Cheap source for Maxell XL-II cassettes

[lo.fi.love]

http://tapestock.stores.yahoo.net/maxlii90miau.html

I just found this. Thought I'd post it here if anyone was interested.

[Tom_B]

Better, yet:

http://www.tapes.com/product_info.ph...oducts_id=1320

And they still have the 60 minute tapes (which I can't find anywhere else). Unfortunately they have a $25 order minimum... so I had to buy 30 tapes. No big deal, honestly.

[sweetbeats]

They DO have the 60's? Couldn't find 'em...what's the reference number?

Anybody know the difference between these XL-II's and the old XL-IIS's?

[Tom_B]

The pic is of the 90, but under 'product description' you can order either the 90 or the 60. I got 30 of them last week.

[lo.fi.love]

Originally Posted by sweetbeats

They DO have the 60's? Couldn't find 'em...what's the reference number?

Anybody know the difference between these XL-II's and the old XL-IIS's?

I think the XL-IIS had a different shell.

[lo.fi.love]

Originally Posted by Tom_B

Better, yet:

http://www.tapes.com/product_info.ph...oducts_id=1320

And they still have the 60 minute tapes (which I can't find anywhere else). Unfortunately they have a $25 order minimum... so I had to buy 30 tapes. No big deal, honestly.

Wow, MUCH cheaper. I'm bookmarking that page.

[sweetbeats]

I think the XL-IIS had a different shell.

But was the tape stock the same? That might be a difficult question to answer...

[A Reel Person]

I wonder if I could use more cassette media? Counted about 1075 pieces in the closet, but I'm oddly compelled to buy more.

About 3/4 of my cassettes are C90's, the rest 60's, but I've never had any problems with 90's (that I noticed).

How's shipping work out on those tape orders? (How much)

Shipping will add to the per-item cost of those cassettes, but hopefully is not a deal breaker. Tapes are heavy.

[Tom_B]

I think it was 9 bucks. But I live in NYC... close to the place. I had to pay sales tax, though.

[maalsa]

I ordered thirty 60 XL-IIs last week. Came out to $25.50 + $9.00 s/h. I'm in California myself.

[sweetbeats]

Huh!

I just did the same...30 tapes makes the $25 minumum and shipping was $9.00 to Oregon.

That's $1.15 each for 60 minute brand new Maxel XLII's.

[cjacek]

A store near me has a large supply of the Maxell XLII tapes. It continually stocks them, along with others and they have a 10 pack of the 90 min ones for about 12 bucks CND so that's like 10 bucks USD. Unfortunately they have a 24c "audio levy" per tape + 14% tax which brings the total closer to $20.. Thieves!

[Beck]

Originally Posted by cjacek

A store near me has a large supply of the Maxell XLII tapes. It continually stocks them, along with others and they have a 10 pack of the 90 min ones for about 12 bucks CND so that's like 10 bucks USD. Unfortunately they have a 24c "audio levy" per tape + 14% tax which brings the total closer to $20.. Thieves!

Geeez! That sort of tax crap sparked the American Revolution. I say Canadians should start eating a diet rich in red meat and caffeine... then overthrow the government.

[sweetbeats]

Sheesh...I placed that order well past quittin' time EST, and I've gotten 5 emails from tapes.com already with order status updates, last one telling me my order is already in transit...that's amazing. So far so good!

[Tom_B]

Yeah, I feel like I got my tapes the day after I ordered them... though I may be exaggerating. Whatever the case, the service was great and surprisingly fast.

[analogkid]

As I recall - and that gets harder to do all the time - the XLIIS was a special cassette shell that was supposed to be superior as far as tape friction/vibration/tape alignment. I do not think that the actual tape stock is different in any way, but I do recall those 'special' shells being very nice and very durable.



AK

[sweetbeats]

The 30 XL-II's.

I was starting to wonder...it'd been over a week but I emailed tapes.com yesterday asking for a tracking number and I got a response with the tracking number in less than an hour, and they arrived today as scheduled. They were well packed, nice catalog in the box.

I highly recommend tapes.com.

[Herm]

I ordered 30 also and got my tapes in one day! Not bad at all. But I didnt get a catalog.
Now I dont have a excuse to not use my 424 MKII.
I play drums anyone want to do a a tune by mail let me know.

[Mace Windu]

I notice tapes.com is out of the maxell 60s... are the 90s worht the price... or should I go with trying to find some tdks?

[lo.fi.love]

Originally Posted by Mace Windu

I notice tapes.com is out of the maxell 60s... are the 90s worht the price... or should I go with trying to find some tdks?

Don't use 90 minute cassettes in cassette four-trackers.

Keep googling for XL-II 60 cassettes. They're around.

Here are some SM60s at Guitar Center, but I suggest looking around for a better price.

[stevieb]

I've got some old stock (used, tho) XL-II tapes. Been taken care of, stored inside, never got too hot. About 10-15 years old. Do you suppose they are still good?

[sweetbeats]

I've got well-used XL-II's and XL-IIS's from that era and older that are still running strong. I don't think cassette tape stock had the same issues as reel tape had as far as sticky shed and flaky shed...I think there are some isolated brands/lines of tape that had issues, but I don't think the venerable Maxell XL-II is one of them...

[A Reel Person]

There should be nothing wrong with 15 year XLII's, especially if they've been kept NIB. They don't go sticky or fall apart, in general. I have XLII's dated 1985 that are used but basically fine. (I wish I labelled and dated all the tapes I've ever handled, but that's another post!)....

As for the NEW XLII 90's in the above post,... no doubt the 60's have a thicker tape stock than the 90's, but C-90's can be used in cassette multitrackers fine. It's perfectly acceptable, as the later Tascam manuals 'softened' their recommendation to use as short a lenghth as practical, up to 90min, but never over. They recommend against C-120's altoghether. (I've found some C-110's and have wondered how they would hold up in a 4-tracker, but is not an issue since I have C-60's and C-90's on hand).

In brief, I think the link for Maxell XLII-90's is a good catch & great deal, at 89¢/ea (+shipping). With deals like that, I've been known to pop for 10 or 50, depending on the day.

The deal with C-90's in a multitracker, is with the rigorous back/forth and repeated play the tape would endure during production, it might wear, stretch and deform with super heavy use, but I've never had a blatant issue with this and decades long track record (heh: pun) of using C-90's in my Tascam Portastudios. I say: Go for it!

Anyway, XLII's and other tapes like this are on "clearance", so snatch 'em up now while you can. I've stockpiled over 1200 new, name brand Type II cassettes, & I may be due for another buy!

Sorry, I have trouble with brevity. It comes with well over 25 years hands-on with Portastudios.

[rapidfirerob]

Hi. These cassettes are not sold on the sites listed in this thread. I used to get both 60s and 90s from Cheap Batteries.com in Brooklyn:
http://www.cheapbatteries.com/audio.htm but they no longer sell 60s. Does anyone have info on where to purchase them? Thanks a lot!

[rapidfirerob]

I just called J & R and they do not have the Sony UX or UX Pros mentioned either. Help!