I love how despite the sad market situation you describe, you're determined to keep doing videos with whatever you have available. Thank goodness, really, since you're such a key figure to this hobby. Thank you for what you do, Tony.
Have to agree, that deck & tape combo sound gorgeous. It's not about making identical copies (that's what digital is for) its about making great sounding cassettes.
Yes, you are absolutely right. But silly me I sometimes forget about this and expect the cassette even sound better … if i need a perfect analogue copy I do it on reel 2 reel, but only for vinyls you can not afford ore no more available rather than share a tape with your friends.
I disagree - tape reproduction was always in a compete for making exact replicas. That's the philosophy of excellence demonstrated by ReVox/ Studer. A tape deck's job is to reproduce as accurately as possible.
@@dubdoodle7191 Nope, too much depends on particular setting from deck to deck, and even in one deck its parameters drift with the time, the contact between the tape and head is not perfect and fluctuates, that's why Dolby C has never become popular. It is too much hassle with analog recording compared to the digital one.
@@_____.__Regardless of degradation over time, all higher end cassette deck mfg's strived for a flat response thus an accurate repro of the source. Only NAK deployed eq preamps to brighten the playback thus giving FM recording warriors a false sense of a quality recording.
@@dubdoodle7191 Do you know why the deck frequency response is always measured at -20dB? Because it becomes narrower as the recording level rises. So much for a flat response and accurate reproduction. Nothing beats quality of HiRes digital sound today. The old CD format is the thing of the past.
Your passion for cassettes helped to fuel my own passion for the format, and vintage audio in general. I finally got my first three-head deck, an Akai GX-R88, while slowly upgrading the rest of my system. So I just want to say, thank you Tony for helping to fuel someone else's passion. When I started watching this channel I was going through college. Now im a Test Engineer working on military antenna systems so I can afford the nicer stuff. Really looking forwards to recording the BASF Chrome Maxima II's I got from Tony V.
Yeh the secondhand cassette market is crazy...I have a bunch of sealed blanks in the house around 100 from Metal to Chrome and normal from all the major brand as well as all my old recorded cassettes....sometimes on ebay you get lucky and you find an odd bargain but that's very rare....I always enjoy watching your videos...keep up the good work my man
As always, thank you for another free video. Been watching since 2018. It's very interesting to see how the prices and availability have changed over the last 5 years. Happy taping!
I have mixed feelings about decks like the Dragon - fantastic engineering, but at a cost in many respects too. Not a bad idea to 'move it on' and let someone else experience the machine for whatever reasons. I think once we get 'the best' and assess its qualities, we often realise that many high-end artifacts like the Dragon are positioned somewhere in the law-of-diminishing-returns domain. I must admit I do get a buzz out of buying classic decks at low monies, and yes, I spend many tens of hours working on them, and finding a lot more about them, and the problems of interchangability of cassettes between decks. Regarding those who speculate on a ridiculous asking price for their Metal and good Type II tapes, my attitude is - let them ask, they won't get a penny from me. Tony, always a pleasure to watch your videos!
Sounds wonderful but I could instantly tell the difference between tape and source. As a piano tuner I do have very sensitive ears though. Great presentation. Thanks Tony!
Something I've been experimenting with lately is using a physical 31 band EQ between the source and the deck. My god, the difference is simply mind-blowing. I can make any track sound good to my ears on anything short of type 0. Try it, you won't be disappointed.
How so? Sticking an Eq between the source and the tape deck will increase noise. What are you doing with the Eq besides sticking it in the signal path? Are you Hi-passing, cutting specific frequencies, adding a high-shelf, balancing? What?
The active EQ I use (Behringer FBQ3102HD) utilizes a powerful, dedicated DSP processor, so it doesn't add noise the way a passive EQ would. I cut specific frequencies, typically (but not always) in the low mids, which become "wooly" or "boxy" at higher levels, then find the high end shelf the specific tape naturally has and cut off any frequencies higher than that which can cause distortion at higher levels as well. I also experiment with different schemes of gain staging, depending upon the source type, i.e., adjust the source volume (if possible), the EQ gain control, and the recording level on the deck until I get the clearest, least distorted sounding cassette. I find that by following this method, I can record any name brand type I at about 3db higher before distortion than simply running line out from source directly into the line in on the deck. Some cassettes, like TDK AD and Sony SHF, I have been able to push even further using this method. You have to use a good quality ACTIVE EQ, not passive, and make sure it has as many frequency bands as you can afford. You're more likely to be able to zero in on a problematic frequency range without getting rid of a significant amount of the rest of the signal, as you will with, say a 5 or 7 band EQ. As an amateur musician who has recorded mine and friends music for over 20 years, I can't help but go full audio geek and break out the rack mount stuff lol. It adds a whole new dimension of fuss! 🙃
@@guerrillaradio9953 I don't like the idea of using a digital EQ on an analogue source. The whole idea of listening to cassettes or records is to enjoy that analogue sound.
Hi Tony! Thanks for uploading another great video! I totally understand your frustration about tape prices. Here in Brazil, values have gone up a lot, from the end of 2019 to the peak of the pandemic (in addition to having many opportunistic sellers), so I don't have any more tapes since shortly before the pandemic exploded, in early 2020. I intend to return to have fun with them next year, but it will depend a lot on how these values are. Hope things get better out there and here too! Happy taping!
I've just imported some Maxell UR from the USA for a somewhat reasonable price. I think thats the way to go. Here in Germany drug store Müller sells tapes (still or again?). The EQ Professionals, 2021 production. I picked up a few but haven't come around to test them yet but if I recall correctly you did a while ago. As always, it is a joy just to hear you rumble about cassettes. I go back to your library from time to time yust for that :)
These worked very well on my Phillips fc152 deck, but once I moved to a Teac v-570 deck recording to the basf was very difficult to get the bias right.. So from then on I moved to the sony ux-s or maxell XL II. But when recorded right the BASF sounded just great and were easy to find in the stores in the Netherlands
I've been using cassettes since the mid eighties and as a musician continued to record and experiment with them throughout the nineties. I was always trying new tapes. The chrome maxima II were among my favorite tapes. I have many of the cassettes you reviewed and enjoy watching your videos. Here is a quick but true story. Around 2017 I was working in a warehouse and was bringing garbage out to the trash bin like I do everyday. One day as I was putting trash in the bin, I noticed a cassette deck on top of some bags. I brought it home and cleaned it up. The tapes heads and pinch roller were really dirty, but they cleaned up well. I tested it out and worked fantastic. At the time I didn't know what I had, but after doing some research, it turned out to be a Nakamichi LX-5. What a great find!
Definitely agree about the prices. I'm just gonna finish off putting together a collection of 100 or so cassettes and I'm done. Been using minidiscs for recording lately. $2 a disc. Really doesn't make sense to be messing with cassettes anymore.
Sounds like a great deck. When I was younger I never gave much thought to whether my deck was calibrated but it's interesting to see and here the subtle differences between the gear and the type of tape. As we got older we paid more attention to these things. I think most people are going to have live within our means so to speak with the current tape market. Buying brand new RTM Type Ones will become a bargain soon.
Can't believe you slayed the Dragon to buy the missus a new washer/drier.. ;-) My morbid fascination remains with the off-brand tapes we used to pick up at the market back in the 1980s. Useless for my burgeoning computer hobby and useless for recording the Network Chart. But the price was right! Our family never invested in any hi-fi equipment when I was a kid, it was "Out Lowest Priced" numbers all the way. Later on, having inherited some Metal cassettes, I was convinced they sounded better on my Alba than the Kingsonic tapes we got down the market, even though both were filled with hissy stereo drop-out recordings of the local FM radio station... I wish I had good ears 🙂
I'm glad I got what tapes I did while I could. I sort of got in late to the party, but still managed to get some decent NOS Type I tapes from TDK and Maxell, among others. TDK D, Maxell UR, Sony HF, Fuji DR-I, and some odds and ends of others. For the rock music styles I listen to, those tapes do a good job on the Pioneer I own (CT-WR606DR with autocalibration). And yes, I also bought a new TEAC W-1200 to use for playback. I know the deck isn't up to the standards of the old days, but again, for playback with decently recorded tapes, I'm happy with it. To each their own. "Happy taping!"
Yeah all the high prices for tape is crazy. Glad I bought the cassette stock I have early in my life. I refused to pay more than 4 buck for a tape. Great video and nice deck. Cheers
If someone concentrates especially on the Hihat-Sound & the Hihat-Crispness (and also as a double-check the Snare-Highs and the Overtones of the higher Piano-notes) you can recognize also on suboptimal audio-equipment that the "Source"-Sound is really! better than the BASF. The "Tape"-Sound is hearable more diffus, more "washy" and has not that Hi-end-crispness of the original audio-source. It is a complicated topic and of course it is not bad at all to not focus on details. Tapes can be used to form and manipulate sounds sometimes in a very (subjective) positive way as we all know. Of course the BASF-tape sounds really quite good, but the difference to the original audio-material is obvious and determind in a few seconds of listening (with the Hihat-crispness A/B comparison-check). I love! your videos, this comment above only for those people who like to dive deeper into the topic and love to focus on pragmatic ways to detect (before unheard) differences of audio-material with the human ear.
I've no issue with you doing videos with used cassettes Tony, in fact I'd prefer you to do them with used ones as realistically it's what most of us will be recording with going forward, it's all I've used for the past year now, so better to see some real world recording and possibly highlight some of the pitfalls with used and maybe issues with various types of cassettes types and makes when in a used state. Glad to see you still making videos, hope you don't sell the ZX9 as it's my favourite deck. Always gutted the patrion channel didn't work out. Take care Tony...👍
Yeah, cassette prices a brutal at this point. My passion is modifying decks (average affordable, not TOTL from the "master" brands) to make them sound as best as their design could possibly allow, and I have no blank cassettes to record on for myself. I just can't afford them. NOS tapes that is, even the basic ferrics. Still craving for a simple SONY HF from 1986, even if it's used in good condition. I got in this race way too late. :(
Some BASF chromes play arcane tricks with my B215 - it says that the tape is auto-calibrated OK, but the recording has a strong hump in upper midrange. The manually-calibrated Marantz, Nak and Sony ES are quite good with these chromes. Especially the Marantz (which was also rebadged as Philips and Revox, so perhaps the designers had the euro-chromes in mind).
Great video! The situation with regard to the price of cassettes is interesting to me, because it encourages me to go hunting for bargains! This week I picked up three TDK SA-X100, still sealed, for nothing, and some Denon DX3/90 for $5 AUD each. Even better was 8 Fuji DR!! 90 Chrome for $40 AUD. (And two Denon HD8/100 for $20.) A satisfying week on local ads to feed my new (to me) Revox B215
Ironically your microphone has much more hiss than the tape! I have found BASF Chrome Extra and Chrome Maxima tapes at the thrift store for 50 cents each -- eBay prices are the natural result of when people want a scarce item *now* instead of waiting for them to show up in the wild.
Well, it's kinda different in the UK. We don't have thrift stores, we have charity shops. They won't take used blank cassettes, on the whole, as they're scared of selling anything which could have pirated music on them. Also, as our houses are much smaller, and most don't have garages, we don't have the space to store as much stuff, so most cassettes simply went into the trash years ago 😕
The Japanese company Maxell used CrO2 in their XLII-S cassettes. In the U.S., the XLII-S (CrO2) and MX (pure metal particles) cassettes were highly regarded by many audiophiles at the time. I mostly used the Maxell XLII-S cassettes with my Onkyo tape deck from the early 1990s through about 2017 when I downsized for retirement, and that combination sounded very good to me. (Unfortunately, I don't recall the model number of the Onkyo tape deck.) I bought a large quantity of the Maxell XLII-S cassettes sometime in the late 90s or early 2000s at a very good price per cassette so I did not buy anymore after that bulk purchase. Since I also did less and less taping as the years progressed, I still had quite a few unopened blank cassettes when I downsized. I also tried the Maxell MX tapes with the Onkyo tape deck, but those tapes were harder to find and more expensive, and the small improvement in sound quality was not worth the hassle and expense for me.
@@tonabnehmer9407 I was going by the label on the Maxell XLII-S tapes which states "IEC II HIGH (CrO2)." Apparently that is false information. According to the Wikipedia "The "pseudochromes" (including almost all Type IIs made by the Big Three Japanese makers - Maxell, Sony and TDK) are actually ferricobalt formulations optimized for Type II recording and playback settings." Thank you for the correction.
That chrome formulation colors the sound in a very similar way to a BASF chrome labeled pre-recorded tape that i recorded over. Not bad at all, It's kind of pleasant.
I own one of these decks Tony as love it to bits. I tend to record on this deck and not on a Nak due to more consistency when playing tapes on non Nak tape decks. GREAT VIDEO
The favourite chrome tape for me was the Sony, which had an unusually high output compared to other chrome brands, and the quality of the cassette housing was superb.
BASF Chrome are my favorite of any type II cassettes. I have had no problems with them and bias them up just fine with my Teac V-7000. I started using them back in the 80's and love them still.
I prefer TDK SA from 1979 which was the standard Type 2 as well as the 1982 and 1985 SA, and the Maxell Type 2 cassettes which was UDXLII from the 1970’s, the 1985 XLII and others.
To me my main interest these days are early pre-recorded cassettes and what various cassette decks can get out of them, rather than just trying to make my own recordings and having them sound just like the source. I can just listen to the source. But to me, the value is having a deck that can get the most out of pre-recorded cassettes of material that's hard to get elsewhere, or for which modern remasterings don't have enough "body" for me. I get more enjoyment out of 1960s/early 70s cassettes played on my Pioneer CT-W606DR than the currently available digital versions of the same music.
The problem is as awareness of this stuff goes up, so do the prices. I'm lucky in I think I now have enough cassettes to see me out (charity shops, your store and a tip off about a local listing). Pretty much the same with my computers. Bought most of them at the bottom of the market and now see stuff going for stupid money.
I only have one Chrome Maxima, and it the exact same one there, and it’s sealed. I plan on keeping that one sealed, unless I can find more. I do have a few Chrome Extra’s there too, and I have used one of them. They are an excellent sounding middle of the road type ll. I was lucky enough to score two ten packs of the 1988 Ferro Maxima 60 for only $40.00 AUD. A guy had a stock pile of them, and was selling them off cheap! I believe Dannii bought something like four ten packs off the same guy, happy days!!! 😎
I'm not too fond of the dragon either, the NAAC system is not perfect and there is no way to manually adjust the head azimuth. I much prefer the CR-7 for playback and a ReVox B215 for recording.
I don’t owned the Dragon, to be honest, I have my Technics RS-B11W cassette deck from the 80’s and it still works, and it lacks the bias levels, and it has an Automatic Tape Selector feature where you can record normal, chrome and metal cassettes.
I think that the analogic storage is more reliable, better sounding and closer to original tones. Digital will allways have frequency cuts, so keep these amazing cassettes comming back mate!
I know you don't care about having a tandberg and so on for great sound, but I would sugest looking at cheaper, or som mid 90s decks for fun. Currently I have only been playing with technics and pioneer decks from that era, and I don't care what others think cause these decks are amazing, and nothing I've had so far has beaten the pioneers in sound. Even the dual deck types with ato calibration (BLE) is some of the best I've ever heard and revorded with. Even the technics auto calib.. came pretty darn close or equal even, but the pioneer still has the best playback sound. CT w606 dr for reference. And you can still get them cheap.
I found a BASF Chrome Maxima II as part of a job lot of used cassettes recently. Looking at it, the tape was a very ferric brown colour but with a black back-coat. Upon investigation, I found that what I'd got was a Chrome Maxima II shell that someone had put Scotch Dynarange ferric tape in! Interesting, but not what I wanted...
Yes Tony, the prices of decks and tapes is bonkers. You want what you want. To each their own and let it be. I have my Revox decks and my NAD 6300. I’m not kicking what others have. I say get what makes you happy. Whiz on Dolby and any noise reduction as it is my experience they just muddy things up. Tape recording isn’t perfect. You can reduce the noise floor, but there are limits because of the medium and the deck’s quality. Find what works for you and be happy. Glad I got the metal tapes before they got stupid. Got a whole case of Maxwell UR tapes for near nothing and they’re fab. Thing is Tony, this isn’t a hobby for the lazy as you have to clean heads and tape paths and demag now and again. Some don’t want to fool with physical media. To each their own. This hobby is fun and people who don’t like it need to find what suits them. Toss a few for me mate! I miss having regular videos, but I understand you have a life also. Take care of yourself!
Yeah, I can see you selling the Dragon, especially if you still have the CR-7 and Hopefully that Aiwa deck you showed on many videos. This Arcam Delta deck is nice. Has all three Dolby formats and the calibration feature. So what else do you need. Cheers. Good to see you post another vid.
Sounded superba great combination of deck and tape now even the used cassettes have sky rocketed as well .My dad left seven tdk fe cassettes in the charity shop because they were £1 each a month or two ago my dad got a basf chrome extra 2 and 7 memorex dbs and one prerecord whitesnake tape for £1 i have explained many times the average cost is nearly £4 each plus ,Me i was happy to find one sealed late tdk d for £1 and i bought some classical music tape as it said chrome and was at least 32 minutes a side on a phillips label it played fine and the tape pack is now inside a basf chromedeoxid shell from 1981 .
It's really hard tape to record on - I've got few decks mostly restored to at least manufacturer standards and my technics 707 and sony 715s have problems with them, sound is evidently less dynamic and poorer... while my naks (also japanese) makes beautiful recordings on them, of course levels needs to be below zero as Tony said, but there is something intrinsic to naks heads that makes saturate those tapes much fuller. When I got back to this messy hobby at first I though that chromes are much worse, now I am certain its a question of deck, the only cassettes I can compare real chromes to, are maxell xl IIs from around '86 or xl II from 83-84 (gold ones) due to relatively low MOL at above 1kHz which is contributing factor to softening the sound...
Excelente video. no conocía la marca Arcam, y fantástico el rendimiento, conozco las mas famosas, Nakamichi TEAC, TASCAM, AKAI, SONY, REVOX,Tamberg, DENON y otras muchas mas con buen rendimiento, pero esta no la conocía.
Oh come on Tony, that sounded like crap! I'm kidding of course! That is a really nice combination. I love those Maximas too, especially that design. Unlike your vast collection though, I only have one unopened ten pack and a few individual ones. 🙂 Great video as usual and the Arcam sure did a fine job here.
I've got one of those decks and I totally agree with you that it's a great deck.Mines unfortunately is in a repair shop as something is causing the dolby circuit to blow in the one channel. The guy is struggling to find the cause😢.Hopefully one day soon I'll get it back fully working.
Well, I heard a loss of sparkle in the higher frequencies and some resolution drop off. Sound was more muffled, but as you've said in past vids "a great deck can make even good tapes sound great" The Arcam is a good deck so goes without saying it can make good tapes sound good. Did you keep the CR7?
I would've been disappointed with this cassette, as most of the trebles are gone, and it sounds like the deck has dirty head, or out of the proper azimuth.
Good thing you are getting lighter on over engeneered hardware. Making some profit off the late tape-craze, pricy porno speculation...It's no Sin. Also a good thing, from the heart, you are looking at used tapes, no pressure, neither prejudice or bias. Chrome Maxima II = 💎 Beyond any tape formulation, a recording either sounds good, or bad. One should trust it's ears. Please keep sharing your tape experience. Cheers from 🇵🇹
Some people just don't get the economics of getting the material to put out on a channel as you outlined ultimately you've got to break even at least otherwise it's just bleeding your own money - not mine and countless others - dry and to expect you to do so is just plain selfish. I really felt for you when the Arcam arrived in the state it did but it is a extremely good not overly complicated deck that has repaid all that work you did bring it back to how it should of been. I've owned a number of great decks and I might some that promised more than they delived -Technics Bx series three headers I'm lookin right atcha! - so understand the joy of making and playing a well recorded tape. When it stops being a joy and just becomes a "look what I afford to just paid" game is when to get off it for sure. Tapes and decks like records were made to be used, enjoyed and appreciated by people who love music and that readers is why I feel you really ought to taping rathe than just keeping in boxes. Regards Chris.
I grew up in the 80s and made many cassettes. I've always thought they sounded great. I worked with older guys who mentioned 8 tracks and a time when you had to buy an FM modulator to pick up FM radio back when things were moving from AM to FM.
I looked at Ebay hoping to purchase some decent cassettes, no way. Prices were ridiculous, so I've been looking through large collection of used tapes and have wiped the ones I dont listen to anymore, or the tapes with music I can find on my CD collection. I dont use Dolby anymore, chrome tapes dont need it and other types I record at a slightly higher level to mask tape hiss. This works fine on my marantz tape deck. Long live tape.
Another brill video... The prices of good cassettes is really getting stupid. Im in Spain and its even harder to buy here. I managed to get 20 plus various recorded but with tabs still in and because I took all the bloke had he did them for €2.00 each... Included were a couple of SA90's and one Sony UXS90. Ok my deck is only a bog standard Toshiba that I got old stock still in unopened box, but the Chromes are my favourites.. I still have tapes from early 1980 that still play lovely TDK SA of course.......
@CassetteComeback: You're right about pure chrome tapes on an Japanese cassettedeck: it does not calibrate up... I've tried on my Sony TC-K711S (also known as TC-K707ES) and my Akai GX-75 cassettedeck (several type II tapes from BasF), but even an NOS BasF LH-E I type 1 tape will not calibrate on both decks... I think both decks don't like the German BasF tapes at all, no matter which tape type I put in the deck...
I just got into cassettes after getting a decent deck off facebook marketplace fir a decent price and a bunch of sealed "basic" cassettes from Goodwill, but with what is being said about tape prices, I feel i got into this hobby at the wrong time. Should I considee it a non-starter?
as a young teen i kinda collected many tapes. i loved the exotic ones that you coudl't get in a doller store. than i moved appartments and decided to tro them all away. tdk's Sony's maxell's basf's from ferrics to metals... because i thoght tapes are dead and digital files is the way to go... ofcorse today i deeply regret that ive thron away money and nostalgica
"Listen guys, you and F off with your expectations of my videos. .....Two years later Listen, hawked my best sets but such is the markets." Still makes top shelf cassette content regardless imho. Cheers!
I'm watching my collection increase in value, so its not all bad I suppose, but I do miss discovering and buying little gems at sensible prices and on rainy days spending hours recording and making j cards. I buy much much less these days. Bought some DAT tapes yesterday and they were double what I paid for some last year....ah well, everything moves on I suppose
Even through my tiny tinny phone speakers and YT's compression, I can hear definite smoothing effect on tape compared to the source. Actually it sounds better because the source sounds rather brittle in comparison.
I think a little manual tweaking of the bias would fill out the slightly duller top end. Cassettes always had potential even though Phillips conceived them as a dictation medium. But honestly, the narrow, slow tape always required more precision than most people were willing to pay for. Even once you had good gear, deck to deck alignment could be an issue. So, for most people, they were a lousy convenience format. If the community is more interested in making new tapes than playing old ones, I'd rather see a 1/4" tape make a comeback like the Elcaset.
Most of this is fuelled by nostalgia mixed with the shock of how good cassettes can actually sound in decks that we could never afford when we were young.
The cassette comeback isn’t happening; the prices have all gone bonkers. Makes me think of Yogi Berra when he said, “no one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded”
Not gonna lie, I feel the same way with current prices. I feel like an asshole for it, but I bought about 150 blank tapes, mostly pre 1995 TDK D's by the 10 case or bricks when I could find them for under $2.60 USD. Felt like I had to buy all the type I cassettes I'll ever need now because the prices are simply, not worth it and only gonna keep rising. I've legitimately considered taking on reel to reel as a cheaper alternative, and thats freaking crazy.
Like everyone else back in the day I used cassettes- for the car and on the go, first with my boom box and then when the Walkman came along. I spent endless hours making hundreds of mixtapes. It was always a chore. They were of their time, the only portable solution. Recording everything in real time and snagging tape were major downsides. I never bought prerecorded tapes- THEY SOUNDED HORRENDOUS! I can't say I look back at cassettes with great affection. I ditched them for Minidisc around 97 and never looked back. Digital downloads and streaming have made music so much more accessible. I jus don't "get" the 'return' of cassettes and it is of course being hyped to the nth degree. Maybe I will get on board the revival of the Ford Model T and the B&W analogue tube TV set... Like all these nostalgia revivals someone is out to make a quick buck- the vinyl 'revival' is the best example of that.
I'm not saying cassettes sound "the best", I'm just trying to point out that if you used good gear they didn't sound terrible, like many think. I love minidisc too...
metal formular tape is still being made, though you'll only see it in DAT or LTO backup tape format BaFE. it wouldn't be a big step to stripe lto 12.6mm wide tape stock to 3.8mm with a bit over 3mm wasted and wind it in to audio cassette shells. not sure if it'd sound good though
You are right there Tony about your Arcam Vs the Dragon talk. If you were to believe everyone what the best 3 head deck is this is actually the results a website put up in a 3 heads war and so called worst Ferrite on the higher end decks spectrum almost won against everything against Permalloy/Crystoloy tested only win on that head type side at all was Sony TC-K511 on Recording both channels at 100 HZ. L (10 kHz) mH Winners: Kenwood KX-800 Recording Both Channels (Ferrite) Pioneer CT-F1250 Playback Left Channel (Ferrite) Hitachi D-E95 Playback Right Channel (Ferritte) Q (10 kHz) Winners: Pioneer CT-F1250 Recording Both Channels (Ferrite) Kenwood KX-800 Playback Both Channels (Ferrite) R (100 Hz) Ohm Winners: Hitachi D-E95 Playback Both Channels (Ferrite) Sony TC-K511 Recording Both Channels (Permalloy) Best Treble (So Called Weakness) Type 1 Tape: Winner Tie: BASF_FMI (winner db) TDK_AR_C46 (winner mv) Best Bass (So Called Weakness) Type 2 Tape: Maxell_UD_XLII Best All Rounder Type 4 Tape: Sony_Metal_Master_C60 (Bass) Sony_Metal_Master_C60 (Treble MV) Scotch_XSM_IV_C90 (Treble db) Best Deck Frequency Response
AIWA_XK007 Least Distorting Tape: TDK_MA_XG 5.5% Least Distorion Highest Peak Distortion Spectrum -15 All Tape Draw TDK_MA_XG wins default for last distortion round
Vinyl straight to cassette to speaker is how to hear the complex tonal structure of Marshall amps without it sounding like it's 'shortwave radio sounding MP3' even dropout-y BASF Chrome sounds better
The reality is that Cassettes have made a massive come back in a short number of years, however no company wants to invest in making anything but the most basic Type 1 tape for it, which is why prices of these old Type 2s and Metals have skyrocketed. Its a sad reality, but here we are. Unless they make a giant hike in popularity, I doubt any company will invest in mass producing these tape types again, and the ones that currently do are niche and just as expensive.
I know there is at least one company called "National Audio Company" that is manufacturing cassettes Type 1 (C256) and Type 2 (C756 and C799). These are new tapes, not new old stocks.
@@Bob-1802 Unfortunately NAC (and ATR which use their tape) are complete crap. Even the Chinese tapes are somewhat better, and we know how these perform.
I got some really good type ii cassettes, around 50 for them, for less than 5$! Why? Some person threw a bunch of these out at a reuse center and they aren't *legally* allowed to sell them since it's considered piracy. Thankfully the seller turned a blind eye and I got some really nice tdk sa90s with the blue j card, sme sa's from the mid 80s with the gold and black and the sony ux-s cassettes with the red holes. Pretty fantastic! I also found some other type 1 cassettes but nothing special apart from the ad cassettes. I also got a few basf chromes but again, nothing special. Most are unusable because of dropouts or heavy railroading, but still. Considering how much even used one CAN go for, yeah, it's insane. I think people should start reusing them, instead of buying new old stock, because wasn't this kind of the point of the format? Especially reel to reels now a days. good luck finding nos for cheap.
Unfortunately with it’s outstanding frequency response (20Hz-20kHz on metal tape) and dynamics (-88dB with Dolby S) Arcam Delta 100 is very unrepresentative for the whole cassette tape decks niche. But what a pinnacle of the hifi equipment it still is!
10+kHz are down. My Pioneer CT-737 doesn't have that kind of slope. It's clear, up to the end, even with Dolby C. But, to be honest, this is an OOOLD cassette. I have newer (90's) Maxima's (Reference Maxima TPII) and they are SUPERB. Better than most metal. Sooo neutral and soooo underrated. Better than TDK SA-X (bright), Maxell XLII-S (also bright, distorted), Sony UX-S (generally ok, but tracking and vocals are better on Maxima's), Sony UX-Pro (very good, but Maxima's got that umph element 😄). Probably the best chrome ever.
I love how despite the sad market situation you describe, you're determined to keep doing videos with whatever you have available. Thank goodness, really, since you're such a key figure to this hobby. Thank you for what you do, Tony.
Have to agree, that deck & tape combo sound gorgeous. It's not about making identical copies (that's what digital is for) its about making great sounding cassettes.
Yes, you are absolutely right. But silly me I sometimes forget about this and expect the cassette even sound better … if i need a perfect analogue copy I do it on reel 2 reel, but only for vinyls you can not afford ore no more available rather than share a tape with your friends.
I disagree - tape reproduction was always in a compete for making exact replicas. That's the philosophy of excellence demonstrated by ReVox/ Studer. A tape deck's job is to reproduce as accurately as possible.
@@dubdoodle7191 Nope, too much depends on particular setting from deck to deck, and even in one deck its parameters drift with the time, the contact between the tape and head is not perfect and fluctuates, that's why Dolby C has never become popular. It is too much hassle with analog recording compared to the digital one.
@@_____.__Regardless of degradation over time, all higher end cassette deck mfg's strived for a flat response thus an accurate repro of the source. Only NAK deployed eq preamps to brighten the playback thus giving FM recording warriors a false sense of a quality recording.
@@dubdoodle7191 Do you know why the deck frequency response is always measured at -20dB? Because it becomes narrower as the recording level rises. So much for a flat response and accurate reproduction. Nothing beats quality of HiRes digital sound today. The old CD format is the thing of the past.
Your passion for cassettes helped to fuel my own passion for the format, and vintage audio in general.
I finally got my first three-head deck, an Akai GX-R88, while slowly upgrading the rest of my system.
So I just want to say, thank you Tony for helping to fuel someone else's passion.
When I started watching this channel I was going through college. Now im a Test Engineer working on military antenna systems so I can afford the nicer stuff. Really looking forwards to recording the BASF Chrome Maxima II's I got from Tony V.
Yeh the secondhand cassette market is crazy...I have a bunch of sealed blanks in the house around 100 from Metal to Chrome and normal from all the major brand as well as all my old recorded cassettes....sometimes on ebay you get lucky and you find an odd bargain but that's very rare....I always enjoy watching your videos...keep up the good work my man
Don't mince words Tony. Tell us what you really think !! 😂😂😂😂😂 Another cool video . Always a pleasure to get a new one from Cassette Comeback. 😎👍
Absolutely my favorite basf tape and always has been! Glad you got the deck working and cool to see that denon mech being used in a higher end deck!
As always, thank you for another free video. Been watching since 2018. It's very interesting to see how the prices and availability have changed over the last 5 years. Happy taping!
I have mixed feelings about decks like the Dragon - fantastic engineering, but at a cost in many respects too. Not a bad idea to 'move it on' and let someone else experience the machine for whatever reasons. I think once we get 'the best' and assess its qualities, we often realise that many high-end artifacts like the Dragon are positioned somewhere in the law-of-diminishing-returns domain. I must admit I do get a buzz out of buying classic decks at low monies, and yes, I spend many tens of hours working on them, and finding a lot more about them, and the problems of interchangability of cassettes between decks. Regarding those who speculate on a ridiculous asking price for their Metal and good Type II tapes, my attitude is - let them ask, they won't get a penny from me.
Tony, always a pleasure to watch your videos!
Sounds wonderful but I could instantly tell the difference between tape and source. As a piano tuner I do have very sensitive ears though. Great presentation. Thanks Tony!
Something I've been experimenting with lately is using a physical 31 band EQ between the source and the deck. My god, the difference is simply mind-blowing. I can make any track sound good to my ears on anything short of type 0. Try it, you won't be disappointed.
Have to agree..eq can makes a big difference to the sound of type one tape
Agree even a good old 7band equaliser makes big difference.
How so? Sticking an Eq between the source and the tape deck will increase noise. What are you doing with the Eq besides sticking it in the signal path? Are you Hi-passing, cutting specific frequencies, adding a high-shelf, balancing? What?
The active EQ I use (Behringer FBQ3102HD) utilizes a powerful, dedicated DSP processor, so it doesn't add noise the way a passive EQ would.
I cut specific frequencies, typically (but not always) in the low mids, which become "wooly" or "boxy" at higher levels, then find the high end shelf the specific tape naturally has and cut off any frequencies higher than that which can cause distortion at higher levels as well. I also experiment with different schemes of gain staging, depending upon the source type, i.e., adjust the source volume (if possible), the EQ gain control, and the recording level on the deck until I get the clearest, least distorted sounding cassette. I find that by following this method, I can record any name brand type I at about 3db higher before distortion than simply running line out from source directly into the line in on the deck. Some cassettes, like TDK AD and Sony SHF, I have been able to push even further using this method.
You have to use a good quality ACTIVE EQ, not passive, and make sure it has as many frequency bands as you can afford. You're more likely to be able to zero in on a problematic frequency range without getting rid of a significant amount of the rest of the signal, as you will with, say a 5 or 7 band EQ.
As an amateur musician who has recorded mine and friends music for over 20 years, I can't help but go full audio geek and break out the rack mount stuff lol.
It adds a whole new dimension of fuss! 🙃
@@guerrillaradio9953 I don't like the idea of using a digital EQ on an analogue source. The whole idea of listening to cassettes or records is to enjoy that analogue sound.
Hi Tony! Thanks for uploading another great video! I totally understand your frustration about tape prices. Here in Brazil, values have gone up a lot, from the end of 2019 to the peak of the pandemic (in addition to having many opportunistic sellers), so I don't have any more tapes since shortly before the pandemic exploded, in early 2020. I intend to return to have fun with them next year, but it will depend a lot on how these values are. Hope things get better out there and here too! Happy taping!
I've just imported some Maxell UR from the USA for a somewhat reasonable price. I think thats the way to go.
Here in Germany drug store Müller sells tapes (still or again?).
The EQ Professionals, 2021 production.
I picked up a few but haven't come around to test them yet but if I recall correctly you did a while ago.
As always, it is a joy just to hear you rumble about cassettes. I go back to your library from time to time yust for that :)
These worked very well on my Phillips fc152 deck, but once I moved to a Teac v-570 deck recording to the basf was very difficult to get the bias right.. So from then on I moved to the sony ux-s or maxell XL II. But when recorded right the BASF sounded just great and were easy to find in the stores in the Netherlands
its because the eq needs to be tweaked and the input. bias too which you mention.
I do explain why that is...
@@CassetteComeback on that arcam the eq is set for pure chrome right? thats why it sounds good.
I've been using cassettes since the mid eighties and as a musician continued to record and experiment with them throughout the nineties. I was always trying new tapes. The chrome maxima II were among my favorite tapes. I have many of the cassettes you reviewed and enjoy watching your videos. Here is a quick but true story. Around 2017 I was working in a warehouse and was bringing garbage out to the trash bin like I do everyday. One day as I was putting trash in the bin, I noticed a cassette deck on top of some bags. I brought it home and cleaned it up. The tapes heads and pinch roller were really dirty, but they cleaned up well. I tested it out and worked fantastic. At the time I didn't know what I had, but after doing some research, it turned out to be a Nakamichi LX-5. What a great find!
Definitely agree about the prices. I'm just gonna finish off putting together a collection of 100 or so cassettes and I'm done. Been using minidiscs for recording lately. $2 a disc. Really doesn't make sense to be messing with cassettes anymore.
That's the sad truth... especially when CDs can be bought for next to nothing now.
That machine and tape are the dogs marbles. Tearing it up with the blues T, you the man.
Sounds like a great deck. When I was younger I never gave much thought to whether my deck was calibrated but it's interesting to see and here the subtle differences between the gear and the type of tape. As we got older we paid more attention to these things. I think most people are going to have live within our means so to speak with the current tape market. Buying brand new RTM Type Ones will become a bargain soon.
Always enjoy your videos popping up on my feed.
Can't believe you slayed the Dragon to buy the missus a new washer/drier.. ;-) My morbid fascination remains with the off-brand tapes we used to pick up at the market back in the 1980s. Useless for my burgeoning computer hobby and useless for recording the Network Chart. But the price was right! Our family never invested in any hi-fi equipment when I was a kid, it was "Out Lowest Priced" numbers all the way. Later on, having inherited some Metal cassettes, I was convinced they sounded better on my Alba than the Kingsonic tapes we got down the market, even though both were filled with hissy stereo drop-out recordings of the local FM radio station... I wish I had good ears 🙂
That was a very nice recording! Yes, the sound is a bit duller than the source, but inspite of that it sounded really good.
I'm glad I got what tapes I did while I could. I sort of got in late to the party, but still managed to get some decent NOS Type I tapes from TDK and Maxell, among others. TDK D, Maxell UR, Sony HF, Fuji DR-I, and some odds and ends of others. For the rock music styles I listen to, those tapes do a good job on the Pioneer I own (CT-WR606DR with autocalibration). And yes, I also bought a new TEAC W-1200 to use for playback. I know the deck isn't up to the standards of the old days, but again, for playback with decently recorded tapes, I'm happy with it. To each their own. "Happy taping!"
Yeah all the high prices for tape is crazy. Glad I bought the cassette stock I have early in my life. I refused to pay more than 4 buck for a tape. Great video and nice deck. Cheers
If someone concentrates especially on the Hihat-Sound & the Hihat-Crispness (and also as a double-check the Snare-Highs and the Overtones of the higher Piano-notes) you can recognize also on suboptimal audio-equipment that the "Source"-Sound is really! better than the BASF. The "Tape"-Sound is hearable more diffus, more "washy" and has not that Hi-end-crispness of the original audio-source. It is a complicated topic and of course it is not bad at all to not focus on details. Tapes can be used to form and manipulate sounds sometimes in a very (subjective) positive way as we all know. Of course the BASF-tape sounds really quite good, but the difference to the original audio-material is obvious and determind in a few seconds of listening (with the Hihat-crispness A/B comparison-check). I love! your videos, this comment above only for those people who like to dive deeper into the topic and love to focus on pragmatic ways to detect (before unheard) differences of audio-material with the human ear.
I've no issue with you doing videos with used cassettes Tony, in fact I'd prefer you to do them with used ones as realistically it's what most of us will be recording with going forward, it's all I've used for the past year now, so better to see some real world recording and possibly highlight some of the pitfalls with used and maybe issues with various types of cassettes types and makes when in a used state.
Glad to see you still making videos, hope you don't sell the ZX9 as it's my favourite deck.
Always gutted the patrion channel didn't work out.
Take care Tony...👍
Superb Deck! Great recording on that iconic BASF tape!
Yeah, cassette prices a brutal at this point. My passion is modifying decks (average affordable, not TOTL from the "master" brands) to make them sound as best as their design could possibly allow, and I have no blank cassettes to record on for myself. I just can't afford them. NOS tapes that is, even the basic ferrics. Still craving for a simple SONY HF from 1986, even if it's used in good condition. I got in this race way too late. :(
Some BASF chromes play arcane tricks with my B215 - it says that the tape is auto-calibrated OK, but the recording has a strong hump in upper midrange.
The manually-calibrated Marantz, Nak and Sony ES are quite good with these chromes. Especially the Marantz (which was also rebadged as Philips and Revox, so perhaps the designers had the euro-chromes in mind).
Typical video but nice bedtime content before i fall asleep.😅
And nice looking cassette.👍
Wow i just shut my eyes and really could not tell the difference. Awesome Recording Sound.
Great video! The situation with regard to the price of cassettes is interesting to me, because it encourages me to go hunting for bargains! This week I picked up three TDK SA-X100, still sealed, for nothing, and some Denon DX3/90 for $5 AUD each. Even better was 8 Fuji DR!! 90 Chrome for $40 AUD. (And two Denon HD8/100 for $20.) A satisfying week on local ads to feed my new (to me) Revox B215
Ironically your microphone has much more hiss than the tape! I have found BASF Chrome Extra and Chrome Maxima tapes at the thrift store for 50 cents each -- eBay prices are the natural result of when people want a scarce item *now* instead of waiting for them to show up in the wild.
Well, it's kinda different in the UK. We don't have thrift stores, we have charity shops. They won't take used blank cassettes, on the whole, as they're scared of selling anything which could have pirated music on them. Also, as our houses are much smaller, and most don't have garages, we don't have the space to store as much stuff, so most cassettes simply went into the trash years ago 😕
The Japanese company Maxell used CrO2 in their XLII-S cassettes. In the U.S., the XLII-S (CrO2) and MX (pure metal particles) cassettes were highly regarded by many audiophiles at the time.
I mostly used the Maxell XLII-S cassettes with my Onkyo tape deck from the early 1990s through about 2017 when I downsized for retirement, and that combination sounded very good to me. (Unfortunately, I don't recall the model number of the Onkyo tape deck.)
I bought a large quantity of the Maxell XLII-S cassettes sometime in the late 90s or early 2000s at a very good price per cassette so I did not buy anymore after that bulk purchase. Since I also did less and less taping as the years progressed, I still had quite a few unopened blank cassettes when I downsized. I also tried the Maxell MX tapes with the Onkyo tape deck, but those tapes were harder to find and more expensive, and the small improvement in sound quality was not worth the hassle and expense for me.
No, there is no CrO2 in XLII-S, they are based on Cobalt covered Iron pigments.
@@tonabnehmer9407 I was going by the label on the Maxell XLII-S tapes which states "IEC II HIGH (CrO2)."
Apparently that is false information. According to the Wikipedia "The "pseudochromes" (including almost all Type IIs made by the Big Three Japanese makers - Maxell, Sony and TDK) are actually ferricobalt formulations optimized for Type II recording and playback settings."
Thank you for the correction.
That chrome formulation colors the sound in a very similar way to a BASF chrome labeled pre-recorded tape that i recorded over. Not bad at all, It's kind of pleasant.
I own one of these decks Tony as love it to bits. I tend to record on this deck and not on a Nak due to more consistency when playing tapes on non Nak tape decks. GREAT VIDEO
The favourite chrome tape for me was the Sony, which had an unusually high output compared to other chrome brands, and the quality of the cassette housing was superb.
BASF Chrome are my favorite of any type II cassettes. I have had no problems with them and bias them up just fine with my Teac V-7000. I started using them back in the 80's and love them still.
I prefer TDK SA from 1979 which was the standard Type 2 as well as the 1982 and 1985 SA, and the Maxell Type 2 cassettes which was UDXLII from the 1970’s, the 1985 XLII and others.
One of my favourite tapes back in the days even though I only had a crappy boombox :D
To me my main interest these days are early pre-recorded cassettes and what various cassette decks can get out of them, rather than just trying to make my own recordings and having them sound just like the source. I can just listen to the source. But to me, the value is having a deck that can get the most out of pre-recorded cassettes of material that's hard to get elsewhere, or for which modern remasterings don't have enough "body" for me.
I get more enjoyment out of 1960s/early 70s cassettes played on my Pioneer CT-W606DR than the currently available digital versions of the same music.
Speaking of Type 2, you ever checked out the new Chrome ATR Magnetics and Tascam tapes?
Haven't bothered with the tascam branded ones, but the ATR are fantastic. Living in the same county they're made saves on shipping too.
So you had soem fun with this beauty, I only have a handful of those for special occasions.
The problem is as awareness of this stuff goes up, so do the prices. I'm lucky in I think I now have enough cassettes to see me out (charity shops, your store and a tip off about a local listing). Pretty much the same with my computers. Bought most of them at the bottom of the market and now see stuff going for stupid money.
I only have one Chrome Maxima, and it the exact same one there, and it’s sealed. I plan on keeping that one sealed, unless I can find more. I do have a few Chrome Extra’s there too, and I have used one of them. They are an excellent sounding middle of the road type ll. I was lucky enough to score two ten packs of the 1988 Ferro Maxima 60 for only $40.00 AUD. A guy had a stock pile of them, and was selling them off cheap! I believe Dannii bought something like four ten packs off the same guy, happy days!!! 😎
You...... sold...... the....... Dragon???
the most overrated super-deck. aside from the NAAC system, nothing special
I think he mentioned a while ago that he's going to sell it.
I'm not too fond of the dragon either, the NAAC system is not perfect and there is no way to manually adjust the head azimuth. I much prefer the CR-7 for playback and a ReVox B215 for recording.
I don’t owned the Dragon, to be honest, I have my Technics RS-B11W cassette deck from the 80’s and it still works, and it lacks the bias levels, and it has an Automatic Tape Selector feature where you can record normal, chrome and metal cassettes.
People get over hyped about the dragon and will pay stupid money for it.
I think that the analogic storage is more reliable, better sounding and closer to original tones. Digital will allways have frequency cuts, so keep these amazing cassettes comming back mate!
I know you don't care about having a tandberg and so on for great sound, but I would sugest looking at cheaper, or som mid 90s decks for fun. Currently I have only been playing with technics and pioneer decks from that era, and I don't care what others think cause these decks are amazing, and nothing I've had so far has beaten the pioneers in sound. Even the dual deck types with ato calibration (BLE) is some of the best I've ever heard and revorded with. Even the technics auto calib.. came pretty darn close or equal even, but the pioneer still has the best playback sound. CT w606 dr for reference. And you can still get them cheap.
I found a BASF Chrome Maxima II as part of a job lot of used cassettes recently. Looking at it, the tape was a very ferric brown colour but with a black back-coat. Upon investigation, I found that what I'd got was a Chrome Maxima II shell that someone had put Scotch Dynarange ferric tape in! Interesting, but not what I wanted...
Yes Tony, the prices of decks and tapes is bonkers. You want what you want. To each their own and let it be. I have my Revox decks and my NAD 6300. I’m not kicking what others have. I say get what makes you happy. Whiz on Dolby and any noise reduction as it is my experience they just muddy things up. Tape recording isn’t perfect. You can reduce the noise floor, but there are limits because of the medium and the deck’s quality. Find what works for you and be happy. Glad I got the metal tapes before they got stupid. Got a whole case of Maxwell UR tapes for near nothing and they’re fab. Thing is Tony, this isn’t a hobby for the lazy as you have to clean heads and tape paths and demag now and again. Some don’t want to fool with physical media. To each their own. This hobby is fun and people who don’t like it need to find what suits them. Toss a few for me mate! I miss having regular videos, but I understand you have a life also. Take care of yourself!
If you don't have the nostalgia, half of the fun is not there to begin with. All the best!
@@CassetteComeback, All the best to you Tony as always! Keep that interest up. Yours is the best and you’re a great mate!
Yeah, I can see you selling the Dragon, especially if you still have the CR-7 and Hopefully that Aiwa deck you showed on many videos. This Arcam Delta deck is nice. Has all three Dolby formats and the calibration feature. So what else do you need. Cheers. Good to see you post another vid.
Sounded superba great combination of deck and tape now even the used cassettes have sky rocketed as well .My dad left seven tdk fe cassettes in the charity shop because they were £1 each a month or two ago my dad got a basf chrome extra 2 and 7 memorex dbs and one prerecord whitesnake tape for £1 i have explained many times the average cost is nearly £4 each plus ,Me i was happy to find one sealed late tdk d for £1 and i bought some classical music tape as it said chrome and was at least 32 minutes a side on a phillips label it played fine and the tape pack is now inside a basf chromedeoxid shell from 1981 .
hey tony! with the dragon gone, what is the new top deck in your collection?
It's really hard tape to record on - I've got few decks mostly restored to at least manufacturer standards and my technics 707 and sony 715s have problems with them, sound is evidently less dynamic and poorer... while my naks (also japanese) makes beautiful recordings on them, of course levels needs to be below zero as Tony said, but there is something intrinsic to naks heads that makes saturate those tapes much fuller. When I got back to this messy hobby at first I though that chromes are much worse, now I am certain its a question of deck, the only cassettes I can compare real chromes to, are maxell xl IIs from around '86 or xl II from 83-84 (gold ones) due to relatively low MOL at above 1kHz which is contributing factor to softening the sound...
I have some pure Chromes, my Sansui low end japanese deck loves it, sounds great
Excelente video. no conocía la marca Arcam, y fantástico el rendimiento, conozco las mas famosas, Nakamichi TEAC, TASCAM, AKAI, SONY, REVOX,Tamberg, DENON y otras muchas mas con buen rendimiento, pero esta no la conocía.
Oh come on Tony, that sounded like crap!
I'm kidding of course! That is a really nice combination. I love those Maximas too, especially that design. Unlike your vast collection though, I only have one unopened ten pack and a few individual ones. 🙂
Great video as usual and the Arcam sure did a fine job here.
I've got one of those decks and I totally agree with you that it's a great deck.Mines unfortunately is in a repair shop as something is causing the dolby circuit to blow in the one channel. The guy is struggling to find the cause😢.Hopefully one day soon I'll get it back fully working.
Good luck!
@@CassetteComeback Thanks
Well, I heard a loss of sparkle in the higher frequencies and some resolution drop off. Sound was more muffled, but as you've said in past vids "a great deck can make even good tapes sound great" The Arcam is a good deck so goes without saying it can make good tapes sound good. Did you keep the CR7?
The CR-7 is going nowhere...
I would've been disappointed with this cassette, as most of the trebles are gone, and it sounds like the deck has dirty head, or out of the proper azimuth.
Good thing you are getting lighter on over engeneered hardware. Making some profit off the late tape-craze, pricy porno speculation...It's no Sin.
Also a good thing, from the heart, you are looking at used tapes, no pressure, neither prejudice or bias.
Chrome Maxima II = 💎
Beyond any tape formulation, a recording either sounds good, or bad.
One should trust it's ears.
Please keep sharing your tape experience.
Cheers from 🇵🇹
Some people just don't get the economics of getting the material to put out on a channel as you outlined ultimately you've got to break even at least otherwise it's just bleeding your own money - not mine and countless others - dry and to expect you to do so is just plain selfish.
I really felt for you when the Arcam arrived in the state it did but it is a extremely good not overly complicated deck that has repaid all that work you did bring it back to how it should of been.
I've owned a number of great decks and I might some that promised more than they delived -Technics Bx series three headers I'm lookin right atcha! - so understand the joy of making and playing a well recorded tape.
When it stops being a joy and just becomes a "look what I afford to just paid" game is when to get off it for sure.
Tapes and decks like records were made to be used, enjoyed and appreciated by people who love music and that readers is why I feel you really ought to taping rathe than just keeping in boxes.
Regards Chris.
Best comment I've read for a while, thank you sir!
You don't do many videos anymore but when you did your subscribers went up fairly quickly
I grew up in the 80s and made many cassettes. I've always thought they sounded great. I worked with older guys who mentioned 8 tracks and a time when you had to buy an FM modulator to pick up FM radio back when things were moving from AM to FM.
I looked at Ebay hoping to purchase some decent cassettes, no way. Prices were ridiculous, so I've been looking through large collection of used tapes and have wiped the ones I dont listen to anymore, or the tapes with music I can find on my CD collection. I dont use Dolby anymore, chrome tapes dont need it and other types I record at a slightly higher level to mask tape hiss. This works fine on my marantz tape deck. Long live tape.
I'm not surprised you sold the Dragon, since B&W stopped serving Nakamichi, they’re a doorstop waiting to happen.
Another brill video... The prices of good cassettes is really getting stupid. Im in Spain and its even harder to buy here. I managed to get 20 plus various recorded but with tabs still in and because I took all the bloke had he did them for €2.00 each... Included were a couple of SA90's and one Sony UXS90. Ok my deck is only a bog standard Toshiba that I got old stock still in unopened box, but the Chromes are my favourites.. I still have tapes from early 1980 that still play lovely TDK SA of course.......
@CassetteComeback: You're right about pure chrome tapes on an Japanese cassettedeck: it does not calibrate up... I've tried on my Sony TC-K711S (also known as TC-K707ES) and my Akai GX-75 cassettedeck (several type II tapes from BasF), but even an NOS BasF LH-E I type 1 tape will not calibrate on both decks...
I think both decks don't like the German BasF tapes at all, no matter which tape type I put in the deck...
I just got into cassettes after getting a decent deck off facebook marketplace fir a decent price and a bunch of sealed "basic" cassettes from Goodwill, but with what is being said about tape prices, I feel i got into this hobby at the wrong time. Should I considee it a non-starter?
as a young teen i kinda collected many tapes. i loved the exotic ones that you coudl't get in a doller store. than i moved appartments and decided to tro them all away. tdk's Sony's maxell's basf's from ferrics to metals... because i thoght tapes are dead and digital files is the way to go... ofcorse today i deeply regret that ive thron away money and nostalgica
Back in the day, absolutely nobody bought anything else than BASF Chrome 2.
"Listen guys, you and F off with your expectations of my videos.
.....Two years later
Listen, hawked my best sets but such is the markets."
Still makes top shelf cassette content regardless imho. Cheers!
I'm watching my collection increase in value, so its not all bad I suppose, but I do miss discovering and buying little gems at sensible prices and on rainy days spending hours recording and making j cards. I buy much much less these days. Bought some DAT tapes yesterday and they were double what I paid for some last year....ah well, everything moves on I suppose
Tony, my trusty cassette friend ❤
No, it's not identical. Tape sounds better (than source).
That tape and deck have a nice color match to them.
Even through my tiny tinny phone speakers and YT's compression, I can hear definite smoothing effect on tape compared to the source. Actually it sounds better because the source sounds rather brittle in comparison.
I got lucky buying a lot of blanks in 2019
I think a little manual tweaking of the bias would fill out the slightly duller top end. Cassettes always had potential even though Phillips conceived them as a dictation medium. But honestly, the narrow, slow tape always required more precision than most people were willing to pay for. Even once you had good gear, deck to deck alignment could be an issue. So, for most people, they were a lousy convenience format. If the community is more interested in making new tapes than playing old ones, I'd rather see a 1/4" tape make a comeback like the Elcaset.
Most of this is fuelled by nostalgia mixed with the shock of how good cassettes can actually sound in decks that we could never afford when we were young.
The cassette comeback isn’t happening; the prices have all gone bonkers. Makes me think of Yogi Berra when he said, “no one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded”
I have a Tandberg and I'll enjoy it thank you very much, made like tanks and sound great
Not gonna lie, I feel the same way with current prices. I feel like an asshole for it, but I bought about 150 blank tapes, mostly pre 1995 TDK D's by the 10 case or bricks when I could find them for under $2.60 USD.
Felt like I had to buy all the type I cassettes I'll ever need now because the prices are simply, not worth it and only gonna keep rising. I've legitimately considered taking on reel to reel as a cheaper alternative, and thats freaking crazy.
It sounds like compared to Sony, TDK were actually quite slow to find their own replacement for Chrome (or Krom), Super Avilyn.
Like everyone else back in the day I used cassettes- for the car and on the go, first with my boom box and then when the Walkman came along. I spent endless hours making hundreds of mixtapes. It was always a chore. They were of their time, the only portable solution. Recording everything in real time and snagging tape were major downsides. I never bought prerecorded tapes- THEY SOUNDED HORRENDOUS! I can't say I look back at cassettes with great affection. I ditched them for Minidisc around 97 and never looked back. Digital downloads and streaming have made music so much more accessible. I jus don't "get" the 'return' of cassettes and it is of course being hyped to the nth degree. Maybe I will get on board the revival of the Ford Model T and the B&W analogue tube TV set... Like all these nostalgia revivals someone is out to make a quick buck- the vinyl 'revival' is the best example of that.
I'm not saying cassettes sound "the best", I'm just trying to point out that if you used good gear they didn't sound terrible, like many think. I love minidisc too...
@@CassetteComeback I agree, good quality tape gave great results if top equipment was used
metal formular tape is still being made, though you'll only see it in DAT or LTO backup tape format BaFE.
it wouldn't be a big step to stripe lto 12.6mm wide tape stock to 3.8mm with a bit over 3mm wasted and wind it in to audio cassette shells. not sure if it'd sound good though
People have tried this. It doesn't sound good.
3:37 Same these prices are outrageous
My favorite type 2 was the Fuji FRII. Liked it better than tdk,Sony and some maxells
You are right there Tony about your Arcam Vs the Dragon talk. If you were to believe everyone what the best 3 head deck is this is actually the results a website put up in a 3 heads war and so called worst Ferrite on the higher end decks spectrum almost won against everything against Permalloy/Crystoloy tested only win on that head type side at all was Sony TC-K511 on Recording both channels at 100 HZ.
L (10 kHz) mH Winners:
Kenwood KX-800 Recording Both Channels (Ferrite)
Pioneer CT-F1250 Playback Left Channel (Ferrite)
Hitachi D-E95 Playback Right Channel (Ferritte)
Q (10 kHz) Winners:
Pioneer CT-F1250 Recording Both Channels (Ferrite)
Kenwood KX-800 Playback Both Channels (Ferrite)
R (100 Hz) Ohm Winners:
Hitachi D-E95 Playback Both Channels (Ferrite)
Sony TC-K511 Recording Both Channels (Permalloy)
Best Treble (So Called Weakness) Type 1 Tape:
Winner Tie:
BASF_FMI (winner db)
TDK_AR_C46 (winner mv)
Best Bass (So Called Weakness) Type 2 Tape:
Maxell_UD_XLII
Best All Rounder Type 4 Tape:
Sony_Metal_Master_C60 (Bass)
Sony_Metal_Master_C60 (Treble MV)
Scotch_XSM_IV_C90 (Treble db)
Best Deck Frequency Response
AIWA_XK007
Least Distorting Tape:
TDK_MA_XG 5.5%
Least Distorion Highest Peak Distortion Spectrum
-15 All Tape Draw TDK_MA_XG wins default for last distortion round
You know what the best deck is? The one that gives you the most pleasure...
Vinyl straight to cassette to speaker is how to hear the complex tonal structure of Marshall amps without it sounding like it's 'shortwave radio sounding MP3' even dropout-y BASF Chrome sounds better
Beautiful deck
That reminds me, i still have a sealed TDK MA-R C90 cassette lying around somewhere. I'd better put it in a safe.
The reality is that Cassettes have made a massive come back in a short number of years, however no company wants to invest in making anything but the most basic Type 1 tape for it, which is why prices of these old Type 2s and Metals have skyrocketed. Its a sad reality, but here we are.
Unless they make a giant hike in popularity, I doubt any company will invest in mass producing these tape types again, and the ones that currently do are niche and just as expensive.
I know there is at least one company called "National Audio Company" that is manufacturing cassettes Type 1 (C256) and Type 2 (C756 and C799). These are new tapes, not new old stocks.
@@Bob-1802 Unfortunately NAC (and ATR which use their tape) are complete crap. Even the Chinese tapes are somewhat better, and we know how these perform.
@@Astralify Then it's really too bad.
El mejor cassette de toda la historia. The Best. ❤
I got some really good type ii cassettes, around 50 for them, for less than 5$! Why? Some person threw a bunch of these out at a reuse center and they aren't *legally* allowed to sell them since it's considered piracy. Thankfully the seller turned a blind eye and I got some really nice tdk sa90s with the blue j card, sme sa's from the mid 80s with the gold and black and the sony ux-s cassettes with the red holes. Pretty fantastic! I also found some other type 1 cassettes but nothing special apart from the ad cassettes. I also got a few basf chromes but again, nothing special. Most are unusable because of dropouts or heavy railroading, but still. Considering how much even used one CAN go for, yeah, it's insane.
I think people should start reusing them, instead of buying new old stock, because wasn't this kind of the point of the format? Especially reel to reels now a days. good luck finding nos for cheap.
Yes, this tape is great. I did know. But to expensive these days. Perhalps a local flew market is a place to look at...
I think the instrument one notices more the difference is the drums, the sound is a bit rougher
The "bings" aren't working Tony...
Nice sentiment Tony
Wonder what cassettes will be worth in 20 years time??
Unfortunately with it’s outstanding frequency response (20Hz-20kHz on metal tape) and dynamics (-88dB with Dolby S) Arcam Delta 100 is very unrepresentative for the whole cassette tape decks niche. But what a pinnacle of the hifi equipment it still is!
10+kHz are down. My Pioneer CT-737 doesn't have that kind of slope. It's clear, up to the end, even with Dolby C. But, to be honest, this is an OOOLD cassette. I have newer (90's) Maxima's (Reference Maxima TPII) and they are SUPERB. Better than most metal. Sooo neutral and soooo underrated. Better than TDK SA-X (bright), Maxell XLII-S (also bright, distorted), Sony UX-S (generally ok, but tracking and vocals are better on Maxima's), Sony UX-Pro (very good, but Maxima's got that umph element 😄). Probably the best chrome ever.
The TPII aren't chrome. They're double coat ferro cobalt, based on the last Maxell XLII-S formulation and yes, they are quite superb.
I found some MA R 60s sealed for £3 each in a record shop in spalding
Yeah the source is much better.. A Nak DR3 blew this away years ago 😎👍