Popular Science 1978 article on new metal particle Cassette tape formulation

Funny how they kept mentioning PCM digital recording in that article. I had a VCR that recorded 14-bit audio on the video track.
 
I remember "metal" tape, as it came to be called. Pretty much a economic crash-and-burn, as the tapes were so expensive. I think I actually bought TWO of the things. Maybe only one. Heck, maybe I never bought any- being the skin-flint I am, if I HAD bought one, I would probably still have the thing...

The article makes, I think, a pretty glaring factual mistake- Phillips introduced the cassette tape format in 1959, as a dictation-machine format, from what I have read. I got bored with the "Gee, Wizz!" writing style of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science after about 3 or 4 issues of either... the writer talks about bring one of the tapes back to his "lab." Yeah, right. It was probably a work bench with a big, green fluorescent over-head lamp...:rolleyes:
 
Compact Cassette (the official name of the format) was actually useless for anything except voice dictation for years after it was released. I think it was around 1972 when I first heard music recorded on one.
 
As I recall, I remember buying cassette tapes- blank and pre-recorded- a bit earlier than 1972. In fact, I am sure I did- by '72 I'd been listening to cassettes for some number of years. For the time, they were not bad- track width was exactly the same as the more popular 8-Track tapes. I went with cassettes because I could make my own tapes (rare to find an 8-track recorder) and you could store almost 4 cassettes in the space ONE 8-Track ate up.

Given their humble beginnings, it is amazing that cassettes got hot-rodded to the point of rivaling open-reel, and have lasted as long as they have.
 
Cassette decks by the late 60's early 70's had conquered their biggest weakness wow and flutter. Of course the portable battery powered things were still awful. Stereo wall unit decks were good. By the mid 70's the stereo cassette deck was a mature format. The big changes were the addition of a third head on some decks and better noise reduction. Just about any good 70's deck will sound as good or better than the later decks and are certainly made better than the few decks that survive in production.

Metal tape was good for sure but not head and shoulders better than chrome. It was too expensive and bang for the buck wasn't big enough to sustain its longevity with consumers.
 
stevieb said:
Given their humble beginnings, it is amazing that cassettes got hot-rodded to the point of rivaling open-reel, and have lasted as long as they have.
Click to expand...

Actually the cassette only sorta nipped at the heels of reel to reel. Considering the tape speed and tape width the cassette was technically superior in a relative sense. However a good reel to reel in side by side sound comparison would quickly bring the shortcoming of the cassette into focus. Fidelity on cassettes could be excellent but the sense size of the soundscape was always bigger with reel to reel. Cassettes always sounded smaller which of course they were.
 
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