Avocado Memories: Photos of long-forgotten blank cassettes

There's something about the blank compact cassette. Whenever I see one, I'm transported back in time. From the lowly department-store brands destined for shoe-box recorders of the early 1970s, to the high-fidelity Maxell and Denon tapes that in the late 1970s were aimed at audiophiles with their Nakamichi tape decks, the evolution of the blank cassette followed the trajectory of my own life and appreciation for music.

For me, at age 12, home recording began with a Mayfair portable tape recorder and a stack of Certron C-60s. It was all a kid ever needed...

 

After Certrons, I graduated to Scotch Highlanders in translucent shell ...

 

... And then it was on to Scotch Low Noise tapes:

 

I thought I was pretty hi-fi when I made the jump to Memorex. I loved the cases, but hated the grey labels that you couldn't write on...

 

After a few years, Memorex revised the label to include a section for writing that actually held ink...

 

It's not blank, but I have one it of these with a lot of audio diary stuff on from the late 70's. Still plays, but I tempting fate by not transferring to digital.

 

Wow, 180! Great posts here, keep going!

 

After trying Memorex, I dabbled with Radio Shack Supertape. Good tape quality, but lousy transport innards. Tapes got eaten a lot....

 

Maxells were my exclusive tape (almost) once I discovered their quality...

 

I bought a few TDK Professional tapes because of the unique lengths -- 10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc. They were excellent.

 

It was around this time that Memorex saw its market share slipping away. I did continue to buy Memorex tapes, especially when they were half price, but I felt like I was slumming...

 

This is the later version. Earlier models were solid black

 

Oh, yeah, I remember the solid-black ones. Three for a buck, I think. Made from asphalt scrapings off the Long Island Expressway, no doubt.
But, again, as a kid, you didn't care too much.

 

Great thread Clark V Kauffman!
Cool pix everyone!

 

That's a C-180??? They made a 180-minute cassette tape??

 

I for some reason thought these would be good, for a while. They were cheap, certainly.

 

I recorded the FM simulcast of Wings Rockshow on two K-mart tapes. I still have them, wonder how they sound.

 

I used to use the 120s for recording radio shows which I'd tape at weekends and listen to in the car during the week. Charlie Gillett and Andy Kershaw...and a reasonable week would see the show end just as I was on the way home on Friday.

 

Back in the '80s, my brother and I mainly used TDK 60- and 90-minute cassettes that looked like these:

 

From Wiki:

 

What a great thread! The memories....

 

BTW for anyone who used cassettes, a sharp reaction time and a pencil were vital - the reaction for leaping up to switch off the player when the tape stopped as it had got mangled inside...and the pencil for winding the tape back into the cassette. The number of times that happened...

 

Holy Hat Batman....I think I used all of these at some point. It brought a big smile to see the pictures of the shells. Have not seen these in many years.