Cassette review: II Cool 90 minute tape

[NAD613]

Web Police was nice enough to send me some cassettes. Among the Sony UX, TDK SA-X and Fuji ZII, were 8 II Cool 90 cassettes. If you recall, I pointed out last week that Tape.com has these tapes for $39.50 per 100, sans the cases & labels, in an array of fruity colors:

http://www.tape.com/1C090FCS.html?leftmenu=blankmedianav

Well, tonight I thought I'd try them out. These are high bias cassetts & I recorded them using Dolby C w/bias set at about -1.2. On side A, I recorded Antonio Carlos Jobim's 1967 album "Wave", along with a few selections off his album "The Composer of Desifnado Plays". On side B, I recorded some selections from "The Very Best of Peter & Gordon". "Wave" has a lot of acoustic bass on it and I have to play around with the tone controls & Play Trim for a minute or two whenever I play it back on cassette. The Peter & Gordon songs have a much brighter sound compared to the Jobim material, so it was a good contrast to test the tape with.

The cassette itself it pretty well built considering how inexpensive it is. It has a 5-screw shell & doesn't squeal or rattle in the transport while playing or FF/RW. If Sony still made shells like this, we wouldn't complain about them being the only tapes @ Target or K-mart because we'd be buying them. The felt pressure pad is pretty wide, substantially wider than the Maxell XLII tapes of the mid-to-late 90's (see picture below). Sure, the labels are a bit kooky, but I guess that was the gimmick for selling these tapes.

The Verdict: I was pleasantly surprised. Believe it or not, this tape performed very well. It's better than the new crop of Maxell XLII & better than the Fuji DR-II, IMHO. No joke. This tape sounds very good; no drop-outs, good highs & good lows. I'd rank this with the Akai GX and the TDK Pro Media cassettes. Bye-bye, Fuji DR-II, hello II Cool! I think I'll be buying a case of these next payday...in green.

[Web Police]

That's cool. For the price I thought they were pretty good too.

The guy I bought from lists them on ebay periodically. You can probably email him through his website and get 120 each with cases and J-cards for nearly the same prices as the link you listed.

He is in San Diego and can be contacted by phone or email. My order was shipped very promptly.

http://www.coloryourmusic.com/audiocassettes.html

[NAD613]

That's cool. For the price I thought they were pretty good too.

The guy I bought from lists them on ebay periodically. You can probably email him through his website and get 120 each with cases and J-cards for nearly the same prices as the link you listed.

He is in San Diego and can be contacted by phone or email. My order was shipped very promptly.

http://www.coloryourmusic.com/audiocassettes.html

According to their website:

"Our tape manufacturing plant uses the finest grades of polyester materials and magnetic oxides in a long generation of particle development, resulting in higher frequency response and much lower noise. We use technically superior audio cassette shells, which provide a sleek high-tech appearance with improved recording and playback performance."

[Web Police]

According to their website:

"Our tape manufacturing plant uses the finest grades of polyester materials and magnetic oxides in a long generation of particle development, resulting in higher frequency response and much lower noise. We use technically superior audio cassette shells, which provide a sleek high-tech appearance with improved recording and playback performance."

Compared to the materials currently in the market, they are probably correct. :-?

[macster]

Compared to the materials currently in the market, they are probably correct. :-?

Maybe I'll go by for a visit and see what they have.

Hey

Take a look at this on the bottom of the page of that site "This site was grabbed using the TRIAL version of Grab-a-Site. This message does not appear on a licensed copy of Grab-a-Site." it's in small print. Now I'm getting curious about them.

m~

[Web Police]

They spent their money on the inventory and not the website software. :)

Either way the shipping ran $20 for 120 cassettes via Fed Ex Ground.

[macster]

They spent their money on the inventory and not the website software. :)

Either way the shipping ran $20 for 120 cassettes via Fed Ex Ground.

Do you know where your credit number is? lol. Anyway, it's all in good fun. I sent them an email, asking them if I could pick up my order since I was local. It will be interesting to see what they say. They are about 10 miles or so from me, so it won't take me long to get there.

m~

[NAD613]

Seriously, these are good tapes. I'm going to buy more.

[Web Police]

Do you know where your credit number is? lol.

m~

The guy Mike seems like a nice guy. I bought them off of ebay so no they don't have my credit card number as I paid with a credit card through paypal. :)

[macster]

The guy Mike seems like a nice guy. I bought them off of ebay so no they don't have my credit card number as I paid with a credit card through paypal. :)

Hey, that's the same way I buy items from the Ebay.

M~

[close652]

I'd rank this with the Akai GX and the TDK Pro Media cassettes. Bye-bye, Fuji DR-II, hello II Cool!

I'm curious where these tapes made.
Is it possible that they bought a brand name's stock or factory?
Or probably the same factory produces Cool and let's say TDK of Fuji?

[NAD613]

I'm curious where these tapes made.
Is it possible that they bought a brand name's stock or factory?
Or probably the same factory produces Cool and let's say TDK of Fuji?

According to their website, they have their own plant & formulate their own tape. The tapes are made in the U.S.A.

[Web Police]

According to the fine print on the back of the tape wrapper. They are distributed in the US and Assembled in China. :-?

[NAD613]

According to the fine print on the back of the tape wrapper. They are distributed in the US and Assembled in China. :-?

Maybe they own the plant in China, or maybe just the wrapper is made in China. Tape.com says the tapes are made in the U.S.A. Who do ya believe? All I know is the tapes sound great & are inexpensive.

[Web Police]

Maybe they own the plant in China, or maybe just the wrapper is made in China. Tape.com says the tapes are made in the U.S.A. Who do ya believe? All I know is the tapes sound great & are inexpensive.

Yeah I don't know for sure. But for the prices they are good. I have paid more for a lot less from the big manufacturers.

[Brian12069]

I just bought 48 of these tapes from them. I received my order tonight and tried them out. They really are pretty good. Not the best, but very good, especially considering the price.

[goldear]

FYI - I purchased a bunch of these over a year ago when they were blowing these out for peanuts. One thing that I find interesting is that the tape inside of these is black, with a blue-ish sheen to it. This makes me wonder if these might actually be true chrome tapes. I've compared the tape side by side several tapes including very-dark cobalt tapes such as SA-X, XLII, as well as a couple of different BASF Chrome tapes. They looked more like the BASF tape than they did the cobalts which had a very slight brown-ish tinge to them. But if anything, these seemed to have an even slightly more blue-ish sheen to them than did the BASF Pro II chromes which I compared them to.

I've never seen a chrome-cobalt mix tape like the "chrome" tapes that NAC sells (I don't have any of these to compare, or I would). But I can't help but think that it seems likely that these might have exactly the same tape inside of them. And I also can't help but suspect that all of these "true chrome" duplication tapes out there might actually be getting made from old BASF pancakes.