Does Cassette BRAND Affect Sound? | Type 2 cassette shootout

Wow I picked the Denon over the maxell no doubts.
That charcteristic affect on mids.
Been years too!

A very comprehensive and interesting comparison and it was great to hear the difference between brands on the same source material! I’m even more convinced that the NAC and ATR tapes are the same formula after hearing your test. I’ve also found BASF tapes to be quieter and more muffled than other type 2 tapes as well. The Maxell, TDK and Sony all performed well on your test, it’s just a shame that they don’t produce them anymore. 🙌

Can changing the deck's bias change the results much?

Such a fun and informative shootout

Oh man that NAC comparison really ruined my day... I just bought a whole box of the things. :(

Thanks for doing this, I recently recorded on a Fuji for the first time, noticed it was darker than the tdks i use. Might pick up a couple of those Sonys cause they sounded fat.

Nice shootout. Goes to show you should just grab any cobalt type 2 you have in hand and make some music. Totally agree with the dropout aesthetic’s, keep it real.

For a full multi-track mix, a bright tape is always nice. If you're only bouncing one stem to/from tape (like just the drums, for example), you might be surprised that a duller tape mixes better.

I recently compared TDK D60 [Type I] and TDK SA90 [Type II] tape on drums, and though I preferred the Type II solo'd, when I mixed the drums back in with the keyboards and bass, I preferred Type I so the keys could sit on top.

Always fun doing these types of experiments. Thank you for sharing your work!

Yes definitely!..you also get sticky tape syndrome..maxell is awsome.stay awY from ampex

I hear the most difference always in the high end. It changes drastically from cassette to cassette. Listen to the hi hats. and for a "studio master" its not very master of the studio ha.

ive also heard that 60min vs 90min is supposed to be better. The 60 because there is less time the tape is thicker so you can maybe hit it harder. idk could be not true but seems plausible.

awesome video, i have a ton of different tape stock and haven't put in the effort to test all the differences. I listened to this with a subpac and the differences between a lot of these were especially noticeable in the very low end that you might not hear on headphones. The maxell was way more balanced overall, the TDK and the Denon both had some serious punch in the low end compared to everything else though.

casettes add some saturation (wow and flutter) and people think that tape sounds better.Only there're some magic harmonics.That's all.

I only use NIKE cassettes

BASF and SKC tapes are pure chrome and should be recorded at 0db and have very little hiss ,usualy used from recording from vinyl and not really for portastudio use .....maybe for a mixdown .....the cobalt (maxell,TDK,Sony,Denon) are best for portastudio

Dude I love comparison videos like this. Thanks for starting with the drum machine for comparisons: not subject to variability between performances. Great vibes, great info, great production. I want to get a porta studio now!

You deck s biased for colbolt doped type 2 tapes the basf needs the biased and level backed off

Hi, another awesome video! Thanx for this comparision, I am using TDK, but love Maxell too. But - what about that Tascam tapes, would you mind this kind..?

Sure you can hear the difference..only on an expensive cassettedeck type-1 will play almost as good as a type-2..

I found TDK stuff is quitest and Maxell is number 2 and way more available for me.

It's really unfortunate that the NAC is such garbage. I bought some ATR cassettes some years back and it was also terrible, like unusable like you showed here. Which is odd since their studio master is what I use on my 1/4" and 1/2" reel to reels and I love it, it's a great stuff. I know the rumor is that it's the same as NAC but I'm surprised they would drag down their brand like that.

What kind of 1/4” to rca cable brand so you use? My hosa cables keeps breaking

Cool stuff, glad to see you’re still making this kind of content!

Loved this test! You should do this test on the 464, the high frequencies are really sensitive depending on the formula. Also if you ever do this again, the TDK SA-X used to be considered by some to be the best tape for four tracks. The reason those tapes (SKC, BASF) smelled like crayons is because those are actual chrome formulas, compared with the others which are mostly cobalt-doped ferric 🤓. Oddly enough, in my experience chrome formulas work better for dubbing standard tapes on a tape deck, and end up sounding dull on multitrackers 🤷‍♂️. I learned all that tape stuff on Cassette Comeback - great channel(s) 😉 👍🏻

Very good

In the drums department, Maxell sounds better than most, perhaps that's what the deck was biased for. Basf was easy to pick out for its lower noise floor vs Maxell. Also I picked out the fuji correctly BASF sounds good but could probably do with some positive bias and a bit more level, being cro2. Denon is a bit hissy , but not as hissy as NAC. , NAC easily worst tape of them all and can be picked out easily. , it would probably be easier to tell more details if I was familiar with the music. Good video .

Well, if the deck can't calibrate for the tape, be prepared that some otherwise decent tapes will sound dull and muffled. It's not their fault, it's the factory settings of the deck.
What's worse, some of these tapes like the 1990s BASF CEII shown here can easily fool auto-calibration algorithms. I have two decks with auto-calibration, and both can't bias the CEII correctly.

Sony was the hardest, but in the drum test i always recognize Maxell!
thanks for this video, man

Well done for calling them Type II cassettes as most of them are not true chromes but ferro-cobalt.

I wanted to let everyone know that true chromium dioxide or CR02 formulated tapes are no longer being produced.
NAC and a few other companies use a formula of tape that may be semi compatible with the cassette decks Type 2 bias setting.

However, these are not true Type 2 or chrome formula tapes.
The reason for this was the cost for disposal of chromium waste.
Aside from chromium being bad for the environment.

The only true CR02 tapes available in 2023 are new old stock CR02 cassettes, or used CR02 cassettes.

And this is why the prices for true Type 2 chromium tapes are through the roof.

Stick to Maxell and TDK, they both make great sounding tapes just be careful with TDK, there tape formulas don't seem to age well, New Old Stock TDK to get moldy and dusty inside the cassette shells

I think they’re all super similar and that it’s probably be worth going back and seeing if the extra top end from the other tapes is due to having more saturation. It could be a similar situation to swapping pickups. Swapping pickups has less difference in tone than it has in headroom. (Within reason ofc. Single cool and hum bucket will almost always sound different)

Picked the Maxell every time. It's punchy and buttery all at the same time... lovely. Thanks for the comparison 🙏

Esse aparelho não tem regulagem de bias, por isso nas fitas de cromo o som é mais baixo, porque esse aparelho é regulado para fitas de cobalto. Tenho um deck Tascam 103 que grava bem em todas por causa da regulagem de bias.

Got a handful of Fuji tapes recently, I'm hoping a little bias calibration can help punch it up a bit. I remember reading that they can need some calibration to really shine. At least I feel better about the 20 used XLii's I impulse bought the other day. Those new ones are RUFF.

Well done! Thanks for the time and money put in to this video!

A good vid. Thanks. And you just confirmed ebay prices of these brands =)

The new type 2 is worse you better off with type 1 also the new type 2 is not the same its cobalt old 70s tech and not even Chrome.

Asfar as I'm aware you haven't made a video along these lines, but I was wondering if worn tape adds mojo? I noticed undamaged tape sounds more or less the same but would intentionally somewhat mangled or crinkled tape add something? Maybe when mixed with the undamaged signal?

yes ,there are type II cassettes that are garbage ,one after testing several only uses the best built cassettes ,one brand might have better tapes but if the casing it´s badly built it´s a deck destroyer ,the cassette as to be well built in it´s whole, as an example one day i found a older person in late 70'´s that had a incredible record colection and because i needed a lotof cassettes and i couldn´t spend much money i went for the older SKC chrome with a golden sticker or inlay papper ,it´s incredible that today all sound perfect and do not dirt the heads ,after i bought other model of skc and they were garbage,at the time each C-90 cassette cost me 20 cents. each i bought maybe 20 and not one is bad today ,that i can´t say of the BASF LH-super I or maxima I, or agfa´s or scoth

the light grey casing on maxell if you use them will destroy any deck perfect alignement or tune first you´ll notice you can´t calibrate other brands cassette because of a badly built cassette ,the tape might be the best but if badly built it destroys any cassette deck ,that mini recorder with inputs it´s what early teen kids uesd to buy to record their first band demos at home, they were the cheapest and no quality at all, the reel deck you have behind you it´s better than any cassette deck if working properly and already set up to record in stereo 4 track recording, home recording conected to a litrle mixing board, the best thing to do is spend money on a good microphone to catch all band sound from above in a litle room ,i´m talking about 13 to 14 years old

Basf and SKC (particular version) are true chrome tapes (CrO2 chromdioxide), that's why they have a crayon smell.., while the others are cobalt doped ferro tapes. The video shows that your cassette deck is tuned (biased) on ferrocobalt tapes..
NAC is a failed product and in truth it seems to be the brainchild of a British-Korean company (I won't name it as I don't have direct evidence, although it is widely known in the industry) that gave up on the ferro-cobalt tape development project and NAC sells this product as an end product product. Shame..
SKC uses a ferro-cobalt compound in most of its Type 2 cassettes. SKC bought true chrome probably from PDM Philips or Basf but the final mixture is their product.
I have been recording tapes for decades. Very interesting video.

TDK numba 1

They might be type 2 but they're 4 times the price 😅

This is so useful! I just bought my first Tascam Portastudio MK III.

Yes tape can be Lo-Fi, but it isn't ALWAYS. Thanks for putting the time in with these videos. Fun to mess about with anaogue formats. I was born in the 70s and can now buy devices that were out of reach financially back then.

That maxell sounds the best I'm glad I bought mostly those for my supply

To me SONY was the best and TDK was a close second , I don't know if it's the same thing now.

Know I am late to the comments, but the video just poped up so...
I am not a super expert here, but when you say your portastudio is biased for maxell and tdk, I am not sure that is correct. Bias from my experience, is something that one does in terms of calibrating a cassette deck and only higher models of decks have this ability. Because of this most people did not know or ever think about this as lower-end decks only had a record button and rec level. this led to many getting worse recordings than expected while spending extra bucks on type 2 cassettes. They need different calibrations. Therefore most decks had to follow one standard, which was called the TDK standard. That meant that some cassettes just won't work as well on some decks.

This is where I am a bit surprised because from what I recall a Maxell II does not have the TDK standard, and I still have some that I have used, and I do need to calibrate them differently than TDKs. Also, I do not get as good recordings on the Maxell as the TDKs even with proper calibration. Maybe I have a bad batch, these things are old, but I am only talking about new old stock here, nothing pre-used.
Maxell also had the UD line for I and II which as I recall was made to support the TDK standard.

Basf on the other hand where the inventers of true chromium dioxide tapes. these had better clarity but could lack a bit in the bass department, and yes they do smell. I know SKC had many good type 1 cassettes, but not sure if they actually produced their own tape like TDK, Maxell and so on, but BASF did, and they patented the chrome formula. So Maxell and TDK type 2 are not true Chromium. They were probably using cobalt ferric or what it was called. One can argue that it is actually better, and it did come after the chrome invention.

Anyway, long story short, the portatable does not have calibration features, so I am assuming it is calibrated in the TDK standard.
Late type 1 tapes were actually just as good as type 2 in my opinion. they still have more hizz, but you can bump up the rec level to almost 7 like metal tapes which are also hizzy, but you cant hear it that well on those levels.
Not sure about Sony and Denon production, but they did cost more and they do sound great. In my opinion and on my decks I get great results with TDK D's SA and SAX, and Maxell XL II-S. I also like the BASF which also has shared its patented recipe with some brands like Memorex, scotch, Phillips and probably SKC cause that smell is only on chromium dioxide tapes. It is undeniable. But, one does need to calibrate them properly. I have some Sony CD IT II too, and yes they are amazing.

This is why most high end cassettes decks has a calibration system, and some tapes are more premium than others