I know that the "metal" metal on cassette players is something for playing metal tapes but does this feature have the side effect of guaranteeing a better quality play head than on a player which does not support playing back metal tapes? Do the heads in these players have TWO heads (one for metal and one for regular cassettes) or are they one and the same? If they are the same, I'm wondering if they are better quality, similar to how the type of stylus can affect playback on a record.
usually it's just equalization. Machines with no "metal/cro2" switch are either very cheap or very old.
When you consider that many cheap low-quality boomboxes had a Metal switch, you know it's meaningless. What really matters is the quality of the heads and circuitry inside, which is a topic too long and technical to discuss here. If the circuitry sucks, the frequency response will suck, which means that using Metal tape will be pointless.
I always thought the head had better wear properties since metal tape was much more abrasive. I have to believe that there were certain standards to meet to be able to print the "METAL" logo on the units, but back then it might have been anything goes. Back when I worked for the manufacturer that built 3M's cleaning tapes we were very concerned about head wear and I built an elaborate system of pulleys to measure tension and a few other perimeters and I'd run hundreds of feet of cleaning tape over the heads to figure out how much wear they'd see. I'm sure the METAL tape manufacturers were also concerned and would have tape head specs either for the heads or the tape. Here's a cool blog that talks about this subject https://tapetardis.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/the-type-iv-metal-audio-cassette/
According to the experts at tapeheads, metal head wear was just a myth- it does have some truth to it, but in the end, it's a non issue.
What a superb site. even if you have no interest in Metal cassettes it is well worth a browse around it. Interesting to hear about making cleaning cassettes. Did you make any other audio related products ?
The company was on it's wane Longman, we had cleaning cassettes, cleaning CD's and 8mm cleaning cartridges for computer back up systems (remember those?). I was just a lowly technician doing testing, repair and fixture building for semi-automation of our processes. Testing tape head wear was exactly as Wilhelm describes over at tapeheads, using a metal bar (that was very expensive), and running tape over it for several hours (or days, I don't remember) and putting it under an optical comparator and measuring the wear. The end buyer (usually 3M) would have a long spec sheet on what they expected and our cleaning formulations had to match it and we had to prove it with photos from the comparator. We also brought in boatloads of camera bags and some other audio related accessories from the far East for resale at Best Buy and other electronic stores. I grabbed a bunch of high end stereo interconnects and several big roles of multi-filament speaker wire at our end of the year garage sale. In the early days of the forum I mentioned they had cleaning cassette tapes that had the reel to reel look for a couple bucks each on the website. The response must have been overwhelming (and worldwide) because they immediately removed that item from the website (which hadn't been updated for years).
IMO recording is where it matters most with making sure the correct selection is made because metal tapes require a stronger signal to record properly. Then you have bias which gets into another aspect of recording. In relation to walkmans, I would say that seeing metal obviously means that the machine is capable of playing that media (heads are compatible) and may have a preset equalizing circuit to cut down on the harshness of the highs when selected to metal position however, as others have said. The circuitry has a lot to do with whether it truly makes it worth while to play them on the device. Personally, I've played metal tapes on players that did not specify they were metal capable. Never wore out a head...they just sounded "tinny" and maybe a little too crisp.
I hear that... My Panasonic SGJ-800 has a Normal/Metal button on it, yet even with it's other functions (5-band RE & balance control, Dolby NR (Type B, most likely)...) I doubt it truly has what's necessary to make the most of Metal tapes. You just reminded me of a AM/FM/Cassette bicycle stereo I had in the day. The manual advised "Not for use with Metal/Type-IV tapes"... And believe me, that piece of garbage wasn't! Not to mention how I got mire enjoyment from a Panasonic Dynamite-8 I later strapped w/bungee cords to my crossbar-equipped handbars.
