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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc. |
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8th Jan 2021, 12:12 am | #21 | |
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Re: Cassette tape types
Quote:
Tape drag in playback is almost always caused by a dirty or worn pinch roller. At the start of a side, when the takeup reel is almost empty, torque is higher so this can compensate. However, as the spool fills up, the capstan-pinch combination does not have enough drive. The quality of many walkman and car mechs was pretty dire. In the latter, the tape path was almost impossible to clean properly with the limited access through the slot. Then you have poor shell design of many prerecorded tapes. Even some of the tape itself degraded, such as Ampex. I have already mentioned elsewhere on here the abysmal tape used in Warners and EMI pre recorded releases that grind to a halt after a few minutes!
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8th Jan 2021, 12:21 am | #22 | |
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Re: Cassette tape types
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Bear in mind that since about 2003, TDK and Sony and possibly Maxell no longer made their own tape. A lot of it was Saehan of Korea, or who knows what. Check if the TDK stuff was actually made in Japan - if not, it's inferior and not 'real' TDK. The mid 80s to late 90s was probably the best era for tape quality. Ask on freecycle or check ebay for job lots of tape and you can probably end up with a good size collection of reusable blanks quite quickly and cheaply. The ones to look for are collections of home recorded classical and easy listening, which probably only got played once or twice before being stashed in a drawer of someone's G plan wall unit! Tapes that have had rock, pop and dance music would likely have been trashed in someone's 20 pound walkman or bedroom ghetto blaster Tanashin horror.
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8th Jan 2021, 12:26 am | #23 |
Octode
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Re: Cassette tape types
I dont want to go too far off topic, but as regards tapes grinding to a halt I watched a video recently where someone was advocating lubricating such tapes with silicon spray applied along the playing side of the entire length of the tape and then being allowed to 'soak in'.
Seems a barmy idea to me. This was on XDR pre recorded tapes.
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8th Jan 2021, 12:56 am | #24 | |
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Re: Cassette tape types
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As said, this is a whole subject in itself - there are endless discussions on tape binder breakdown, hydrolysis and lubricant deterioration, best done in a separate thread if anyone is curious.
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8th Jan 2021, 1:28 am | #25 |
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Re: Cassette tape types
FeCr tapes were never very successful. The deck manufacturers picked up on it very early on as a marketing tactic, but I doubt if many owners owned a single FeCr cassette. The HiFi mags were scathing, finding that the dual layer of oxides produced a very nonlinear response. The Japanese I/II tapes had become very good by that stage, and any potential benefit of FeCr had been eclipsed.
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8th Jan 2021, 10:22 am | #26 |
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Re: Cassette tape types
TDK SA was my preferred tape for "best", with AD doing very well for everything else. Metal was more about marketing than anything else, as far as I was concerned. FeCr managed somehow to be the worst of both worlds - the open reel Scotch Classic suffered horrendous print-through.
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8th Jan 2021, 11:10 am | #27 |
Octode
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Re: Cassette tape types
Thanks for the feedback Ben, oddly my Dad's car radio was only a few months old at the time & didn't seem to have any problems with other tapes.
I think there was another short lived Type II tape called something like Pseudochrome which used a cobalt oxide formulation.
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8th Jan 2021, 11:21 am | #28 | |
Nonode
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Re: Cassette tape types
Quote:
Chris
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8th Jan 2021, 11:30 am | #29 | |
Nonode
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Re: Cassette tape types
Quote:
All this is academic, however, if you're copying material from CD, LP or download. Generally all such material has already been mastered in such a way as not to show up the limitations of recording media, so a decent type II or even type I tape won't be too taxed by it. Chris
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8th Jan 2021, 11:59 am | #30 | |
Octode
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Re: Cassette tape types
Quote:
The only one that states country of manufacture is the Sony one, which appears to have been made in Mexico. They make some very good guitars in Mexico... not sure whether that translates to tapes too
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10th Jan 2021, 4:51 pm | #31 |
Pentode
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Re: Cassette tape types
I thought the attached file might be of interest. Its from What Hifi? Blank tape special 1988. I've just scanned the pages of TDK cassettes.
I must learn how to use the bias adjustment on my cassette decks, I've always just left in the centre position! Regards, Andrew. |
10th Jan 2021, 5:54 pm | #32 | |
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Re: Cassette tape types
Quote:
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10th Jan 2021, 6:02 pm | #33 |
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Re: Cassette tape types
By the late 80s the big Japanese manufacturers had brought out a large number of very similar tape formulations in order to exploit different segments of the market and charge premium prices. TDK were probably the worst offender in that respect.
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12th Jan 2021, 6:25 pm | #34 |
Pentode
Join Date: Sep 2005
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Re: Cassette tape types
Many years ago I acquired a B&O Beocord 2200 cassette recorder (still in use).
Soon after some testing I realized that the EQ was wrong following an old EQ standard. After some mods I finally changed it to the correct IEC standard (3180/120us and 3180/70us). I run some REC/REPRO test-measurements of adjusting the REPRO EQ with BASF test cassettes as well as the correct REC EQ and BIAS for TDK tapes used at that time. It sounded and sounds...great... I found some measurements plots in my archives and I scanned them for you. Take a look at the charts taken via B&K equipment at that time for TDK AD90 and TDK SA90.
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12th Jan 2021, 7:34 pm | #35 |
Octode
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Re: Cassette tape types
I use Maxell UR all the time on my Revox B215 Deck and they sound amazing
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12th Jan 2021, 7:40 pm | #36 |
Octode
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Re: Cassette tape types
That's quite an impressive cassette machine @Courtney Louise - I've just looked it up
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12th Jan 2021, 11:36 pm | #37 |
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Re: Cassette tape types
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13th Jan 2021, 12:00 am | #38 |
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Re: Cassette tape types
You won't be getting the best out of a good deck if you use Maxell UR with it, though UR is certainly capable of good results in the right circumstances.
I thought the B&O decks were set up for BASF standards ex factory. |
13th Jan 2021, 4:47 pm | #39 |
Pentode
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Re: Cassette tape types
The B&O deck was a 70's product and may be it was set up for BASF tapes. The pre/de emphasis circuits followed the standards at that time had been changed later. I replaced the installed ferrite rec/reproduce head by a new sendust head with which B&O equipped it's later decks and applied some modifications to the unit. The use of TDK was my choice after some experiments at that time which gave good results.
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13th Jan 2021, 5:28 pm | #40 |
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Re: Cassette tape types
Ted, what is your favourite, money no object cassette deck?
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