sullivan@harvard.ARPA (John Sullivan) (03/13/85)
There was some discussion of the new chrome tapes maxell is making.
Nobody gave quite the same story I heard from my local reputable
stereo store.
I am sure you are all familiar with the standard UDXL-II tapes that
have been around for a few years, and come packaged in black, gold,
turquoise and white. There have been a few minor packaging changes,
and in the most recent ones the stick-on tape labels have gold stripes.
Last spring, I bought a similar looking tape which turned out to be
actually called simply "XLII 90". The only differences on the tape
cassette itself are that it says POSITION.CrO2 instead of POSITION.HIGH
and the UD block just says XL.
XL
But examining the information card inside shows this is a European version.
Everything is given in French and German as well as English, and Maxell
Corp. of America is never mentioned.
Now my dealer said this tape was inferior, using a different oxide layer.
This is one thing I tend not to believe. He mentioned having problems
with other stores in the area selling these tapes for less, despite the
fact that Maxell never intended them for distribution in the US. I tend
to believe that they were cheap just because of changing exchange rates.
Just recently Maxell has introduced two "new" tapes, called XL-II and
UDS-II. The former is slightly more expensive than the old UDXL-II's,
and the latter is slightly cheaper. The UDS is packaged in red, and the
cassette itself has a red and gold sticker. But the claims on the back
make exactly the same comparisons with XL211 tape as the old UDXL-II's.
My dealer says it is the same tape, just being produced at a new factory.
The new XL-II has a gold wrapper (with "NEW" on the front), and the claims
on the back compare it to UDS-II tape, saying it has improved MOL and output.
Inside it looks just like the old European XL-II, except that the sticker
says POSITION.HIGH[CrO2]. The stick-on labels are printed slightly differently,
but they do say Tape Japan/Assembled in USA like the old UDXL-II's (and
unlike the European ones). My dealer says that this tape used the same
oxide as the UDXL-II and UDS-II, but uses a better binding process, so
there is less risk of dropouts. This doesn't quite seem to agree with
the claims on the back.
Does anyone have any other info on this?
John M. Sullivan
sullivan@harvard