TDK Vs. SONY

As hard as it is to believe these days, some people still use plain ordinary audio cassette tapes aside from CDs to do their recorded material with. As a musician, I am one of these people.

I've gone through many brands of audio cassette tapes in my recording endeavors such as with TDK, Memorex, Sony, Maxell, et cetera. However - from the list I've just included - I would like to narrow two of these products down which I use mostly and would like to give my rendition of what I think of these two manufacturer brands in the way of type, style-appearance and performance.

First, I need to point out that the manufacturers of recording audio cassette tapes allow a consumer to choose from the various type of quality brands available. Though there are many, the two most popular and common type-formats of audio cassettes are:

- Normal Bias IEC Type 1
- Chrome High Bias IEC Type 2

What's the difference one might ask?

Normal-Bias cassette types (also called Type 1) account for the vast majority of audio cassettes used today. Though they are the most universally played tapes in the consumer home, car and portable tape decks, their quality are normally inferior to the Chrome High Bias Type 2 cassettes. Despite being more compatible with standard regular recording machines or devices, the sound produced carries more static noise and is more dulled and not as crystal clear as the Chrome High Bias Type 2 cassettes. On the other hand, the "High Bias" cassette tapes tend to wear out the record heads on a tape deck much more quickly due to being capable of carrying a stronger ("hotter") signal which is needed for better sound quality. Therefore, it stands to reason that one must have a supportive tape deck recorder to handle the Chrome High Bias Type 2 cassettes.

With this now explained, I would like to include that most of my recording tape decks are capable of handling both types of tape cassettes. As well, I mostly use the 60 minute and 90 minute recording time-formats. I would now like to introduce my two favourite manufacturer cassette brands.

These are: TDK and Sony.

Despite these two cassette brands as being my favorites for recording, I've noticed differences between these two makes which I will now illustrate.

TDK

When shopping for a TDK recording cassette, they are easy to find. The over-all appearance provides the consumer an easy "eye-catching" with the manufacturer's bold lettering of the cassette's name, usually located in the upper-left hand corner of the casing to the right of the manufacturer's logo.

The wrapping is easy to remove (if bought separately or individually), and the exposed casing which is box-like in appearance is sturdy and protective and won't scratch or crack that easy.

The most significant feature is obviously the sound quality of the tape.

The Normal Bias 60 minute will not snag into the recording heads of the tape-deck machine. I have audibly observed that the TDK Normal Bias has hardly any static noise - if at all - in comparison to its many competitors. The 90 minute version, though obviously longer, is very "tape-deck-friendly" as well, and does not strain the recording and/or playing heads.

As for the Chrome High Bias 2, though the tape is much more sensitive in order to produce better sound quality, it has proven itself to be just as "usage-friendly" in the tape-deck both in its 60 and 90 minute time-formats. This includes the recording, rewinding and fast-forwarding modes.

In all, both the TDK brands have proven to produce fairly good quality.

However, there's only one small drawback to the TDK audio cassette, and that is its protective casing. Personally, I find that it's a little too large and is difficult to retrieve out of a normal standard-sized audio cassette storage box with sliding-forward drawers. Oftentime, the casing will become snagged and the storage box drawer will not open as easily as it should.

SONY

One of the features of the Sony audio-cassette which I really like, is its appearance. If buying separately or individually, its manufacturer's logo is located in the upper-middle on the front-face of the wrapper-casing with information about the type of the cassette listed directly underneath the title. Like the TDK, its thin cellophane-wrapper is easy to remove, but it's the casing which I find attractive and appealing. Unlike the TDK, the corners of the casing are rounded off, giving it a slim look and feel. It is less hard on the hands to handle and will maintain much easier in a cassette storage box.

However, its sound quality is quite similar to its TDK competitor. Personally, however, I have found that the sound in the Sony Chrome High Bias 2 will excel a tad more in quality.

Overall

Though both TDK and Sony have very slight differences, the sound recordings and quality are exceptional for both.