Cassette tape

The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an <a href="/facts/Analog_audio/1Ggd37l0">analog</a> <a href="/facts/Magnetic_tape/wj6IDTR1">magnetic tape</a> recording format for <a href="/facts/Sound_recording_and_reproduction/BMbpAWkE">audio recording and playback</a>. Invented by <a href="/facts/Lou_Ottens/H24br68f">Lou Ottens</a> and his team at the <a href="/facts/Netherlands/y8xn5stT">Dutch</a> company <a href="/facts/Philips/Xp4uczGg">Philips</a>, the Compact Cassette was released in August 1963. From 1983 to 1991, the cassette tape was the most popular <a href="/facts/Timeline_of_audio_formats/XTaN7Sfx">audio format</a> for <a href="/facts/Record_sales/X24XCBr7">music sales</a> in the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a>, as observed by the <a href="/facts/Recording_Industry_Association_of_America/8a7K0Ubf">RIAA</a>.
Compact Cassettes come in two forms, either containing content as a prerecorded cassette (Musicassette), or as a fully recordable "blank" cassette. Both forms have two sides and are reversible by the user.
The cassettes are read and played by <a href="/facts/Cassette_deck/C9pPj1yl">cassette players</a>. Cassette players have a metallic head which touches the magnetic tape and decodes it. Then the audio signal (mono) is fed into an <a href="/facts/Amplifier/pnRgxncC">amplifier</a> which amplifies the audio and lets us hear the music through <a href="/facts/Loudspeaker/tqEjnJ2z">loudspeakers</a>.
Although other <a href="/facts/List_of_magnetic_tape_cartridges_and_cassettes/nLDxBI9J">tape cassette formats</a> have also existed—for example the <a href="/facts/Microcassette/boaBxrD7">Microcassette</a>—the generic term cassette tape is normally used to refer to the Compact Cassette because of its ubiquity.
Compact Cassettes contain two miniature spools, between which the magnetically coated, <a href="/facts/Polyester/Ivp9CHpl">polyester</a>-type plastic film (magnetic tape) is passed and wound—essentially miniaturizing <a href="/facts/Reel-to-reel_audio_tape_recording/x4MLKeVB">reel-to-reel audio tape</a> and enclosing it, with its reels, in a small case (cartridge)—hence "cassette". These spools and their attendant parts are held inside a protective plastic shell which is 4 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches (10.2 cm × 6.35 cm × 1.27 cm) at its largest dimensions. The tape itself is commonly referred to as "eighth-inch" tape, supposedly 1⁄8 inch (0.125 in; 3.175 mm) wide, but actually slightly larger, at 0.15 inches (3.81 mm). Two <a href="/facts/Stereophonic_sound/z0vmJcGT">stereo</a> pairs of tracks (four total) or two <a href="/facts/Monaural/1lKJ5jAW">monaural</a> audio tracks are available on the tape; one stereo pair or one monophonic track is played or recorded when the tape is moving in one direction and the second (pair) when moving in the other direction. This reversal is achieved either by manually flipping the cassette when the tape comes to an end, or by the reversal of tape movement, known as "auto-reverse", when the mechanism detects that the tape has ended.

Cassette tape open-in-new

Cassette tape