Cassettes.......pre-recorded and otherwise....

I found the worst part of pre recorded tapes was the quality ( or the lack of ) tapes used..Mostly cheap ribbon used..I always prefer to use Maxell or Scotch Master and record my own..Better sounding and last along time .You know when your buying the blank tapes that its your choice on which quality tape you buy...Spend more money up front and get a longer life ( and better sound ) ....If you tape off cds ,you don't need a noise reduction to cloud the sound ....At least that works for me.....

The best prerecorded cassettes I ever encountered were the CrO2 tapes Advent put out to show off the potential of their cassette deck. I encountered them when I worked at a stereo shop in SoCal in the mid-'70s, as we were an authorized Advent (and Revox, Nakamichi, and Tandberg) dealer.

I got my comeuppance when I tried to dub some of these (mostly classical) to my Tandberg reel-to-reel. I could usually dub LPs to 3-3/4 ips with plenty of headroom, but with these cassettes, I not only had to switch to 7-1/2 ips, it was quite difficult to dial in a recording level that didn't max out the meters and (presumably) oversaturate the tape.

I recently purchased a re-conditioned Nakamichi CR-7A from a local stereo repair shop. I immediately began shopping for cassettes since I had only a few remining from the 70s.
They are incredibly inexpensive now that noone wants them. I bought most of them from used record stores here in the SF bay area. Many were purchased, unopened, in their original plastic wrappers with prices like $10.99 on them.
I got most of them for 4/$1.00...TWENTY FIVE cents! They sound great in my system through the Nakamichi. The sound
approaches CD quality on the newer ones. No lie...check it out!

Regular pre-recorded cassettes from the late 70's to 80's on my Nakamichi Dragon sound just as good as CD's.(I listen to classic rock and jazz). There are some chromium dioxide "audiophile" cassettes put out by CBS in the 80's. That are supposed to sound better. I have one of these (Springsteen-The River)but honestly, to me that particular one, sounds about the same as the standard cassettes.

There was a company, I think called In Sync, that made audiophile cassettes in the 80's. I have a stack of them somewhere. They were very fine...I recall they used Maxell tape, and were dubbed in real time. They had a very interesting collection of historic recordings, well-remastered (such as Karl Muck doing Wagner, and some French composers conducting their own works in the 20's and 30's), and then some more current audiophile stuff, like the Skrowaczewski Ravel with Minnesota. I have a stack of them around here somewhere...haven't listened to them in quite a while, but I have fond memories of them. Maybe you can find them on Ebay or at Irvmusic.