Audio
compact cassette
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...
s use
magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...
of three major types which differ in fundamental
magnetic properties
Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...
, the level of
bias
Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...
applied during
recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, ...
, and the optimal
time constant In physics and engineering, the time constant, usually denoted by the Greek letter (tau), is the parameter characterizing the response to a step input of a first-order, linear time-invariant (LTI) system.Concretely, a first-order LTI system is a sy ...
of
replay equalization. Specifications of each type were set in 1979 by the
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...
(IEC). By this time, Type I (IEC I, 'ferric' or 'normal' tapes) included pure
gamma ferric oxide formulations, Type II (IEC II, or 'chrome' tapes) included
ferricobalt and
chromium dioxide
Chromium dioxide or chromium(IV) oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula CrO2. It is a black synthetic magnetic solid. It once was widely used in magnetic tape emulsion. With the increasing popularity of CDs and DVDs, the use of chromiu ...
formulations, and Type IV (IEC IV, or 'metal' tapes) included metal particle tapes—the best-performing, but also the most expensive. In the 1980s the lines between three types blurred.
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
developed evaporated metal tapes that could be made to match any of the three IEC types. Metal particle tapes migrated to Type II and Type I, ferricobalt formulations migrated to Type I. By the end of the decade performance of the best Type I ferricobalt tapes (superferrics) approached that of Type IV tapes; performance of entry-level Type I tapes gradually improved until the very end of compact cassette production.
Double-layer Type III (IEC III, ferrichrome or ferrochrome) tape formulations, advanced by
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
and
BASF
BASF Societas Europaea, SE () is a German multinational corporation, multinational chemical company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
The ...
in the 1970s, never gained substantial market presence. 'Type 0' was a non-standard designation for early compact cassettes that did not conform to IEC specification; in the 21st century it is informally used to denote any low quality or
counterfeit
To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
cassette.
Tape specifications
Magnetic properties
Magnetic recording relies on the use of hard
ferrimagnetic
A ferrimagnetic material is a material that has populations of atoms with opposing magnetic moments, as in antiferromagnetism, but these moments are unequal in magnitude so a spontaneous magnetization remains. This can for example occur when t ...
or
ferromagnetic
Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) which results in a large observed magnetic permeability, and in many cases a large magnetic coercivity allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials ...
materials. These require strong external
magnetic field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
s to be magnetized, and retain substantial
residual magnetization
Remanence or remanent magnetization or residual magnetism is the magnetization left behind in a ferromagnetic material (such as iron) after an external magnetic field is removed. Colloquially, when a magnet is "magnetized", it has remanence. The ...
after the magnetizing field is removed. Two fundamental magnetic properties, relevant for audio recording, are:
*
Saturation remanence limits maximum output level and, indirectly,
dynamic range
Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of signals, like sound and light. It is measured either as a ratio or as a base-1 ...
of audio recordings. Remanence of audio tapes, referred to quarter-inch tape width, varies from around for basic ferric tapes to for Type IV tapes; advertised remanence of the 1986
JVC
JVC (short for Japan Victor Company) is a Japanese brand owned by JVCKenwood corporation. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as , the company is best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for ...
Type IV cassette reached .
*
Coercivity
Coercivity, also called the magnetic coercivity, coercive field or coercive force, is a measure of the ability of a ferromagnetic material to withstand an external magnetic field without becoming demagnetized. Coercivity is usually measured in ...
is a measure of external
magnetic flux
In physics, specifically electromagnetism, the magnetic flux through a surface is the surface integral of the normal component of the magnetic field B over that surface. It is usually denoted or . The SI unit of magnetic flux is the weber ( ...
required to magnetize the tape, and an indicator of necessary bias level. Coercivity of audio tapes varies from to . High coercivity particles are more difficult to erase, bias and record, but also less prone to high-frequency losses during recording, and to external interference and self-demagnetization during storage.
A useful
figure of merit
A figure of merit is a quantity used to characterize the performance of a device, system or method, relative to its alternatives. Examples
*Clock rate of a CPU
* Calories per serving
*Contrast ratio of an LCD
*Frequency response of a speaker
* ...
of tape technology is the squareness ratio of the
hysteresis curve. It is an indicator of tape uniformity and its
linearity
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...
in analogue recording. Increase of the ratio defers the onset of
compression
Compression may refer to:
Physical science
*Compression (physics), size reduction due to forces
*Compression member, a structural element such as a column
*Compressibility, susceptibility to compression
*Gas compression
*Compression ratio, of a c ...
and
distortion
In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...
, and allows fuller utilization of the tape's dynamic range within the limits of remanence. Squareness ratio of basic ferric tapes rarely exceeds 0.75; squareness ratio of the best tapes exceeds 0.9.
Electroacoustic properties
Manufacturers of bulk tape provided extremely detailed technical descriptions of their product, with numerous charts and dozens of numeric parameters. From the end user viewpoint, the most important electroacoustic properties of the tape are:
* Maximum output levels, usually specified in dB relative to the nominal zero level of or the 'Dolby level' of . Often incorrectly called ''recording'' levels, these are always expressed in terms of tapes' ''output'', thus taking its sensitivity out of the equation. Performance at low and middle, and at treble frequencies was traditionally characterized by two related but different parameters:
** Maximum output level (MOL) is relevant at low and middle frequencies. It is usually specified at 315 (MOL
315) or 400 (MOL
400) Hz, and its value marks the point when the
third harmonic coefficient reaches 3%. Further magnetization of the tape is technically possible, at the cost of unacceptable
compression
Compression may refer to:
Physical science
*Compression (physics), size reduction due to forces
*Compression member, a structural element such as a column
*Compressibility, susceptibility to compression
*Gas compression
*Compression ratio, of a c ...
and
distortion
In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...
. For all types of tape, MOL reaches maximum in 125800Hz area, and drops below and above . Maximum output of Type I tape at is 35dB lower than MOL
400, in Type IV tapes it is 67dB lower. As a result, ferric tapes handle bass-heavy music with apparent ease compared to expensive metal tapes.
** At treble frequencies the playback head cannot reliably reproduce harmonics of the recorded signal. This makes distortion measurements impossible; instead of MOL, high-frequency performance is characterized by saturation output level (SOL), usually specified at (SOL
10k). Once the tape reaches saturation point, any further increases in recording flux actually ''decrease'' output below SOL.
* Noise level, usually understood as bias noise (hiss) of a tape recorded with zero input signal, replayed without noise reduction,
A-weighted
A-weighting is the most commonly used of a family of curves defined in the International standard IEC 61672:2003 and various national standards relating to the measurement of sound pressure level. A-weighting is applied to instrument-measured s ...
and referred to the same level as MOL and SOL. The difference between bias noise and the noise of virgin tape is an indicator of tape uniformity. Another important but rarely quantified type of noise is modulation noise, which appears only in presence of recorded audio, and which cannot be reduced by Dolby or dbx systems.
*
Dynamic range
Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of signals, like sound and light. It is measured either as a ratio or as a base-1 ...
, or
signal-to-noise ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N) is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. SNR is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power, often expressed in deci ...
, was usually understood as the ratio between MOL and
A-weighted
A-weighting is the most commonly used of a family of curves defined in the International standard IEC 61672:2003 and various national standards relating to the measurement of sound pressure level. A-weighting is applied to instrument-measured s ...
bias noise level. High fidelity audio requires dynamic range of at least 6065dB; the best cassettes tapes reached this threshold in the 1980s, at least partially eliminating the need for noise reduction. Dynamic range is ''the'' most important property of the tape. The higher the dynamic range of music, the more demanding it is to tape quality; alternatively, heavily compressed music sources can do well even with basic inexpensive tapes.
* Sensitivity of the tape, referred to that of IEC reference tape and expressed in dB, was usually measured at and .
* Stability of playback in time. Low-quality or damaged cassette tape is notoriously prone to signal dropouts, which are absolutely unacceptable in high fidelity audio. For high quality tapes, playback stability is sometimes lumped together with modulation noise and
wow and flutter into an integral smoothness parameter.
Frequency range, per se, is usually unimportant. At low recording levels (-20 dB referred to nominal level) all quality tapes can reliably reproduce frequencies from to , which is sufficient for high fidelity audio. However, at high recording levels treble output is further limited by saturation. At Dolby recording level the upper frequency limit shrinks to a value between for a typical chromium dioxide tape, and for metal tapes; in case of chromium dioxide, this is partially offset by very low hiss levels. In practice, high-level frequency range is not as important as the smoothness of midrange and treble frequency response.
Standards and references
The original
specification
A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard.
There are different types of technical or engineering specificati ...
for Compact Cassette was set by
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
in 1962–1963. Of the three then available tape formulations that matched Philips requirements, the
BASF
BASF Societas Europaea, SE () is a German multinational corporation, multinational chemical company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
The ...
PES-18 tape became the original reference.
Other chemical companies followed with tapes of varying quality, often incompatible with BASF reference. By 1970 a new, improved generation of tapes firmly established itself on the market, and became the de facto reference for aligning tape recorders - thus the compatibility issue worsened even further.
[ In 1971 it was tackled by the ]Deutsches Institut für Normung
' (DIN; in English, the German Institute for Standardisation Registered Association) is the German national organization for standardization and is the German ISO member body. DIN is a German Registered Association ('' e.V.'') headquartered in ...
(DIN), which set the standard for chromium dioxide tapes; in 1978 the International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...
(IEC) enacted the comprehensive standard on cassette tapes (IEC 60094); one year later the IEC mandated the use of notches for automatic tape type recognition.[ Since then, the four cassette tape types were known as IEC I, IEC II, IEC III and IEC IV.][ The numerals follow historic sequence in which these types were commercialized, and do not imply their relative quality or intended purpose.
An integral part of the IEC 60094 standard family is the set of four IEC reference tapes. Type I and Type II references were manufactured by BASF, Type III reference by ]Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, Type IV reference by TDK
is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation that manufactures electronic components and recording and data-storage media. Its motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity".
"TDK" is an initialism of the original Ja ...
.[ Unlike consumer tapes, which were manufactured continuously over years, each reference tape was made in a single production batch by the IEC-approved factory.][ These batches were made large enough to fill the need of the industry for many years.][ A second run was impossible, because the chemists were unable to replicate the reference with proper precision.] From time to time, the IEC revised the set of references; the final revision took place in April 1994. The choice of reference tapes, and the IEC role in general has been debated. Meinrad Liebert, designer of Studer
Studer is a designer and manufacturer of professional audio equipment for recording studios and broadcasters. The company was founded in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1948 by Willi Studer. It initially became known in the 1950s for its professiona ...
and Revox
ReVox (on-logo styling REVOX) is a brand name, registered by Studer on 27 March 1951 for Swiss audio equipment.
History
The first Studer-designed tape recorders were branded Dynavox. After the first production series of Dynavox recorders, a new m ...
cassette decks, criticized the IEC for failing to enforce the standards and lagging behind the constantly changing market.[ In 1987 Liebert wrote that while the market clearly branched into distinct, incompatible "premium" and "budget" subtypes, the IEC tried in vain to select an elusive "market average"; meanwhile, the industry moved forward, disregarding outdated references.][ This, according to Liebert, explained sudden demand for built-in tape calibration tools that were almost unheard-of in the 1970s.]
From the end user viewpoint, the IEC 60094 defined two principal properties of each type:
* Bias level for each type was set equal to optimal bias of the relevant IEC reference tape, and sometimes changed with the IEC changed the reference tapes. Type II bias ('high bias') equals around 150% of Type I bias, Type IV bias ('metal bias') equals around 250% of Type I bias. Real cassettes invariably deviate from the references and require fine tuning of bias; recording with improper bias increases distortion and alters tonal balance. A 1990 comparative test of 35 Type I tapes showed that their optimal bias levels were within of Type I reference, while Type IV tapes deviated from Type IV reference by up to .
* Time constant In physics and engineering, the time constant, usually denoted by the Greek letter (tau), is the parameter characterizing the response to a step input of a first-order, linear time-invariant (LTI) system.Concretely, a first-order LTI system is a sy ...
of replay equalization (often shortened to EQ) for Type I tapes equals , as in the Philips specification. Time constant for Types II, III and IV is set at a lower value of . The purpose of replay equalization is to compensate for treble losses during recording, which, in case of ferric cassettes, usually start at around 11.5kHz. The choice of time constant is an arbitrary decision seeking the best combination of conflicting parameters - extended treble response, maximum output, minimum noise and minimum distortion. Treble roll-off not fully compensated in the replay channel may be offset by pre-emphasis
Typically, prior to some process, such as transmission over cable, or recording to phonograph record or tape, the input frequency range most susceptible to noise is boosted. This is referred to as "pre-emphasis"before the process the signal will u ...
during recording. Lower replay time constants decrease apparent level of hiss (by 4dB when stepping down from 120 to ), but also decrease apparent treble saturation level, so the choice of time constants was a matter of compromise and debate. The industry and the IEC decided that it is safe to decrease time constant of Type II, III and IV to because they are less prone to treble saturation than contemporary ferric tapes. Many disagreed, arguing that the risk of saturation at is unacceptably high. Nakamichi
is a Japanese consumer electronics brand that originated in Japan and gained a name from the 1970s onwards for innovative and high quality audio cassette decks. Nakamichi is a subsidiary of Chinese holding company Nimble Holdings.
Nakamich ...
and Studer
Studer is a designer and manufacturer of professional audio equipment for recording studios and broadcasters. The company was founded in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1948 by Willi Studer. It initially became known in the 1950s for its professiona ...
complied with the IEC, but provided an option for playing Type II and Type IV tapes at and matching pre-emphasis filters in the recording path. A similar pre-emphasis was applied by duplicators of prerecorded chromium dioxide cassettes: although loaded with Type II tape, these cassettes were packaged in Type I shells and intended to be replayed as Type I.
Type I tapes
Type I, or IEC I, ferric or 'normal' cassettes were historically the first, the most common and the least expensive; they dominated the prerecorded cassette market. Magnetic layer of a ferric tape consists of around 30% synthetic binder and 70% magnetic powder - acicular (oblong, needle-like) particles of gamma ferric oxide (γ-Fe2O3), with a length of to . Each particle of such size contains a single magnetic domain
A magnetic domain is a region within a magnetic material in which the magnetization is in a uniform direction. This means that the individual magnetic moments of the atoms are aligned with one another and they point in the same direction. When c ...
. The powder was and still is manufactured in bulk by chemical companies specializing in mineral pigments for the paint industry. Ferric magnetic layers have brown colour, its shade and intensity depending mostly on the size of particles.
Type I tapes must be recorded with 'normal' (low) bias flux and replayed with time constant. Over time, ferric oxide technology developed continuously, with new, superior generations emerging around every five years. Cassettes of various periods and price points can be sorted into three distinct groups: basic coarse-grained tapes; advanced fine-grained, or microferric, tapes; and highest-grade ferricobalt tapes, having ferric oxide particles encapsulated in a thin layer of cobalt-iron compound. Remanence and squareness of the three groups substantially differ, while coercivity remains almost unchanged at around ( for the IEC reference tape approved in 1979). Quality Type I cassettes have higher midrange MOL than most Type II tapes, slow and gentle MOL roll-off at low frequencies, but less treble headroom than Type II. In practice that means that ferric tapes have lower fidelity compared to chromes and metals at high frequencies, but are often better at reproducing the low frequencies found in bass-heavy music.
Basic ferric tapes
Entry-level ferric formulations are made of pure, unmodified, coarse-grained ferric oxide. Relatively large (up to in length), irregularly-shaped oxide particles have protruding branches or dendrites; these irregularities prevent tight packing of particles, reducing iron content of the magnetic layer and, consequently, its remanence (13001400G) and maximum output level. Squareness ratio is mediocre, around 0.75, resulting in early but smooth onset of distortion. These tapes, historically sold as 'low noise', have high level of hiss and relatively low sensitivity; their optimal bias level is 1-2dB lower than that of IEC reference.
The group also includes most of so-called 'type 0' cassettes - a mixed bag of ferric tapes that do not meet the IEC standard or the original Philips specification. Historically, informal 'type 0' denoted early cassettes loaded with tape designed for reel-to-reel recorders. In the 1980s many otherwise decent and usable basic tapes were effectively demoted to 'type 0' status when equipment manufacturers began aligning their decks to premium ferricobalts (the latter having much higher sensitivity and bias). In the 21st century 'type 0' denotes all sorts of low-quality, counterfeit or otherwise unusable cassettes. They require unusually low bias, and even then only few of them perform on par with quality Type I tapes. A 'type 0', if usable at all, is incompatible with Dolby noise reduction
A Dolby noise-reduction system, or Dolby NR, is one of a series of noise reduction systems developed by Dolby Laboratories for use in analog audio tape recording. The first was '' Dolby A'', a professional broadband noise reduction ...
: with Dolby decoder engaged, the tape sounds dull, its poor sensitivity causes severe Dolby mistracking.
Microferric tapes
In the beginning of the 1970s, gradual technological improvements of the previous decade resulted in the second generation of Type I tapes. These tapes had uniformly needle-shaped, highly orientable particles (HOP) of much smaller size, around in length, hence the trade term ''microferrics''. Uniform shape allowed very dense packing of particles, with less binder and more particles per unit volume, and a corresponding rise in remanence to around . The first microferric (TDK SD) was introduced in 1971, and in 1973 Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
began marketing patented microferric powder that soon became an industry standard. The next step was to align needle-shaped particles in parallel with flux lines generated by recording head; this was done by controlled flow of liquid magnetic mix over substrate (rheological
Rheology (; ) is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a fluid (liquid or gas) state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applie ...
orientation), or by applying strong magnetic field while the binder was curing.
Typical microferric cassettes of the 1980s had less hiss and at least higher MOL than basic Type I tapes, at the cost of increased print-through
Print-through is a generally undesirable effect that arises in the use of magnetic tape for storing analog information, in particular music, caused by contact transfer of signal patterns from one layer of tape to another as it sits wound concent ...
. Small improvements continued for thirty years, with a gradual rise of squareness ratio from 0.75 to over 0.9. Newer tapes consistently produced higher output at less distortion at the same levels of bias and audio recording signals. Transition was smooth; after introduction of new, superior formulations manufacturers often kept older ones in production, selling them in different markets or under different, cheaper, designations. Thus, for example, TDK
is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation that manufactures electronic components and recording and data-storage media. Its motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity".
"TDK" is an initialism of the original Ja ...
ensured that its premium microferric AD cassette was always ahead of entry-level microferric D, having finer particles and lower noise.
Ferricobalt Type I tapes
The third, best performing class of ferric tapes is made of fine ferric particles encapsulated in a thin layer of cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...
-iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
mix, similar in composition to cobalt ferrite. The first cobalt-doped cassettes, introduced by 3M in 1971, had exceptionally high sensitivity and MOL for the period, and were an even match for contemporary chromium dioxide tapes - hence the trade name ''superferrics''. Of many competing cobalt-doping technologies, the most widespread was low-temperature encapsulation of ferric oxide in aqueous solution
An aqueous solution is a solution in which the solvent is water. It is mostly shown in chemical equations by appending (aq) to the relevant chemical formula. For example, a solution of table salt, or sodium chloride (NaCl), in water would be re ...
of cobalt salts with subsequent drying at 100150°C. Encapsulated microferric particles retain needle-like shape and can be tightly packed into uniform anisotropic
Anisotropy () is the property of a material which allows it to change or assume different properties in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physic ...
layers. The process was first commercialized in Japan in the early 1970s.
Remanence of ferricobalt cassettes is around , resulting in around gain in MOL and 23dB gain in sensitivity compared to basic Type I tapes; their hiss level is on par with contemporary microferric formulations. Dynamic range of the best ferricobalt cassettes (true superferrics) equals 6063dB dB; MOL at lower frequencies exceed MOL of Type IV tapes. Overall, superferrics are a good match to Type IV especially in recording acoustical music with a wide dynamic range. This was reflected in the price of top-of-the-line superferrics like Maxell XLI-S or TDK AR-X, which by 1992 matched the price of 'entry-level' metal tapes.
Type II tapes
IEC Type II tapes are intended for recording with high (150% of normal) bias and replay with 70μs time constant. All generations of Type II reference tapes, including the 1971 DIN reference that pre-dated the IEC standard, were manufactured by BASF. Type II has been historically known as 'chromium dioxide
Chromium dioxide or chromium(IV) oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula CrO2. It is a black synthetic magnetic solid. It once was widely used in magnetic tape emulsion. With the increasing popularity of CDs and DVDs, the use of chromiu ...
tape' or simply 'chrome tape', but in reality most of Type II cassettes do not contain chromium
Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal.
Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...
. The "pseudochromes" (including almost all Type II's made by the Big Three Japanese makers - Maxell, Sony and TDK) are actually ferricobalt formulations optimized for Type II recording and playback settings. A true chrome tape may have a distinctive 'old crayon' smell, more specifically, any oil or wax chalks that have Chrome dioxide pigments in them like chrome yellow, which is missing in "pseudochromes". Both kinds of Type II have, on average, lower treble MOL and SOL, and higher signal-to-noise ratio than quality Type I tapes. This is caused by midrange and treble pre-emphasis
Typically, prior to some process, such as transmission over cable, or recording to phonograph record or tape, the input frequency range most susceptible to noise is boosted. This is referred to as "pre-emphasis"before the process the signal will u ...
applied during recording to match 70μs equalization at playback.
Chromium dioxide tapes
In the middle of 1960s DuPont
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
created and patented industrial process of making fine ferromagnetic particles of chromium dioxide
Chromium dioxide or chromium(IV) oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula CrO2. It is a black synthetic magnetic solid. It once was widely used in magnetic tape emulsion. With the increasing popularity of CDs and DVDs, the use of chromiu ...
(CrO2). First CrO2 tapes for data and video appeared in 1968. In 1970 BASF, who would become the main proponent of CrO2, launched its chrome cassette production; in the same year Advent
Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity.
The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''.
In ...
introduced the first cassette deck with chrome capability and Dolby noise reduction
A Dolby noise-reduction system, or Dolby NR, is one of a series of noise reduction systems developed by Dolby Laboratories for use in analog audio tape recording. The first was '' Dolby A'', a professional broadband noise reduction ...
. The combination of low noise CrO2 tape with companding
In telecommunication and signal processing, companding (occasionally called compansion) is a method of mitigating the detrimental effects of a channel with limited dynamic range. The name is a portmanteau of the words compressing and expanding, ...
noise reduction brought a revolutionary improvement to compact cassette sound, almost reaching high fidelity level. However, CrO2 tape required redesign of bias and replay equalization circuitry. This problem was resolved during the 1970s[ but three unsolved issues remained: the cost of making CrO2 powder, the cost of royalties charged by DuPont, and the pollution effects of ]hexavalent chromium
Hexavalent chromium (chromium(VI), Cr(VI), chromium 6) is chromium in any chemical compound that contains the element in the +6 oxidation state (thus hexavalent). Virtually all chromium ore is processed via hexavalent chromium, specifically the ...
waste.
Reference CrO2 tape, approved by the IEC in 1981, is characterized by coercivity of (high bias) and remanence of . Retail CrO2 cassettes had coercivity in the range from 400 to . Owing to very 'clean', uniform shape of the particles, chrome tapes easily attain almost perfect squareness ratio of 0.90. 'True chromes', not modified by addition of ferric additives or coatings, have very low and euphonic hiss (bias noise), and very low modulation noise at treble frequencies. Double-layer CrO2 cassettes have the lowest absolute noise among all audio formulations; these cassettes generate less noise at than a ferric tape at . Sensitivity is usually also very high, but MOL is low, on par with basic Type I tapes. CrO2 tape does not tolerate overload: onset of distortion is sharp and dissonant, so recording levels should be set conservatively, well below MOL. At low frequencies, MOL of CrO2 tapes rolls off faster than in ferric or metal tapes, hence the reputation of 'bass shyness'. CrO2 cassettes are best fit for recording dynamic music with rich harmonic content and relatively low bass levels; their dynamic range is a good fit for recording from uncompressed digital sources and for music with extended quiet passages. Good ferric tapes may have the same or higher treble SOL, but CrO2 tapes still sound subjectively better owing to lower hiss and modulation noise.
Ferricobalt Type II tapes
After the introduction of CrO2 cassettes Japanese companies began developing a royalty-free alternative to DuPont's patent, based on already established cobalt doping process. A controlled increase in cobalt content causes an almost linear increase in coercivity, thus a Type II "pseudochrome" can be made by simply adding around 3% cobalt to a Type I ferricobalt. By 1974 the technology was ready for mass production; TDK and Maxell introduced their classic "pseudochromes" (TDK SA and Maxell UD-XL), and killed their true chrome lines (TDK KR and Maxell CR). By 1976 ferricobalt formulations took over the video tape market, eventually they became ''the'' dominant high-performance tape for audio cassette. Chromium dioxide disappeared from Japanese domestic market, although chrome remained the tape of choice for high fidelity cassette duplication among the music labels. In consumer markets chrome coexisted, as a distant second, with "pseudochromes" until the very end of cassette era. Ferricobalt technology developed continuously; in the 1980s Japanese companies introduced 'premium' double-layered ferricobalts with exceptionally high MOL and SOL, in the middle of the 1990s TDK launched the first and only triple-coated ferricobalt, the SA-XS.
Electroacoustic properties of Type II ferricobalts are very close to those of their Type I cousins. Owing to replay equalization, hiss level is lower, but so is the treble saturation level. Dynamic range of Type II ferricobalts, according to the 1990 tests, lies between 60 and 65dB. Coercivity of 580700Oe and remanence of 13001550G are close to the CrO2 reference, but the difference is big enough to cause compatibility problems. TDK SA was the informal reference in Japan) Since the Japanese already dominated both cassette and hi-fi equipment markets, incompatibility further undermined market share of European-made decks and CrO2 cassette.[ In 1987 the IEC resolved the compatibility issue by appointing a new Type II reference tape U 546 W a BASF ferricobalt with properties very close to contemporary TDK tapes. With the short lived 1988 Reference Super even BASF started the manufacture and sales of Type II ferricobalt tapes. .
]
Metal particle Type II tapes
Coercivity of iron-cobalt MP mix, precipitated from aqueous solutions, depends on cobalt content. A change in cobalt content from 0 to 30% causes a gradual rise in coercivity from around (Type I level) to (Type IV level); alloyed iron-cobalt particles can reach coercivity of . This makes possible manufacturing of MP tapes conforming to Type II and even Type I biasing requirements.
In practice, only Denon
is a Japanese electronics company started in 1910 by Frederick Whitney Horn, an American entrepreneur. Denon produced the first cylinder audio media in Japan and players to play them. Decades later, Denon was involved in the early stages of de ...
, Taiyo Yuden
is a Japanese materials and electronics company, situated in Kyobashi, Chuo, Tokyo, that helped pioneer recordable CD technology (CD-R) along with Sony and Philips in 1988. Founded 70 years ago, Taiyo Yuden currently operates factories in Japa ...
and, for only a few years TDK
is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation that manufactures electronic components and recording and data-storage media. Its motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity".
"TDK" is an initialism of the original Ja ...
ever attempted making Type II metal tape. These rare expensive cassettes were characterized by high remanence, approaching that of Type IV (); their coercivity of was closer to Type II than Type IV, but still quite far from either type reference. Independent tests of the 1990 Denon and Taiyo Yuden tapes placed them on the very top of Type II spectrum - ''if'' the recording deck could cope with unusually high sensitivity and provide unusually high bias current.
Type III tapes
Ferrichrome tapes
In 1973 Sony introduced double-layer ferrichrome tapes, having a five-micron ferric base coated with one micron of CrO2 pigment. The new cassettes were advertized as 'the best of both worlds' - combining good low-frequency MOL of microferric tapes with good treble performance of chrome tapes. The novelty became part of the IEC standard, codenamed Type III; the Sony CS301 formulation became the IEC reference.[ However, the idea failed to attract followers. Apart from Sony, only BASF and Agfa introduced their own ferrichrome cassettes.][
These expensive tapes never gained substantial market share, and after the release of metal tapes they lost their perceived exclusivity. Their place in the market was taken over by superior and less expensive ferricobalt formulations. By 1983, tape deck manufacturers stopped providing Type III recording option.][ Ferrichrome tape remained in BASF and Sony lineups until 1984] and 1988 respectively.
The use of ferrichrome tapes was complicated by conflicting rationale of the playback of these tapes. Officially: they were intended to be played back using equalisation. The information leaflet that Sony included in each box of the ferrichrome cassette recommended that, "If the selector has two positions, NORMAL and CrO2, set it to the NORMAL position." (which applies equalisation). The leaflet notes that the high frequency range will be enhanced and that the tone control should be adjusted to compensate. The same leaflet recommends that if the playback machine offers a 'Fe-Cr' selection, that this should be selected. On Sony's machines, this automatically selects equalisation.[SONY TCS-135SD Service Manual (one of the few cassette decks offering a 'Fe-Cr' position), shows the tape type selector switch paralleling the ferrichrome equalisation selection with that of chrome dioxide ()] Neither Sony nor BASF cassettes feature the notches on the back surface that automatically selects equalisation on those machines that featured an automatic detection system.
Type IV tapes
Metal particle Type IV tapes
Pure metal particles have an inherent advantage over oxide particles due to 34times higher remanence, very high coercivity and far smaller particle size resulting in both higher MOL and SOL values. First attempts to make metal particle (MP), rather than metal ''oxide'' particle, tape date back to 1946; viable iron-cobalt-nickel formulations appeared in 1962. In early 1970s Philips began development of MP formulations for Compact Cassette. Contemporary powder metallurgy
Powder metallurgy (PM) is a term covering a wide range of ways in which materials or components are made from metal powders. PM processes can reduce or eliminate the need for subtractive processes in manufacturing, lowering material losses and ...
could not yet produce fine, submicron size particles, and properly passivate these highly pyrophoric
A substance is pyrophoric (from grc-gre, πυροφόρος, , 'fire-bearing') if it ignites spontaneously in air at or below (for gases) or within 5 minutes after coming into contact with air (for liquids and solids). Examples are organolith ...
powders. Although the latter problem were soon solved, the chemists did not convince the market in long-term stability of MP tapes; suspicions of inevitable early degradation persisted until the end of cassette era. The fears did not materialize: most metal tapes survived decades of storage just as well as Type 1 tapes; however, signals recorded on metal tapes do degrade at about the same rate as in chromium tapes, around 2dB over the estimated lifetime of the cassette.
Metal particle Compact Cassettes, or simply 'metals', were introduced in 1979 and were soon standardized by the IEC as Type IV. They share the replay time constant with Type II, and can be correctly reproduced by any deck equipped with Type II equalization. Recording onto a metal tape requires special high-flux magnetic heads and high-current amplifiers to drive them. Typical metal tape is characterized by remanence of 30003500G and coercivity of 1100Oe, thus its bias flux is set at 250% of Type I level. Traditional glass ferrite heads would saturate their magnetic cores before reaching these levels. "Metal capable" decks had to be equipped with new heads built around sendust
Sendust is a magnetic metal powder that was invented by Hakaru Masumoto at Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai, Japan circa 1936 as an alternative to permalloy in inductor applications for telephone networks. Sendust composition is typically 85% ...
or permalloy
Permalloy is a nickel–iron magnetic alloy, with about 80% nickel and 20% iron content. Invented in 1914 by physicist Gustav Elmen at Bell Telephone Laboratories, it is notable for its very high magnetic permeability, which makes it useful as a ...
cores, or the new generation of glass ferrite heads with specially treated gap materials.
MP tapes, particularly top-of-the-line double coated tapes, have record high midrange MOL and treble SOL, and the widest dynamic range coupled with lowest distortion. They were always expensive, almost exclusive, out of reach of most consumers. They excel at reproducing fine nuances of uncompressed acoustic music, or music with very high treble content like brass and percussions. However, they need a high quality, properly aligned deck to reveal their potential. First-generation MP tapes were consistently similar in their biasing requirements, but by 1983 newer formulations drifted away from each other and the reference tape.
Metal evaporated tapes
Unlike previously described wet coating processes, metal evaporated (ME) media are fabricated by physical deposition of vaporized cobalt or cobalt-nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...
mix in a vacuum chamber
A vacuum chamber is a rigid enclosure from which air and other gases are removed by a vacuum pump. This results in a low-pressure environment within the chamber, commonly referred to as a vacuum. A vacuum environment allows researchers to condu ...
. There is no synthetic binder to hold particles together; instead, they adhere directly to polyester
Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natural ...
tape substrate. An electron beam
Cathode rays or electron beam (e-beam) are streams of electrons observed in discharge tubes. If an evacuated glass tube is equipped with two electrodes and a voltage is applied, glass behind the positive electrode is observed to glow, due to ele ...
melts source metal, creating a continuous directional flow of cobalt atoms towards the tape. The zone of contact between the beam and the tape is blown with a controlled flow of oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
, which helps formation of polycrystalline metal-oxide coating. A massive liquid-cooled rotating drum, which pulls the tape into the contact zone, protects it from overheating.
ME coatings, along with barium ferrite
Barium ferrite, abbreviated BaFe, BaM, is the chemical compound with the formula BaFe12O19. This and related ferrite materials are components in magnetic stripe cards and loudspeaker magnets.
BaFe is described as Ba2+(Fe3+)12(O2−)19. The Fe3+ ...
, have the highest information density of all rerecordable media. The technology was introduced in 1978 by Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
, initially in the form of audio microcassette
The Microcassette (often written generically as microcassette) is an audio storage medium, introduced by Olympus in 1969.
It has the same width of magnetic tape as the Compact Cassette but in a cassette roughly one quarter the size. By using t ...
s, and matured through the 1980s. Metal evaporated media established itself in analogue (Hi8
The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats. These are the original Video8 (analog recording) format and its improved successor Hi8 (analog video and analog audio but with provision for digital audio), as well as ...
) and digital (Digital8
Digital8 (or Di8) is a consumer digital recording videocassette for camcorders based on the 8 mm video format developed by Sony, and introduced in 1999.
The Digital8 format is a combination of the earlier analog Hi8 tape transport with the dig ...
, DV and MicroMV
MicroMV is a proprietary videotape format introduced in October 2001 by Sony. It is the smallest videotape format — 70% smaller than MiniDV or about the size of two US quarter coins; it is also smaller than a Digital8 or DV cassette and slig ...
) videotape market, and data storage (Advanced Intelligent Tape
Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) is a discontinued high-speed, high-capacity magnetic tape data storage format developed and controlled by Sony. It competed mainly against the DLT, LTO, DAT/DDS, and VXA formats. AIT uses a cassette similar to ...
, Linear Tape Open). The technology seemed promising for analogue audio recording; however, very thin ME layers were too fragile for consumer cassette decks, the coatings too thin for good MOL, and manufacturing costs were prohibitively high. Panasonic Type I, Type II and Type IV ME cassettes, introduced in 1984, were sold for only a few years in Japan alone, and remained unknown in the rest of the world.
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{{refend
Tape recording
Audio storage
Inorganic chemistry
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