"Ian Thompson-Bell" <ruffrecords@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:fv9h68$1eu4$2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> CLM in ND wrote:
>> I'm planning on recording some music that's only on my computer onto
>> cassettes for a back-up. One of the reasons is regarding the dubios
>> durability issues of CD-R's, and also becasue I miss making tapes on
>> my tape deck, an NAD 613.
>>
>> My supply of high bias cassettes is a bit low & it seems stores don't
>> carry them anymore. I remember about 15 years ago, BEST & Montgomery
>> Wards had the best selection of cassettes, as did many mall music
>> stores. Now, most stores, even Best Buy, just carry Sony HF or Maxell
>> UR normal bias tapes. It also seems as though the Maxell XLII-S is no
>> longer made and Sony doesn't make any high bias cassettes anymore.
>>
>> Luckily, there are quite a few tape wholesalers online where I can get
>> a real good price on type II tapes from TDK, Fuji, Maxell, etc... One
>> site has 90 minute Akai high bias cassettes for only 80 cents each:
>>
>>
http://www.batteriesandbutter.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=AKAIGX-90&Category_Code=ta
>>
>> That seems almost too good to be true, a 10 count box for only $8.00.
>> However, I haven't been able to find any reviews regarding them. I'm
>> familiar with their tape decks, but not so much with their tapes. Has
>> anyone ever tried these cassettes? Did you like them? How is the
>> quality & sound compared to TDK, Maxell, etc... Any info would be
>> appreciated.
>>
>> Cameron
>
> I would not look for bargain tapes if you are archiving. I would place
> Maxell first closely followed by TDK.
>
> Cheers
>
> Ian
I think today's prices have little to do with quality as with disposing of
old stock as cassette use is becoming very small. I don't know, but it's
unlikely that AKAI make their own tape. Much more likely is that it was
made
for them by one of the majors. It could, of course be rubbish, but price
is
no longer any indicator. In my experience, the best tape around was Tayo
Yuden (That's Tape) in spite of the silly name. Maxell and TDK were pretty
much on a par, BASF made some very good tape, but the settings required
to
get the best out of it were very different from those for TDK or Maxell,
consequently none of the predominantly Japanese decks that were around in
cassette's heyday could be used with BASF without a major realignment.
As I recall, ****amichis and Denons used to be set up for TDK tape,
although
worked reasonably well with Maxell, if you're not over-critical. My
experience was that a machine set up for, say, Maxell, would be several
dBs
out on TDK at the top end, (say >10kHz) and more noticeably, several dBs
out
on Dolby tracking due to the different sensitivity. Dolby C was a great
deal
more exacting of level setting than B was, and I am pretty sure the reason
why lots of people didn't like Dolby C was that few cassette recorders
were
ever set up accurately enough. My own ****amichi using Dolby C and That's
metal tape produced recordings that were indistinguishable from the
original
on recordings from vinyl or FM radio and sufficiently close to CD for
anything but the most critical use.
Having said all this, I question the OP's use of cassette for archiving as
cassettes wear with use, lose high frequencies with playing unless the
replay machine is scrupulously demagnetised, are subject to print-through,
are mechanically fragile and subject to tape jamming etc. Also, for
archive
use, there's a good chance that cassette machines may not be available to
play the recordings in the future. I would archive to CD-R and/or DVD as
there's a very good chance that these will be playable for many years to
come. Even if they are not, it is trivially easy to copy a CD-R to another
future medium without loss of audio quality whilst copying cassettes will
always result in a quality loss.
S.
--
http://audiopages.googlepages.com
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