Maxell UD 35 coercivity? Beck ??
- Thread starter cjacek
- Start date
B
Beck
Guest
35-90
Coercivity 330 Oe
Retentivity 1350 Gauss
35-90B
Coercivity 340 Oe
Retentivity 1500 Gauss
Coercivity 330 Oe
Retentivity 1350 Gauss
35-90B
Coercivity 340 Oe
Retentivity 1500 Gauss
cjacek
Analogue Enthusiast
Thanks Tim. Much appreciated. 
Taking a quick look at the spec sheets, for some of the popular tapes outthere, seems many share, more or less, the same Coercivity, which in essence is bias, if I'm not mistaken. (I'm certain you wrote extensively about this in the past but I must have not been paying attention). Many recorders that take 1mil tape, for example, that were originally setup for a Maxell UD 35 or Ampex / Quantegy 407, would indeed work nicely with an LPR-35 or a 457, differences being operating level (which doesn't neccessarily needs to be changed on a recorder) and weight of the latter tapes. As far as bias / coercivity goes, it's + - the same. The same goes for 1.5mil, for machines which were setup for this thickness.
Interestingly and as you pointed out in a earlier post, it seems the only +6 operating level tape, the SM468, does take significantly MORE bias and thus cannot be, ideally, interchanged with the other fore mentioned tapes, without tweaking the bias. Otherwise it won't sound right or accurate. So in essence SM468 really stands on its own (kinda like the 388) and is not really equivalent to anything else outthere, as far as bias is concerned.
BTW, can you explain Retentivity a bit more and how it is different to operating level or is it one and the same ?
Thanks!
Taking a quick look at the spec sheets, for some of the popular tapes outthere, seems many share, more or less, the same Coercivity, which in essence is bias, if I'm not mistaken. (I'm certain you wrote extensively about this in the past but I must have not been paying attention). Many recorders that take 1mil tape, for example, that were originally setup for a Maxell UD 35 or Ampex / Quantegy 407, would indeed work nicely with an LPR-35 or a 457, differences being operating level (which doesn't neccessarily needs to be changed on a recorder) and weight of the latter tapes. As far as bias / coercivity goes, it's + - the same. The same goes for 1.5mil, for machines which were setup for this thickness.
Interestingly and as you pointed out in a earlier post, it seems the only +6 operating level tape, the SM468, does take significantly MORE bias and thus cannot be, ideally, interchanged with the other fore mentioned tapes, without tweaking the bias. Otherwise it won't sound right or accurate. So in essence SM468 really stands on its own (kinda like the 388) and is not really equivalent to anything else outthere, as far as bias is concerned.
BTW, can you explain Retentivity a bit more and how it is different to operating level or is it one and the same ?
Thanks!
cjacek
Analogue Enthusiast
1mil tapes:
Maxell 35-90
Coercivity 330 Oe
Retentivity 1350 Gauss
Maxell 35-90B
Coercivity 340 Oe
Retentivity 1500 Gauss
Quantegy 407
Coercivity 330 Oe
Retentivity 1300 Gauss
Quantegy 457
??Coercivity 320 Oe??
??Retentivity 1500 Gauss??
RMGI LPR35
Coercivity 320
Retentivity 1650 Gauss
note: as you can see coercivity is almost dead on for the above and thus Maxell (which kinda surprised me) shares almost same bias amount as the others and most surprising, to me at least, UD 35 is dead on with Quantegy 407 for coercivity and virtually same on retentivity.
It seems one can just throw in any of the above tapes on the same recorder, one which was biased to either of the 1mil tapes, noting only the higher operating level BUT if you plan to record around or lower than saturation levels, it doesn't matter. At least that's my take on it.
1.5mil tapes:
Quantegy 406
Coercivity 330 Oe
Retentivity 1300 Gauss
Quantegy 456
Coercivity 320 Oe
Retentivity 1500 Gauss
RMGI SM911
Coercivity 320
Retentivity 1450 Gauss
RMGI SM468
Coercivity 380
Retentivity 1400 Gauss
note: Almost all the above, whether 1mil or 1.5mil, share similar characteristics with the exception of SM468 which needs a lot more bias.
Maxell 35-90
Coercivity 330 Oe
Retentivity 1350 Gauss
Maxell 35-90B
Coercivity 340 Oe
Retentivity 1500 Gauss
Quantegy 407
Coercivity 330 Oe
Retentivity 1300 Gauss
Quantegy 457
??Coercivity 320 Oe??
??Retentivity 1500 Gauss??
RMGI LPR35
Coercivity 320
Retentivity 1650 Gauss
note: as you can see coercivity is almost dead on for the above and thus Maxell (which kinda surprised me) shares almost same bias amount as the others and most surprising, to me at least, UD 35 is dead on with Quantegy 407 for coercivity and virtually same on retentivity.
It seems one can just throw in any of the above tapes on the same recorder, one which was biased to either of the 1mil tapes, noting only the higher operating level BUT if you plan to record around or lower than saturation levels, it doesn't matter. At least that's my take on it.
1.5mil tapes:
Quantegy 406
Coercivity 330 Oe
Retentivity 1300 Gauss
Quantegy 456
Coercivity 320 Oe
Retentivity 1500 Gauss
RMGI SM911
Coercivity 320
Retentivity 1450 Gauss
RMGI SM468
Coercivity 380
Retentivity 1400 Gauss
note: Almost all the above, whether 1mil or 1.5mil, share similar characteristics with the exception of SM468 which needs a lot more bias.