it's not unusual to find blank cassette tapes at the thrift store
what is unusual is to find a whole big box to them like this
these are duplicator cassettes which means you don't get any cases or cards with them
you just get the tapes and they come on these plastic sticks and this box originally would have
had a hundred of these cassettes but obviously you can see some of them have been used already
here's a closer look at one it's just a plain plastic shell although it is screwed which is
good has kind of a textured finish around the edge and it does have the erase tabs intact
there are no markings on the box or the tapes themselves to indicate who made them
although if we take a closer look at this leader here it says c92 which is the length
46 minutes per side and then it says if we take a closer look at that professional premium trademark
so that's the indication of what kind of tape this is it's a nice even chocolate brown
standard ferric tape and it has the metal shield in there i know some
cheap tapes leave that out but this one has that metal shield
the black ones are a little different because they just have a plain blue leader
but otherwise it looks like the same good quality standard ferric tape inside
let's see how many tapes i have left out of this box of a hundred
so i have 82 tapes left of the original 100 that would have been in this box when it was
new and here's what i found in the bottom of the box stuck under the tapes these are from
kingdom tapes and electronics this company is still a business today although they
don't emphasize the tapes part of their name anymore but they do still sell these tapes and
as you might guess from that symbol they are a religious company that sells mostly to churches
"oh this isn't going to be about jesus is it?" "all things are about jesus, homer"
so these tapes would be for churches and other religious organizations to record
their sermons and lectures and music onto and i know when churches would have their sermons
rebroadcasted on the radio back in the 80s and 90s they would record it on a standard
cassette and just send the cassette to the radio station and they would play that on the air
they didn't really need anything higher quality than that so it was perfectly fine for that
"...thing purpose cause it ain't you it ain't me but it's here you gotta know all your passions
and that's what the devil does he attacks your passion"
here's a look at their website it just kingdom.com i wonder how many kingdoms around the world
wanted that domain name and they ended up getting beaten to it by this company selling
cassette tapes to churches black friday sale isn't a little bit late for that i'm recording this in
mid-december let's try to find cassette tapes i see here cds dvds packaging and duplication
uh if you scroll down oh here cassettes duplicators and recorders
kingdom professional 92 minute cassette tapes but that's a different style i don't know
oh here we go that looks more similar to what we have and it's a hundred pack
so this could be the same exact thing is why i have available for order so they
still have it available 137 dollars for 100 tapes so it's $1.37 per tape
there's only one professional premium audio cassette tape that's their registered trademark
you won't find it anywhere else because it's a kingdom exclusive product in 1984 the dream
was simple develop a professional grade premium quality tape specifically designed
to withstand the stress of high-speed tape copiers at an affordable price professional
premium is that tape for decades competitors have tried to copy this tape and the name
but don't be fooled by cheap imitations there is only one professional premium tape
you won't find these cassette tapes anywhere else because they are a kingdom
exclusive product these are the perfect copy tapes for high speed duplication"
ooh christian t-shirts free shipping
wonder if they can make me a t-shirt that says god loves cassette tapes
they still have plenty other cassette related supplies such as labels and j cards and cases
kingdom incorporated began as a home business with a single product
a recorded audio cassette course on horse training from there kingdom began to supply churches
and other organizations of blank cassette tapes and high-speed cassette duplicators
i'm sure you're wondering how good do these tapes sound are they going to produce heavenly voices or
a hellish racket to try to figure that out first i'm going to calibrate it using my denon drm-24hx
i have its recording level and bias calibration adjustments set to their center detent position
and if i switch over to the source you can see and maybe here i have a 400 hertz
sine wave feeding into it at 0 db so if i fast forward a little bit to get past the leader
and then start recording we can see it's coming out a little bit under where it should be it's
coming in at minus one when it should be zero if i switch over to the source you can see that
so i'll bring up the recording level a little bit to match that level so now the levels match
just need a little bit extra level compared to the center detent position
and now to calibrate the bias i'm playing a 10 kilohertz tone and minus 15 db so if i switch
over to the tape and start recording you can see it's right where it should be minus 15 db
so the bias does not need adjustment there you can see to calibrate this tape i needed
to bring up the level by one notch i don't know if these dots are calibrated in decibels or not but
there you can see it didn't need much and the bias is still right in the middle where it should be so
this kingdom professional premium tape calibrates just as well as many name brand blank tapes do
now to test its audio quality i have a little montage i put together
of both spoken word and music and there's one loud peak in this test which i'm going to push to plus
5 db on the meter and see if the tape can handle it and this is a 3 head deck so you'll be hearing
the playback of the tape as it's recording it this deck has dolby hx pro headroom extension
but i will not be using dolby noise reduction for this test
"bass so deep and powerful it shakes your brain and rocks the neighborhood
roller coaster swings that sore from a whisper to a screen
and back to a whisper it's all part of the amazing dynamic range of cds
and if you want to get it all down on tape you've got to be serious about the tape you use"
"there's something really magical about waking up for the sunrise to start a hike
and it's become one of my favorite things to do when i travel
when there's no one out yet except for the mountain goats to greet you in the tunnel
as you drive through the world always feels so untouched and reset standing still waiting"
hey that's pretty good of course it's rather hissy but what do you expect it's a standard Type I
ferric tape with no dolby noise reduction so of course it's going to be hissy but otherwise no
dropouts that i could hear good clean sound good bass response clear treble good quality recording
now i pulled another one of those tapes out of the box and i recorded a song onto it using this
TEAC W-890R and this time i do have dolby b noise reduction enabled and this is a two head deck so
i'll be playing back what i previously recorded and i'll let you hear how that sounds
new jersey each day your beauty shines from farmland to the shore
new jersey in this great land there is no place that offers more
together we'll see the dreams you dare to dream all coming true they're my dreams too
new jersey your cities help to make this nation strong and free new jersey your courage
comes alive in every face i see together we'll build tomorrow from the challenge of today now
your spirit makes us everything a state could hope to be
so that's been a look at and listen to these professional premium tapes from kingdom i don't
know if they're blessed with the holy spirit but they're certainly blessed of good sound quality
"and in the spiritual realm is that i live in the reality of my own mind no don't get me here
and so my mind gives me a reality..." i like that preacher