WHat did Audiophiles hear during Tape deck era?

I was not into High End back then but had good mid-fi gear.  Good RR's and early cassette players had Tape Hiss and later came Dolby Noise Reduction.  That reduced the hiss but slightly affected the high frequencies.  Some older people may have a better take on it, I was in my late teen back then.  BTW, I hated Dolby and wouldn't use it. 

All,

 

I have really enjoyed everyone's posts about their cassette tape experiences.  In the pre-CD years, I too used to record most of my albumn purchases on to cassette, and a few times I even used HiFi VHS.  HiFi VHS recordings sounded terrific, but they were not very convenient to use.

 

None of the posts that I saw raised the matter of Dolby cassette noise reduction and its tracking issues.  Dolby B was most widely used (including for retail tapes).  It worked well across most players, and even operated pretty well on non-Dolby equipped players.  Dolby B tapes still had quite a bit of tape hiss.  Dolby C had much better noise reduction, but tracked poorly across different Dolby C players.  When not tracking well, it exhibited what was called a "pumping sound".  It pumped really badly on Dolby B machines, and even a bit on other Dolby C machines.

 

I always used Dolby C for my own tape recordings, but if I played one of my tapes on someone else's machine (like their car), -- there was that pumping. 

 

About when the cassette tape went into its sunset period, Dolby introduced its Dolby S codec.  I never heard it, but it was advertized as having more noise reduction than Dolby B or C, and being well behaved on all other types of machines.  But alas, Phillips digital cassette, Sony mini-disc, and soon recordable CD players came on the market, and I do not think that Dolby S decks were ever very common.

Tom 

Ente

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Prerecorded tapes usually sound bad , I only used them in my car. If you used quality metal tapes from TDK , BASF ,and Maxell , you could have a quality listening experience. Dolby and DBX noise reduction systems worked , but I think that you lost upper frequencies. Reel to reels were the way to go. 

tomshults,

"None of the posts that I saw raised the matter of Dolby cassette noise reduction and its tracking issues."


I think a few of us did, albeit by omission.

I for one never liked what Dolby B did to the sound. It was a bit like throwing a heavy shirt over your speakers.

Dolby C was definitely better, but still you could hear it messing up the timing somewhat. 

No Dolby and good chrome tape (ferric was worse in every way especially dynamics and hiss) and it was like listening to a junior reel to reel deck.

Head alignment was also crucial, particularly for high frequency and separation. I used to wonder how many people might have been listening to tape with misaligned tape heads. 

Life before the internet would probably seem slow, strange and frustrating to those who never experienced it. We knew of nothing else.

I hate to judge before all the facts are in but I might be the only one here who thinks that cassettes are great and often sound better than CDs or vinyl in most respects that matter. I’m not talking about the cruddy ones from the 70s but the ones from circa 85 to 95. Even ferrite tapes are good sounding. I have a lot of good cassettes now and it’s rare to hear noise between tracks and I never hear noise whilst the music is playing. I did not fall off the turnip truck yesterday. Perhaps you guys are oblivious to all the overly aggressive compression for CDs and vinyl. I can’t breathe! 😩 Maybe you guys need a good ear candling. 🕯