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I have no reason to believe that the recordings on my Maxell tape have deteriorated. The Olympus DS-40 is an absolute dream and a miracle -- because of the very low background noise, because of the absence of clicking sounds when starting/stopping or when pausing/restarting recordings, because of the extreme length of recordability, and because of its extremely compact size. Also, I recently listened to recordings that I made in the year 1980. This is another good thing about the Maxell XLII tape.I have nothing bad to say about the 90 minute Maxell XLII tape.
This demonstrates the high quality of the Maxell XLII tape. The sound quality of this machine is fine for recording nature sounds and children's music concerts. Instead, Sony does make a similar, newer model, but the sound quality of this Sony cassette recorder is garbage (please see my reviews of the newer Sony machine). A similar recorder, the Panasonic RQ-L31 Portable Cassette Recorder with Slide Microphone, adds a high-pitched chirping sound to your tapes. I've used the Maxell XLII tapes for recording albums from vinyl, recording from compact discs, and recording live, e.g., parties, waterfalls, and my own electric-guitar playing using a Nakamichi microphone.
The Maxell tape passed the test, so to speak. But I can't find anybody who can fix mine. The particular recording was a duet with Max Roach on drums and Anthony Braxton on saxophone. I have used Maxell XLII for over two decades.
Another problem is that my Nakamichi 581 has been broken for many years, and I have not been able to find anybody who repairs this sort of machine. Again, this is not the fault of the tape. Sony TCM-200DV Standard Cassette Voice Recorder adds a high-pitched whining sound to your tapes. The Nakamichi 581 was, and probably still is, the highest quality cassette deck known to mankind. Therefore, at least for amateur recordings of nature sounds, marching bands, and parties, cassette tapes and cassette recorders might no longer be medium of choice.
I've used them on a Nakamichi 581 cassette deck, a Tandberg TCD320 cassette deck, and small hand-held recorders from Sony (with built-in microphone). When I first got my Nakamichi 581, I did a side-by-side test of an actual vinyl record, and my taped copy of the vinyl recording. But this is not the fault of the tape. Last year, I bought a digital voice recorder, the Olympus DS-40. Finally, Sony had an excellent little hand-held cassette player/recorder, the TCM-454VK.
Perhaps, one time out of 100 times that I use the Tandberg, the tape gets tangled up. Please see my review of the Olympus DS-40. The following does not apply to making tape recordings from commercially available music on compact discs. First of all, my Tandberg is a risky machine.
The following applies only to recording nature sounds, children's marching bands, and so on. I was not able to tell the difference. However, I dropped this Sony machine, and it broke, and it is not manufactured anymore. I blame this on the Tandberg, not on the tape.
This recording was an especial challenge to the tape's ability to record at higher frequencies. But I do have bad things to say about tape recorders.
i CALLED JANDR TWICE ABOUT REMOVING THIS PAGE FROM AMAZON BUT THEY SAID IT TAKES TIME. REAL DRAG. THIS PRODUCT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AT J AND R. YOU ENTER YOUR INFORMATION AND THEN GET TO THE PLACE WHERE IT SAYS: "PLACE YOUR ORDER" AND THE CART GOES TO "0".
Top of the line quality, top value, arrived quickly and in excellent condition. Hard to find but necessary item for cassette users (yes, there are probably still millions of us).
One thing that I should probably say though is to make sure that the cassette deck you are using has the ability to switch to the high bias postition for recording. I am very pleased with this purchase. If your deck can switch to the high bias position then I highly recommend these tapes. If it cannot, then you will not be able to use these tapes. The product arrived on time and all of the tapes in the set worked fine. I used a JVC cassette deck that is over 25 years old to record onto the tapes and the sound quality is outstanding.
Amazon makes it easy, just the way it makes so many things easy. Even before stores quit carrying high-bias tape cassettes, it was difficult (in San Francisco and San Diego) to find Maxell, my preferred brand from way back.
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