The Legend That Is The TDK D - Type 1 Cassette 

In 1988 when I turned 14 my parents gave me as a present two TDK D60 which I still have. What is so special about this moment? I was born and grow up in Eastern Europe and there were really hard times. They paid on the black market a fortune for these two cassettes something like $20 each. I kept the wrapping foil of the cassettes for more than 10 years in a book. 😂

literally dozens of these in my collection, almost all club dj mixes. remember when you could go to a club, and if you got in with the dj, you could slip him $5, or buy him a few drinks, and he would give you a tape at the end of the night? and omg, playing those in your car as you pre-gamed the next weekend was enough to make you feel like you were on top of the world. good memories, thanks :)

Tony, thanks, this is a video what we, as cassette-enthusiasts were really missing!

It wasn't at all boring Tony, more like this please!

Hi tony, The reason for the HF roll off is the non linear way in which tape handles high frequencies, also they way high frequencies in music are much lower in amplitude than low frequencies, closer to the pink noise curve than the white noise curve. This is why in service manuals for both consumer decks and professional decks alike they always recommend testing high frequency response at -20dB below dolby level / the dolby cal symbol). If you did your sweep at that level you'd have an almost flat response to from 100hz to about 10kHz then a gradual roll off from 12kHz. Just a tip from someone that does it for a living. Not a criticism, just a tip :-)

TDK наверное мои самые любимые кассеты, особенно D90, до сих пор храню их.

The TDK D was like the Ford Mustang of cassettes to us Americans! I used them since 1978 when I got my first component cassette deck (Sharp RT-1155). I remember trying out Maxell's LN, Sony's CHF-LNX and BASF's LH Extra on that deck, but none of them sounded as bright or as good as the D. I also used TDK AD's and SA's but the D was my main go-to tape during my high school and college years. Thanks for testing, it just shows how constant the D was during its lifetime.

Never had a problem with them. They hold up 30 years later as well !

I've been recording my own cassettes for about 30 years, and 90% of them have been on the Maxell UR, the Sony HF, and the TDK-D.

I love the feel of a cassette when it rattles and makes its noise in the case :D just brings back such fond memories

I think you should setup a live 24 hour stream of these tape cassette videos

Tdk D, along with Sony HF were my best buy choice back in the day. I love all the range of Tdk D, starting from the 1982 with black shell and paper label and ending with the early 2000 models. Never, ever had bad experiences with a D.

I've been waiting so long for you to come out with a video dedicated to the TDK D's

Okay, Sony HF models next :-)

oh i love the tdk d. i still use my tdk d90 from 82, as they are still cheap, but the quality is awesome, and oh the recording quality.

Thanks for making this one. I enjoyed the technical aspect just to see how that is done. And plus, it was revealing in a different way.

Thank you for the time and effort you put into this analysis!

As you soon as you said "you can relate everything back to cars", my brain went "Ford Escort!" 😀 As I was growing up in the '80s my Dad tended to get AD90's by default, so I'm very familiar with the early AD shells and stickers (and the AR, which Richer Sounds started selling for a great price later on in the '80s). So I don't remember ever seeing a D from the '85-or-earlier era in the flesh, but as soon as I started trading tapes with mates in sixth form / at University, the D90 (by this time with a clear shell) was everywhere. It was the standard for mix tapes, sharing albums, you name it. I've always associated the D with the lower quality recordings that we students used to share with each other, but I really should try recording on one now, with decent kit with a bias control, and the recently acquired knowledge of how to get the most out of it! (that knowledge has mainly come from you Tony, thank you) Update: It's two days later, and I got my hands on a decent late-model 3-head deck (Yamaha) and recorded some punchy electronica with deep bass and crisp treble, after calibrating bias and pre-record levels. Oh my god. I've never experienced the impact that calibration has on Dolby before. Dolby B and C both work flawlessly, keeping the crisp highs but lowering the hiss. I went with Dolby C, and suspect it was the highest quality recording I've ever made (and it was on a mid '90s D!). Virtually indistinguishable from the digital source, and with lovely bass.

When I was buying tapes in the 80s, TDK and Sony were the best, and both play 40 years later

Fantastic Tony... Not a boring millisecond in there... Loads of memories there with all the post 86 D... Thank you for your longer video today!

Cracking video and I found the graphs really interesting , keep up the good work.

I really enjoy the Legend That Is Series and the Type 0 videos…I really enjoy watching all of your content ❤

Exellent review. I love Deck's and Cassette. I played to this day in my Nakamichi BX2,sound is gorgeous

Absolutely fantastic.

Love the TDK D. I got my hands on about 20 mid-90s versions to start off my tape collection and couldn't be much happier. Very consistently good performance.

The sealed one has the "low noise high output", however this one deserves it. And lo and behold, the worldviews about metal tapes are now shattered laying in ruins.

So love and appreciate the time you spend on your videos. Regardless what some may say, there’s always haters and venomous beings spreading their negativity around. Close your ears and press on mate! Yours is the show to watch and listen to! We are here and we believe in you Toni! Press on!😊👍🏻

I don't find this boring at all. Thanks for showing this.

D is my favorite replacement tape. Whenever I've got a compromised cassettes' tape... unless it's something special and mint shell it gets replaced with D tape and necessary notch covers. I always stick on a tag with TDK D tape written on it.

Great video, always loved the TDK D. The frequency analysis was really nice!

@Cassette Comeback Hello again Tony! Hope you and your family are well and healthy. Thanks for continuing to make these great videos, especially at 5:25 so relaxing to watch you using the legendary Bic Ball Point Pen to allow us to see the tape itself! Therapeutic dare I say! You're like a time machine taking us back to the mid 70s! I was just a little child back then but good times !

The TDK D90 tape in 1986 version is my most favorite among these TDK D's presented until now. It brings back a lot of my childhood memories during the early 90's. Thanks for sharing.

very interesting and educational as always. thank you tony

Makes sense to me. Keep going Tony , great channel with a lot of information!

Most important cassette was TDK “D”😍😍 Mostly after 1979, it was developed well, had low noise , high dynamics ( could handle very higher levels even for type 1 without Dolby) and did produce great recordings on even entry level cassette decks too😉😉👍🏻 more darker TDK tape had lesser noise to my ears 😍😍👍🏻

graph part was rad, neat seeing how your tapes hold up compared to others

That wasn't boring, in fact it was a joy to watch :)

Tape cassette sentimentality will have started with the TDK D for many. My first TDK was a 1973 SD, then a softer sounding D. Happy days Tony!

Hi Tony!Very interesting vídeo You made on these TDK D líne!I must Say that they are among my favorites type 1 cassettes, as as You said, anybody can't be wrong on choosing them.They are superb!!!It is very very interesting to see Frequency response and DB of these tapes.I was surprised how TDK D cassettes, in the midrange, performs better than much more expensier metal tapes and Master metal tapes.Now seeing those graphics it's more clear to me why I like a Lot TDK D cassettes.Many thanks for your video Tony!!!As always very happy to follow your interesting channel.Regards!Rafael

The frequency response graphs was not boring at all and I would actually see some more comparisions, like maybe compare tdk d to the "modern" type 1.

Having used TDK tapes since 1973 or 74, my preference was for tapes that already had the labels affixed to them. Having to peel and stick labels was a pain and produced extra bits of trash. As for the sound-- they all sounded fine to me- and they still do.

TDK D tapes were always my favorite. I had used them since the late 70's, but I liked from 1986 on the best because of the having the clear shell and replaceable title labels. Thanks!

I love watching Mr. Villa mess around with complicated software like all of the rest of us do.

I am an engineer and I really enjoyed this! i would love to see how some of the TYPE 0 come up! Go on you know you want to....

Loved this kind of video!

Got some of the last release d90s with screwed shells with the and happy with the the results on recording, was more than content to use the standard FE-90s but the d90s are a real step up, As Tony says the deck you are recording on is key to getting the best out of tapes

for me one of the best things about buying cassettes is the wrapper and i do love the tdk ones the most i have been useing the d cassette since the mid 80's and really never had a good deck and still only have a bottom to mid range one and i get a great enough recording for me on it the heads and rollers get cleaned every 5 hours use i would love a 3 head deck but at the mo cant afford one i have even brought me a walkman and i dont go out with out it since i got it so what tony does here is infallible i have learnt a real lot of him and i can only thank him for bringing me back to cassettes i have started to collect nip cassettes also and have a fare amount of the tdk d starting from 72 onwards and i have said i like the wrapper design and also the j card designe as well of the tdk i look forward to his tdk videos. as you always say you remember getting yours back in the day i can remember the same like the day i got a 10 pack of agfa f-dxi cassettes from argos and still have then today plus the day i found thats cassettes was a great day on sale in the i think virgin or hmv record shop and only on the counter right by the till and i stll have then aswell. i could only ever buy the d's as i was in my early teens back then but when i finally got on the good old Y.T.S scheeme and we had a massive £28 a week i started on the thats cassettes.i also remember another record shop used to make his own mix's and he always used the d cassette also i think he made 10 in total over a 5 year or so period. i was shocked by the results of the metal tapes thought but again as you have said in previous videos the bottom of the range tapes can sound as good as them with the right deck of course.

I liked it. But you know I think it is the final results is what is most important. If what you hear is good the tests don't really matter but it helps to understand the signal response. But I started to come back touse cassette tapes a couple of years now and it is fun. In the 80's I was buying TDK tapes but I used the TDK AD instead of red the label was blue and when I was able to get to chrome tapes I used the SA. I tried the MA but they were expensive even then and was happy with the final results of the SA. By the way, I saw the video where you are explaining the different type of chrome tapes and you made me realize that my tape deck was calibrated for pure chrome wich explain why an SA tape had a louder output. Thank you for that.

Recently back into the hobby. Have tried some Maxell UR's ( Bought them at Walgreens!) some Sony HF's and Fuji DR-I 's all sound better than I remember from the late Seventies and into the late Eighties. Finally got a batch of the TDK D's . The Winner!

Thanks for this Tony,i have almost all of these variants of the D😁 the 1982 is my personal favourite ❤️ the 1986 sounded as good as the source!!!

Earlier today, I got 30 TDK circa 1988 D’s 90-minute cassettes off of eBay, and it has airchecks from public radio stations like WUMB and WERS in Boston from 1990, and they’re all US made, but the clear shell and design looks the same as the international counterparts. The back at 3:49 has multiple addresses for Japan, Germany, UK and Australia, but in the US, it only has one address which was in Port Washington, NY where it used to be TDK’s headquarters out on Long Island. The international version had D, AD, AR and AR-X, but the US version doesn’t on the back where it doesn’t include selected tape types.

I used this software to calibrate left and right channel biasing on my Technics deck. I am glad I got it right and now I don't need to worry why high frequency instruments change place while I turn the bias knob. :D

Thanks for showing us your favorite D, Tony.

@Cassette Comeback I loved the graphs and scientific analysis! More please! Maybe for others to keep them from being bored just present the combined graphs already completed to take up less time, but I like the analysis .

Thanks Tony. You at last made a video about my favourite line of cassettes. I too like the first clear version of the D the best. I must say your most popular version of the D (what you think of when you think of a D) surprised me as it has white hub clips. All mine have Red. Great video as always 👍

THANK YOU THANKS A LOT TONY FOR THIS VIDEO, THANKS TO THIS I COULD SCORE 20 TDK D 90 AND SOME D60 + 3 SONY EF-X60 AND 1 MAXELL UR90 FOR JUST 2 DOLLARS, ALL OF THEM WHERE ONLY ONCE RECORDED, GREETINGS FROM BUENOS AIRES! :D

I enjoyed the frequency response section. Good video.

1985 is my favorite year for the TDK Ds. Just because of the look of the shell/label. I was suprised you didnt have one. I was hoping I'd get your review!

I can only agree with the community: Never had any problems with the D! They managed to get the best even out of the most atrocious boomboxes, they're extremely durable and most of all: they are long lasting! All my old TDK Ds still perform incredibly well, which makes them perfect for re-recording.

As technician I really liked the part with the graphs! I have to say, I think the measurements you did do not say much about how a cassette actually sounds/performs. You recorded the sweep at +5dB, but the high frequencies in music are never that loud. they are some 10ths of db's quiter than the lows and in pracical all the highs will be captured without significant losses. The metal tape will "clip" at a lower level in the highs than the ferrics, the distortion in the highs at music levels are probably lower. Probable more interesting measurement: distortion. You can also do distortion analyses with that (really nice!) piece software. Record a 1KHz tone at +5dB (or whatever tone/level you interested in) and see how much weaker the harmonics are. I bet the last gen D is a lot better than the 88. How lower the harmonics the hotter you can record the tape. But, very nice video! Like to see more measurements!

Awesome video, Tony! Love the boring stuff.

I have the early 80s D90 that still play well nearly 40 years later

That is so fascinating. I didn't get bored for a nanosecond, I found out that my old ears tail off at 7 KHz to 8 KHz which is bloody depressing for an audiofile and I am now wondering how a TD SA will perform. I have subscribed and look forward to going over your back catalogue. Cheers!

Great review of my favourite tape ever, the 82 version could still be bought up to 85-86,I never liked the look of any clear shell tape even though the TDK and others where quality products. Really enjoyed the video took me away from that bloody lock down for 40 plus minutes.What a beautiful deck that CR-7 is....:):) Excellent YT viewing Tony !!!

Back in to USSR, in 1982, price on TDK D90 was pretty expensive - 9 rubles or $12.60 USD (1982 money exchange rate).

OO:40 present yet in my vintage collection both in 60 and 90 minutes. Greetings from CHILE.

The 82 version was the first TDK I ever bought...but that '86 SONY HF looks amazing, I love it !

This tape right here is primarily the soundtrack of my youth, as well as for many other people where I live, so for me it defined an era. There were never any commercial pre-recorded tapes available in my country, so all of the record shops sold tapes which were TDK D's 90% of the time (other brands were TDK A and Sony HF, with the odd Maxell from time to time). And most of the local music artists would actually use D's for mass duplication and sale of their material.

Ah! That was good of you to mention about cassette deck bias settings, as here in the US back in the 1980s, the Sony decks always had a preference with Sony cassettes. I suspect a reason why TDK elevated the tape quality their D brand line of cassettes was with the phasing out of their AD brand line, which, back in the 1970s to '80s, were a step up from the D brand. Back in those days I alternated between the TDK D and AD brands, which depended on what was being recorded. Another consideration of using the D or AD was the affordability with what was on a sales special in bulk packs.

the true TDK D's not the Imation versions were one of the best type 1's ever made IMO they sound as good as some type 2's just have more noise present but the freq response is great

Oh man, seeing the 86 tapes onwards really brought back some memories. From the 90s I had moved away from the D to the SA and the AD tapes but man, taping the top 40 with Bruno Brooks with a D was my childhood on a Sunday between 5 and 7pm. 👍

As I enjoyed this, I got 80+ cassettes that I got off of eBay, along with 20 more 1979 TDK D’s which were all 60 minutes, along with 10 more 1982 D’s, 21985 D’s US version, and 3 1986 D’s US version with black shells. Plus an assortment of different cassettes from different brands back in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

As usual, fantastic overview of a true legend. What I did notice was that from the 90's onwards (from the ones you shown) the 'Made in Japan' was gone. As you noticed also in the same year onwards the shells became lighter/thinner, perhaps it was a cost cutting exercise due to competition/manufacturing costs. So maybe opted to manufacture in a different country, and cut on the shells quality, but still allow to make the tape formulation the best possible? Who knows

Just added a 1985-1988 D90 (7:14) to my collection today. My favorite blank compact cassette when I was a child. Thought I'd never get one in 2020, they sold so well that they are not easy to find. Later generation D's are more easy to find. I also have 1990 D60 and a last generation D90 as mentioned in a previous comment.

I can still remember the billboard ads from 1986 when TDK released the newer version of the D. The ads went something like “D day is here” or “D day is coming”. Still my favourite D to this day, so much better that the previous 1982 version in my experience at the time.

I started with Ds then followed the sheep to the SA then Metal. Then I noticed Ds sound much better in my car stereo and never used a non-D again. This was around 1981.

Have 100’s of these...still sound great!

I used to record a lot of FM Stereo Radio programs on the 120 Minute versions of this tape line. Never had any issues with them and they were my trusty companions to record my weekly 2 hour program of Electro Beats back in 2006. It was a time when i had just gotten an actually good Tapedeck and i was testing with different recording levels and wasn't sure how high i could go on them. So i never really maxed them out. I had only very few 60 Minute versions of this tape line but love those too. My only gripe with these tapes was the fact they weren't screwed but welded.

This shows that there are type 1's that can out perform type 4's. MINDBLOWING!!!

Looks like you just confirmed what my ears already knew. The TDK D is a wonderful cassette tape. And my JVC DD-7 loves them. Also a great tape deck. Direct drive capstan very reliable. Sendust Alloy heads very durable. 15,000 hours and still like new. Nice absent wow&futter nab one I think you'll be pleased with it . The UR a little soft and thin but slightly quieter works better for some stuff. Rock to Punk D series is the the one. I always skip the Dolby don't like how it switches. I can hear that it just mucks things up

Great video Tony... and good testing of the various eras of tape. From the recording samples, I draw the same conclusion - the newest 'D' sounded best (maybe because it was 30 years younger? Whatever.... that '82 tape still sounded bloody good!) Always loved and prefered TDK back through the 80s, and much as the Maxell UR works well, the TDK still have an edge!! Thanks for the content... it really helps... so you stay safe, and take care :-) Thank you!

Great video!!! Thanks

Ahh I have waited for this! Dimple & Bubble all the way!

I have the U.S. version of the TDK D60 from 1997. And to this day it still works!

Might just be me but the 82 sounded better than the 86. Great video Tony. Long live the D!

Nice one. Just got a wrapped 86 D for the collection :-)

I love my TDK cassette tapes I recently bought the TDK cassette tapes the 120 minute ones those are really good they’re one of the best along with the Maxwells 120 minute cut that thanks.

I noticed the 1982 "D" early version had white hubs and later ones had grey hubs, Thanks for the memories....

Thanks great video.

Some of the hifi mags from years ago used to do these tests. For me it's mainly about the nostalgia and things which can't really be measured, but I do like these comparisons and I'd like to see more of these tests when you've got a mind (patience) to Tony!

I think TDK D . Its the most produced tape .There its no company that makes cassettes and sold like TDK D tapes .Thank you for showing the video.

i liked the frequency response analisys

Thank you Tony for another great video! Cool cassette lineup and scientific approach. Pleasure to watch!!)) I've made myself a lot of similar tests where the purpose was actually to test the decks, not the cassettes. I was using normally TDK D, TDK MA and Fuji ZII (just because I have lots of them new for recording). One of my observations was that the output level you get at 10khz vs 1khz is solely depend on how precise you deck bias is set and does not depend on the cassette performance. Also, there was a topic as I remember on tapeheads.net about Nacamichi's CR range hardware update suggested after multiple complaints about autocalibration did not work properly on the modern tapes (that was about year 1990 I guess) having raised frequency response on HF. That was especially noticeable when using Dolby. So, if your CR7 was not modified to Nakamichi proposal, do not rely solely on auto-calibration. Also, I 100% agree with you on running it hot for the tests as at -20 any decent deck will make it flat from 20 to 20k. There is a very useful test report from Alex Nikitin on his site about maximum level different cassettes can take. I normally do such tests at DIN reference level (would be ca +2 at your deck I think) that most of the cassettes can take without oversaturation.

I liked the D, SA, OD TDKs. I mostly oddly used Maxell as I had better luck with them. The drop outs were the big Issue I had with a the TDKs. But I did like their sound though. Maxell XL-1 and XL-2 were my go to mostly. A few metals but mostly my decks were aligned to Maxells. Thanks for the D TDK show casing.

Hi, I recently started following your channel and I love it. Great videos!! I grew up with cassettes (mainly type 1 tapes) but never really experienced the full potential they had in a good deck, so it's great to learn more about what I missed out and I'm planning to experience once again in my life. I have noticed that in several videos you tend to show mostly 90-minute tapes. Is there any particular reason for that or is it just coincidence?

While watching this video, I had such a wave of nostalgia for these that I went to "the bay" and searched around for a bit, and found a reasonably-priced lot of those 1990-era Ds. Someone else was "watching" them, so I hope it was a flipper and that I irritated them greatly. That's my little fantasy, anyway, and I know I'll enjoy them when they arrive.

All of my My D90 since the 80's still sounds great today. No lubrication required. Head pad has not fallen off. Regretted buying the J series though. Loved the SAs

Global version, Indonesian, Australian and European versions are the same. No smartphone, no high speed internet, no social media, but Only Walkman and Discman. Then later came Pager (Motorola). Sony, Aiwa, Panasonic, TDK, etc. 1990's rock!

I still have 6 TDK D-90 type 1 cassettes of which 1 is sealed packed and remaining I am using for recording. These cassettes never get stuck Even after 25-30 years still good. No white powder or anything

Well that took me, loved the original packaging on the D, yes I've still got a free here and there 😎😎😎