Sony tape?

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famous beagle

famous beagle

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Hey y'all, I recently got 3 reels of Sony PR-150 tape from a friend for free, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with it, how good is it, etc.

It's 1/4", 1800 ft, 1mm, which is compatible with my Fostex R8, but I can't find any info other than that.

Two of the boxes are still sealed NOS, so it would be great if it's decent tape.

Thanks!
 

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Wouldn't know about the particular tape but if I were you I'd put in on while watching out for signs that it's sticky shed. If the machine ain't slowing down and there's no significant goo on the heads or path you should be fine with using it. If you don't wanna waste a good performance on a tape you don't know what sounds like just feed it a signal from whatever record/cd/digital file and make your own judgement on the sound.
In my experience Fostex-machines is pretty forgiving when it comes to tape types being "off" compared to the Ampex 457/BASF LPR-35 they're designing for. Of course each tape will have it's own caracter. Personally I like the sound of old AGFA tapes on my Model 80. Easier to archieve tape saturation than with the +6 tapes they're designing for.

EDIT: Ah, Beagle. It was you doing the OP, missed out on who made the OP in my high state of mind. Sorry for telling you stuff you already know.
 
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PR-150 is ok. It's not as high energy on the level with Ampex 456, but its not sticky either. The Sony tape to avoid is SLH and ULH because they have sticky-shed.
 
Ok thanks for the help y'all. I'll give it a try. I also noticed that this stuff is everywhere on ebay for really cheap. Here's hoping I like it! :)
 
Yeah I once had a machine that came with about 50 reels of that stuff with vinyl records dumped to it at either 7.5 ips or 3.75 ips. At 7.5 ips it sounded real nice, but then again, it was questionable-condition vinyl for the source material, so the material it was recording was already full of color, noise, pops, clicks.

It is +3 tape I believe, 1 mil, not back coated (just clear plastic backing), and was widely used in the consumer market. I wouldn't use it at any speed higher than 7.5 ips without extreme caution. But at least it does not seem to shed very much at all.
 
Muckelroy said:
Yeah I once had a machine that came with about 50 reels of that stuff with vinyl records dumped to it at either 7.5 ips or 3.75 ips. At 7.5 ips it sounded real nice, but then again, it was questionable-condition vinyl for the source material, so the material it was recording was already full of color, noise, pops, clicks.

It is +3 tape I believe, 1 mil, not back coated (just clear plastic backing), and was widely used in the consumer market. I wouldn't use it at any speed higher than 7.5 ips without extreme caution. But at least it does not seem to shed very much at all.
Click to expand...

Hmmm ... My Fostex R8 runs at 15 ips. It says in the manual "We don't recommend tape thinner than 1 mil because it will likely stretch and break."

What are the other factors of tape, besides it's thickness, that determine its breaking point?
 
It's chemical composition will determine how well it handles mechanical stress, friction, heat, and stretching. All tape manufactured 1960s and later is mostly polyester tape, or some similar base material, and is subject to stretching if put under any sort of abuse.

Acetone tapes from the 50s and 60s do not stretch, but they break clean if you stress the tape. Unfortunately they're also brittle.

You're welcome to try running PR-150 at 15ips but it should be on a more modern, and gentle tape transport to prevent stretching. The reason higher speeds make tape more prone to stretching is not so much the speed itself, but the added inertia of going from stop, to play, to stop again. The lifters, capstan, pinch roller, all that, will produce inertia and stress in the areas where it touches the tape.
 
famous beagle said:
Hmmm ... My Fostex R8 runs at 15 ips. It says in the manual "We don't recommend tape thinner than 1 mil because it will likely stretch and break."

What are the other factors of tape, besides it's thickness, that determine its breaking point?
Click to expand...

PR-150 will run fine at 15 ips... in fact like most tapes it will perform better at 15 ips than at 7.5 ips.

You just want to avoid super long play tapes that are less than 1-mil thickness. They are typically 0.5-mil base thickness. Not hard to do though because they are harder to find than 1-mil and 1.5-mil.
 
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