Maxell Metal Capsule 100

[gamve]

Picked up a bulk lot of these supposedly lightly used at a very cheap price.
Anyone have any experience with these tapes. I had a look on the web and there were some postings saying avoid

[Marc Hugo]

HI Gamve,

I too have heard varying reports about those tapes, but somewhow never when they were current in the market. Also, there have never been specifics. Perhaps its valid and perhaps its just a collector/prestige value matter. Let us know you real-life opinions.

Marc

[gamve]

HI Gamve,

I too have heard varying reports about those tapes, but somewhow never when they were current in the market. Also, there have never been specifics. Perhaps its valid and perhaps its just a collector/prestige value matter. Let us know you real-life opinions.

Marc

Will Do Mark. It will be a couple of weeks before I see them. I sorta figure that 34 metal tapes for $76.00 US it might be a risk worth taking.

[Flyquail56]

Check Matt's comments about these in the sticky at the top of the Cassette Fourm: The Maxell Tape Collection. The ones that you have are in collection 4A, and seem to get a passing grade. The later Metal Capsule tape is listed in collection 6A, and does not fare well at all. The fact that there were two different tapes with the same name might explain the varying opinions found online. Sounds like the ones that you have should be fine. Enjoy!

Best,
Mike

[gamve]

Check Matt's comments about these in the sticky at the top of the Cassette Fourm: The Maxell Tape Collection. The ones that you have are in collection 4A, and seem to get a passing grade. The later Metal Capsule tape is listed in collection 6A, and does not fare well at all. The fact that there were two different tapes with the same name might explain the varying opinions found online. Sounds like the ones that you have should be fine. Enjoy!

Best,
Mike

Hey thanks for the guide. I did read a lot of Matt's very informative stuff when I first joined. Just shows how much I retained, did not even think to look back at Matt's comments. Looks like I might have got Lucky

[todd33rpm]

Picked up a bulk lot of these supposedly lightly used at a very cheap price.
Anyone have any experience with these tapes. I had a look on the web and there were some postings saying avoid

I only bought a three-pack of those when they were new, ca. 1989. One of them got devoured by a cassette deck at my college radio station (a Tascam professional-grade deck that was reasonably well-maintained, I should add). Still have the other two tapes, and they still play fine, although I seem to recall having to tweak the recording bias a little bit to keep the signal flat...for whatever reason, they didn't seem to have the "treble energy" I'd come to expect from a metal tape. After that, I moved on to TDK MA 110s.

So, in general I'd say you probably made a decent deal, especially if they were lightly used. They're durable enough, God knows, if I've still got 'em and they still work fine two decades after the fact, but depending on your deck you may need to adjust your bias to make 'em really shine. Or, if your deck doesn't have a bias adjustment and you have that same treble-dampening effect I did, you may want to use those tapes when recording albums with too much high-end, so it'll roll off a bit. (A good number of early CDs could benefit from that, as well as, in my case, the vinyl for the Fixx album Phantoms.)

[gamve]

I only bought a three-pack of those when they were new, ca. 1989. One of them got devoured by a cassette deck at my college radio station (a Tascam professional-grade deck that was reasonably well-maintained, I should add). Still have the other two tapes, and they still play fine, although I seem to recall having to tweak the recording bias a little bit to keep the signal flat...for whatever reason, they didn't seem to have the "treble energy" I'd come to expect from a metal tape. After that, I moved on to TDK MA 110s.

So, in general I'd say you probably made a decent deal, especially if they were lightly used. They're durable enough, God knows, if I've still got 'em and they still work fine two decades after the fact, but depending on your deck you may need to adjust your bias to make 'em really shine. Or, if your deck doesn't have a bias adjustment and you have that same treble-dampening effect I did, you may want to use those tapes when recording albums with too much high-end, so it'll roll off a bit. (A good number of early CDs could benefit from that, as well as, in my case, the vinyl for the Fixx album Phantoms.)

Thanks for the advice. I am coming to grips with using the bias adjustments on my Aiwa. Made a tape last night on a TDK SA90 that is very close to the source excepting a bit of sound stage depth compared with the vinyl. I have only done one metal tape so far and it turned out brilliant. I want to try and perfect my techniques before using my metal tapes. I have some of Matt's blackwatches coming some Fuji Metal Z, some Maxell metals and these maxell capsules on the way

[gamve]

Maxell metal capsule 100's Tapes have arrived along with the Blackwatches from our esteemed leader.
Tried one of the Maxells this arvo. Seems damm fine to me, took plenty of signal with bugger all distortion on some demanding program being some of Alan Parsons orchestral stuff..Tales of and Pyramid
Looks like I scored some good cheap metals to play with. Will try one of the blackwatches later for a comparison
Cheers all
G

[gamve]

Having never played with metal tapes until quiet recently, I had a bit of a problem this morning. FF and rewind tapes and put one (Maxell Metal capsule 100) in the Aiwa ready to start taping. Bloody tape would not respond to bias adjustment? Bit of investigation showed the deck was not recognizing the tape a a metal unit just as a Type 1. Mmmmm Tapes were used with break out tabs missing so as normal I just sellotaped em up. Did not realize that there are four extra holes? for metal tape recognition. Removed the sellotape and repositioned so it was just over the break out tab and Voila....up and running again. Won't do that again..anybody else been caught with this? I now need to fix up the other 30 tapes I have buggered up with the sticky tape DOH

[todd33rpm]

Yeah, I got burned by that once when I got my first automatic-sensing deck. I was so used to doing the setup myself that it didn't occur to me to think those extra holes were how the deck did its job. (I'm still a bit paranoid about that nowadays. Sometimes we lose the old ways at our peril.)

Glad to hear the tapes worked out for you! I forgot about those taking a pretty hefty amount of program level, a nice compensation.

[gamve]

Trying the maxell's again tonight with some more Alan Parsons. No NR heaps of signal touching +10db. Sounding very good. I think I made a good score with these tapes

[Marc Hugo]

Trying the maxell's again tonight with some more Alan Parsons. No NR heaps of signal touching +10db. Sounding very good. I think I made a good score with these tapes

Howzit Gamve - your posts make me laugh!! I can just imagine that frosted Fosters standing on the side as you wrestle with the sellotape. Too hilarious!!
I was just rewatching one of my fave Aussie films yesterday, "Two Hands" and Brian Brown's role as Pando reminded me of your entertaining struggle with those 4 holes and the accompanying expletives!!!


Cheers - MH

[gamve]

Howzit Gamve - your posts make me laugh!! I can just imagine that frosted Fosters standing on the side as you wrestle with the sellotape. Too hilarious!!
I was just rewatching one of my fave Aussie films yesterday, "Two Hands" and Brian Brown's role as Pando reminded me of your entertaining struggle with those 4 holes and the accompanying expletives!!!


Cheers - MH

On Ya Marc. I wish the "four holes" were the ones I had the most trouble with LOL