pchris@inuxc.UUCP (Philip Fair) (11/03/83)
Does anybody know anything about the new Maxell XL-I and XL-II
cassette tapes? If you have a sample of these, take a look at
the box. Until I saw these tapes, all Maxell tapes carried a
lifetime guarantee. There is no such warranty on the boxes of
my samples. At a recent tape deck clinic sponsored by Maxell
and a local stereo store, the factory rep told me that these
were of a slightly different formulation than the UDXL-I and II.
I really can't tell much of a difference in using these tapes.
A guy at Hi-Fi Buys said that these tapes were just an upgraded
version of the UDXL series. But what happened to the guarantee?
Also, does anybody have Maxell's address? I'll write them about
this issue if nobody can come up with a satisfactory explanation.
Phil Fair
AT&T Consumer Products Laboratories
wjm@whuxk.UUCP (11/04/83)
Yes, Maxell recently upgraded their "middle" price line of tape - between the premium XL-IS and XL-IIS and the budget LN varieties. High Fidelity mentioned them in its last tape issue this past summer. However, I'm quite surprised that they dropped the lifetime guarantee, especially since I just bought some XL-IIS cassettes last week from J&R in NYC that had the guarantee (unless I got old stock, which is unlikely given J&R's volume). I'd write to Maxell to find out what the story is - they are in Moonachie, NJ (although I don't remember the exact address.) Bill Mitchell Bell Laboratories Whippany, NJ (whuxk!wjm)
hlh@linus.UUCP (Henry L. Hall) (11/10/83)
I purchased several of these tapes at a local record store. The
price was low (about $2.50/tape) and according to the tape's box
there is a 1db increase in the MOL (what is MOL anyway). Does
this mean expanded head room? As I recall, TDK SA and SAX had
~6db of head room while the Maxell tapes had ~5db. I also saw
an ad mentioning that most cassette decks had their equalization
settings for CrO2 set for the SA's response curve. Any replies?
Thanks in advance,
Henry L. Hall
{allegra, cbosgd, decvax, ihnp4} !linus!hlh {UUCP}
linus!hlh@mitre-bedford {ARPA}saf@floyd.UUCP (11/11/83)
I don't know about MOL (maximum operation level) differences between cassette tapes but I have found two slightly different UDXL-IIs in the stores. They have different style printing on the tape housing as well as the labels inside the dust case. I call them "blue" and "white" since those colors seem to correspond to the reel (hub) colors. I have had no trouble with the "blues" but a bunch of "whites" I picked up at a very good discount exhibit a scraping sound when winding. I don't know if this is "normal", an isolated defect, a cost reduction move, or even a counterfeit. Has anyone else noticed this? Steve Falco