Maxell or TDK?

"The real trick was biasing the deck for a specific tape type"
That's what I found out as well. My Pioneer CT-F1000 worked best with Maxell XLII-S.
Now I'll have to dig out my tapes from the 70s and 80s and see how well they've held up.

+1 Effischer and Lowrider57. If you pick a tape and then bias the deck to the tape, you could get either one to perform at it's best.

I remember Audio Magazine, Or maybe Stereo Review had some rather impressive tests done with a survey of various tapes. the scores were in round graph type display and it was clear most tapes did pretty well. Each one had a few better areas, and a few weaker.
The Type II and Metal tapes were the types to use.
As for brand. ?? I do not remember. TDK and Maxell were both good though.

Something I have always wondered is what brand of cassette tape was most widely used by the record labels' dupe facilities.

Much higher quality when doing my own recording.

I used TDK on my (2)Nak . I also used Maxell and BSF with great results . Try them both , but stick with co2 or metal !