Homemade Type IV Cassettes in 2024

[Katie Cadet 90]

Hello fellow bronies! It's time to give cassettes another chance!

I found a Nakamichi CR-1A cassette deck from a thrift store, and a Maxell Metal Capsule Type IV blank cassette tape from another thrift store, and that got me thinking that I needed to record something surreal with a Hi-Res track courtesy of Sound Liaison, which has the same free track in different formats courtesy of Carmen Gomes Inc. I downloaded the 192 kHz 24-bit and DSD64 versions onto my FiiO M3K portable digital audio player, connected it to the Nakamichi deck via 3.5mm to Analog RCA, adjusted the volume levels on both the digital audio player and the cassette deck, adjusted the bias to Type IV, applied Dolby C noise reduction, and pressed record in an attempt to do multiple takes until it sounded perfect. Once recorded, I then listened back to the tape because it is a 2-head deck, and I couldn't tell a difference between the commercially recorded Type I Ferric cassettes with Dolby B produced in the 1970's and 1980's (sometimes in the 2010's and 2020's) and my Type IV Metal Bias cassette recording with Dolby C. At least Type IV cassettes take a whole new level in the age when Type I cassettes are standard in commercial production in 2024, but the only way you can do it is at home, with a deck from the 1980's. and a 24-bit digital file.

I then did the same recording on a Maxell XLII-S Type II Chrome cassette from the 1980's (Epitaxial) with the same deck and settings as the Type IV, and is a second best. I even went and tried the Type IV cassette on my JVC portable that I got from Kijiji, and it also is a second best. To me, Type IV cassettes are still the champion when it comes to recording digital 24-bit files in 2024, with Type II being the second best, in overall quality and performance.

I also got a JVC TD-W307 dual cassette deck from the early 1990's with HX Pro, and I actually listened to one of my other Maxell XLII-S Type II Chrome cassettes with Dolby C, and it doesn't sound bad after all! (The Black Magnetite Maxell Type II from the early 1990's has some recordings from HDTracks samplers.)

What do you think? Discuss here, and I'll provide a link to the free track where you can try what I've learned, and there's lots of formats to choose as well!

https://soundliaison.com/products/compare-formats-free-downloads?variant=48137798713671

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,376]

Confused, what do the tapes look like and the machine they play on?  

[Katie Cadet 90]

11 hours ago, ZiggWheelsManning said:

Confused, what do the tapes look like and the machine they play on?  

The easiest way to find out is by looking at the notches on the top of the cassette. The Type IV has the additional two holes needed to identify the bias when inserted into the machine.

Here it is:

My Nakamichi CR-1A looks like this that I found online:

https://www.hifiengine.com/files/images/nakamichi-cr1a-cassette-deck.preview.jpg

Now you might think that this is the budget version of the Dragon cassette deck, which is loved by many collectors pictured here:

And here is what the Maxell Metal Capsule cassette looks like:

Techmoan back in 2016 has made a video on cassettes sounding good when using Type IV tapes here:

But to think about Type I tapes sounding noisier when using Dolby, I prefer either a Type II or Type IV because the hiss isn't there when using Dolby C or Dolby S.

I believe Technology Connections has made in-depth videos on cassettes and Dolby noise reduction as well, both linked here:

And I proved that Type IV cassettes with Dolby C or Dolby S has the best signal to noise ratio when it comes to recording 24-bit digital files in 2024!

Now you will know that Type IV cassettes sound better than a Type I recorded commercially, because I haven't seen any pre-recorded Type IV cassettes in my thrift store hunts. The lone Maxell Metal Capsule and Nakamichi CR-1A from thrifting really made a difference!

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,376]

Any of those cassette machines have a deck that when Side A stopped playing it would automatically flip the cassette horizontally to Side B for you?  

[Katie Cadet 90]

1 minute ago, ZiggWheelsManning said:

Any of those cassette machines have a deck that when Side A stopped playing it would automatically flip the cassette horizontally to Side B for you?  

I have an auto-reverse JVC TD-W307 dual cassette deck.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,376]

6 minutes ago, Katie Cadet said:

I have an auto-reverse JVC TD-W307 dual cassette deck.

Many years ago, there was a YouTube video where a guy had the Alice in Chains album Dirt (audio cassette) with a machine like that  

[Otaku-sempai 151]

I still have some audio cassette lying around, including a few that I recorded myself. Some of them have anime songs recorded on them, mostly from the '80s and '90s.  I'm afraid that a lot of them have degraded to the point where I don't dare try to play them! 

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

I have lots of old cassettes of every kind. It’s what I grew up with and they were fine at the time. But to be honest, they have their drawbacks, as do the machines that play them. I can’t begin to count all the tapes that have been chewed to pieces by faulty players. And the players that supposedly flip from Side A to Side B automatically NEVER worked. Car cassette decks were especially notorious for getting confused as to which side of the tape to play and, when they get confused they simply don’t work at all. Don’t get me wrong, I have great nostalgia for cassette tapes and still have all my old pre-recorded and home-recorded cassettes. They may not be perfect, but neither are CDs for that matter. Oh yeah, I forgot, no one seems to use CDs anymore either, Oh well.