Bad cassette tape alert

  • Thread starter Thread starter lo.fi.love
  • Start date Start date
lo.fi.love

lo.fi.love

Functionally obsessed.
Hey folks,

I posted here a lot when I was starting my cassette tape endeavor. It's going really well! Thanks for everyone's help... I've learned so much by interacting with other people here.

I'll post more about that later, when I'm not buried under work.

Anyway, the point of this post is: Stay away from TDK MA-X type iv tapes.

Someone is selling them in bulk on eBay. I bought 10 tapes and tried recording with a few of them. The tapes are total garbage. The adhesive is flaking off of the tape and it gets screwed up in the transport. It's muddy-clear-muddy-clear.

I'm posting this here because this guy is selling these tapes on eBay every time I'm looking to buy more tape, and other people buying metal tapes should be wary. They're of a particular time period and manufacture, and I think the other tapes are from the same lot.

Anyway. That's it. Just bummed that I've blown three live sets.
 
Thanks for the warning. Who's the eBay seller in question?

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Thanks for the heads up man.

I've only ever used Maxell XL-II cassettes and have had 0 problems. They are $1.50/each at the local Walgreens store.:D If you need some, let me know and I'll pick you up a 10 pack.;)
 
cjacek said:
Thanks for the warning. Who's the eBay seller in question?

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Click to expand...

I'm going to contact him first before I post anything else here. I realized it was kind of tacky to complain in public before first notifying the seller.
 
I just sent a message to the seller. Hopefully, he will write back. If he doesn't, I'll post his eBay account name and advise people to stay away from his products.

I gave him a full report on his tapes, and told him exactly what's wrong with them. I'll wait and see what happens.
 
By the way, I just posted this image in another thread.

The guy was pretty cool about it. I found that the tapes work fine in my home deck, but it's worthless in my battery-powered field recorder. The errant adhesive goes away after a few fast fowards and rewinds. I have to scrape it out of the front of the cassette. I dunno. Maybe I should keep it.

shedding_tape.jpg
 
I would imagine the (ironic as this sounds) sticky shed goo is a bit much for your field recorder to overcome in terms of having enough to torque to keep a consistent speed. I would venture to guess that the those tapes were in a warm (not hot) place for long enough for the binding to start breaking down. The real question is how much of this sticky goo is ending up on your heads and transport path?:confused::eek:

I can't say I've ever used TDK tapes. Always stuck to Maxell and Memorex. It was always my preference for some unknown reason. Well, I take that back. I did use D60 and D90 tapes (normal bias) tapes for various things and they did well.
 
jjones1700 said:
I would imagine the (ironic as this sounds) sticky shed goo is a bit much for your field recorder to overcome in terms of having enough to torque to keep a consistent speed. I would venture to guess that the those tapes were in a warm (not hot) place for long enough for the binding to start breaking down. The real question is how much of this sticky goo is ending up on your heads and transport path?:confused::eek:
Click to expand...

Good news is that I own six tape decks, ranging from poor to high quality, so I do the FF-RW trick in one of my poorer quality decks, just to be safe. The goop ends up on the outside of the shell on the open part of the cassette and I wipe it out with a swab. Before I record on the tape in my best deck, I do a quick clean on the heads, and clean them again afterward.

It seems to work and everything stays pretty clean, even after several playbacks. I'd say the tapes are usable, though not optimal, for what I'm doing.

PS: I've had the best results from Maxell tapes so far.
 
I've always been partial to Maxell tapes too...XL-II's are my favorite. Sony tape, for some reason, has always sounded horrible to me.
 
jjones1700 said:
Thanks for the heads up man.

I've only ever used Maxell XL-II cassettes and have had 0 problems. They are $1.50/each at the local Walgreens store.:D If you need some, let me know and I'll pick you up a 10 pack.;)
Click to expand...

??? Jesus Christ. This was posted only a year ago. Cassette tapes are starting to skyrocket in price. & Radio shack just told me this is the last year they are carrying cassettes.

Right now on ebay 2 XLII-S cost $25. The standard XLII go for $5 to $10 each.
 
And I agree. Maxell makes the best tapes. TDK and Sony were not as good. The XLII is the standard. But for a little more money you can get the XLII-S which is noticeably better. But if money is no object, I go with the Maxell MXS. Top of the line.
 
Too bad about the TDK MA-X. Many years ago I had some TDK metal tape get flaky, but it was a different model.

I started using TDK SA and SA-X Type II around 1979 with great results in Tascam portastudios. More recently I've also been using Maxell XLII and to my ear the newer Maxell sounds better than I remember... at least in my Tascam decks. I'm happy with either TDK or Maxell these days, but I avoid metal tape.

~Tim
:)
 
Unfortunately, I can't find the XL-II tapes at the Walgreen's stores around here anymore. A friend of mine said he saw some up north where he lives. I may have to have him buy them and ship them to me.;)
 
jjones1700 said:
Unfortunately, I can't find the XL-II tapes at the Walgreen's stores around here anymore. A friend of mine said he saw some up north where he lives. I may have to have him buy them and ship them to me.;)
Click to expand...

I just called a Walgreen near me and they said they still cary XLII's. Going to check it out.

These could be possible but some places do not update their websites enough.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=MAxell+xlii&cid=13907818150348131508&sa=title#p
 
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