questions about newly acquired Reel to Reel tape

[SteveinAlaska]

In the past several months I have acquired different brands of RtR tape 1/4 inch on 7 inch reels. So I need to ask of those more experienced what their knowledge is of these brands I have at hand.
So this is the list
Concert brand (2 types)-mylar 1200 feet 1.5 mil
polyester 1800 feet 1.0 mil
Shamrock brand-----polyester 1200 feet 1.5 mil

Last, sealed, unopened new in box---BASF LP35 LH 1800 feet Long Play Tape
box indicates 45 minutes @ 7.5 i.p.s
90 minutes @ 3.75 i.p.s

Working with an AKAI GX-365D thru a Kenwood ElevenGX amp to a pair of Sansui SP-200 speakers

 

[jpmorris]

Looks like you got answers for the others elsewhere. Shamrock tape is, AFAIK, Ampex and it will probably suffer from sticky-shed syndrome.

 

[Blue Jinn]

Radio Shack tape was OEM'd from somewhere. You might check at Tapeheads.net or do a search here. I can't remember, one of them was supposed to be pretty good, and one crappy. I think the Concertape was the good one. Is the Shamrock backcoated? (

 

[ecc83]

Don't think BASF ever made a "bad" tape?
A quick check is to record 1kHz and 10kHz at -20vu and see how close the levels are.

Dave.

 

[Beck]

If you're talking about Radio Shack Concertape it was not so great sounding, but held up well with many passes. Supertape was the good stuff. Radio Shack Supertape was Ampex 642. BASF LP35 was good tape, but not the highest output. LP35 LH stands for, "Long Play 35 micron Low noise/High output." But again this would not be as high output and low noise as something like Maxell 35-90 or Ampex/Quantegy 642.

 

[ecc83]

If you're talking about Radio Shack Concertape it was not so great sounding, but held up well with many passes. Supertape was the good stuff. Radio Shack Supertape was Ampex 642. BASF LP35 was good tape, but not the highest output. LP35 LH stands for, "Long Play 35 micron Low noise/High output." But again this would not be as high output and low noise as something like Maxell 35-90 or Ampex/Quantegy 642.

Much depends upon your application and machine. Very high MOL tapes were often dogged by high print through making them less suited to speech recording.

High MOL tapes might not be ultimately as quiet as lower MOL types, i.e. the actual dynamic range is much the same (given a low noise rec/replay path).

Then, some "prosumer" machines did not IIRC have the headroom in their recording amplifiers to take advantage of the high outputs (and of course the playback amps have to cope as well!) .....'Twas ever a suck it and see situation.

Dave.

 

[Beck]

Much depends upon your application and machine. Very high MOL tapes were often dogged by high print through making them less suited to speech recording.

High MOL tapes might not be ultimately as quiet as lower MOL types, i.e. the actual dynamic range is much the same (given a low noise rec/replay path).

Then, some "prosumer" machines did not IIRC have the headroom in their recording amplifiers to take advantage of the high outputs (and of course the playback amps have to cope as well!) .....'Twas ever a suck it and see situation.

Dave.

True enough, but LP35 is just plain noisy on the level with something like Scotch 111, and though Concertape is a more modern tape I wouldn't use it for concerts. Always thought the name for Concertape was sort of a misnomer. I agree it depends on the application. I wouldn't use any of the tape listed for mastering or multitracking on modern machines, which are all better suited to higher output tape. By modern machines I mean about anything made from the Teac 3340 and newer, or about 1973 and newer. Tapes like Scotch 206/207 and Ampex 406/407 where around then, and on the home market you had tapes like TDK Audua, Maxell 35-90 and Scotch Highlander 229, etc.

 

[Blue Jinn]

. Supertape was the good stuff. Radio Shack Supertape was Ampex 642.

Thanks Beck for chiming in on this.