BlazeES
04-04-2009, 12:31 PM
Interesting reading for my fellow brethren...
April 4, 1982
Sound; SONY COOKS UP A TOP TAPE
By HANS FANTEL
Tape makers literally can't leave well enough alone. Just as tape development had reached the well-enough level, with the better brands sounding
very good indeed, some manufacturers seem eager to outdo their own - and anyone else's -achievements.
Competition, innovation, and sheer cussed perfectionism aside, the question arises whether such compulsive pushing of limits really brings
practical benefits to the listener. In the case of Sony's new UCX-S cassettes - the latest champion in the international tape derby - the answer is a
decided yes.
The nature of these benefits is best understood by way of analogy. Tape is to a recorder what film is to a camera. Even the best camera can't take
good pictures with poor film. Similarly, no tape recorder can sound better than the tape running in it. Just as the grain and pigments of a film
determine the quality of a photograph (other factors being equal), so the frequency response, dynamic range and noise characteristics of a tape
determine the quality of a recording.
In Sony's UCX-S, these factors have been slightly but perceptibly improved over previous norms, and the ear readily and gratefully registers the
difference. In critical listening comparisons with other ferricobalt cassettes (i.e., cassettes made with cobalt-treated iron oxide), the treble not
merely seemed extended in range but also more natural in character. Credit for this goes to the greater treble capacity of this tape, which obviates
any need for false emphasis in the upper range. As a result, timbres and textures of orchestral music assume a very pleasing, lifelike vividness.
By the same token, the so-called transient response - the ability to render short, sharp sounds with appropriate clarity - is also enhanced, for this
essential aspect of sound also requires smoothness of treble.
Yet the exceptional merit of this tape is not confined to the upper range. The bass also comes through with genuine depth and solidity not usually
attained in cassettes, and the noise level remains happily unobtrusive.
No single technical advance can be credited for all these virtues. After all, formulating a tape is rather like flavoring a sauce. Not just the
ingredients count, but also their proportion, blend and texture - plus what the chef calls je ne sais quoi. The sauce analogy applies even to
attitudes. Tape manufacturers typically are as mum about their concoctions as any professional cook might be about his hollandaise. When
interviewed in his laboratory, Mr. T. Hirano, Sony's top tape wizard, declined in fluent English to divulge particulars. But he confided that the
exceptional attributes of his UCX-S formulation arise from a combination of three factors:
First, the magnetic particles forming the working parts of the tape have been shrunk in size by nearly 30 percent, making a finer and more
uniform dispersion on the tape. This may be likened to grain in photographic film. The finer the grain the sharper the image. Or, to invoke the
proper explanatory concept, the smoother surface can ''resolve'' more image detail, just as finer lines can be drawn on smooth paper than on
rough surfaces. Similarly, smoother grain structure in a recording tape can resolve smaller waveforms, thereby permitting higher frequencies and
finer sonic detail to be captured.
Secondly, ways have been found to arrange the particles so they don't stick to the tape in a crisscross pattern like trees in a logjam. The new
process allows more of the rod-shaped particles to be packed in parallel, like tree-trunks in a raft. This yields multiple benefits: It provides a
smoother - and hence more receptive - surface on which the magnetic signal can be inscribed. The greater density of the tightly packed particles
concentrates more magnetic force into a given area (about 500 billion particles in each millimeter of tape) so that greater loudness peaks can be
accommodated with less distortion. What's more, hiss is reduced by the regularity of the particles.
Thirdly, the basic material itself has been improved by new methods of spiking each iron particle with molecules of cobalt, so as to heighten such
magnetic properties as coercivity and retentivity. These determine how faithfully the tape ''remembers'' the music entrusted to it, and how much
sonic detail it recalls on command. To be less metaphoric and more precise about it, retentivity is 1800 Gauss and coercivity is 650 Oersted -
uncommonly high values assuring that this tape will be on its very best molecular behavior when jolted by the impact of the musical signal.
Although developed at Sony's laboratories at Sendai, in northern Japan, the new tape is to be domestically produced in Alabama and Texas. With
a list price of $5 for a one-hour cassette, it is much less expensive than the so-called metal tapes, yet in most practical uses virtually equivalent to
their performance.
Talking to the originators of the new tape, one gains the impression that they were inspired, at least in part, by friendly rivalries within Sony's
corporate empire. Traditionally, Sony tape has stood in the shadow of the company's more eye-catching developments, such as Trinitron TV, the
Betamax, and its excellent stereo components. The new tape represents a bid for a bit of the limelight and is - to borrow a phrase from my college
yearbook - most likely to succeed.
*check*
April 4, 1982
Sound; SONY COOKS UP A TOP TAPE
By HANS FANTEL
Tape makers literally can't leave well enough alone. Just as tape development had reached the well-enough level, with the better brands sounding
very good indeed, some manufacturers seem eager to outdo their own - and anyone else's -achievements.
Competition, innovation, and sheer cussed perfectionism aside, the question arises whether such compulsive pushing of limits really brings
practical benefits to the listener. In the case of Sony's new UCX-S cassettes - the latest champion in the international tape derby - the answer is a
decided yes.
The nature of these benefits is best understood by way of analogy. Tape is to a recorder what film is to a camera. Even the best camera can't take
good pictures with poor film. Similarly, no tape recorder can sound better than the tape running in it. Just as the grain and pigments of a film
determine the quality of a photograph (other factors being equal), so the frequency response, dynamic range and noise characteristics of a tape
determine the quality of a recording.
In Sony's UCX-S, these factors have been slightly but perceptibly improved over previous norms, and the ear readily and gratefully registers the
difference. In critical listening comparisons with other ferricobalt cassettes (i.e., cassettes made with cobalt-treated iron oxide), the treble not
merely seemed extended in range but also more natural in character. Credit for this goes to the greater treble capacity of this tape, which obviates
any need for false emphasis in the upper range. As a result, timbres and textures of orchestral music assume a very pleasing, lifelike vividness.
By the same token, the so-called transient response - the ability to render short, sharp sounds with appropriate clarity - is also enhanced, for this
essential aspect of sound also requires smoothness of treble.
Yet the exceptional merit of this tape is not confined to the upper range. The bass also comes through with genuine depth and solidity not usually
attained in cassettes, and the noise level remains happily unobtrusive.
No single technical advance can be credited for all these virtues. After all, formulating a tape is rather like flavoring a sauce. Not just the
ingredients count, but also their proportion, blend and texture - plus what the chef calls je ne sais quoi. The sauce analogy applies even to
attitudes. Tape manufacturers typically are as mum about their concoctions as any professional cook might be about his hollandaise. When
interviewed in his laboratory, Mr. T. Hirano, Sony's top tape wizard, declined in fluent English to divulge particulars. But he confided that the
exceptional attributes of his UCX-S formulation arise from a combination of three factors:
First, the magnetic particles forming the working parts of the tape have been shrunk in size by nearly 30 percent, making a finer and more
uniform dispersion on the tape. This may be likened to grain in photographic film. The finer the grain the sharper the image. Or, to invoke the
proper explanatory concept, the smoother surface can ''resolve'' more image detail, just as finer lines can be drawn on smooth paper than on
rough surfaces. Similarly, smoother grain structure in a recording tape can resolve smaller waveforms, thereby permitting higher frequencies and
finer sonic detail to be captured.
Secondly, ways have been found to arrange the particles so they don't stick to the tape in a crisscross pattern like trees in a logjam. The new
process allows more of the rod-shaped particles to be packed in parallel, like tree-trunks in a raft. This yields multiple benefits: It provides a
smoother - and hence more receptive - surface on which the magnetic signal can be inscribed. The greater density of the tightly packed particles
concentrates more magnetic force into a given area (about 500 billion particles in each millimeter of tape) so that greater loudness peaks can be
accommodated with less distortion. What's more, hiss is reduced by the regularity of the particles.
Thirdly, the basic material itself has been improved by new methods of spiking each iron particle with molecules of cobalt, so as to heighten such
magnetic properties as coercivity and retentivity. These determine how faithfully the tape ''remembers'' the music entrusted to it, and how much
sonic detail it recalls on command. To be less metaphoric and more precise about it, retentivity is 1800 Gauss and coercivity is 650 Oersted -
uncommonly high values assuring that this tape will be on its very best molecular behavior when jolted by the impact of the musical signal.
Although developed at Sony's laboratories at Sendai, in northern Japan, the new tape is to be domestically produced in Alabama and Texas. With
a list price of $5 for a one-hour cassette, it is much less expensive than the so-called metal tapes, yet in most practical uses virtually equivalent to
their performance.
Talking to the originators of the new tape, one gains the impression that they were inspired, at least in part, by friendly rivalries within Sony's
corporate empire. Traditionally, Sony tape has stood in the shadow of the company's more eye-catching developments, such as Trinitron TV, the
Betamax, and its excellent stereo components. The new tape represents a bid for a bit of the limelight and is - to borrow a phrase from my college
yearbook - most likely to succeed.
*check*