Ron,

I get best sound from Certron blanks, runner up is Scotch. Nothing
from Radio Shack could compare. Based on 26+ years of home recording
experience.

The Certron is really dark colored tape- techies say cuz it has more
iron oxide-and produces a better signal.

I've tried TDK and Maxell- they were inferior to the Certron, equal at
best to Scotch.

Scotch blank has by far most advanced internals- a bearing surface on
the inner reel and roller wheel where it rides the spindle. Someone
put their time in designing those.

A cleaned/aligned high end player with proper settings and source,
will make recordings on Certron blanks far better than any store
bought tape in existence. The resolution and ambience are in the R2R
league. That's assuming the tape is tuned up also (lube, splice, pads,
etc.)

Lately I've been making many recordings from old bootlegs, Capitol
white shells, etc. that have missing labels- and undesireable original
music on them. If I can't make out who it is, it gets bulk erased and
something good put on it. The bulk eraser will make even a low
quality tape sound good. I have Scotch 90's recorded in 1979 and still
sound like new- 25 year old home made tape still going strong and
heavily played at times.