Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!prophet From: prophet@umcp-cs.UUCP (Dennis Gibbs) Newsgroups: net.audio Subject: Cassette Tape Durability Message-ID: <4540@umcp-cs.UUCP> Date: Thu, 4-Apr-85 19:35:17 EST Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.4540 Posted: Thu Apr 4 19:35:17 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 7-Apr-85 03:14:38 EST Distribution: net Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD Lines: 59 <> This is in response to Mike Williams' query concerning cassette durability. I, too, am one of those people who buy albums and then immediately record them on tape. I thought I would share my experiences with tape durability. I started out recording albums on Maxell UDXL-II tape on a fairly cheap Sharp tape deck. These tapes are used primarily to play in the Marantz tape deck in my car. Most of these tapes are over five years old. I currently own a Nakamichi LX-5, and in it I use Maxell XLII-S or Maxell MX, depending on what I am recording. Most of the tapes in this collection are as old as one year, and these tapes are used only for playback on my Nakamichi, not to be used in my car or in any other el-cheapo tape deck. In total, I have about 100 tapes, half of which are about five years old, and the other half about one year old. I have had a total of three "failures" or more accurately, "malfunctions". Two of these "malfunctions" happened on the tapes that were over 5 years old. What happened is that the tape inside the shell began to drag and bind, causing a great deal of wow and flutter. I did try to play these tapes in another deck to make sure it was the tape and not the deck, and sure enough, the tape was causing the problem. In both cases, all I did was unscrew the cassette shell, and piddle around with it, and then put it back together, and both have worked perfectly ever since. The third case happened on a brand-new Maxell XLII-S tape. Before I make a recording, I fast-forward and then rewind the tape to be sure the tape is O.K. and to perhaps shake off any loose oxide coating left over from the manufactu- ring process. In this third case, the tape rattled a lot when I was rewinding it. I took the tape out and shook it, and it sounded like a baby's rattle. It seemed that there was a loose screw or piece of plastic that was inside the shell. I took the tape back to my dealer and he replaced it free. In all three cases, I have never lost a recording due to a failure; in the first two cases, I fixed the problem by taking the shell apart, and in the 3rd case, the problem showed up before I began recording on it. Which brings me to another point. I prefer cassette that have housings that are screwed together, because it gives you a way to fix the problem should a problem ever occur. Concerning the problem of dropouts, I have never had this problem with any of my Maxell cassettes, even the ones that are five years old. However, it is quite hard to listen for dropouts while driving along on the highway; it could be that there are a few dropouts on these older tapes, and that I cannot hear them with all the engine and traffic noise. I would also like to hear other tape recordists' experiences with the durabil- ity of different brands of tape. Dennis -- Call-Me: Dennis Gibbs, Univ. of Md. Comp. Sci. Center. UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!prophet CSNet: prophet@umcp-cs BITNET: GIBBS@UMDB ARPA: prophet@Maryland