17.07.2022, 22:30
Thank you for your reply.
Scotch and Memorex are extremely complicated brands for me. Memorex I tried to understand and do an article on, but there are an extraordinary number of models that hierarchically don't make sense.
It's like a sampling of audiotapes from different manufacturers around the world, especially small or cheap ones.
The Memorex HBII I have is the most recent one, circa 1988. https://ez647.sk/cc/memorex_hbii.html#88
My understanding was that the shell design is superficially based on SKC, but the internal tape routing is based on the old black Tandy audio cassettes (Memorex) The hubs match the design as it was in the 1988 Realistic cassettes, so I considered the shell to be a modern Tandy product.
But it was more interesting with the Cire I and II audiocassettes. Where the Cire II was with the same shell as the aforementioned HBII, but the coils used the "Emtec" type fragile coils that some confuse with SKC.
The Cire I is even more interesting because even that tape routing in the shell doesn't match the old Memorex-Tandy audio cassettes. Yet it states Made in USA, I assumed they also made the shell, and the coils were bought from Asia, or made by them themselves. (And I could still mention the GoldStar cartridges, where the shell and hubs designs cross each other in different ways and nothing makes sense)
https://ez647.sk/cc/memorex_cireii.html
https://ez647.sk/cc/memorex_cirei.html
AudioMagnetics I understood to be a US-Mexico manufacture, then Portugal and Canada. I probably don't have any AM/Tracs in the SKM, Saehan shells. But I do have one that looks like a classic China cartridge. https://ez647.sk/cc/am_pro.html
Scotch and its distribution were clear to me. At least that's what I thought until now
I assumed that if the cassettes look the same, there is no need to deal with it anymore, so now this fact of the differences between the old CX and the American Dynarange surprised me a lot.
So Master I, II, III I only have the European ones in clear shells with dark foils, Made in Italy, where there is also a problem with the tape binder and gluing, except for the type III, which I have not tried to go through the whole length of the tape.
By metaphine do you mean in the black version? I don't know about that. But I have noticed that Scotch shells also in the case of the Metafine audiotape has at least two types of shell, which is well visible on my web site, the difference between C46 and C60. https://ez647.sk/cc/scotch_metafine.html
One shell is very precise with quality workmanship and quality hubs and the other is very imprecise, not very nice and has very bad hubs with weird tape locking.
Still while we are on those Memorex, I have a question what is this? https://ez647.sk/cc/memorex_cdx2.html
SKM didn't normally offer such tapes. But the packaging claims "Epitaxial cobalt magnetite" Indeed the tape is extremely powerful like the Maxell XLII-S, but it probably wasn't appropriate to post it directly on the page because I have no idea what they used there.
I had a very strong impression that it was written about on Tapeheads, but I've never been able to trace that information back.
Regards EZ
Scotch and Memorex are extremely complicated brands for me. Memorex I tried to understand and do an article on, but there are an extraordinary number of models that hierarchically don't make sense.
It's like a sampling of audiotapes from different manufacturers around the world, especially small or cheap ones.
The Memorex HBII I have is the most recent one, circa 1988. https://ez647.sk/cc/memorex_hbii.html#88
My understanding was that the shell design is superficially based on SKC, but the internal tape routing is based on the old black Tandy audio cassettes (Memorex) The hubs match the design as it was in the 1988 Realistic cassettes, so I considered the shell to be a modern Tandy product.
But it was more interesting with the Cire I and II audiocassettes. Where the Cire II was with the same shell as the aforementioned HBII, but the coils used the "Emtec" type fragile coils that some confuse with SKC.
The Cire I is even more interesting because even that tape routing in the shell doesn't match the old Memorex-Tandy audio cassettes. Yet it states Made in USA, I assumed they also made the shell, and the coils were bought from Asia, or made by them themselves. (And I could still mention the GoldStar cartridges, where the shell and hubs designs cross each other in different ways and nothing makes sense)
https://ez647.sk/cc/memorex_cireii.html
https://ez647.sk/cc/memorex_cirei.html
AudioMagnetics I understood to be a US-Mexico manufacture, then Portugal and Canada. I probably don't have any AM/Tracs in the SKM, Saehan shells. But I do have one that looks like a classic China cartridge. https://ez647.sk/cc/am_pro.html
Scotch and its distribution were clear to me. At least that's what I thought until now
I assumed that if the cassettes look the same, there is no need to deal with it anymore, so now this fact of the differences between the old CX and the American Dynarange surprised me a lot.
So Master I, II, III I only have the European ones in clear shells with dark foils, Made in Italy, where there is also a problem with the tape binder and gluing, except for the type III, which I have not tried to go through the whole length of the tape.
By metaphine do you mean in the black version? I don't know about that. But I have noticed that Scotch shells also in the case of the Metafine audiotape has at least two types of shell, which is well visible on my web site, the difference between C46 and C60. https://ez647.sk/cc/scotch_metafine.html
One shell is very precise with quality workmanship and quality hubs and the other is very imprecise, not very nice and has very bad hubs with weird tape locking.
Still while we are on those Memorex, I have a question what is this? https://ez647.sk/cc/memorex_cdx2.html
SKM didn't normally offer such tapes. But the packaging claims "Epitaxial cobalt magnetite" Indeed the tape is extremely powerful like the Maxell XLII-S, but it probably wasn't appropriate to post it directly on the page because I have no idea what they used there.
I had a very strong impression that it was written about on Tapeheads, but I've never been able to trace that information back.
Regards EZ