Stay away from TDK tapes???

[keithant]

I love TDK tapes especially SA-X but i am hearing alot of horror stories about them at places like Naks.com and audioasylum.com about them stretching and breaking and shedding there oxide and generally losing there information early on in there life,they say maxell is better and last longer.Personally i have never experienced any of these problems with TDK and i have some SA tapes going back to 1977-78 that still work fine.Has anyone else here ever heard of these problems with TDK or are these folks just talking about tapes that just were'nt stored properly?Thanks and Happy New Year,Keith...

[royphil345]

Actually, I think more of my TDKs have survived the test of time better than my Maxells. Certainly haven't had any TDK "horror stories" happen to me. (knock on wood!!!)

[dean_martin]

My problems have always been with maxell - mechanically moreso than sound. I've had several maxells break or freeze up. I've never had a similar problem with tdk.

[musicoverall]

I love TDK tapes especially SA-X but i am hearing alot of horror stories about them at places like Naks.com and audioasylum.com about them stretching and breaking and shedding there oxide and generally losing there information early on in there life,they say maxell is better and last longer.Personally i have never experienced any of these problems with TDK and i have some SA tapes going back to 1977-78 that still work fine.Has anyone else here ever heard of these problems with TDK or are these folks just talking about tapes that just were'nt stored properly?Thanks and Happy New Year,Keith...

I never thought much about differences among blank cassettes when I did a lot of home recording 20 years ago. I bought 100's of both TDK SA-series and the top tier Maxell's. They did sound similar - they both had their respective strengths. However, the test of time has not been kind to my Maxell's as many of them have deteriorated to the point of near-unplayability. I've had no such problems with TDK's. Not even one problem with them and my tapes are between 12 and 20 years old.

Rumors like these surface every so often. Don't worry about it - my experience tells me it's a lot of BS, perhaps by shills of Maxell.

[markw]

Dunno about anyone else but I swear by TDK tapes, particularly the SA and SA-X series. I've been using TDK since the 70's and they have a dang good survival rate. I still play tapes I made in the late 70's on my Teac 360 on occasion and they still sound fine, considering it's only a Dolby B cassette tape.

[ruadmaa]

I love TDK tapes especially SA-X but i am hearing alot of horror stories about them at places like Naks.com and audioasylum.com about them stretching and breaking and shedding there oxide and generally losing there information early on in there life,they say maxell is better and last longer.Personally i have never experienced any of these problems with TDK and i have some SA tapes going back to 1977-78 that still work fine.Has anyone else here ever heard of these problems with TDK or are these folks just talking about tapes that just were'nt stored properly?Thanks and Happy New Year,Keith...

Believe it or not the brand of tape really has nothing to do with it. What really matters is the quality of the lot of plastic that was used during the manufacture of the tape. Film collectors have found out that plastic decomposes over time. You can have 10 films from the same manufacturer (Kodak) out of the 10 nine might be perfect for over 30 years while the 10th film begins to smell like vinegar and is decomposing. The plastic base becomes tacky and will no longer support either film emulsion or tape oxide. There is absolutely no way to tell whether any specific film/tape will have problems. Mostly it comes down to how good the chemicals where that made the original plastic base. Hope this helps.

[Ray H]

You also have to wonder about the motivation of the rabid nay-sayers. Can you say, "Maxell marketing flunkies", children? ;)