Shikai Clan AQ 90 Cassette Tape - A (new) quality Chinese cassette?
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- In this video I unwrap an Shikai Clan AQ 90, Type 1, Cassette. Have a look inside and put it through it's paces.
Deck Used : Nakamichi Dragon
For your North American cassette needs, go to:
www.cassettecomeback.com
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The shell colors are vaguely reminiscent of the Memorex “Clown Cassette.” Ha… a few seconds after I typed this, Tony expressed the same thought!
One of the best Bespoke channels on the Tube and allways click the Thumbs up 👍
Hey Tony, so good to see a new video from you. Thanks for taking the bullet on this one. So us your fans don't have to. Looking forward to more great stuff from you. 🙂👍
I was ready to order some on Ali Express based on the video title. Mercifully, I watched the video to the end.
Hi Tony, I've now got a severe tape addiction thanks to you and your chanel!!! 🤣
I clicked the "like" before the intro ended. Gotcha! :)
It really is a shame that they are junk despite being NOS. Thanks for trying these out for us.
they aren't junk, this guy is just spoiled with all the metal tapes and high end decks he has. there were worse tapes made even in the 80s when it was hay day for cassettes. I'd be happy with these tapes
@@RealEpikCartfrenYT Happy until realizing that genuine Maxell or Sony is still available for much less. And, yes, I'm spoiled with Maxell quarter-inch tape, two tracks at 15 ips. Nothing beats a good old Studer.
@@jmi5969 Literally every store I go to, in my country no longer has cassettes, even CDs are becoming scarce. So these Chinese tapes could save anyone who is looking for a brand new tape in specific and wants no fuss
@@RealEpikCartfrenYT Well, I think we all know there were worse tapes than this in the 80s, but we can agree that Type 0 ones should not count in a serious assessment, right?
I am glad I did not buy any !
Look how small the tape pack is for a C90 - given that the tape is pretty transparent i wonder if it's unused C120 tape?
Could be. They are likely using old tape "pancakes" as I think they are called, to fill the cassettes. But still I definitely don't hear any noticeable hiss, dropouts or crackle in the audio. This guy is just full of shit.
Considering it's so thin, it's probable. Or maybe even c150?
Given that it's also partly see-through and snap really, really easily, I'd say yep. Probably sticky as heck as well by now since they've been sitting in a warehouse collecting moisture over the years.
@@Stoney3KMine doesn’t snap on there after I got it. These AQ cassettes are Chinese brand, and the brand name is just random Chinese text.
I'm editing a video where I test a pile of Aliexpress tapes. This one looked very promising, but was by far the worst. It has screws though.
. . . Es gibt schon einen Haufen Schrott . . !!!
These tapes sounded great. The dynamic range impressed me 😂
Hope springs eternal. The quest continues. Thanks Tony!
Thanks and keep trying testing tapes for us 🤗
Tony's blurb for the Shikai Clan AQ 90: "Oh dear god". :D
The tape snapped! Well, that escalated quickly 😆
You tease! Very entertaining though. Nice to see a new video from you. Thank you Tony. Mark.
Just imagine how bad the dropout would sound if Dolby b, c or s was switched on.
bro really signed himself at the end of the comment like its an email.
Thank you, for presenting this tape.
I still have hope that more companies will jump on board.
I'm surprised that no one mentioned or noticed just by seeing the gap between the fully wounded tape reel and the empty one is definitely a 60 minute tape despite indicating it's a 90 minute. The Memorex cassette shown at 3:56 has less gap which is truly a 90 minute tape. I have a good eye and noticed that right away even if I didn't see the comparison of the tapes!!
Nope, it's mentioned that the tape is thinner than a quality tape and that it's most likely 90 minutes of C120 tape that's loaded into the shell.
To be honest I think they sound great for not-hifi audio purposes, for something like recording random stuff they sound much better than other cheapies
The dropouts are.. a bit prominent, to the point they'd annoy me even for a dictation tape.
@@c128stuff But it have less drops as another. For me the sound is okay for radio or microphone recording which i doing. If i need record music from computer and have access to my deck i using old stock tapes, but when i going on trip and want record some music from radio i using new cassettes like this, Gallun optimal, TDK B etc.
@@RadioweArchiwum I have thrown out old tapes because of deteriation and drop-outs which are far less bad than this.
Even for my portable recorder (Sony TC-D5m) which I use for microphone and radio recording, just like you, this tape would not be acceptable, to me. I rather use one of the gazillion early 1990s TDK D tapes for that. Those also do not really meet my quality desires, but at least they are consistent and not full of drop-outs.
Btw, I do agree this is by far not the worst modern tape I've heard, there are many which are much worse, but that still won't make this tape meet my minimum requirements for 'low quality' recordings.
Like I said, I wouldn't tolerate this even for dictation use.
But then, I suppose my standards are simply a bit higher.
I may be the first to comment on this, but this is a really great video!
Hi Tony, how are you?
No, don't worry! This was not a clickbait! You tried your best, as always! I think that we're in a long journey to find another cassette tape with some acceptable quality (for a good one, I think it will take more and more time to find). But I'm sure that you'll find one! And we'll stay here to watch the video of this tape! Have fun while yo're keep finding! Happy taping!
The cassette styling made me think more like those Strand BBC FX cassettes, which I thought looked kitsch at the time, yet I couldn't deny the sound quality of the things was amazing, much better than all the ferric TDKs I usually preferred (or Boots' FI).
No regrets, the gamble was worth taking and watching! Venturing beyond the usual, well-known stuff that we know will be ok unless degradation in a given lot wreaks havoc is not bad at all.
wow new tapes just keep coming out, we know that most of them are not that good 🙂
once again nice to see you Tony and thank you very much,
we just simply like the show.
These look quite similar to some low-branded UK tapes from the 1990s that were available in cheaper shops from companies like Lloytron. They didn't last long because they were actually more expensive than the ubiquitous Bush and various Saehan brands, and not as good, but they werent completely horrible.
A lot of these cheap tapes had glue from manufacture around one of the hubs, presumably to aid in the loading process. It meant that they wouldn't wind all the way to the end of the tape. I wonder if these are similar and that's why they snapped. The late Strand tapes were like this.
As a subscriber, I always like, as what is there not to like about your vids? Keep up the good work Tony.
Liked, and a comment to show interaction. May the algorithm god reward you 🙂
Life can be a bit of a merry go round sometimes
The brand is pronounced as Sihai Yizu (Sihai Clan, lit. Clan of the World), commonly found on cheap VHS, blank cassettes and probably CD lens cleaning product.
It translates to “Four Families” or the “Four Seas” in English and “One in Sound”. And on the ad insert, it translates to “The Source of the Shadow of the Four Seas Clan”
Sadness. I bought a couple of these and havent opened them yet. Thanks for saving my time.
Maybe I'll use them for my "lawn mowing collection" - you cant hear the crap sound over the roar of the engine. :D
Thanks for another charming video Tony. Being somewhat of a tape snob, I thought; Stick with it lad......... I had to switch the wipers in my glasses on. On a slightly different note, thee and me are amply equiped with a number of extreem cassette turd polishing devices. Abely demonstrating that when it comes to cassette equipment, you do actually get what you pay for. Sort of. The Ns and Rxs are normally found on a wish list as opposed to a rack of the many. My idea? Include a test where appropreate, on a MOR deck. A Denon, Yam, or Sony. Always interested in your output Tony. Keep it up! Best wishes from the Forest of Blackness, Mike.
Another great video. I did wonder about these. It looked like too much effort was being put in (to their looks), and them being last of line tapes explains it.
Hi. Tony..calibration in Dragon made easy.. turn on level cal and move bias knobs till level indicate max then lower level with level cal knob. Rechk bias indicator if you want.
The tape it's self is kind of see though 😂😂❤ your getting my like for that comment 😂
Damn, that might be the thinnest tape I've ever seen. Might be okay for language teaching materials. Beautiful drumming on that track.
Only newly Chinese produced tape, that is usable, is a BKB tape - bad case, normal shell and tape is usable for the price. It records with little distortion on high's, but I don't have a deck with fine bias cilbration
I just ordered this from AliExpress earlier today, and I have never seen this cassette before. It’s just a Chinese made cassette like the other ones from years ago.
The big fat "AQ" illustrated everywhere somehow reminds me a certain logo from Japanese cassettes back when they were popular.
For a moment I actually thought this could be a decent quality tape (and that's because we got some good quality keyboards from China lately, so I thought why not tapes as well). I guess I was clickbaited. 😆
it would be interesting to see saturation and frequency response curves for these tapes, and there might be a standardized test for dropouts?
the sad thing is, the recording quality still sounds better than some recent commercial recordings I've received. :(
YES...each time, I've downloaded the digital album and recorded it myself on a decent deck and tape...a world of difference. A couple have been alright, but most, yes, are simply awful 😞
I even clicked LIKE before being number 24 to watch, just 8 minutes after the video was published !
The tape is totally Drop-out City, sadly. It was a new one (for the most part) as it hadn't been opened before. I'd assume the join between the leader and the tape had deteriorated on the first one, which is why it snapped. (At least it wasn't as bad as a video tape I bought once (back in the day) which didn't even have any tape inside it, just empty reels in it! That was a pre-recorded, sealed tape which came from a high street shop; just saying!). LOL.
Wdym dropout city? I have a TDK tape that was new and was dropping out more. Could just be the tape deteriorating but unless you heard what an actual dropout sounds like you never listened to a cassette
In the past magnetic tape of excellent quality was made by companies ( TDK MAXELL BASF SKC etc.)with international markets and formulations were improved upon on regular basis. They guarded their magnetic tape formulations with secrecy ! There is no way a brand new company in 2023 can just set up magnetic tape production and fluke a better magnetic formulation than what these multi million dollar companies had on the market , say in the mid-late 80s. The chances of that happening are practically 0 , in my opinion.
China is still making blank cassettes as of now.
I've heard of that Shikai Clan / Supreme brand before. They did make DVDs or VCDs with their logo on it if I recalled.
Finally a new Video! Keep up the good work !
Type O Negative tape.
😆
I moved to another hobby, but I always enjoy your videos, Tony. This one had some drama ;)
TBH, I thought "this tape looks like Hong Kong or Chinese from 1990s" the moment I saw it.
And some TDK cassettes say rigid-construction and i believe the later Maxell XL II's say anti-resonance on the shell.
So my friend suggested your channel and I'm very glad he did! Great channel man!!! I really wish that the Germans and the Japanese would come and save the day and make a proper tape deck and cassettes again (our forefathers didn't see that coming) 😂 That definitely looks like they are trying to mimic the iconic Memorex 60 Dbs! (Which i stole the colour pallet for my channel profile picture) Great content and GREAT deck man!!! It's honestly a dream of mine to own an actual Dragon!
Thanks bud!! Cheers!
Gotta love a tape that makes a Nak sound lo-fi. LOL
Incidentally a good legend for those Shikai tapes could be: 'Sounds just as terrible today, as it did when we made it!' (I actually thought the second one might have snapped when it was rewound, but it lasted longer, it seems!).
"...or we'll send you a new tape!"
I got this cassette off of AliExpress today, and I haven’t test it yet. It has random Chinese text on there.
i noticed there are some reel to reel cassettes being sold as well, are you able to test one of those for us?
I looked at the translation from Chinese to English, the Chinese symbols translates to “Four Families”, and it’s a Four Families brand from China.
The good news is that Tony from Cassette Comeback now has a supply of spare cases to replace broken ones. By the way Tony, I don't think brides wear nighties anymore. 🙂
Sick this sounds better then nac new type 2 that hiss real bad I did not hear hiss hear.
Hi Tony and thanks for your efforts to keep the hobby of home recording (and the memories of our youth) alive! I noticed that the Cassette Comeback site is currently located in Canada meaning import duties for EU residents. Is there any EU outlet one can buy tapes from? Thanks in advance.
No. The UK site ran out of stock years ago...
I've seen better looking tape on cheap prepaid credit card strips, but can't really expect anything different coming from where this thing came from anyway. But it's always nice and entertaining to watch your videos, especially on these junk tapes. Have a nice weekend, Tony
At least it's a nice colorful design -in comparison to my recently bought JDM Maxell UR. it's such minimal, so bland... even the j-card...
Most customers/users are enthusiast today then why not manufacture them nice things? Quality of the tape is one thing, but seriously how much does it cost to use some colors on the case and/or j-card? When you already charge like 5-6-7 EUR for 1 newly manufactured cassette.
cassettes must comeback plz
Apart from the distortion at the start (I should listen to it again to see if it actually subsided or my ears got used to it) I didn't dislike how it sounds, with my crappy equipment I've made far worse recordings on far better tapes 😅. Shame it isn't a newly manufactured (and good) cassette :(.
1st and a like, greetings from Los Angeles!
Thanks for the new video!!!
Four Seas Clan isn’t really a name that spark confidence.
Looks like a rip off of a Fuji, TDK and Memorex. Do the letters AQ stand for Abysmal Quality? Great to see another cassette comeback video👍. Have you heard of Golding replication cassettes? I stumbled across an advert for them recently.
I have used AliExpress for 8 years now - very satisfied, you just have to know what your doing, buying, filtering out the rubbish etc.
These chinese tapes, the onew i've trued, have the same characteristic I hear on this video. The high frequencies have a splattering effect and distort easily. Are all these taoes, tdk b, bkb etc all the same new tape stock mafe in china somewhere? This is a great looking cassette. It performed better than the maxim, abd hi-tech brands in the 90s. I remember another cheapo called power makes sense, and a mate bought a pack of batteries from that brand that were dead our the packet! :)
When tou begin to see thru the tape itself...
as always...cheers.
Hi. Do not worry. Thanks to you, we already know that these tapes are not worth buying. I don't know if any factory will ever release good quality tapes again. I guess we have to come to terms with the fact that cassettes are slowly going down in history. When NOS ends, we will only have a memory. Thanks Tony.
bro doesn't know he can grab used tapes and rerecord them. they are not like CDs
@@RealEpikCartfrenYT in fact i never used a new tape, i always re-recorded my parents' tapes
@@namesurname4666 that's what I do too. I buy tapes at flea markets. Not happy with the track list? Smash the tape into a deck and record your own things over it. Can't be more simple
@@RealEpikCartfrenYT Yes, it's a workaround, but if you want high-quality recording and you value it, then heavily used cassettes won't give you that. You will hear quality degradation and dropouts. Even if you use a high-quality deck, it's a waste of a deck.
In europe there is one factory I know that produce decent quality tapes and cassettes, and one other that produces decent quality cassettes with those tapes and some other tapes. It is all type 1 now since they used up al the NOS type 2 tape. The big problem is new quality players, because nobody makes quality cassette mechanisms anymore.
I think most of us noticed the small diameter of the tape pack a straight away. No surprise it was dropping out when it's clearly thin C 120 tape! Thank you for wasting your time and $ on this shite so the rest of us don't have to :)
Package Film : AXIA-like ( Jdm PS / J'z and other )
P-Case & J-Card & Index seal : SONY-like ( Jdm CDix / ES and other )
Cassette Housing : Maxell-like ( Jdm US / CD's and other )
Tape : BKB or ACME
( Below is Japanese. )
日本人である私からすると、違和感しか感じない奇妙な製品ですね。
中華製品で日本語を表記する時、明朝体フォントを使うのがお約束ですが、この製品はなぜかゴシック体フォント。
日本製品だと思って見事に騙された現地人は何人いたんでしょうね？
日本人が添削してみる。
-｢クリア-な音｣･･･これは理解できますが、どうやら｢長音符(ー)｣が｢マイナス(-)｣のようですね。
-｢高品質｣･･･これはそのまま通じます。
-｢影音の源｣･･･意味不明。日本語では通じません。英語ならAudio & Video Source?
-｢新しい登場｣･･･｢新登場｣と書きたかったのかな？｢しい｣は要らなかったね。
-｢記録のディスク｣･･･何となく言いたいことは分かりますけど、日本語としては間違っています。｢記録用ディスク｣と書くのが正解でしょう。
I seen this problem with cd it type 2 Sony that it snapped but it got water damaged for some reason. That was a surprised :) I will get another one of type two though and do over though.
Who would have thought there would be anything that would make KAYTAPE / KINGSONIC tapes seem good?
I clicked like really hard, just to make sure!
/love your videos. How about testing the latest boombox cassette players to find the best sounding models.
Click the notification bell...
@@CassetteComeback awesome 👌
Oh dear. Love the deck BTW, double direct drive capstans huh? Did you ever do a video on this Dragon deck? I'd love to see how they implement the double direct drive system. There two clutches in it? How about some mechanical connection between the drive mechanisms?
Funny, I'm not that well versed with current tape offerings, but when it snapped, I thought, huh, you sure it isn't NOS? That said, if some current manufacturer adorns their j-cards with, offers for MD or CD or such, just for the look, I'd be all up for it.
It did sound fine via speakers, I suppose could be suitable for boombox use.
One does wonder, the market for new good quality tape isn't huge, but it's global. You'd think some old manufacturer would still have the blueprints and formulas to make their old stuff. Get that old tape guy out of retirement! That "Impossible Project" managed to get old Polaroid film manufacturing going, even secured the name Polaroid recently. They do seem pricy, to be fair...
I didn’t hear any immediate issues with the tape, but that snapping is definitely not good.
Same issues with these very old cassettes from the 1970’s which were notorious for snapping tapes. I had many of these and they were okay. Certron was the worst. So does Audio Magnetics.
Standards are the one ‘newer’ Chinese cassette that I do really like and have bought a lot of. These however, no…
This cassette good for children to play with😂
haha snapped tape on the first one is great foreshadowing
This tape needs splicing. All we need is a splicing block, a scotch tape and a razor blade to fix the tape and it will play perfectly.
I remember since I had old cassettes from the 1970’s which were brands that I’ve never heard of before, the tape snapped by the leader, and the shells were welded, and I had to pry it out and had to get it spliced and put them back together and it plays okay.
If you want a great normal cassette, just stick with the 1990's TDK D (and genuine TDK B as well). Affordable, easy to get and always do the job.
Or maybe the 1979 D, the Maxell UR from 1975 and 1979, and other top brands. This one needs to avoid. It doesn’t sound as good as Certron, Concertape, Sim, Hoyin, Nippon, Big Ben, Broadway and many more cheap cassettes.
man Tony, I only listen to epic music and movie trailers, not noble rocking fit music type for this one!
Terrible drop outs at the start, but after that it sounded OK to me, except at one point just before the fade out.
Tony.....comeback!!!
But Truly saying..the tape sounded good to me 😉
Yeah this guy is full of shit. He has a nakamichi dragon. Its obvious he is gonna treat any type 1 tape with disgust, but is blinded by TDK and Sony being like "oh yeah they are good, must have" but thing is I had TDK tapes that sounded worse.
But not as close to being a “Type 0”.
No this isn't clickbait cuz the title was a question rather than a statement. Shame this cassette had poor quality. About knew it was gonna be trash when the first cassette snapped. Oh well, back to my colorful Memorex tapes!😉
Hello
If they hadn't used those cheap, lightweight China hubs, it would have looked really good. No need to talk about quality :D
The coiled hubs looks even smaller than on the C60. Also, that says something about the tape.
Liked
Do they have anything in cassette form, that is really decent on Aliexpress or what?
I like the look of this tape. Pity about the quality.
also wait, did you buy another dragon lmao? this one is missing a particular dent.
also you said you sold it xD
Yeah he was stupid and bought a massively overpriced one. Meanwhile I use a boombox that sounds good for my needs, and i only paid 10 Euro for it.
Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. huh
Gravel oxide never did sound very good in the highs 😉
AliExpress has good quality stuff.
Based of TDK SR, the equivalent of SF and SD.
And OD.
Hello there... I am wondering if you could review some exotic reel to reel [Dopy] cassette.
On [PLACEexpress] there are some interesting fantasy [rep -PL- icas], including metal reel Maxell, a scaled down [Dopy] of Maxell's iconic 10.5 inch reels inside a compact cassette. I bought two of those since they are not overly expensive... but of course I count NIL since I ain't posting videos.
One can surely expect rubbish tape but they're metal reel to reel and for the pictures I've seen quite decent quality, they have screws and you can put in a premium brand quality tape, not only that I've seen the indentation with breakable tabs to enable Type II auto detection. I think they're worth a try.
FYI: I am experiencing diffuculties with your spamfilter.
Sadly it's a type zero but what do you expect from Ali? The only positive thing I can say about Ali that it is better than Wish :D
Maybe this tape is really NOS from the 90s, the design looks like a cheap copy of TDK of that time.
This is a “Type 0” cassette since I got it off of AliExpress today. This is a brand new cassette from China, and it has random Chinese letters, but there’s no product, no brand, just random Chinese words.
I'm not mad at that.
I thought that was memorex -c d it that had those so called urban images aimed at the hip hop rap fading fad