30.07.2023, 07:28
Hi! Yes, Megavox was a second brand from Permaton around 1992-93. They were available at different stores like Quelle and Porst/Interdiscount, so it was not a classic OEM for an in-house brand. You can also see it in the EAN code, Megavox uses the same company code 06125 as Permaton. The item code in the EAN is also interesting: Permaton Cr S II 90 has 01190, the Megavox Cr S II 90 has 31190. This works for all Megavox cassettes; they keep the item code for the corresponding Permaton model, only exchanging the leading 0 for a 3.
The strange thing about the Megavox shell is that its inside architecture and thickness (it's a quite heavy cassette) look and feel rather like a 1970's or early 80's construction. But the first time I have seen this clearly ICM-Turbo-inspired shell was in 1992 with such a Megavox cassette. Also later the only other cassettes I could find with this shell were from the last line-up of Permaton, also from the early 90's. So it's a quite rare shell, and not as light-weight as you would expect from a 90's cassette.
I am not dead sure about who made the shell. My first guess was Schneider, but now I am considering Knosti as a more likely alternative. Compare with this earlier Permaton cassette that has a Knosti shell: https://images.45spaces.com/f/aud/permat...-6-aud.jpg
The tape could be any pure chrome that was available. Agfa didn't exist any more, so we have BASF, SKM, Oosterhout and maybe even Dessau as possibilities. Zonal? Greencorp? Hmm. When I recorded my first Megavox Cr-S II in 1992, it was straight new out of the box, so no chrome aging yet, and I noticed it was not up to the standards of a BASF Chrome Extra II: It saturated at lower levels, and there were a few drop-outs, but otherwise it was still a good chome tape. Actuallly it behaved quite similar to the Dessauer ChromaTape in turquoise design, which I happened to buy at the same time in the same Quelle shop, but the tape surfaces looked different.
Regards
Martin
The strange thing about the Megavox shell is that its inside architecture and thickness (it's a quite heavy cassette) look and feel rather like a 1970's or early 80's construction. But the first time I have seen this clearly ICM-Turbo-inspired shell was in 1992 with such a Megavox cassette. Also later the only other cassettes I could find with this shell were from the last line-up of Permaton, also from the early 90's. So it's a quite rare shell, and not as light-weight as you would expect from a 90's cassette.
I am not dead sure about who made the shell. My first guess was Schneider, but now I am considering Knosti as a more likely alternative. Compare with this earlier Permaton cassette that has a Knosti shell: https://images.45spaces.com/f/aud/permat...-6-aud.jpg
The tape could be any pure chrome that was available. Agfa didn't exist any more, so we have BASF, SKM, Oosterhout and maybe even Dessau as possibilities. Zonal? Greencorp? Hmm. When I recorded my first Megavox Cr-S II in 1992, it was straight new out of the box, so no chrome aging yet, and I noticed it was not up to the standards of a BASF Chrome Extra II: It saturated at lower levels, and there were a few drop-outs, but otherwise it was still a good chome tape. Actuallly it behaved quite similar to the Dessauer ChromaTape in turquoise design, which I happened to buy at the same time in the same Quelle shop, but the tape surfaces looked different.
Regards
Martin