Yes , have this tape as well , qulity of recording is very bad indeed , but they give MP3 Download of all songs , accessable through VPN , from US site .
I only use vintage blank tapes, usually from thrift stores. Maxell, TDK, Sony. Only listening to classic rock from 70-90s, so those are all used vintage tapes as well.
I had mixed experiences with new tapes. Some are unusable bad, like Dua Lipa - Future nostalgia. It had no highs and a W&F of 120% Others are sounding fantastic for example Lana Del Ray - Ocean BlvD and Taylor Swift 1989 (some say all TS cassettes are very good). One thing I found in common was that all the tapes that sounding excellent have a mark "made on UK" on them. They seem to come from goldingreplication in the UK. They use very smooth looking tape, very similar to BASF FE. Only no dolby, so the noise is quit high but they have very good extended highs, low distortion and awesome warm bass. Some sound even better then digital (more dynamics, while remaining the HF)
i never used dolby ,the noise comes not from not having dolby but because the deck you´re using is magnetised or the azimuth isn´t the correct one ,on your player, the reason why i never bought pre-recorded cassettes just 7 all my life because i was in vacations and i wanted to hear a new released LP, noise i learned decades ago that only appears when something is not right on the player, this because my early reel decks had no noise reduction and still today have great sound, refering mainly to my second deck a X-165D from AKAI, crossfield released in 1970, but with regular maintenance works perfect today with above cassette quality sound, using only ferric tapes, at the time there wasn´t other
i forget to refer that BASF cassettes my favorite ones till 1984 haqd a decrease of quality in it´s building quality, the tapes remained good ,at least the type II starting in the super II but they become deck destroyers ,some pioneer high-end decks of the 90´s when you insert a BASF and start the auto BLE ,it stops and says error, that happened also with maxell when starting to have a grey casing in the 90´s ,others were good, in the 90´s i only kept using TDK and Sony
@@RUfromthe40s It's a bit depending on the tape you use and if you are listening through speakers or headphones in my experience. Using a type1/ferro tape like these pre records, with classical music listening through headphones dolby B could be welcome. Over speakers, with good chrome tape and louder music dolby won't add much. Out the top of my head without dolby you had around 55 to 65 dB dynamic without dolby depending on the tape, dolby B added 10 dB and C 20dB. Wrong azimuth causes dull high frequency. The adjustments always is to use a high frequency test tape and adjust for maximal output and least amount of phase shift. Never heard about causing noise! Reel to reel has a much higher tape speed so (much) less noise
@@RUfromthe40s I have good experience with Basf too. I like chrome super and chrome maxima. I only have manual calibration decks. Didn't came up much tapes that weren't to calibrate but some seem to survived the time better then other
@@bertheeren7250 yes the main problem here is the settings in the manual calibration for the recording made ,on the pioneer as seen is for TDK D type I or MA-xg type IV, as the equalization is automatic set for type I is 120 microseconds and for type IV is 70 microseconds, the sony being more modern as calibration but one doesn´t have to calibrate by hear the levels are there just have to match them , and the SOny is not even the top reference which is far from pioneer quality much less a inferior quality deck , but as in the pioneer the sony is calibrated in the video for HF type I sony cassettes and for type IV metal master , all of this comes in the manual , no witchcracft done here, so how can it be compared , the pioneer is the closest to any source , the sony far from it, and still some say they can notice the diference ,for the tdk showed the bias in the pioneer and similar in the sony should be less than 1/4 starting on the maximum position for the right side as in the sony but being so far appart in quality i don´t get what comparison is being made here, it should be a CT-93 or a CT-959 to the sony deck here showed but the upper reference, even then it would show how the sony might sound good but the lack of wam sound and deepness, doesn´t exist in that sony reference so i don´t even get why both are compared ,if i compared the BX-2 and the dragon from nakamichi bought new it would have the same result and by 1982 the result would be like this "the bx-2 as less high´s but what a warm sound as the dragon can´t have just excessive high´s and dynamics and a far superior frequency response which is not good" this is with the same words as a comparison made between to diferent decks in quality and the final result at the end of the video , i gave tewo diferent deck examples to see if for the last time someone could understand my point, and there is more ,what were the speakers in use or the microphone for sound capture and also to which amplifier were they conected,without this there is no comparison possible, and either than this is pure informed people not knowing what they are doing , it´s only shamefull, regards
first i want to say that i only bought 7 pre-recorded cassettes because i was in vacation and costing the same as an LP record and none had the same life and quality ,even a guy i knew that had not a modern turntable (diamod tip)late 60´s ,they(other friends also) bought the records and i would record to them to hear in a old grundig(mainly) portable reel player(heavy as hell) ,later to a cassette and when they had enough money to buy a system with a good turntable they had already a good vinyl colection, well one learns with the years ,i ended up buying Maxell and BASF till 1984 ,then started to buy more TDK´s and also a few Sony´s , than in the 90´s basf was garbage not the tape but it´s casing was a deck destroyer, very hard on rotation putting any new deck out of tune in a few weeks, as it happened with Maxell when they started using the light grey casing ,then only Sony and TDK ,all of this after trying several brands, like Scotch, Philips, BEREC(how the chrome cassette had a good sound till a month at the most),Akai, Shibatta, Ampex, SKC that have a old series of chrome cassettes that still today they play perfect and don´t dirt the heads(the ones with a golden and black sticker, only) Denon(were good but too expensive), Fuji, JVC, etc.and normally the cassettes would come with diferent azimuth ,i even play them from others in a ZX-9 with it´s fine azimuth tunning and record to my 700ZXL, at first i only had a CT-F2121 and a year after my father gave me his CT-F1000 from Pioneer both
Well, it is great that RTM and NAC are at least trying. Not much you can do when the market just doesn't justify the expense like in the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s. Prerecorded tapes did sound pretty good back then. They were done right on quality tape. Much the pity. I did buy this "Awesome Mix" for "fun" and Superclean Vol. 1, by The Marias. That one was OK. But let's face it, these are novelty "collector" items, not meant to actually be listened to like in the "good old days" when quality TDK, Maxell, Sony, Fuji, and BASF were making millions and millions of tapes. There was a new U.K. brand called EQ - Professional making Type I tapes. I bought a brick of 5 in 2021. They seemed OK but required a lot of bias (used my Denon deck which has a manual adjustment) to make them have decent highs. Not sure if they are still in business. Also you can get new Maxell UR tapes. They are still being made, but the rumor was that Maxell was going to make them only available in Japan in a few years. We'll see. They weren't "the best" Type I tapes, even years ago, but they do perform "OK" on a good deck. I picked up about 60 of them a couple years ago on "close out" at Office Max for less than $2 a tape. Figured I'd better stock up while I could.
They're probably getting the tapes from the distributor that's making the cheap tapes that are only worth it for dictation that you can pick up at Walmart. It's a tape, and all tapes are they're all the same! I'm not an audio file but I am pro audio and grew up with tapes. So I'm a little disappointed that there's this really really really low hanging fruit out there.
The companies that duplicate the pre-recorded tapes like this copy from other tapes at up to 10x speed to make the process quicker. Everything suffers as a result. Pre-Recorded Tapes are total junk.
Let's hope it is a one off. These people ruin the game for everybody. If I didn't have my duplication decks I wouldn't hesitate to open the cover and tune the deck for the tape: all that's needed is your ears. Is that a real NAC casette? I hoped they used screws.... one shouldn't buy cassettes without screws.
That tape is very dull. Looks like the chinese BKB junk you see on chinese web stores. It leaves oxide all over the tape transport and even on the slip sheets! I'd say if you really like the playlist it's probably better to just remake the sticker labels and record it on a decent tape.
And EQ - Professional, a U.K. brand was making "decent" Type I tapes a couple years ago. I don't know if they are still in business. Also you can get new Maxell UR tapes. They are still being made, but the rumor was that Maxell was going to make them only available in Japan in a few years. We'll see. They weren't "the best" Type I tapes, even years ago, but they do perform "OK" on a good deck. I picked up about 60 of them a couple years ago on "close out" at Office Max for less than $2 a tape. Figured I'd better stock up while I could.
I had some excellent sounding releases. Lana Del Ray - Ocean BlvD and Taylor Swift 1989 sounding superb. The latter one was even much more enjoyable then digital, more dynamics, even clearer highs than digital. They are made in the UK, not at NAC who have a very bad reputation.
Only if they atleast used a RTM Fox and dubbed them on a half decent machine with properly adjusted bias and azimuth...
Yes , have this tape as well , qulity of recording is very bad indeed , but they give MP3 Download of all songs , accessable through VPN , from US site .
I only use vintage blank tapes, usually from thrift stores. Maxell, TDK, Sony. Only listening to classic rock from 70-90s, so those are all used vintage tapes as well.
I had mixed experiences with new tapes. Some are unusable bad, like Dua Lipa - Future nostalgia. It had no highs and a W&F of 120%
Others are sounding fantastic for example Lana Del Ray - Ocean BlvD and Taylor Swift 1989 (some say all TS cassettes are very good).
One thing I found in common was that all the tapes that sounding excellent have a mark "made on UK" on them. They seem to come from goldingreplication in the UK. They use very smooth looking tape, very similar to BASF FE. Only no dolby, so the noise is quit high but they have very good extended highs, low distortion and awesome warm bass. Some sound even better then digital (more dynamics, while remaining the HF)
i never used dolby ,the noise comes not from not having dolby but because the deck you´re using is magnetised or the azimuth isn´t the correct one ,on your player, the reason why i never bought pre-recorded cassettes just 7 all my life because i was in vacations and i wanted to hear a new released LP, noise i learned decades ago that only appears when something is not right on the player, this because my early reel decks had no noise reduction and still today have great sound, refering mainly to my second deck a X-165D from AKAI, crossfield released in 1970, but with regular maintenance works perfect today with above cassette quality sound, using only ferric tapes, at the time there wasn´t other
i forget to refer that BASF cassettes my favorite ones till 1984 haqd a decrease of quality in it´s building quality, the tapes remained good ,at least the type II starting in the super II but they become deck destroyers ,some pioneer high-end decks of the 90´s when you insert a BASF and start the auto BLE ,it stops and says error, that happened also with maxell when starting to have a grey casing in the 90´s ,others were good, in the 90´s i only kept using TDK and Sony
@@RUfromthe40s It's a bit depending on the tape you use and if you are listening through speakers or headphones in my experience.
Using a type1/ferro tape like these pre records, with classical music listening through headphones dolby B could be welcome.
Over speakers, with good chrome tape and louder music dolby won't add much.
Out the top of my head without dolby you had around 55 to 65 dB dynamic without dolby depending on the tape, dolby B added 10 dB and C 20dB.
Wrong azimuth causes dull high frequency. The adjustments always is to use a high frequency test tape and adjust for maximal output and least amount of phase shift. Never heard about causing noise!
Reel to reel has a much higher tape speed so (much) less noise
@@RUfromthe40s
I have good experience with Basf too. I like chrome super and chrome maxima. I only have manual calibration decks. Didn't came up much tapes that weren't to calibrate but some seem to survived the time better then other
@@bertheeren7250 yes the main problem here is the settings in the manual calibration for the recording made ,on the pioneer as seen is for TDK D type I or MA-xg type IV, as the equalization is automatic set for type I is 120 microseconds and for type IV is 70 microseconds, the sony being more modern as calibration but one doesn´t have to calibrate by hear the levels are there just have to match them , and the SOny is not even the top reference which is far from pioneer quality much less a inferior quality deck , but as in the pioneer the sony is calibrated in the video for HF type I sony cassettes and for type IV metal master , all of this comes in the manual , no witchcracft done here, so how can it be compared , the pioneer is the closest to any source , the sony far from it, and still some say they can notice the diference ,for the tdk showed the bias in the pioneer and similar in the sony should be less than 1/4 starting on the maximum position for the right side as in the sony but being so far appart in quality i don´t get what comparison is being made here, it should be a CT-93 or a CT-959 to the sony deck here showed but the upper reference, even then it would show how the sony might sound good but the lack of wam sound and deepness, doesn´t exist in that sony reference so i don´t even get why both are compared ,if i compared the BX-2 and the dragon from nakamichi bought new it would have the same result and by 1982 the result would be like this "the bx-2 as less high´s but what a warm sound as the dragon can´t have just excessive high´s and dynamics and a far superior frequency response which is not good" this is with the same words as a comparison made between to diferent decks in quality and the final result at the end of the video , i gave tewo diferent deck examples to see if for the last time someone could understand my point, and there is more ,what were the speakers in use or the microphone for sound capture and also to which amplifier were they conected,without this there is no comparison possible, and either than this is pure informed people not knowing what they are doing , it´s only shamefull, regards
very interesting channel! subscribed
first i want to say that i only bought 7 pre-recorded cassettes because i was in vacation and costing the same as an LP record and none had the same life and quality ,even a guy i knew that had not a modern turntable (diamod tip)late 60´s ,they(other friends also) bought the records and i would record to them to hear in a old grundig(mainly) portable reel player(heavy as hell) ,later to a cassette and when they had enough money to buy a system with a good turntable they had already a good vinyl colection, well one learns with the years ,i ended up buying Maxell and BASF till 1984 ,then started to buy more TDK´s and also a few Sony´s , than in the 90´s basf was garbage not the tape but it´s casing was a deck destroyer, very hard on rotation putting any new deck out of tune in a few weeks, as it happened with Maxell when they started using the light grey casing ,then only Sony and TDK ,all of this after trying several brands, like Scotch, Philips, BEREC(how the chrome cassette had a good sound till a month at the most),Akai, Shibatta, Ampex, SKC that have a old series of chrome cassettes that still today they play perfect and don´t dirt the heads(the ones with a golden and black sticker, only) Denon(were good but too expensive), Fuji, JVC, etc.and normally the cassettes would come with diferent azimuth ,i even play them from others in a ZX-9 with it´s fine azimuth tunning and record to my 700ZXL, at first i only had a CT-F2121 and a year after my father gave me his CT-F1000 from Pioneer both
Well, it is great that RTM and NAC are at least trying. Not much you can do when the market just doesn't justify the expense like in the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s. Prerecorded tapes did sound pretty good back then. They were done right on quality tape. Much the pity. I did buy this "Awesome Mix" for "fun" and Superclean Vol. 1, by The Marias. That one was OK. But let's face it, these are novelty "collector" items, not meant to actually be listened to like in the "good old days" when quality TDK, Maxell, Sony, Fuji, and BASF were making millions and millions of tapes.
There was a new U.K. brand called EQ - Professional making Type I tapes. I bought a brick of 5 in 2021. They seemed OK but required a lot of bias (used my Denon deck which has a manual adjustment) to make them have decent highs. Not sure if they are still in business.
Also you can get new Maxell UR tapes. They are still being made, but the rumor was that Maxell was going to make them only available in Japan in a few years. We'll see. They weren't "the best" Type I tapes, even years ago, but they do perform "OK" on a good deck. I picked up about 60 of them a couple years ago on "close out" at Office Max for less than $2 a tape. Figured I'd better stock up while I could.
They're probably getting the tapes from the distributor that's making the cheap tapes that are only worth it for dictation that you can pick up at Walmart. It's a tape, and all tapes are they're all the same! I'm not an audio file but I am pro audio and grew up with tapes. So I'm a little disappointed that there's this really really really low hanging fruit out there.
Stock up on New Old Stock tapes while we can!
Spazzatura,le cassette buone non le fanno piu,idem i registratori
I have a hard time finding decent quality cylinders for my Edison Phonograph 😢
They ARE out there....
My Vol.2 tape has screws. And Vol.1 looks different.
The companies that duplicate the pre-recorded tapes like this copy from other tapes at up to 10x speed to make the process quicker. Everything suffers as a result. Pre-Recorded Tapes are total junk.
NAC's tapes are sandpaper crap. I wouldn't let them anywhere near my heads.
Let's hope it is a one off. These people ruin the game for everybody.
If I didn't have my duplication decks I wouldn't hesitate to open the cover and tune the deck for the tape: all that's needed is your ears.
Is that a real NAC casette? I hoped they used screws.... one shouldn't buy cassettes without screws.
That tape is very dull. Looks like the chinese BKB junk you see on chinese web stores. It leaves oxide all over the tape transport and even on the slip sheets! I'd say if you really like the playlist it's probably better to just remake the sticker labels and record it on a decent tape.
Modern Tapes do not exist at all ! It's all NOS stuff
RTM and NAC both make new cassette tape.
And EQ - Professional, a U.K. brand was making "decent" Type I tapes a couple years ago. I don't know if they are still in business. Also you can get new Maxell UR tapes. They are still being made, but the rumor was that Maxell was going to make them only available in Japan in a few years. We'll see. They weren't "the best" Type I tapes, even years ago, but they do perform "OK" on a good deck. I picked up about 60 of them a couple years ago on "close out" at Office Max for less than $2 a tape. Figured I'd better stock up while I could.
Modern tapes are rubbish none of them are great
I had some excellent sounding releases. Lana Del Ray - Ocean BlvD and Taylor Swift 1989 sounding superb. The latter one was even much more enjoyable then digital, more dynamics, even clearer highs than digital. They are made in the UK, not at NAC who have a very bad reputation.