Tapes

While all the mad stuff was happening in Parliament,  I was making a few recordings one of which was to replace two pre-recorded cassettes that no long playback right using the small system's cd player and obviously the cassette deck.

 That was the cheapest tape you could buy from TDK, the then leading tape manufacturer usually in packs of three, five or ten a piece being typically used in stereo radio cassette recorders or all in one "Shoebox" shaped mono recorders that run on batteries.
A few might use them for making tapes up for the car as they were dirt cheap new but most people who had separate cassette decks used with their hifi systems wouldn't touch them thinking they'd moved on from all that.
One consequence of this is many people associate the tape with relatively poor sound.

 This is the back of the cellophane wrapper of the sixty minute version and the thing was actually if you used the adjuster (or an automatic tape calibration device) in the recorder these were a lot better than you'd think with crisp high notes and good clean bass with just a little more hiss than a more expensive type 1 "normal" tape.
Its been years since I last used one of these, I did use the D series in the early eighties before I had a brand new deck of my own but the 1991 D did an excellent job remaking that album on tape and even now they are cheap to find.
The reason people associate the tape with less than stellar sound is just what they were used with that's all.

People in the tape world argue a lot about type types-which is the best- but my experience suggested that it was about the individual tape than whither or not it was a type I "Normal tape" or a type 2 "Chrome position" or type 4 metal oxide tapes which were wasted on but the most expensive equipment.

 This is one I used a heck of a lot in the late eighties and up to the point I bought my first MiniDisc deck in 1997.
It is a type 1 which tended to be look down on by hifi types - Mr Hifi Bore  at the  pub would always talk about type 2's being where hifi cassettes started - but this was extremely good because it would take a lot of signal meaning it could capture more with less hiss than most type I's and had the ability to record the most bass of any tape without sounding distorted.
It also tended to be  very reliable which helped as I used a walkman tape player on the bus and train a lot. It helped they were sold in value packs of three or five in places like record stores or Boots the Chemists here in England.
I soon found this was at least the equal of type II tapes ditching most of TDK's type II's completely  but such was the prejudice on the part of hifi people many didn't buy them.

I won't talk too technical as that would come over as "mumbo jumbo" to you but on the wrapper it shows how good it was at capturing sound and why it was it had a better ability to keep the difference between the quietest and loudest sounds than some type II tapes.
It also meant it would play properly on any player without sounding too bright.
I managed to track down some new old stock ones to go with my three shoeboxes of TDK AD type I's living next to my recorder.