HD7

   HD7 and HD8 were almost on par as far as top quality was concerned. The HD8 was more the type of cassette used for more professional applications. HD7 was more for home use, but with the same quality and recording aspect. Regardless, people would pick up HD8's mainly because of the tape being higher end and it wasn't that much a jack up in price. With the Metal Particle formulation that differed from the HD7, it was as close to Metal Bias as you could get.

  HD7 fell below in sales as years went on. Even HD6's were selling better that the bigger brother. People who would understand cassettes knew of the HD7 quality and that was what saved it from utter demise. The quality would be most compared to some of the higher end brands that Sony and even Fuji had to offer. It's even compared to the TDK SA-X at times, but the HD7 was more adapted to CD longer than the SA-X was (the HD7 formulation hadn't changed in years), making the HD7 a much better tape.*

  The "CD cassette" era was around the corner and Denon tried to compete with the TDK CDing and newly revamped Maxell UDII-CD. The S-Port (both in High and Metal) was to be the cassette to save Denon as far as an affordable "CD cassette," but that would have eventually mean a downsize of their line due to CD-Rs becoming more the mainstream. After a couple of years more, Denon decided that digital was the way to go, and stop production on cassettes altogether.

  The HD7 is the second best cassette of all-time ranked by The BTG All-Time rankings.

* Based off of personal testing and research.

The Gallery

   Here are some of the photos I have collected after so many years (well OK, months, and mostly from eBay). Not only do I have some of the most extensively detailed photos, not only to show detail, but to let you know a little bit about them with a discription.

pic coming soon!	1982   Info to come soon!
pic coming soon!	1986   Info to come soon!
Pic coming soon!	1990   Info to come soon!
	circa 1993   The tape had not changed, but Denon was going for a new look and a new type of sales. Just like Maxell, the new redesigns on packaging came out before the cassette and its formulation were changed. With more modern packaging, they could compete with the likes of TDK and Maxell. Denon was looking to put their cassettes back in the forefront and bring more sales back to the HD6 and HD7.
	circa 1996   The 1996 packaging changed very little. A different shade of green brightened up the package, and the design of the tape changed. the tape looks more streamlined and curved. No sharp edging to deal with. The formulation changed only slightly, so that people who even knew the cassette would still recognize it. The tape itself is stellar in CD production, making it seem as if it really was a CD. tape to tape recording on a HD7 results in a clear sound, but you are better off to use either Dolby B or C.

The Future:
  Well, there IS no future, unless a cassette revolution comes about. Even at that rate, if Denon decided to be a part of that, the HD7 wouldn't be their first choice for the comeback.

Pictures on this page are either borrowed from my personal collection of cassettes or from some other source, like eBay auctions. The images are the sole right of Denon (Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd.), and in no way are these pictures intended to be abused or utilized for profit. All information within this section is for research and informational use only. Illegal use is strictly prohibited. Specs for each tape can be found at Denon's Official Website.
Email me at chris@btgallery.com for questions, comments, contributions, or even your own Top 5 list.