Audio Formats: Cassettes Tape and CDs

Audio formats are described as mediums for sound recording and reproduction. Their history dates to the 1850s with the use of phonautogram to record human voice by Frenchman Eduord Leon (Maes & Vercammen, 2013) . Over the years more audio formats were developed each growing better with time. The world moved from using phonographs, to use of USB flash drives, iPods, Blue spec Cd’s, MQA Compact Disc and Hi-Res CD in 2018. The cassette tape is defined as an analog magnetic tape recording format used for audio recording and playback while a compact disk is a digital optical disk data storage format developed to store and play recordings and data. To compare the two, the main focus will be on their historical development, from when they were introduced to the market to when they were overtaken by others forms of audio. The quality of both including their dynamic range, frequency response, and signal-to-noise ratio will also be addressed. Whereas cassette tapes were widely used and made significant sales in the market, the compact disks overtook them due to their better sound quality and 

Originally known as the ‘compact cassette,’ the cassette tape history dates back to 1962, where it was used as a toy for children in Europe. Its maker, the Phillips Company, later brought it to the United States in 1964. The cassette tapes were very popular among teenagers because of their novelty and their ability to record personalized music collections. Cassette tapes provided an inexpensive way for teens to make and share their recordings (Payne, 2018). Despite the market for blank cassettes being wide, the sale of pre-recorded cassettes never took off due to the poor sound quality compared to phonographic records. It also received early competition from the eight-track, a tape cartridge that was introduced in 1965 by William Lear. In 1968, engineers began working on improvements of the cassette tapes, with the main purpose being to increase the sound quality. Ray Dolby, one of the engineers, developed a hiss-reduction technology called Dolby noise. These improvements, as well as the inexpensiveness of the cassettes, led to an increase in their sales in the early 1980s. While the 1980s stood out as a great decade for the cassette tapes, they also were the decade that saw the rise of digital audio, with the compact disk (CD) being launched in 1982. The CDs were also not an immediate hit, therefore, giving the cassette tapes an opportunity to gain more popularity until the early 1990s. With better sound quality and digitalized audio, compact disks took over the market form the cassettes (Payne, 2018). 

The history of the CD dates back to 1957 with experiments being conducted by the Italian Antonio Rubbiani. His experiments stimulated fellow scientists to think along the lines of digital technology. Twelve years later, Phillips put their effort on Audio Long Play (ALP), a disc that used laser technology posing rivalry to the analog vinyl records. Philips conducted numerous experiments with the digital disk technology under the guidance of their technical director at Eindhoven. Among the experiments, was the quadraphonic sound which required a 20 cm disk in diameter. They, however, abandoned these experiments for some time and later on recommenced the project in 1978. They launched the compact disk project with the primary aim being to replace the compact cassette and the traditional video equipment which were both popular technologies at the time (Morton, 2004) . Having already released the commercial laser disk to the market, Philips was way ahead of its competitors. They, however, lacked the necessary experience in developing digital audio, to develop the CD further. Sony, on the other hand, was also involved in the development of the compact disk, their problem was they lacked the knowledge of how to make the physical disk, they had, however, the required experience in development and implementation of digital audio circuitry. In 1979, Philips and Sony announced in a conference in Japan that they would jointly develop the compact disk. The two firms worked together creating the Red Book which contained specifications of the CD including the size, recording details, sampling and other standards which up to date, have remained unchanged. Soon as the two companies started working separately, Sony released its first commercial disk on 1 st October 1982. The CDP-101 compact disk player was first sold in Japan and later in Europe. It was not until 1983 that it reached the United States. In 1984, Sony once more released the first portable CD player, raising the popularity of CDs in the market. The two companies joined efforts again creating the Yellow Book Standard in 1983; this would allow the electronics of the CDs to be designed in a manner that would enable CDs to store large amounts of data that could be read from a computer. In 1990, the standard was finally ready to be used for commercial businesses. Compact disks continued selling until 1995 when Sony initiated the move towards the creation of a Digital Versatile Discs (DVD) (Disc Wizards, 2017) . Technological changes attributed to the reduction of Compact Disks sales, but almost no one had foreseen it. This was because of how much the CD was successful. It was so popular and profitable making it hard for anyone to believe that it would ever lose its popularity. 

Comparing cassette tapes and Compact Disks requires venturing into the technical specifications of the two. To compare the quality, the dynamic range, frequency response, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are vital aspects. The dynamic range refers to the ratio of the loudest, and the quietest sounds possible on a recording medium. It is expressed in decibels, with the higher the number, the better the dynamic range. Compact disks have a dynamic range of 96dB while that of cassette tapes is about 50dB. Cassette tapes that are equipped with noise reduction circuits can push the figure to 75dB. A smaller dynamic ranged is associated with cramped up sounds. Frequency responses measures how faithfully a medium reproduces bass, mid-range and high frequencies. The frequency of cassettes varies depending on the kind of tape and player used. Some of the best tape desks that use chromium dioxide have a range of 20Hz to 20KHz.The frequency response of the CD is of 2Hz to 21KHz; individual filters, however, may possess filters, therefore, limiting the extreme low and high frequencies lightly. The signal-to-noise ratio measures the degree to which noise intrudes recordings, that is, whether one can hear noise in the music or whether noise is inaudible in silence. SNR is also expressed in dB, due to the nature of their magnetic tape, cassettes are noisier than CDs. A good quality cassette tape has an SNR of 80dB while the of CD’s lies at 96dB (Papiewski, 2017) . 

The 2000s to the 2010s witnessed massive changes in audio formats. In 2010 Sony ceased the sale of cassette Walkman in Japan, and the term cassette tape was removed from the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011. Notable developments were made in audio formats in 2013 where Sony ended shipments of Minidisc systems and the High Fidelity Pure Audio, as well as the Mastering Quality Sound (MQS), were developed. The Ultimate High-Quality Compact Disc evolved in 2015 followed by the MQA Compact disk in 2017 and finally the Hi-Res CD in 2018. 

There has been a strong resurgence in the sale of cassettes with the sales doubling each year since 2015. In the UK for example, the sales of cassettes make up for 1% in music sales with only 22000 copies being sold in 2017. Currently, the sale of cassettes has skyrocketed with an estimated 18500 copies, being sold in just the first six months of 2018 ( Payne, 2018) . Cassettes are making a big come back and this may be due to the high amount of mainstream releases that appeal to the larger market of listeners and collectors. The cassette’s playability has been low which is attributed to the poor sound quality and its lack of a dying format. One can therefore easily say that cassettes will never regain their position in the audio industry especially with music streaming taking over the industry. With the noted increase in sales, we, however, cannot conclude that they are a dormant format. 

The main purpose of CDs was to replace analog vinyl records and cassettes; they have however been used to transfer, back up and store computer data till to date. The market decided that tapes were not as good, this does not discredit them but comparing the two shows that compact disks were better than the cassette tapes. The result could be attributed to the fact that they came later, that is after the tapes. Therefore, they underwent much development. For the era that the two forms existed, or were the most popular, they were of great significance to the history and development of audio format marking digital domination. Technology is transient, the cassette tape replaced the reel to reel tape players, and the CD was replaced by compressed audio formats such as MP3, this means that as times evolve and more technology is realized, more audio formats have continued to be developed with even better features. 

References 

Disc Wizards. (2017, November 29). A history of the Compact Disc (CD) - Disc Wizards. Retrieved December 10, 2018, from http://www.discwizards.com/articles/History-Of-The-CD.htm 

Maes, J., & Vercammen, M. (2013).  Digital Audio Technology: A Guide to CD, MiniDisc, SACD, DVD(A), MP3 and DAT . Burlington, MA: Focal Press. 

Morton, D. (2004).  Sound Recording: The Life Story of a Technology . Greenwood Press. 

Papiewski, J. (2017, February 9). Cassette Vs. CD Quality. Retrieved December 10, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/cassette-vs-cd-quality-10437.html 

Payne, L. (2018). The History of the Cassette Tape | Techwalla.com. Retrieved December 10, 2018, from https://www.techwalla.com/articles/the-history-of-the-cassette-tape