[net.audio] Cassette Tape Durability

prophet@umcp-cs.UUCP (Dennis Gibbs) (04/05/85)

<>

This is in response to Mike Williams' query concerning cassette durability. I,
too, am one of those people who buy albums and then immediately record them on
tape.  I thought I would share my experiences with tape durability.

I started out recording albums on Maxell UDXL-II tape on a fairly cheap  Sharp
tape deck.  These tapes are used primarily to play in the Marantz tape deck in
my car.  Most of these tapes are over five years old.

I currently own a Nakamichi LX-5, and in it I use Maxell XLII-S or Maxell  MX,
depending on what I am recording.  Most of the tapes in this collection are as
old as one year, and these tapes are used only for playback on  my  Nakamichi,
not to be used in my car or in any other el-cheapo tape deck.

In total, I have about 100 tapes, half of which are about five years old,  and
the other half about one year old.  I have had a total of three "failures"  or
more accurately, "malfunctions".  Two of these "malfunctions" happened on  the
tapes that were over 5 years old.  What happened is that the tape  inside  the
shell began to drag and bind, causing a great deal of wow and flutter.  I  did
try to play these tapes in another deck to make sure it was the tape  and  not
the deck, and sure enough, the tape was causing the problem.  In  both  cases,
all I did was unscrew the cassette shell, and piddle around with it, and  then
put it back together, and both have worked perfectly ever since.

The third case happened on a brand-new Maxell XLII-S tape.  Before  I  make  a
recording, I fast-forward and then rewind the tape to be sure the tape is O.K.
and to perhaps shake off any loose oxide coating left over from the manufactu-
ring process.  In this third case, the tape rattled a lot when I was rewinding
it.  I took the tape out and shook it, and it sounded like a baby's rattle. It
seemed that there was a loose screw or piece of plastic  that  was  inside the
shell.  I took the tape back to my dealer and he replaced it free.

In all three cases, I have never lost a recording due to  a  failure;  in  the
first two cases, I fixed the problem by taking the shell apart, and in the 3rd
case, the problem showed up before I began recording on it.

Which brings me to another point.  I prefer cassette that have  housings  that
are screwed together, because it gives you a way to fix the problem  should  a
problem ever occur.

Concerning the problem of dropouts, I have never had this problem with any  of
my Maxell cassettes, even the ones that are five years old.   However,  it  is
quite hard to listen for dropouts while driving along on the highway; it could
be that there are a few dropouts on these older tapes, and that I cannot  hear
them with all the engine and traffic noise.

I would also like to hear other tape recordists' experiences with the durabil-
ity of different brands of tape.

                             Dennis

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man@bocar.UUCP (M Nevar) (04/08/85)

This is in response to the tape durability questions raised recently.
I presently own approximately 250 cassettes recorded on both a Technics
3-head deck and a Tanberg 3-head deck.  200 of these are Maxell UDXLII's.
The other fifty or so are TDK SA, Dennon, and some imported Technics tapes.
Let me first say that the Technics are the best I have used, but they
are hard to get and rumor has it that they are not the same anymore.  These
are about 8 years old.  The others range from a few weeks to 8 years.
I have only had one problem with my Maxell's, that being a broken tape.
The TDK's however have gone down considerably in the last 4 or 5 years.
The 8 year old TDK's have been fine, and I still can enjoy them without
any noticable loss of quality, but the newer ones have been a problem.
I am currently re-recording these onto Maxell's.  Dropouts are a problem
with these as are totally un-recordable portions of tape.  I used to have
about 50 or 60 of them, but I have been replacing them gradually (as they
became a problem).  My car stereo also has had a few of these for lunch,
I usually buy a box at a time, and I was always getting at least one
TDK in the bunch that wasn't good for some reason.  After awhile of this 
I got disgusted and switched allegiance to Maxell, with very satisfying
results.  As I recall, just after these tapes started getting bad, TDK
introduced an upgrade to the SA line called SA-X.  Now, these may just
be the old-style SA's, but I don't know for sure.  Maxell upgraded the
XLII to the XLII-S, but I haven't noticed any difference.  Anyone
notice anything like this ?

I have nothing to report on the Denon's yet, as I have just
started to test them.

One note on recording records on the 'virgin' play.  This is not always
good.  On the first play, your stylus will pick up all the junk that
the cutting stylus has left behind.  When I get a new record, I treat it
with a record cleaner (LAST record cleaner), then play it through once.
Then I clean it again to get all the vinyl that the stylus has dragged out.
Then I clean the stylus with STYLAST and use LAST record preservative
on the record.  Now I record the album.  I have gotten fantastic results
using this method.  I first read about it in The Absolute Sound and it was
recently recommended in Stereophile.

                                                Happy Recording,
                                                Mark Nevar

peters@cubsvax.UUCP (Peter S. Shenkin) (04/10/85)

I've been using TDK SA-90's exclusively for about 3 yrs, as long as I've
had my Nak LX-5, which was my first deck.  I've never had a problem, but
I don't use car decks, etc.

Re SA-X upgrade:  SA-X is a better tape, and I've tried it.  It seems to
allow more dynamic range.  Some time after they introduced the SA-X,
they had a general upgrade in the packaging:  they started putting SA tape
into  the cassettes they had used for SA-X, and SA-X into cassettes they
had used for metal tape, and introduced a new all-metal (I believe)
cassette for the metal tapes at the high end, and  called it M-X.  Or 
something like that.  It may be that the new packaging for SA tapes 
makes them more durable than the cassettes they used to be packed in 
more than about 2 years ago.  As for dropouts, I don't know, I've never
observed this.  Then again, I only record maybe 30 cassettes per year,
and get an approximately equal number from friends.  These are also
TDK SA-90's.  (I do a lot of trading.)  Still, if it were common, I
think I'd have seen it at least a few times.

Peter S. Shenkin, Biology, Columbia;    cubsvax!peters

dave@rocksvax.UUCP (04/11/85)

I own about 20 Maxell UDXL-II's which are all about 6 years old, no problem.
I own about 80 TDK SA [C]-90's which range from 5 years to present.
I had 2 Memorecks tapes (both died)

In that time I have one defective SA-90 from the start, and the rest have had
no problems.  The only dropouts I can hear are the ones caused by my magnetic
mount Ham antenna getting a little to close to a few.

Storage means: most of the older tapes were stored 365 days in the car, laying
on the floor of the car.  The newer tapes get rotated in now that I can't carry
the whole library.

I used to buy the TDK's for 2 reasons, 1) they sounded better to me and 2) they
were a lot cheaper ($1.98 vs $2.89).  The price now a days is the same, I have
a better deck, I haven't tried any new Maxell's, maybe I will get a few and
try them.

As far as I am concerned TDK's and Maxell's have served me quite well, are
priced right so I have no motivation to change!!

Dave

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herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS]) (04/12/85)

In article <324@cubsvax.UUCP> peters@cubsvax.UUCP (Peter S. Shenkin) writes:
>Re SA-X upgrade:  SA-X is a better tape, and I've tried it.  It seems to
>allow more dynamic range.  Some time after they introduced the SA-X,
>they had a general upgrade in the packaging:  they started putting SA tape
>into  the cassettes they had used for SA-X, and SA-X into cassettes they
>had used for metal tape, and introduced a new all-metal (I believe)
>cassette for the metal tapes at the high end, and  called it M-X.  Or 
>something like that.  
>Peter S. Shenkin, Biology, Columbia;    cubsvax!peters

SA-X is a dual layer version of SA as well as having all the latest 
improvements in particle manufacturing.  i've stopped using SA's when they
started assembling them in the US.  quality went down from the original
japanese produced ones.  i have some that are 9 years old that are fine,
but most of mine are about 5 years old, and i have been having problems
with them.  i don't know what the newer SA types are like.  TDK MA-R was
their first metal tape and comes in the aluminum frame.  it is a slightly
different formulation than MA and is a dual layer metal tape.  i think it's
the best metal tape one can buy short of reference cassetts for alignment.
however, at $18.00 each at discount in Canada, i don't buy many.  i use
fuji metal instead because the housing is better than MA and the tape
is very close in bias requirements.

Herb Chong...

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wagner@uw-june (Dave Wagner) (04/15/85)

The only problem I've had with cassettes are reels that give off a
high-pitched squeal as they rotate.  The degree of squeal varies, but
on some tapes it's so bad that it can be heard even through much louder
source material.  All of my tapes are TDK SAs.  Anyone else have this
problem, and is there anything that can be done?



			Dave Wagner
			University of Washington Comp Sci Department
			wagner@{uw-june.arpa|washington.arpa}
			{ihnp4|decvax|ucbvax}!uw-beaver!uw-june!wagner

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