HW: Cover Project: US tapes: The End is Near (at last)

[Stephen Swann]

Paul Mather writes:
>
> On Wed, 10 Apr 1996, Allan T Grohe Jr wrote:
>
> > I talked with the guy at Terrapin a bit and he recommended the XL2Ss over
> > the metal tapes, since apparently minimum level metal tapes don't get as
> > nice a sound response as the XL2S (of which I was previosly unaware).
> > They'll also cover shipping for free, with 4 day UPS delivery.
> >
> > If it sounds good to you all, I'll go with the XL2S's, for a total cost
>
> I second the recommendation for Maxell XLII-S.  They are *GREAT* tapes!
> I've used them a lot in the past, with superb results (especially when
> you can fine adjust the bias setting on your tape deck, to "tune" it to
> the tapes).  "Superchrome" tapes, such as the XLII-S, also usually have
> much lower noise than metal tapes.
>
> I say go with the the Maxell XLII-S instead of the metal tapes.

The only tapes I ever used that were better than Maxell XL-IIS are Sony
UX-PRO, and those are a LOT more expensive, for a small gain (and that
mostly in durability, rather than sound quality - the Maxells might
even have a slight edge in sound quality).

I know metal tapes have the best spec sheets, but I've never had any luck
with them.  I suspect that you need really high quality equipment to take
advantage of them, while top of the line Type II's sound good on anything.

I say go with XL-IIS.

Steve