Old Cassette Tape Brands

[George 1978]

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...

[CrystalBall]

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.

[CrystalBall]

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.

[Arran]

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.

[George 1978]

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.

[CrystalBall]

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.

[Arran]

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.

[Twocky61]

Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

I remember own brand Tandy/Radio Shack VHS cassettes

[CrystalBall]

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.

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.

[Richard1978]

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.

[kirky666]

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.

[sixtyten]

Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

Yes, they were called "1 + 1"

[Zincubus]

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.

Wow it's all coming back after reading your post


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[George 1978]

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.

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.

[Richard1978]

Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

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.