Also, if I gave you a mixtape on CrO2 tape, I really liked you. I generally used name-brand, but cheapest, normal bias cassettes for mixtapes.
@Ellico2020bis
Oooooh mixtapes. I was a Maxell XLII-S/Denon HD8 person (TDK on occasion). All those amazing hours of planning and plotting!! I still plan my digital playlists to adhere to cassette running times of 60, 75, 100 or 120. Now I wanna make a mix tape.
@MPCavalier 4.5 years ago I bought a Denon Dolby S deck that I didn't need, then that pack of cassettes. I still haven't bothered to find out how Dolby S sounds. I paid like $37 for the deck, though, I had to.
@Ellico2020bis
Nice. I miss having all that gear. I went completely digital pretty early on. The only thing I have left is an old solid state pre-amp that sits between my mixer and my speakers to give everything a little more punch. Dolby-S, in theory, adds enough noise reduction to faithfully reproduce the sound of a CD. Never got a chance to try it though.
Dolby could never address the restricted dynamic range, but they did OK for noise reduction. JVC had ANRS (automatic noise reduction system ) and
later Super ANRS, dbx had the only system that worked, but required expensive outboard devices, and dbx-encoded tapes were not compatible with non dbx decks.
fun times.
@northernbassist @MPCavalier Yeah, the dbx and Dolby C encodings didn't work without proper decoding.
What about HX Pro, which was specifically aimed at dynamic range?
@Ellico2020bis @northernbassist
I think that was for increased treble, which they imprinted directly onto the tape.
@MPCavalier @northernbassist I thought it allowed going to +5db vs +3db or +3 vs +1 or something, which amounts to noise reduction, by increasing signal against noise.