You're a teenager in the '80s with only so much money to spend. You want to preserve radio air checks. Do you buy the normal bias cassettes, which have more tape hiss but do the job well enough? Or, do you splurge for the high bias or metal bias cassettes that have less tape hiss and better sound quality? Although I bought high and metal bias tapes more often as I got older, I bought the normal bias tapes most of the time. I reasoned, "If I spend less, I can buy and preserve more. It might not be perfect preservation of what I've heard, but it'll be close enough."
Considering that I can still listen to air checks I recorded 36 years ago, I think I made the right call.
