Best sounding pre-recorded cassettes you've come across?

[Taketheflame]

Hey all,

Thought this might be a fun topic - what are the best sounding pre-recorded cassettes you've come across?

I'm probably at around 130 or so tapes at this point (soon to be 140 or so...lol). I'm pretty astounded at the range of audio quality you can come across in pre-recorded tapes. Thankfully, most of the ones I've bought seem to range from enjoyably decent to excellent, with only a few that I'd call mediocre or pretty bad (These are the ones that definitely give pre-recorded tapes their ill reputation). I'm thinking part of this is due to most things I have on tape being from the late 80's or newer, and many of them being either HX Pro and/or Type II tapes (Although I've found tapes with neither that still sound quite nice), as it's my understanding that pre-recorded cassette quality generally fared much better by this point?

I just got another batch of tapes in the mail today - some of them include Robert Cray's "I Was Warned" (On Type II), Dire Straits "Brother's in Arms" (HX Pro), and The Cranberries "No Need to Argue" (Type II) - these might be among the best sounding tapes I've found to date - enough so that I have zero regret buying them on cassette instead of vinyl. A few other great sounding ones I already had include R.E.M's "Automatic For The People", and Green Day's "Dookie" (Both HX Pro/"Digalog" tapes). Can't help but be pleasantly surprised by a great sounding tape found on the cheap I guess, lol.

What are yours?

 

[phantomrebel]

I agree, tape media and noise reduction matters on these prerecorded releases. I find really good sound with Windham Hill releases that utilize HXPro on BASF Chrome tape, for example. It doesn't matter how great the original recording was, if it is laid down on cheap tape at a high duplication rate it will never sound very good, even on the best decks. Then let them bake in a hot car for a few years....ugh. Thankfully, there are some good ones out there if you know what to look for.

 

[Bob]

if you're into classical there's the Telarc line with dolby encoding on type II tape. these
can command big bucks.

 

[vwestlife]

The WEA Group (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic) and RCA made several million Dolby S NR encoded cassettes from around 1992 to 1998. You may even already have some of them and never noticed it because on most of them they made the Dolby S logo so small that you need a magnifying glass to read it! With a Dolby S equipped deck, they can sound almost as good as a CD, even though most of them are on standard ferric tape.

 

[perryinva]

Just like the Dire Staits “Brothers in Arms” you will find that any of the cassettes like it, where the shells are assembled with 5 screws with HXPRO, and the separate black tape path block insert for tape path are all excellent sounding. I have an on going list somewhere of what titles are built & recorded that way. As stated, most all is 1985 and later. Any cassettes made with solid black screwed together shells manufactured in Canada after 1985 are all excellent. And of course, any of the Sound of Nakamichi cassettes are excellent but quite pricey today. There is another thread like this somewhere....

 

[danj]

Years ago ADVENT released a series of classical music cassettes recorded in real time on premium chrome tape. They were spectacular sounding, even when played back on a basic deck. Wish I still had the ones I used to own but they were lost during a move. Would love to hear one played back on my Akai with twin-flux Super GX heads. Those Advents showed the true potential of the medium and were orders of magnitude better than ordinary cassettes. ANGEL also released some excellent tapes, although they weren't quite the quality (or the cost) of the aforementioned ADVENT tapes. I understand that Nakamichi also released some outstanding tapes but I will admit that I have never heard one.

 

[Taketheflame]

Lots of great input here

Bob/danj - Hmm...I must admit I do enjoy Baroque-era stuff, particularly organ/harpsichord pieces. Might have to hunt a few such tapes down!

Vwestlife - I have a few of those Dolby S tapes! At first, I thought they were just standard Dolby B tapes, but then I saw the S upon closer look. I don't have any decks with Dobly S (All of mine only have B), but they sound excellent nonetheless, and I've been keeping an eye out for some more of them.

Perryinva - Before I started paying attention to things like HX Pro and such on tapes, I wondered why a few Warner label tapes I had w/the clear shell sounded so much better than some earlier tapes of mine on different labels, but I've been learning a lot since getting more into cassettes (I was growing up during the CD era/the beginning of digital files, so most of this knowledge is all new to me, lol). I have some of those black shell Canadian issue tapes as well, some are even on chrome. In any case, I'm having lots of fun hunting down the better sounding cassette releases, as it's allowing me to expand my music collection in a big way on the cheap - and I can't help but really enjoy the sound of a good tape.

 

[soundmig]

They are pretty rare, but Sheffield Lab put out cassettes duped from their analog masters at 1:1 speed in Nakamichi decks on hi bias tape ..... and they were fantastic! I think I've only heard two or three titles ever, but all were amazing.

 

[Bob]

another point is that some music providers used banks of Nakamichis and calibrated them
often. they also recorded them at MOL for the tape type, and were generally better than
their LP offerings. I recall that many American LPs were made with recycled vinyl. and
many of my classical LPs were not - just like today's virgin vinyl, 180 gram versions.
the noise levels on the virgin vinyls were lower.

look for the Telarc cassette label, I recall their last tapes were chrome type II
and all were dolby encoded. there were hundreds.

Nakamichi also issued a sampler on their ZX formulation which I recall was a TDK metal.

 

[quiet]

I have several great cassette decks. When I listen to cassettes sometimes, even though they might gloss over some minute transient detail, I sometimes find myself thinking that tape is the most perfect reproduction. No digititus, ticks or edginess just a wonderful smooth liquid sound with great continuity. Ticks or pops on records actually have the effect of chopping the music for some people. Reel to reel usually has bigger instrument size , more transient snap and dynamics. Tape has a sound of its own, it usually is uncolored but tends toward the warm rather than the analytical. It is wonderful at its best or even near its best.

I have some direct to master tape material. Recorded voice and acoustic at Carnegie Hall. Straight to master tape, then to "duplicator" tapes, then to for sale tape or record. No mastering after the live show. I have both tape AND record. Came from radio stations back in the day.
From the same performances the tapes have more extension on both ends than the records, OR lossy internet that had to come from the same "duplicator" tapes. In this case the for sale tape from the "duplicator" tapes is better than both.
This is the only opportunity I've had to compare anything. But do have boxes of tape from 1955 to 1970 radio stations. They sound far better than I expected. I think excellent. Almost worth the hassle. For sure some of the time.
Don't know what was done to the digital between the "duplicator" tapes and the internet delivery. But it's not good.
Tape machine is Roberts 770X twin amp all tube. Straight to speakers. Rectilinear 111 large.

 

[Taketheflame]

Well, as my binging of cassette purchases continues, I must say - there definitely seems to be some truth to the idea that the WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic, many of their sub-labels) cassettes tend to be rather good sounding - enough so that I may try to start focusing on releases from these labels for big label artists. Anyone know what (if anything) they did different than other big labels in their duplication process?

I've come across a few things from smaller labels, and also some Capitol and EMI releases with the XDR (Expanded Dynamic Range) tag that sound pretty nice too, but I don't think I've come across a bad sounding Warner tape yet. Even some of the earlier ones with the white shells sound quite nice to me.

Are there certain labels to avoid too? I've heard some people say the Columbia tape releases aren't very good, but I have some stuff from them that sounds fine (Though most of it is releases from the 1990s, FWIW)

 

[vwestlife]

Anyone know what (if anything) they did different than other big labels in their duplication process?

Digalog:

If you see tapes indicating DAAD (Digital Audio Analog Distribution), that's the same thing as Digalog -- digital bin mastering.

Also, beginning in 1987, MCA began advertising their cassettes as "HiQ - Hi Quality" -- but I've never seen any explanation of what that actually means.

Are there certain labels to avoid too? I've heard some people say the Columbia tape releases aren't very good, but I have some stuff from them that sounds fine (Though most of it is releases from the 1990s, FWIW)

Sony-owned record labels -- including Columbia -- were the first to drop any indication of Dolby NR or HX Pro from their pre-recorded cassettes in the early '90s. Many of their tapes actually did continue to be Dolby B NR encoded, even if it wasn't mentioned, but I think it was a sign that Sony was de-emphasizing pre-recorded cassettes, and wanted you to buy MiniDiscs or CDs instead (Sony being inventor or co-inventor of both those formats).

 

[twiiii]

Telarc!

 

[Taketheflame]

Vwestlife - I do know of the Digalog tag/digital bin method that gained traction in the 1990s, but what about as far back as the mid 80s? I have some WEA tapes from then that sound a lot better than tapes from numerous other big labels, so it was clear they made efforts to get good sound out of cassettes before digital bin systems became the norm.

Interesting to learn that a lot of 1990s Sony label tapes had HX Pro with no mention of it. That explains a lot, because I have several Epic & Columbia tapes from then that sound way too good to not be HX Pro/B encoded tapes.

 

[perryinva]

All the Sound of Nakamichi tapes were recorded in real time on Nakamichi ZX-9s or CR-7s, from Master tapes in Dolby B or C, age depending, on Nakamichi ZX tape, which is just TDK MA Type IV tape and shell, though the shell has some slight external molding differences. I have about 30 of them, and all, or at least most of them can also be found on their original labels, in both cassette and LP, such as Sheffield, GRP, Telarc, A&M, Delos & Vibes. Surprisingly, some of the original label version on cassette sound every bit as good, and a few even better!

For instance, the original “In the Digital Mood”, a good compilation of Glen Miller tunes on GRP, has a higher output and better signal to noise overall, despite being recorded on Dolby B vs C on the Nak version. The bass is better on the Nak version and the highs are a bit clearer. I have never found anything on GRP in any format to be lacking, production wise. Anything recorded on a digital bin will have negligible W&F compared to a real time recording.

 

[Taketheflame]

Another source of nice sounding pre-recorded tapes from what I'm noticing - The EMI tapes w/the "XDR" tag and HX Pro. I haven't found too many of these, but the ones I do have are among the better sounding tapes I have.

Interesting enough, they seem to sound better than the Capitol tapes I've found w/the XDR tag (which I find odd, since both labels are a part of the Universal group - unless it was a different story decades ago?).

 

[Rey1]

I Have the Robert Cray and the Brothers in Arms, and I do agree they are great recordings. Also, the Beatles tapes with XDR are very good as are most prerecorded chroMo tapes that are recorded at normal bias.

 

[Taketheflame]

I'm reviving this thread, lol...

I've come across some more pre-recorded cassettes that have impressed me - some late 1990s/early 2000's releases from Universal/Republic, and also Dreamworks - in the case of the former, the sound was probably the closest I've come across to CD/vinyl from a pre-recorded tape so far - spot on Dolby NR encoding (many tapes I have that have Dolby seem to not be encoded quite right, muffling the sound too much when NR is engaged), and plenty of clarity in the highs/overall punch to the sound, with a nice "analog" tape warmth. And this is only with Type 1/ferric tape...I've come across a few ATCO releases on Type II tape (from the early 1990s) that also sound stellar.

 

[Hajidub]

I have no idea what kind of tape my prerecorded ones are produced on, I just go by how they sound now, 30 years after. With that said every copy of INXS live baby live I own sound incredible.

Will sort of take back my INXS Live Baby Live suggestion. Just listened to it again, it has to be the "hottest" recorded cassette I've ever heard. Though it's hot, which is odd for a tape recording, I guess that might not translate to best sounding (in other people's opinion).

 

[oldvinyldude]

Little Feat-Let It Roll

Anything recorded with Dolby HX encoding is pretty good. 120us equalization on Chrome tape with Dolby HX is excellent.

As CD's gained ground, some duplicators and labels answered the call, and upped the quality of tape, shells, and tightened up on QC\maintenance of duplicators A mid priced deck, assuming the transport was decent (low wow and flutter), with better media, did compare favorably with digital. Digital Bin masters and high speed dubbing did not erode quality, if the duplicator hardware were up to snuff.

Even run of the mill pre recorded tapes from the mid 80's onward could sound good. I have early\mid 70's tapes that will stop my deck, such was the mechanical slop of the shells. These same titles, duplicated in say, 1991, sounds decent.