My collection of 1970's Philips compact cassettes

I love the design with the dots. Including a type III Ferro Chromium and a white/orange Sample tape. Still looking for a reasonable priced metal tape

 

A great collection, although you you can keep going. I will always associate 1970s Philips cassettes with this design (pictures taken from Ebay) in particular the red C60s.

I got my first cassette recorder back in 1976 and the first six or so tapes I had were that red, dotty design.
"Made in Austria". I wonder if that was in the same factory as my 1989 Philips Roller 2.

 

The cassettes look great as a 70s reference, but I wonder in how good of a condition is the tape. Especially given most that can be found are used. Bought used cassettes in the past (old SONYs and BASFs) and didn't have much luck.
Very few were actually in good enough condition to be used; most left a ton of oxide on the pinch rollers and head.

@Magnotron What is your experience with the quality of the tape in those cassettes ?

 

@Longman: those vertical designed tapes are from early 1970's, the 'horizontal' / 'landscape' designed ones are from the 2nd half of the 70's. Pre 70's have 4 dots. Most of my cassettes are 'made in Holland' (is: Netherlands).

@Valentin: back in the days i mostly used cheap TDK D90 tapes and sometimes AD. At this moment i use mostly Maxell MX-S tapes for recording and playing. In combination with my Technics equipment they sound great.

 

Are these Philips metal tapes from the 70s or 80s? Bought them a while back but as you see have obviously not used them yet.

 

Since Metal tape didn't come out until 1979 they are far more likely to be 1980s or even 1990s.

 

Thanks for the addition. I did not buy these for a specific year or so, simply because of design and type combo. I don’t plan on collecting more cassettes that I most likely will never use. Recently bought RTM new tapes that are reasonably priced and above all, all recent and new.

 

45spaces.com is a great site to check compact cassettes. It seems that these are made in 1978 and 1979:
https://www.45spaces.com/audio-compact-cassette-blank-tapes/r.php?r=aud474352

 

Wikipedia says 1979, 45spaces dates the Philips tape 1978. According to vintagecassettes.com the I, II, III and IV classification was approved in 1978. So there must have been metal tapes in 1978. http://vintagecassettes.com/_history/history.htm

 

Thanks for sharing the link. I don’t have a lot of cassettes but will for sure look up a couple that look interesting.

 

I like the Philips cassettes for the very reason that Philips is the originator of the Compact Cassette.
But most of them shed the magnetic coating upon use in my experience.

 

I only use my philips cassettes for display in combination with Philips 'hardware'

 

That ramp, most likely conceived by an engineer or designer after a ski break! Some of these machines are simply the best.

 

It must have been a success as they produced an updated version


Annoying I can't find the best demo of these, probably because the title was something like German.

I did find a changer I wasn't aware of



Finally I think you also need one of these clocks to go with the cassette deck.
Just don't go to sleep before midnight

 

Those Phillips Standards ... I had a few back then, they could really take a beating and keep going.
Sound wasn't bad either for a standard tape.

 

“Cassette recorder with continuous cassette circulation system for non stop stereo music, 1970.” It does not say ski slope in the official description.

 

And an overview of cassettes and other media from Philips of the mid 70s.

 

True. I have the original manual / operating instruction and there it is called: 'continious cassette circulator': for uninterupted playback of a minimum of four and a maximum of six cassettes the continous cassette circulator N 6711 is obtainable. In this circulator the casettes are turned, so after having played back one side of e.g. six cassettes the recorder coninues playing back the other sides.' So 'circulator' would be a better term but 'ski slope' is a very nice nickname

 

That would have been something, for a company like Philips to refer to this deck as a ski slope in the official manual Thanks for sharing!