Anyone remember these things?

[MindGoneHaywire]

Looking on this page brought back some memories...


http://hanazuc02.ld.infoseek.co.jp/cassettes/cassettes.htm

[Stone]

Looking on this page brought back some memories...


http://hanazuc02.ld.infoseek.co.jp/cassettes/cassettes.htm

That's a cool page. I have many of those still in my collection, but mostly TDKs and Maxells. I've had a bit of a return to cassettes lately, as my CD player in my SUV broke down, but the cassette player works. Also, my gf bought a used car that has a cassette player in it, so over the weekend I bought some blank cassettes (not so easy to find anymore, and not many choices at least in most places) to record some stuff onto for her.

The one that brings back the most memories is this one:

http://hanazuc02.ld.infoseek.co.jp/cassettes/tdk_ma_r_mk1_c_46[1].jpg

My friends and I used mostly SAs and SA-Xs, but once in a while would splurge on something like this one. It was partially made of metal and felt like it weighed a pound, but you also paid for it.

It's cool that they put the demagnetizers at the end too.

[-Jar-]

Hehe, hell yea, I think I've used about half the tapes on that page.

I would rank them like this, best to worst (at least as far as the high bias tapes go)

1. Denon (though I bought Maxell more because they were more available)
2. Maxell
3. Sony
4. TDK
5. Fuji



Somewhere way down the list.. Memorex.. crapola tapes. The only time I ever had them was when they were given to me as gifts. Man, I used to love tapin' stuff. I like doing mix cd's, but the feel is completely different. If I had a decent tape deck (the one I have is slowly dying and in a box somewhere in my attic) and lots of time, I'd still do some tapes now and then.

[MasterCylinder]

Great post, MGH.

I know the entire lineup of those images from Denon, Maxell, Memorex, Sony and TDK.

Back when I was spending (way too many) hours in the recording studio, we thought the engineer was cool because he exclusively used the Denon products........so those images in particular gave me some good memories.

[Troy]

Maxell UDXLIIS was my casette of choice.

I used to paint on them like that sometimes, but mostly it was hand cut vinyl tape.

I shipped all my tapes to Barry L years ago. I wonder whatever happened to them?

[BarryL]

Maxell UDXLIIS was my casette of choice.

I used to paint on them like that sometimes, but mostly it was hand cut vinyl tape.

I shipped all my tapes to Barry L years ago. I wonder whatever happened to them?

THe man was absolutely anal. He would get out plastic pinstriping tape and use his exacto knife to carve out the name of the band to put on the label of the cassette.

Now that's a man who LOVE's music!

I still have all of them, and play them at times in my van when the kids aren't bugging me to play Tom Chapin or Jack Grumsky. The older daughter loves my music, but the younger one still likes kid songs.

I still store them in the box you shipped them in. If you ever get too lonely without them, I can sell them back to you!

My favorites are the driving all night series.

[Mr MidFi]

I was a taping fanatic, back in the day. Maxell XLII-S was my weapon of choice, and I was fiercely brand loyal. TDK SA-X would do in a pinch, I guess.

I don't know how many hundreds of tapes I made through the years (roughly 1976 thru 2000), but sometimes I miss the slow, thoughtful, hands-on approach to capturing the "right" sound and the right mix. But damn, did I waste a lot of time with those things.

More than anything else, I miss my old Teac deck. May it rust in peace.

[Troy]

THe man was absolutely anal. He would get out plastic pinstriping tape and use his exacto knife to carve out the name of the band to put on the label of the cassette.

Now that's a man who LOVE's music!

I still have all of them, and play them at times in my van when the kids aren't bugging me to play Tom Chapin or Jack Grumsky. The older daughter loves my music, but the younger one still likes kid songs.

I still store them in the box you shipped them in. If you ever get too lonely without them, I can sell them back to you!

My favorites are the driving all night series.

Yeah, the DAN tapes were my faves too. I kept my musical mayhem tapes too.

No chance of me buying them back from you. In fact, wanna buy my film cameras now?

Troy

[Dave_G]

I liked the high dollar Maxells and TDK's too, and occasionaly used some of the metal bias tapes.

Anyone ever use an open reel deck or an Elcasette?

Dave

[Troy]

Anyone ever use an open reel deck or an Elcasette?

Dave

I was using reel to reel up thru the late 90s. Sounded great, but was big and awkward to use.

[BRANDONH]

Is it live or is it Memorex?
Remember that commercial?

[GMichael]

I liked the sound quality of the Maxell's the most. Memorex was OK, loved the commercial, made by Maxell I think. But after 1000 plays the tape would stretch and would play slow, fast, every which way. The TDK's didn't seem to have the same high end reproduction but lasted longer for me.
The metal tapes were like $10 each. That was too much for me at the time for a blank tape.

[Jim Clark]

I've mentioned this before but when I was in college there was a store in Lawrence that rented LP's. While it lasted I went through tons of tapes. Grabbing a handful out of the box up here I've got all kinds, I probably went with what was on sale at the time.

The most prevelant:

Maxell UD XLII
Sony UCX S90
BASF Pro II Chome 90-Oh, the Troggs are on this one. I need to listen to this today.
TDK SA 90

jc

[Dusty Chalk]

I remember those ones that looked like they had little reels in them. I liked them especially much.

[Swish]

Looking on this page brought back some memories...


http://hanazuc02.ld.infoseek.co.jp/cassettes/cassettes.htm

I think the SA-X were the ones I usually bought, but it's been so long since I've fooled with them that I can't remember all the letters and such. I went to the high bias and metal when they came out, and they certainly made an improvement in sound quality.

Swish

[3-LockBox]

If my wife thinks I waste time now, making CD comps, she shoulda seen me the first few months I got my first high-end stereo with EQ, tape player w/ HX-PRO and a CD player (Onkyo). Holy crap, I could spend days making tape comps.

I was in the Navy and our PX had some great buys on blank tapes back then. I could buy TDK SA-XG 90s for what you'd spend on a crapy BASF normal bias tapes in a RatShack back then. In fact, I used to spoil myself buying TDK MA-XG's and Maxell XLII-S and MX-S tapes and in a pinch, I use Sony UX-Pro. I tried Denons, but my Onkyo deck didn't seem to like them?! Maxell seemed to make a superior product fit and feel wise, but the TDKs did sound sweet and were more forgiving I thought. Both had great dynamic range and worked well with HX-PRO decks.

When I got out of the Navy, I went to a store (Target, I think) and was floored at what the real world was paying for tapes. So yeah, I relented and used some BASF Chrome II tapes for a while.

Good riddens! Gimme CD-Rs and a computer any old day. Yeesh!

[BarryL]

Yeah, the DAN tapes were my faves too. I kept my musical mayhem tapes too.

No chance of me buying them back from you. In fact, wanna buy my film cameras now?

Troy

My 28 year-old Canon AE-1 works just fine. My next SLR will be digital. Likely, though, by the time I get around to it, the 20D will be obsolete. Let me know when you're ready to upgrade!

[ForeverAutumn]

My 28 year-old Canon AE-1 works just fine. My next SLR will be digital. Likely, though, by the time I get around to it, the 20D will be obsolete. Let me know when you're ready to upgrade!

Hey, I know someone who might be interested in buying that Canon if you ever want to unload it.

And to stay on topic, Maxell XLIIs were my tape of choice, although we just got rid of our last tape deck component. I still have an old boom box that I bought in grade 9, that plays tapes, but that's the last of the tape decks in my house.

I do have a turntable that plays 78s stored at my mom's house. No 8-track players though. Got rid of those more years ago than I can remember.

[unleasHell]

I liked the high dollar Maxells and TDK's too, and occasionaly used some of the metal bias tapes.

Anyone ever use an open reel deck or an Elcasette?

Dave

LOL,
I KNOW WHAT SONY ELCASETTE's were, bet they sold a couple hundred of them pre beta

Ok, I have one for the old timers, who owned a PL-12D Turntable?

[Dave_G]

PL-12D?

The old Technics linear tracker?

I had one.

Dave

[unleasHell]

PL-12D?

The old Technics linear tracker?

I had one.

Dave

NOPE

it was one of the first full size, belt drive, s-shaped tonearm, PIONEER turntable that was affordable, it was like $100 if I recall correctly

[jack70]

Lord, what HUGE page. It took a while (more than normal) to format, so (out of curiosity) I used my webdev tool & saw it has 562 cassette pics in there... 9.7 Megs (!) for the page... whew. That would take an hour (to download & format) on my old dial-up ... LOL.

I preferred TDK myself, their best being the LTD edition SA-X+ in 100min size. But for most taping used plain old normal biased tapes...better deck-to-deck reliability because tolerances between decks (heads & bias)... better midrange (hotter) although perhaps a bit noisier at the top, but with most Rock music (loud signals), it don't matter. I also used Ampex cassettes, and Fuji & BASF.



I liked the high dollar Maxells and TDK's too, and occasionaly used some of the metal bias tapes.
Anyone ever use an open reel deck or an Elcasette? I was using R:R pretty early on, so Elcasette didn't make much sense when it came out (afterwards). Neither did cassettes, until years later after Dolby & closed loop head designs were the norm. I still have a Revox & Sony deck. And I fully intend to dub some of that stuff onto digital, but like most things, I've yet to get around to it yet... LOL.

[Slosh]

Did anyone else ever use Loran tapes? They were pricey but worth it for your favorite recordings. The shell was made of Lexan and instead of having punch-out tabs had these little blocks you'd turn with a small screwdriver to prevent further recordings, which of course you could turn back again if you changed your mind. For everyday stuff and mix tapes I usually went with TDK SA-Xs because they sounded as good as the Maxell metals although they tended to get drop-outs easier.

Man, I still have three tape decks that get no use. One is a JVC dubbing deck with pitch control that I got right out of college. One of the great things about living on campus was you had access to hundreds of peoples' collections and I taped a ton of albums that way. Problem is most people don't bother to set the head alignment properly, nevermind adjusting the deck's pitch, so pitch control came in very handy for listening to those tapes made on other peoples' decks. I also have a single-well Denon with Dolby S that sounds virtually as good as the source, even if that source is LP or SACD, and a Sony dubbing deck with pitch control and Dolby S but the older JVC with only Dolby C makes better sounding tapes than that Sony.

I never use any of them anymore but I can't bring myself to get rid of any of them. What could I get - $20 a piece?

[Lifes-A-Blast]

Yeah I remember the Sony Elcassette- too bad Sony did it's bang up job of not licencing its technology . It had the potential to rival reel to reel in the day for master copying . Then you could transfer to a cassette for a final dump off. But I suppose the idea is what spawned off VHS tape. I think Beta with its continious loop design was more 8 track designed than what VHS became.
Getting back to cassette tapes my 1st chioce was Maxell Ud xl II or later xl IIs
the worst of the lot that I saw were the Ampx dreck that floated around usually 3pks in polycarbonate plastic cases for a couple of bucks a pack.
TDK SA's in in a pinch were a good choice My best cassette recorders I ever ovened and still have boxed up were 1 each Luxman 117 & it's big brother 118 made around 1981-82
It used to make supurb copy from vinyl. acually made some of the grundgy flat sound records sound a little better in the high eng w/ dolby b on. the 118 had DBX and dolby C
I paid more for the 117 about 400 bucks at the time and found the 118 about 2 yrs later at about 250 buck ( retail was 500) I beat the crap out of the transports of both because it was during the daze after college (early 80's) low money supply and being on the progessive side of music at that time I was pirating from public radio late at nite all the cool music commercial radio would not play (early MTV , british bands of the 80's, punk stuff, etc) and then remix my own comps from the odd stuff I captured and give them to my friends. So the transports got a good work out ffwd & frwd the master tapes. I must of made 80-90 tapes during 1980-1985. I' ve tryed to transfer the real odd, ext mix , stuff that never really got reissued to cd on hard disc , but its time consuming and i need some software to remix, reequalise some of the stuff. another project for the projects
Anyway just some more babble good weekend all Lifes-A-Blast