Opinion on blank cassette tape

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by gitters, Jan 30, 2023.

  1. gitters

    gitters Mr. G Thread Starter

    Hello,

    I have two records that I would like to record onto a 90 minute cassette tape. I'm looking for some suggestions on a good quality blank tape.
     
  2. fretter

    fretter Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    From what I gather, the only tapes still being manufactured are Type I Normal Bias. Type II Chrome cassettes are available as new old stock (NOS) at various price points. The most popular Chrome tapes are the Maxell XLII, and XLII-S.
    For best sound, a Type 4 metal cassette would be best, as long as your system has a selector for Type 4. I have no experience with metal cassettes.
     
  3. SSoundLtd

    SSoundLtd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Utah
    The current Type 1 cassettes being manfactured sound fine when recording from LPs. However they dirty up the cassette mechanism pretty fast unlike the higher quality blank tapes from the 90s. Type 2 and Type 4 blank cassettes are out there but they have gotten expensive.
     
    gitters likes this.
  4. trickness

    trickness Gotta painful yellow headache

    Location:
    Manhattan
    Blank metal cassettes are going for like 30-40 bucks for an unopened 60 Maxell - yikes!!!!
     
  5. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    New Type II high bias tape (actually cobalt, not chrome) is now being manufactured, but they're still working on the formulation, so the quality isn't as good as Type II tape of decades past.

    Your cheapest option would be to simply find some old cassettes whose contents you don't care about, and record over them. Cassettes are typically 50 cents to a dollar each at thrift stores, and as long as it's not moldy and the felt pressure pad is intact, a 40-year-old cassette can still sound perfect when you make a new recording on it today.

    There are various ways to quickly erase an entire cassette, as shown in Techmoan's video below, but I've rarely had any problems simply recording over the existing audio on the tape. As long as your recorder's erase head is properly aligned, there should be no trace of the old recording left once you make a new one on the tape.

     
    MikeInFla, pexie, jbmcb and 3 others like this.
  6. Rigoberto

    Rigoberto Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA (UT)
    If a 60 minute cassette would do I'd go with this one....

    [​IMG]
     
    Joe from So Cal and gitters like this.
  7. NekoM

    NekoM Seriously not serious.

    The Tascam in this style

    [​IMG]
     
    Galley and gitters like this.
  8. Bananas&blow

    Bananas&blow It's just that demon life has got me in its sway

    Location:
    Pacific Beach, CA
    What a crazy world we live in that you can get a blank CD for like 10 cents that will sound dramatically better than it's $30 30 year old blank cassette. Mind blown.

    I always like the TDK SA-90 or SA-X 90 cassettes back in the day. Maxells were great too.
     
  9. Tone?

    Tone? Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco

    Never to back to cassette tapes for me.
    And that was my era.

    no thanks to the forward / rewind and tape hiss
    And I won’t even get into the other myriad of issues.
     
  10. old music lover

    old music lover Forum Resident

    Location:
    Salonta, Romania
    To listen music is a hobby. Cassette decks are nice skills...If you like them, go for...BUT the REAL cassettes are from the golden age. TDK, Maxell, BASF, etc...For a very good quality/reasonably price, take chrome. They last more and the sound is very good.
     
  11. rfs

    rfs Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lansing, MI USA
    You can buy Maxell UR type 1 cassettes on Amazon - how do these compare to the XL1's I used to use in the 70s and 80s ?
     
    gitters likes this.
  12. Stereosound

    Stereosound Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    TDK is also regarded well. Maybe Nakamichi if you are using one of their cassette decks.
     
    gitters likes this.
  13. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    Maxell URs are still fine Type I tapes. I've compared them to ones from the '90s and don't notice any difference.

    TDK has not manufactured any new cassette tape since their factory in Thailand got wiped out by flooding in 2011. Considering the then-steeply-declining market for audio tape, they decided not to rebuild the equipment to manufacture it.
     
    andrewskyDE, gitters and patient_ot like this.
  14. zombiemodernist

    zombiemodernist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeastern USA
    I’d agree to go NOS. You don’t have to pay eBay prices, they turn up at record shops all the time. I just got 2 TDK Type II c90s handed to me for free the other day at a shop.
     
    gitters and patient_ot like this.
  15. Duophonic

    Duophonic Beatles

    Location:
    BEATLES LOVE SONGS
    I had a stash of Maxell Type I blanks I hoarded from Walgreens. Those are crap, lol.
     
    jonwoody and gitters like this.
  16. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Dunno which ones you are talking about but current production Maxell Type I UR90s are not crap IME/IMHO. Are they as good as a quality Type II? No, and they never will be. They are higher quality than a lot of stuff out there though. I'm specifically referring to offbrand type Is (which are really "type zero/voice grade") tapes from China and some of the stuff the duplicators/bulk sellers will sell you as blanks.
     
    nosliw and gitters like this.
  17. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Most of my taping on type Is was done in the mid/late 80s and all through the 90s. The current UR90s are just as good as any brand name type 1 I purchased back then. Some NOS Type Is might be slightly better, but not by much. Certainly not anything the average person would notice. Audio analysis on Tapeheads.net confirms this. With any blank a lot depends on the quality of your deck and the source material, how you set levels, bias, etc.
     
  18. Curiosity

    Curiosity Just A Boy

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Calibrating your deck to the tape counts for more in terms of getting the best sound of it and tapes like UR and 90's/2000's TDK D are decent tapes when used respecting their budget origins.

    As for vintage tapes Maxell UD1 and XLI plus TDK AD/AR are excellent type I's that if well cared for should sound fantastic with little hiss even for non dolby fiends like me while for type II's the Maxell UD/SXII, XLII and XLII-S sound great and are reliable without some of the tramline issues that affect certain batches of TDK SA.
     
    Alan2 and gitters like this.
  19. torquerulesok

    torquerulesok Forum Resident

    Location:
    County Down
    Personally I prefer chrome tape but that’s not available new. This is great tape, I’m using that type on my R2R. Check availability with your local distributor.
     
    gitters likes this.
  20. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    Best all-season, all around for the money with intermediate quality Type I tape I used that's likely biased to your Yamaha deck. Still available today.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  21. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    That is just type 1. In the USA, those tapes will be almost 8 dollars each per tape after shipping and tax from a USA retailer. Not a good value for type 1. For that kind of money you can buy sealed type 2 tapes and have money left over.
     
    zombiemodernist and gitters like this.
  22. Brucedgoose

    Brucedgoose Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hawaii
    You realize that your cassette copy won't sound as good or last as long as the LPs, right? C60s will typically last longer than C90s, but neither will outlast an LP.
     
    Technophile and gitters like this.
  23. gitters

    gitters Mr. G Thread Starter

    Yeah, I realize that it won't sound as good or last as long. I was just wanting to record a couple of LPs onto a cassette to be able to listen to them in my truck.
     
    parman likes this.
  24. THOMAS STRAIGHT

    THOMAS STRAIGHT Forum Resident

    Location:
    26559
  25. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    That'd debatable:

     

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