Went to an estate sale that advertised stereo equipment. Turned out to be an 80's Fisher. Saw some cassettes and took a look. I learned my lesson when I missed on some Teac cassettes with the mini reels. Nothing there. Went into another room and found 2 boxes of blank tapes many used. But, then I pulled out six TDK SA-X 90's and two MA-R90's. Except for one MA-R90 all were factory sealed . Couldn't understand why the MA's were so heavy until I looked at the opened package and saw that it is machined out of metal . Also found a TDK SA-35/90 sealed reel to reel tape (they sold the Sony TC 580 RtR) .25¢ for the cassettes and .50¢ for the RtR tape. Found a box that indicated that there should've been three more MA's but I didn't find them. Picked up som eextra cables also.

Them MA´s were in fact nothing short of amazing. Great catch, Jerome.

I had quite a lot of them when I ran my Nakamichi 682 ZX many years ago. Never heard a better cassette set-up then, or since. most of the times the cassettes were frightningly close in quality to the original LP´s.

Jorge

Thanks. I listened to the opened tape. It appears that the knothead put it in a portable tape recorder (there were a couple there) and was recording a conversation! The background noise is terrible. At least I have a bulk eraser. Will try recording with the Sony 444ES cp.

Don't want to hijack the topic, but it leaves me to wonder how long is the lifespan of a good tape compared to a cdr?
I'm asking this because the other day i found an old TDK tape and just for fun i put it in my old Technics and i was amazed by it's quality after 20 years...!!

My cassettes have died mostly by breakage or getting knotted up in the machine, both rare. I have some faves, one of which is a TDK whose label fell off years ago, and I know it's a TDK without checking because labels just do not fall off of Maxells. Anyway, the tape plays great after 25+ years, missing label and all. Another tape of Cat Stevens I gave to my ex, and she keeps it hanging half way out her car stereo, summer and winter, and it still plays. No wonder they displaced the 8-track so easily, and are still around.

Laz