Accurately made speed test tape: 3000 Hz signal test tape recorded on a brand new Sony HF blank tape from a 3000Hz digital signal source and checked with Sony Professional test tape WS-48B, so you are buying an accurate and stable test tape that has almost the stability of the sony professional test tape which was a 60+ dollar test tape when I bought it from Sony Service Center back in the day. 

First photo shows the tape you will receive. The second and third photos are for illustration purposes only and those tapes are not included in this sale.

As said above, the second and third photos are for illustration purposes only and show the sealed blank tape that was used for the recording and the Sony Professional test tape that was used to check the accuracy of the recorded tape after it was recorded. Every recorded tape is checked that deviation is no more than 10 hertz against the professional tape, typically around 5 hertz. I can't just trust a basic Sony HF cassette that it is good automatically after recording, for one thing the plastic shell could have become warped with age and giving some uneven friction, so I want to make sure that every single tape has been checked for accuracy before mailing it.

I remember few years back when I bought a test tape on ebay from a seller, it had a 20-30 Hz deviation when compared with the Sony WS-48B test tape, not to mention the stability was pretty bad too, so now you have a chance to buy yourself a properly made, accurate and stable test tape. I chose this type of Sony HF blank tape to do the recording on because it rotates very lightly which is what was needed for the purpose of stability. As you can imagine, would Sony charge $60 for a test tape if it was easy to make one by just recording a signal on any blank audio cassette? This version of Sony HF blanks were giving me a result that was very similar to the Sony WS-48B, I was surprised (at least when they are new, I don't know what happens if you use them a lot, but if you just use them occasionally as I do, they stay accurate and stable). You should always use the middle of the tape to adjust the speed on the player you are using, this is because the beginning and the end of the tape could have 10-15 hertz difference than the middle when played on most players, even a direct drive deck will show few hertzs difference between beginning and middle of tape, so always use the middle of the tape when adjusting speed. The original sony factory test tape does the same when played in most players will have 10 hertzs or so difference between beginning and middle of tape, even though the factory Sony recording is probably accurate within one hertz, so the difference comes from the players themselves. 

How to use the tape:

1. Rewind the tape you received to the middle with about equal amounts of tape on both reels being visible, this would give better balanced weight on the reels and more stable rotation, very important, always remember middle of the tape for better accuracy.

2. Look at the reading on the frequency meter for your software, for example lets imagine it shows 3024 Hz. Now open the cassette door and turn the tape around and put it back in and look at the frequency reading, lets says it shows 3028. Now use the side that had the lower reading, that would be the side that showed 3024. Turn the tape around to that side, now start adjusting the speed down until the meter shows around 2995, which would be around 5 Hz lower than 3000 Hz, and leave it there. Now, If we checked your player with an original manufacturer's test tape if you had one, it will very likely show us a reading of 3000 plus or minus only 2-3 hertz difference, which is very good considering we did not use an original manufacturer's test tape to adjust the speed.

Please note: This test tape is sold to adjust speed only and each tape is not checked for wow and flutter after recording so not guaranteed to be accurate for such readings and not recommended for such, but out of curiosity I picked two test tapes to compare to the original sony test tape, and this is the result: The two recorded tapes in the middle of the cassette with about equal amounts of tape on both reels, checked using a Sony DD11 walkman showed around 0.2 peaks for one of the tapes and 0.25 peaks for the other, the original sony test tape shows on the same walkman around 0.15 for peaks,  the software program used is called WFgui which you can download online. This means that you should deduct about 30 or 40 percent from the result to arrive at a reading that would be similar to what an original test tape will show you. For example say your high-end deck has specs of only 0.03 according to the manual, now with this test tape it shows you say 0.05, so now you will deduct around 30 percent and arive at 0.03 for a reading which is close to what the manual says is normal for your deck. These are the RMS values that someone else measured on their high end deck using different test tapes that he has:

This test tape showed: 0.05 (precise value was 0.046)

Hans Peter Roth test tape: 0.04

EOS test tape 0.02

ANT S31A test tape: 0.03

Another test tape made by someone else, not an original test tape: 0.04