Of all the formats available for recorded music, the audio cassette is certainly the handiest. Compact and reuseable, cassettes are cheaper and more manageable than open-reel or cartridge tapes, and not as fragile as records. The only drawback to cassettes is their awful sound qualty.

The cassette was developed in the 1960’s, by the European conglomerate Philips, as a self-contained recording tape which eliminated the drawbacks of other tape formats: the cassette threaded itself into the tape recorder; an economical amount of tape was used in relation to recording length; and the cassette was very small. However, in fulfilling these specifications, the cassette had inherent drawbacks: the narrow tape width and relatively slow speed at which it traveled severely impaired two factors important to sound quafity:signal-to-noise levels and frequency response.

This meant that the high treble and low bass routinely handled by records and wider, fasterrunning tapes were missing or distorted by the cassette, and hiss and rumble produced by the cassette itself were often part of the sound reproduced. For ten years now, cassette tape and cassette tape recorder manufacturers have worked to overcome these drawbacks.

The cassette recorder’s mechanical transport and electronics, the accuracy of the cassette’s construction, the quality of the tape inside the cassette and the compatibility of the tape to the cassette recorder all affect the final sound. Following the introduction of the cassette, there was intense competition among manufacturers to develop the cassette recorder. Today, record and playback electronic circuits and the mechanical linkage that transports and tape from spool to spool past the recorder's heads are as sophisticated as any other audio components. But, until recently, the quality of the tape in the cassette limited these marvelous developments, for no matter how sophisticated the cassette recorders, optimum sound depends on the quality of the cassette itself.

Frankly, the cassette has gotten more attention than it deserves since, despite its technological development, it will never attain the level of the more sophisticated discs and open-reel tapes. But it is simple enough why there is this hother about the lowly cassette. Technology is a cybernetic romance of man experimenting with his image, and more than other sound formats the cassette is emotionally agreeable. We can wrap our fingers around the cassette; it is certainly the most user-oriented sound system available.,

Efforts to make the cassette succeed have often bordered on the hysterical. A few years ago, Sony introduced a slightly larger-sized incompatible cassette with wider tape running at a higher speed. This didn’t catch on, leaving, as usual, a few consumers with obsolete expensive lemons as only Sony can manage. Then there are several cassette players with a two speed facility, the normal tape running speed of 1 7 /8th inches per second (ips) and a faster speed at the flick of a switch which improves the overall respon se.

Much of the work done to improve the cassette format has come in developing different formulas to create the tape inside the cassette housing. This has included “low-noise” tape, “ultradynamic” tape, and other wistful descriptions of the coatings on the tape binder that store the electronic impulses. The most recent formula is called “metal” tape.

Metal tape is a pure iron coating which can store more information than the tape coatings of ferro-oxide or chromium dioxide used so far. Metal tape increases the dynamic range of the cassette, producing a more distortion-free sound. One champion of metal tape is JVC, who describe it by saying, “Unlike alloy-coated tapes, metal tapes are coated with an almost pure iron particle cover. The new substance has higher density pudio recording capability—it can handle more information in the same amount of space as alloy tape. This has raised recording quality, especially in the high frequency and where cassettes have traditionally lostfidelity.”

3M, manufacturers of Scotch recording tape, chime in: “The impact of this breakthrough cannot be overstated because metal particle tape delivers double the output of conventional chromium dioxide tape. The signal-to-noise ratio is also much better than that of typical chromium dioxide tape. So metal particle tape actually delivers reel-to-reel quafity in a cassette format, a promise often made, but never before delivered.”

Promises, yes indeed. The unsavory side of the audio business is that manufacturers are constantly promising living color and delivering shades of gray. My, serious audio enthusiastic friends are not convinced metal tape is much of a miracle. They know about metal tape, but they are quick to point out that metal tape does not substantially improve the performance of many, perhaps the majority, of cassette recorders.

The fact is tHat you’ll have to throw out your present cassette recorder and buy a new one to get the most out of metal tape. Which is the kind of breakthrough cassette manufacturers dream of in a greedy sweat. Just like chrome tapes before it, metal tape demands a cassette recorder that is metal-compatible, so, with metal tape, manufacturers are selling not just a five dollar cassette, but a three or four hundred dollar cassette recorder to go with it.

Metal tapes, chrome tapes, and other expens• ive tape formulations don’t do much good in the majority of cassette decks already sold. Portable cassette recorders, while handy , aren’t equipped to get the most of quality cassettes. It’s a waste to buy an ultra-dynamic cassette for four dollars when a portable cassette recorder will make the same recording on a two dollar cassette. On the other hand, using cheaper cassettes in expensive cassette recorders results in annoying fuzzy sound. Each type of tape requires, ideally, that the cassette recorder be'electronically adjusted to make tape and machine completely compatible. Tape manufacturers don’t want to talk to the general public about this, but much information is available to those who want to bother to get the best sound.

Metal tape has one serious problem: it is difficult to erase. So the ads for new cassette decks have started to list “erase head for metal tape” among their specs. In other words, the introduction of metal tape means that cassettes at long last may equal the quality of open-reel systems, but the cost to change over to metal tape is at least three hundred dollars. If you like using cassettes for their obvious convenience, you can now get the best possible sound by using a “metal tape compatible” deck and metal tape cassette.

Perhaps the most wonderful function of the cassette is the threat it poses to corporate executives who pay for their country houses with their profits from the talents of musicians. As the cassette has gained in popularity, people have taken to using it as a substitute for buying records. With radio stations premiering new albums by playing them without interruption, it’s easier and cheaper to record a cassette than buy a new album. It has also become common practice for one person to buy an album and friends to make cassette copies from it. In England, record manufacturers have gone to court to try to get a percentage of blank tape sales, claiming such sales reflect loss of record sales. In the U.S., major record companies have taken full page ads in the music trade papers, beseeching radio stations to stop playing records uninterrupted.

If it catches on, metal tape is going to raise the quality of cassette recordings another notch. And with this happening, the cassette is going to make another stride forward as the best possible medium for recorded music.