Well gang, today’s subject takes us to the arena of the great tape versus disc controversy. Which is best? What are the advantages of each? Which offers the most faithful reproductive qualities? Ever since cassettes and cartridges became mass market items — as opposed to open reel tape which has always been a semi-consumer item because of its price tag — the competition between formats has been stiff. Records have become more expensive for more than the obvious reasons: artists have taken the elaborate rhulti-disc productions with complimentary packaging, the cost of which is being passed on to the consumer; also, quadrophonic discs have become available to record manufacutrers which allow a price rise for the extra sound you’re getting even though production costs on quad are similar and will eventually be equal to stereo.

While records are costing more, cheap audio cassettes are becoming part of the tape business with C-60 cassettes (one hour recording time) going for as little as 89 cents. Cassette players have also become less expensive, available now for $39.50 up. Two years ago prices were twice that.

But the most important advance in cassette technology has been at the high quality end. The introduction of high quality cassette tape to load into the plastic cassette cases was the first break in the possibility of the cassette replacing records in terms of audio quality.

In the early 1970s, progress in cassette tapes was dramatic. Better tape oxides, especially Chromium Dioxide tape coatings, were introduced and the sound level on cassettes improved. Next Dolby Laboratories announced an inexpensive version of their studio noise suppression apparatus. It was a high quality sound item. Hardware manufacturers, especially the Japanese, helped the cassette along by building high quality cassette machines to record and play the cassettes on.

After that build-up, the question is still: why bother with the cassette at all since records will still do the job and they’re still cheaper. Are they? The answer to that, at this point, is sort of. It depends on the company and the album. The Dylan Planet Waves album has the same list price whether you buy it on record, cassette or cartridge: $6.97. In fact, 7% of the top 100 albums in the country are the same price for all formats, and 65% of the top 100 albums are only a dollar more in the cassette format than they are in the disc format. And 4% of the top 100 lps are equal in price in their quad album format to a tape format. So, at least at list price, cassettes are no longer much more expensive than records.

Consider the cassette as a serious alternative to the record. For the consumer the benefits are obvious — he or she gets a recording that is much more

An example of the high quality that has been achieved in cassette hardware is this new cassette machine from Dokorder. Suggested retail price is $249.95 and for that you get lots of luxury features including cue and review switches, tape scan indicator, tape counter, large vu meters, and Dolby noise reduction. The model number is MK-50.

permanent and less susceptible to damage but one that can be erased, something that can’t be done with an album. For the manufacturer the advantages are less obvious, but still worth considering: A) the manufacuterer is working with a medium that allows for returns to be reprocessed — rerecorded, relabeled — a new product. When a manufacturer gets a record back there’s not much that can be. done with it. Melting down the plastic does not yield enough plastic to press another record from. The album jacket and other paper isn’t much good either. B) attempts are being made to install cassette vending machines. When a customer puts in the right amount of money, the machine records the album selected on a cassette and drops it out a slot — no waste.

It is true that cassettes are still only about 90% the quality of records in terms of sound reproduction, but *1

think that the advantages of the cassette, coupled with the cost of a prerecorded cassette when compared to a plastic record, should make you agree that sticking with records at this point is simply accepting the status quo.