Japanese store brand cassettes - Worth taking a chance on?
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Hi there.
In today's video we are taking a look at two different Japanese store branded cassettes. Both of which are made by well now companies. But are they any good?
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That JP is Made by SKC,
That's correct 👍
I have Fuji DR-1 tapes that are the EXACT same as that jusphoto tape. Same shell, same hubs, same leader. And they are also made in china!!
That'sa shame Fuji dropped so far. Their Axia range in Japan never dropped to Chinese tape. I guess they had more pride for their domestic brand.
that jusphoto tape might possibly be made by skc due to its 3 hole hubs
Yep, you're right. It is by SKC.
@@retrocoreav7025 i have some of similar tapes i have a scotch and a no named "FIRST MUSIC 120min tape that has a similar hubs
note: few of the tapes contain a amateur recordings of asami rei a takarazuka artist judging from the owner that i bought here in the philippines.
Do the tapes you have with SKC hubs sound poor?
Cassettes are still sold in stores??
The Just Photo sounded flat to my headphones on both treble and bass compared to the original the worst out of the SKC line I've heard on the internet so far. The other tape was really good and reproduced the sound very well.
But then it wasn't really a fair fight as I think Just Photo was that one where the tape looked like it was just a bad cut defective one anyway wasn't it if it was a good one on hand it would probably perform well too like SKC normally does?
If that was the defective cut one I guess this one was Type 0 but all of them.
Or maybe SKC make the setup but some crappy China company made the tape with SKC leader parts.
Great review! Are these brand new cassettes? (I hope so!) In the mid-late to early 2000's SKC made some cassettes like the last version of the Memorex DBS in China, but mine sounded great. BTW I thought the Maxell sounded brighter too.
I'm afraid not. They're from around the early part of the 2000s
That JusPhoto tape can't even be used for voice recordings, since it lacks both treble and midrange. If you're into bassy, heavy music, maybe, but you will need Dolby no doubt.
It's just a pretty poor tape. Not skc's finest.
ooh skc saehan lucky Goldstar made in south Korea this is interesting and put together in vhina (lol see what I did there I almost typed china but I typed vhina with v by mistake anyway this might not be the type 0 unless if it was mimicked or something or if it has reslit vcr tape or sandpaper type tape )
ahh a pengong OEM and that does look like a maxell rebrand signature.
i know what company it is It's skc and this is korean made tape.
set aside the quality can you adds the song title you use in video ?
I guess I could but I did say. It was Pet Shop Boys - It's a sin (disco mix). It's from the second half of the 80s.
Great! So, I learned how to read some Japanese on my Japan-market cassettes. For example, recently I bought a Maxell UR-60 from one Russian internet stores, now I understand it says "Tape made in Japan, cassette assembled in Korea". So I know that the store told me the truth saying in their web page "Cassettes made in Korea from Japanese components". Nice to know one more time that store is good. And my AXIA Be-2 Type II tapes all say "Cassette made in Japan". I tried that AXIA already, really great tape, gives a piece of nice brightness to my recordings.
Axia cassettes are pretty much all great and as far as I know, they're all made and assembled in Japan. 👍
It looks like the author of this video does not know what he is doing. Unless this is some sort of "secret technique" known only to him, the attempts to "adjust bias" shown here do not seem to make a single shred of sense. (Not even mentioning the strange choice of recording level.)
From what I see in the video, it appears that you are setting your bias by observing the "MID" meter alone, completely ignoring the "HIGH" meter. Why are you doing it that way? What is the point of doing it that way?
Because that's how it is done on this Sony deck. If you google the namual you will see how to set up this deck according to Sony themselves.
In this order.
Adjust the Bias to the equal point on the display (bottom indicator bar). Next adjust the level to make it equal on both sides (the indicator under the Bias bar) then adjust the record EQ (top indicator bar). This is all in the manual. But it also says while they are the optical settings it's also good to adjust to personal taste. This is why I adjust the EQ by ear.
As for the input level (volume) I'll have that as high as possible without distortion. There's no special setting for this.
@@retrocoreav7025 I am sorry, but maybe you should read that manual again. Your setup makes no sense at all. Really.
You have to start with all settings neutral. Then you adjust the bias knob, making the top meter bar and the bottom bar equal in length. When that is achieved you know that the tape provides equal output at 315Hz and 10kHz.
Then you set level. After this the tape output level equals in the input level. Both of these should not be done by ear. These are technical requirements, no matter what the user manual says (which is a mess, BTW).
Then you proceed with equalisation, but in most cases you will find that it matches already. Give it a try.
What you did was this: you adjusted bias with only an eye for the bottom bar, which indicates the 315Hz level. This left both tapes overbiased, as seen by the low 10kHz level indicated by the top bar. You redressed this later, subjectively, by increasing eq. The result of this, erroneous, overbias is that the tape could be driven to unfeasibly high levels with low distortion, but at the cost of treble saturation. This might be useful for some types of music, but only if you know exactly what you are doing.
@@retrocoreav7025 I think audiochrome explained it perfectly (actually, the calibration frequencies with this deck are a little bit different though, but this doesn't change anything). A small addition: in general, you should only use the eq if you just can't get it perfect with the bias and rec level.
@@retrocoreav7025 I don't have this deck, but I have Googled the manual, and that's not how I read the instructions. The way I read it is how audiochrome describes.
Adjust the bias until the high and mid bars are equal. Adjust record level so that only the middle indicator is displayed. Adjust record equalisation so that both mid and high bars match the recommended level. Repeat steps as necessary.
@@retrocoreav7025 No, this is not what the Sony manual says. "Equal point" means that you have to equalize all three bars at the mark: HIGH, MID and LOW (LOW is what is labeled as LEVEL. There no "bar" for LEVEL on the display, but the idea is still the same). There's no particular order in this process, since changing any one of the parameters (BIAS, EQ and LEVEL) will normally affect all three bars. Which means that you will have to go in circles adjusting all three knobs, gradually converging at the point where all three bars align at the mark. This is not difficult to do once you get a hang of it.
I also like to set the REC EQ by ear. But it is a good idea to perform the standard calibration procedure first and use it as a base point. Align all three parameters, exit calibration mode, and then maybe tweak the REC EQ parameter by ear using the music you are planning to record.
Absolutely not an objective review of cassettes. The author did not show the results of the calibration adjustment. Calibrator adjustment takes 10 seconds. And how the author set it up is not clear. One feels that the author does not know how to use it. I'll put a plus for the tapes and work on the video.
How would you suggest the results of the calibration are shown? Telling you how much plus or negative adjustments are made is pointless because every deck is different. The calibration on my deck won't be the same for someone else's deck.
Also, calibration took much longer than 10 seconds. The part shown in the video was only the Bias and level calibration. This is extremely easy to do as we have guides on the display. The level EQ can also be calibrated via the display however I prefer to do it by ear. This is not shown on the video because it takes time.
@@retrocoreav7025 You tune your deck for that cassette, and the knob positions only apply to your deck. For comparison and experimental purity, tuning by ear makes comparing cassettes meaningless. What prevents you from putting the cassettes in the same conditions, that is, setting the level and bias level on the display? And we and you will see an objective difference in the frequency characteristics of the samples in question. And in addition to comparing cassettes, when recording, you can check how the cassette withstands overload in level, add +2 +4 decibels. This is how it will be honest and interesting. I don't want to offend you, it's just that objectivity is more valuable, and your videos will raise more interest. Thanks.
Thank you for your input.
I'll take a look at some of your ideas. I like the idea of pushing a cassette to the limit so that may be an idea.
Agreed. Take a look at how the cassette comeback guy does it. If his channel is still up. Otherwise good job.