NAD613
10-18-2008, 08:44 PM
Since Web Police said these were decent tapes, and since they're not made anymore (at least I think), I had to get some & give them a try. Amazingly enough, I found some on Shop.com for only $5.99/6-pack brick. More amazing than that is these were shipped directly from Memorex. Their website doesn't show they're even being made anymore, so to get them straight from Memorex was a bit of a surprise. In that regard, these tapes are almost as mysterious as those Akai tapes. At least we know these Memorex cassettes I ordered came directly from them.
I recorded the tape on my NAD 613 using Dolby C with the bias adjustment set at approx. -1.2. Since this is a type I cassette, I recorded some easy listening music. I find that kind of music sounds much better on a type I cassette than rock music does. The music selection tonight was from the Time-Life Music "Instrumental Favorites" collection. I chose the Mantovani CD. After all, he was the king of easy listening music.
I really like the packaging of these Memorex tapes. No slim cases or overly-fancy labels. This is how all cassettes should be packaged. The shell is clear, 5-screw. It made the usual cassette noises as it was in FF & RW; nothing too unusual. Not super quiet, but no squealing or whines, either.
For the first 2 songs, the right side was a bit quieter than the left side. I didn't notice this until the right side kicked in a bit louder on the 3rd tune. I should have been watching the meters more. It wasn't a balance issue & I didn't think it was the tape. I uncharacteristically didn't clean the heads prior to recording. Sure enough, I cleaned the heads & that did the trick. The problem didn't occur on the re-recording.
A good type I tapes makes strings & orchestras sound very good, and this Memorex DBS was no exception. Very smooth & rich sound. Just like the Fuji DR-I type I cassette, this tape works very well with easy listening music. It's just too bad I didn't take advantage of these tapes when I used to see them in the stores all the time a few years back. Oh well, now I've got 3 bricks of them, so that should last me.
I recorded the tape on my NAD 613 using Dolby C with the bias adjustment set at approx. -1.2. Since this is a type I cassette, I recorded some easy listening music. I find that kind of music sounds much better on a type I cassette than rock music does. The music selection tonight was from the Time-Life Music "Instrumental Favorites" collection. I chose the Mantovani CD. After all, he was the king of easy listening music.
I really like the packaging of these Memorex tapes. No slim cases or overly-fancy labels. This is how all cassettes should be packaged. The shell is clear, 5-screw. It made the usual cassette noises as it was in FF & RW; nothing too unusual. Not super quiet, but no squealing or whines, either.
For the first 2 songs, the right side was a bit quieter than the left side. I didn't notice this until the right side kicked in a bit louder on the 3rd tune. I should have been watching the meters more. It wasn't a balance issue & I didn't think it was the tape. I uncharacteristically didn't clean the heads prior to recording. Sure enough, I cleaned the heads & that did the trick. The problem didn't occur on the re-recording.
A good type I tapes makes strings & orchestras sound very good, and this Memorex DBS was no exception. Very smooth & rich sound. Just like the Fuji DR-I type I cassette, this tape works very well with easy listening music. It's just too bad I didn't take advantage of these tapes when I used to see them in the stores all the time a few years back. Oh well, now I've got 3 bricks of them, so that should last me.