Cassette Tape

No no no, buy only sealed Maxell XLII S 90 for type II and Maxell MX-S 90 for type IV metal. Get them on ebay from people with excellent feedback. I never had problems with sealed tapes. Look at the pictures, the wrapper should not be warped much because if it is they might've been exposed to heat. If they were stored near magnetic fields the first time you record on them they might sound dull. No worries, record the second time and it should be fine, just a bit more noise. Or throw them away.

Thanks for all the replys, I got my Maxell XL II in today, I can't help wonder how old they are, anyway to find out ?

I used to record stuff on a last generation Teac 8 track studio recorder…DBX, double speed…I recorded the title music for a TV show, mixed it to my Nakamichi BX300, and dumped it onto a SONY Mini Disc for the TV studio's digital needs. Did my recordings sound great? Well of course they did! Now I'm like everybody else with MAC based blah blah and my 8 track and NAK languish in their boxes in the basement. Now I mix concerts and record them onto tiny digital gizmos with no charm to them at all…except the music part.

I still listen to pre-recorded cassette tapes. But it never beats a properly mastered CD played back through a good DAC.