that you have kept for decades?

My old Scotch Highlanders C-90's have all turned for the worst! Had them since '78.

I still have Highlanders 1 blue shell, 1 green shell, and even Scotchs Low Noise High Density (what I recorded my Star 93 KSRR Aicheck on) Work great for me.

However,

Scotch Chrome tapes for the 70s horrible flips, curls, breaks, I recorded Q96 in San Antonio on that one in 1990, I wish I haven't because the tape curled and broke. Went to the landfill in 1993.

Sony UX did the same to me too and that tape was only 1 year old. Never bought Sony UX tapes again. Maxell XLII did the same (the 1990 version and the energy efficent one) and the 1996 version on TDK SA-X.

If you are going to use cassettes here is what to use for durability:

Type 1:
TDK AD (buy on Ebay)
TDK D
Maxell UDS-I
Maxell XLI-S (SSPA)

Type II:
Maxell UDS-II;UDX-II
Maxell XLII-S (SSPA)

Type IV:
TDK MA

 

[oldies76]

Type II:
Maxell UDS-II;UDX-II
Maxell XLII-S (SSPA)

The Type II Denon cassettes were good too. I agree with you on Maxell, they last long!

 

[FRR]

Years ago, (and I'm really telling my age here) I had hundreds of hours or tape on a reel to reel. In about 1974, I saw where cassette was going to be the "wave of the future". So I bought hundreds of off brand cassettes and spent nearly 6 month in the evening converting all the them. Now they have been in my cabinet since 1994 and I took a few out and played them the other day. They still sound amazingly well. I was surprised. I always liked Radio Shack Concertape, and had real good luck with that brand, but I'm not sure it really made any difference. Reminds me how, in the 1960's we were all so worried about a good turntable with the proper weight so we wouldn't "wear the record out". I've got hundreds of albums and most of them sound the same,, ( I think) as when they were new. Seems like many of my singles sound terrible, but the albums sound fine. I think most tapes failed when we spent a lot of time fast forwarding and reversing them. At least, that was my experience.

 

[Kent T]

Best blank cassette brand

Maxell up to 1997

Other great brands:

TDK
Scotch Master Series
Scotch BX, CX, and SX
Denon
Sony
Ampex Grand Master

Best cassette decks:

Tandberg
ReVox
Studer
Nakamichi
Advent 201

 

[oldies76]

Years ago, (and I'm really telling my age here) I had hundreds of hours or tape on a reel to reel. In about 1974, I saw where cassette was going to be the "wave of the future". So I bought hundreds of off brand cassettes and spent nearly 6 month in the evening converting all the them.

Interesting, that you would convert from R to R, to cassette. R to R has much better quality (tape width and speed) and generally last longer than cassettes, if properly stored.
Which Reel to Reel brands did you use?

 

[FRR]

Years ago, (and I'm really telling my age here) I had hundreds of hours or tape on a reel to reel. In about 1974, I saw where cassette was going to be the "wave of the future". So I bought hundreds of off brand cassettes and spent nearly 6 month in the evening converting all the them.

Interesting, that you would convert from R to R, to cassette. R to R has much better quality (tape width and speed) and generally last longer than cassettes, if properly stored.
Which Reel to Reel brands did you use?

Actually, whatever I could get my hands on. Usually Radio Shack products since I had purchased my reel to reel from them. I just knew cassettes could be used in the car, and I had a car that had a player, so that's why I converted them. At the time, my buddies were jealous

 

[WPPCProductions]

I used all the tapes mentioned.TDK,Maxell cassettes were the best.Memorex is crap so is their video tape and their Blank CDR's and DVD's.
one of my decks is a Nakamichi which is great, I can fiddle with the bias and make a clean recording from a crap brand tape.On decks I have many cassettes RtoR's and the famous 8 Tracks.

 

[oldies76]

Reel to Reel

Ampex 600 series tapes (641, 651)
Ampex 671
Ampex 341, 351

Scotch 200, 190

1800' & 2400' lengths are good too

 

[deltas69]

a couple of years ago i was looking for a used reel to reel to dub some old reels off to hard drive..stumbled across a guy wanting to sell "this obsolete" thing ..but keep the road case it was in for his music equipment..i went to look at it..WOW..a teac A 6300..in mint condition..i'd say less than 10 hours on it..with the teac cover still in the box, never opened, and a dozen new wrapped reels of ampex tape, plus all the goodies for the big reels, hubs, etc..works absolutely perfect..it's my favorite piece of vintage machinery around here..had to pay 50.00 for it..but i got over it pretty quick..lol..matches my teac 350 cassette top ,loader too...my preference for cassette tapes were maxell first..but used just about everything over the years ...still have many cassettes from over 40 years ago i dubbed to hard drive..and was stunned they sounded just as good now as then...had them all in a big plastic bag..most without the cases..

 

[Oldbones]

.Does anyone remember the el cheapo brand of cassette (I think they made videotapes, too) that had sort of a rainbow pattern on the label? As I type, I'm thinking it might have been called Certron.

I think I know the ones you mean, I bought a few of those around '83 or so. Don't recall there being any brand name on them at all, just the rainbow.
Certrons had an orange rainbow-ish thing on them, these weren't Certrons.