Cassette Tapes..Dolby B or C?


I still have a tape deck in my system, and have a few tapes that are nice for quiet background music. The tape deck has a switch to select Dolby B or Dolby C (or none). There seems to be no marking on prerecorded tapes to indicate the type of Dolby processing. On a tape I was just playing B sounds about right. Should I assume that all prerecorded tapes are B unless otherwise stated?
eldartford
Isn't it funny that recording CDs on casette tape seems to give 'better' or more satisfying sound, yet digital 'dissers' claim that the reason for digital's poorer sound is the LACK of information (overtones, microdynamics, etc.) contained in that medium. Are we saying that analogue recordings of digital recordings restore information or just introduce distortions that are pleasing?!! 'Rounding off' the highs seems like losing even more information.
Bob P.
Tvad

I was not being tongue in cheek.

Bob P

I think both of those statements can be true.

To my ears (as a digital "disser") CDs

1) accentuate frequencies - or add information? - that I find fatiguing.

But at the same time, digital often has

2) an absence of certain spatial cues, harmonic overtones, richness and depth.

In the case of a CD archived on a tape, I see no reason why the tape can't improve on point 1) and perhaps sound better.

Obviously, it can't create the missing info from point 2.
One audio writer, years ago, described the low noise of CDs as a silence of absence, not a silence of presence.

Nonetheless, perhaps the noise of analogue is in some way creates a better illusion of that, even with the information that was "missing" from the CD.
Cwlondon, you might enjoy experimenting with recording your CDs to cassette tape using a good Dolby B/C cassette deck and high quality tape (like the TDK SA). Cassette decks are dirt cheap these days...probably less than a jar of contact enhancer.

:)
Tvad

Yes, maybe I should scrap this high end, WAV file music server idea, and just move my entire CD collection to cassette tapes.

I do think that would be an improvement!
Server, shmerver. Go low tech. The drive will eventually just crash anyway.

:)