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  • Old Cassette Tape Brands



    Many of us remember the transparent cassette tapes in the later half of the 1980s and 1990s that were made by TDK, Sony, Maxell and others, but what about the brands that were around in the 1970s and early 1980s?

    One brand that springs to mind was Contek which I often saw around the house, and in one or two early 1980s Argos catalogues as well. My mother used to have at least three of the C90s but there was also a C60 version as well.

    And there was also Sakura which only did C60s as far as I know. I remember playing some of them and found a 1980-1981 Top 30 chart recorded from Radio Trent.

    Also, as we didn't have a VCR until the end of the decade, we did the "National Health" thing of putting the radio cassette recorder next to the speaker of the portable upstairs, and recording the sound off the TV, using the Sakura brand tapes. Found at least three tapes like this - one had TOTP from 1979-1980 - (can't remember the presenter, sadly). Another one had an hour or so of Charles and Diana's wedding on it; and another had the start of Channel 4, and by implication the very first episode of Countdown.

    There were other brands, but I can't think of the brand names - there was one that did C60s, had white plastic and had orange-coloured logo label on it. Found some things like a Top 10 from 1977 on that one. And there was another brand that has black plastic and black and brown label on them. My sister used to record Paul Young tracks on her tape.

    I know it sounds like an odd thing to ask, but does anyone remember these obscure brands of cassette tapes? And does anyone still have them? I am certain that I still have a Contek C90 in my home, somewhere...
    Attached Files
    I've everything I need to keep me satisfied
    There's nothing you can do to make me change my mind
    I'm having so much fun
    My lucky number's one
    Ah! Oh! Ah! Oh!

  • #2
    Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

    That's (mid-80s to mid-90s) deserve a mention as they were the best cassettes on the market. EMI and Philips were very popular in the late 70s/early 80s but gradually fell out of favour as they did not keep up with the Japanese competition. BASF, Fuji and JVC all made very good cassettes and had a presence in the market from the 1970s to the 2000s, although the latter pair were not volume sellers like BASF. Memorex and Scotch were at the budget end of the market but some of their cassettes were OK nonetheless.

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    • #3
      Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

      Just remembered - Agfa! The same firm that made camera films and which was eventually bought by BASF. Quite popular in the late 70s/early 80s although not as widely available as TDK, Maxell and Sony.
      Last edited by CrystalBall; 18-11-2017, 19:48.

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      • #4
        Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

        There were also chrome and metal tapes as well as the usual iron oxide. Upmarket stereos and Hi-Fis have a control to select the tape material.

        Type I - Iron oxide
        Type II - Chrome
        Type III - Ferrochrome
        Type IV - Metal

        Ferrochrome were a high spec cassette produced between the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were eclipsed by metal tapes in 1980.

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        • #5
          Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

          When I was younger, I was always been baffled by the "Low Noise" mention on earlier cassette tapes - as I assumed that anything recorded is "noise", and thought so that the stuff that I wanted to record would not be picked up by the tape because of it. That what it sounded like to me anyway, no pun intended.
          I've everything I need to keep me satisfied
          There's nothing you can do to make me change my mind
          I'm having so much fun
          My lucky number's one
          Ah! Oh! Ah! Oh!

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

            The benefits of Type 2 tapes were over-hyped because they were more profitable. They handled high frequencies better but the bass was thinner, leading to a sound that could be too 'bright'. With portables and budget systems you were usually better off with Type 1, even if the deck had a tape type selector. With some better quality systems or hi-fi separates you could adjust the bias of recordings to suit your taste, the music and the characteristics of the tape. The best all-rounders were probably superferrics such as TDK AD/AR that would give a good account of themselves on all equipment.

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            • #7
              Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

              I think that Dolby noise reduction reduced the demand for type II chrome cassettes.

              The question is how many companies in the world actually made magnetic tape stock? It's possible for cassettes sold by different companies to have exactly the same tape inside them. Some retailers like Comet and Woolworths sold their own brand of cassettes but they did not make the tape inside them.

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              • #8
                Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

                I remember own brand Tandy/Radio Shack VHS cassettes
                sigpic
                Do you really believe the other side without provocation would launch so many ICBM's, subs and ships knowing that we would have no option to launch as well? It would break our MAD Treaty (Mutually Assured Destruction) not to mention the end of the world as we know it.

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                • #9
                  Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

                  Originally posted by Arran View Post
                  I think that Dolby noise reduction reduced the demand for type II chrome cassettes.

                  The question is how many companies in the world actually made magnetic tape stock? It's possible for cassettes sold by different companies to have exactly the same tape inside them. Some retailers like Comet and Woolworths sold their own brand of cassettes but they did not make the tape inside them.
                  There were only ever a small number of manufacturers (mainly Japanese) and these supplied both other brands and stores, e.g. Pioneer cassettes were made by TDK and Boots brand cassettes by Maxell. By the 2000s most cassettes were made in S. Korea or China by 3 or 4 companies (e.g. SKC in S. Korea) regardless of brand.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

                    I remember type II tapes became cheaper in the 1990s, I still have a lot of TDK CDing tapes that claimed to lose less quality when recording from CDs.
                    The Trickster On The Roof

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                    • #11
                      Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

                      Anyone remember the official cassettes which had a blank side for you to record another album on? I had the first U2 album, so I think it must have been Island Records who did this.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

                        Yes, they were called "1 + 1"

                        Attached Files

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                        • #13
                          Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

                          Originally posted by Arran View Post
                          There were also chrome and metal tapes as well as the usual iron oxide. Upmarket stereos and Hi-Fis have a control to select the tape material.

                          Type I - Iron oxide
                          Type II - Chrome
                          Type III - Ferrochrome
                          Type IV - Metal

                          Ferrochrome were a high spec cassette produced between the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were eclipsed by metal tapes in 1980.
                          Wow it's all coming back after reading your post


                          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

                            Originally posted by kirky666 View Post
                            Anyone remember the official cassettes which had a blank side for you to record another album on? I had the first U2 album, so I think it must have been Island Records who did this.
                            I remember my mother getting a Sharp radio cassette recorder which included a demonstration tape - the A side had pre-recorded classical music on with a voiceover, and the B side was blank for personal recording use - it was the first tape that I had seen which had part pre-recorded and part blank on it.
                            I've everything I need to keep me satisfied
                            There's nothing you can do to make me change my mind
                            I'm having so much fun
                            My lucky number's one
                            Ah! Oh! Ah! Oh!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

                              Originally posted by sixtyten View Post
                              Yes, they were called "1 + 1"

                              I've not heard of those before, some tapes had 2 albums on, I have one with Ultravox's Vienna & Rage In Eden.

                              The 1980s Fisher Price tape recorders came with a tape which had some music on one side, & was blank on the other for the user to record on.
                              The Trickster On The Roof

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