Aug 16, 2014
I remember going on a trip to the BASF chemical factory in Ludwigshafen, Germany. We went to see why Chrome Dioxide cassette tape was such a superior recording medium. At that time, there were stories in the scientific press that audio and data could be stored in "bubble memory". BASF said that this was a long way off. In this programme the prediction was that solid state memory with a capacity of 650MB might be around by 2014. It shows how difficult it is to predict the rapid advance of techology, since some of the high end iPads now have 128 GB of solid-state storage. The machine I'm using for this entry has 256 GB.
BASF Chromdioxid tape was THE pacesetter in terms of audio performance and value;crisp clear and clean sharp sound, lower tape noise, good low end bass, decent midrange and crystal clear highs, the performance was that good. BASF Chromdioxid video cassettes were equally remarkable performers too, low levels of picture grain and fizz, vividly good colour reproduction, remarkable staying power and quality at slower speeds on good performance VHS machines and indeed Super VHS machines where BASF S-VHS tapes were used, low dropout rates, superb crystal clear HiFi VHS Stereo audio combined with excellent NICAM Stereo/Zweiton A2 Stereo reproduction and FM Simulcast recordings and reasonable linear stereo sound performance (much better with Dolby B noise reduction selected on these decks though where available).
BASF Chromdioxid and all it's variants delivered excellent crystal clear sound with bright crisp highs excellent midranges and very good bass content with lower hiss and background noise than regular normalbias type I 120uS ferric cassettes while BASF Chromdioxide video cassettes deliver sharp images vivid colours low dropout rates with lower grain crisp details and dynamic clear HiFi VHS Stereo sound.