Slowakische Kassettensite mit allen Einlegern

[Kirunavaara]

Hi!

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.

Oh, I had completely forgotten about that clear shell version, which probably was the last HB II. I have never seen them in Europe back in the day, seems like they were mainly a US market thing. And yes, the shell has the same inside architecture as contemporary Radio Shack and other Memorex cassettes. Sometimes they also appeared as black C-zero shells for custom loaders, and were referred to as "Lenco shells". So I don't know who really made them: Tandy/Memorex, or an OEM.

The HB II with SKM shells I referred to was a version from the mid-80's which was available for a short time only. I have posted some pictures in the Cassettenschätze Teil 7 thread, where I also added another version in the same packaging, which should be from between the black ones and your clear shell HB II. These gold labelled ones with black shells are also likely to be a US market thing, as they do not appear in European collections at all.

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

My guess here is that the shell halves here also are US made products from Tandy, Memorex or Lenco. Hubs in these shells can be randomly mixed, so probably the company who made these shells didn't make hubs themselves, but sourced them from different third parties.

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

The company was originally founded in Gardena, California. First cassettes were made in USA, then in Mexico, some completely, some assembled in Mexico with US parts. For the EU market, a production plant in Portugal was established in the early 70's, which by the early 80's became independent and continued a while under the new name EuroAudio. The Canadian branch was also making themselves independent by the late 70''s and heavily investing in quality improvement (the guy who ran Audio Magnetics Canada also ran the duplicator company Cinram, and he came from Agfa - according to "Wilhelm", and I tend to believe him, because the late Canadian XHE cassettes and Cinram duplicated pre-recordeds have a tape which is suspiciously similar to Agfa PE 619...). And from the mid-80's, there was a company in Driebergen, Netherlands, who had bought the name AudioMagnetics, selling some Hong Kong tapes (probably made by Hanny) as XHE I, as well as some Permaton tapes, which I just recently discovered.

The Pro tape you have is probably a late version made by Acme, which was sold by the Canadian branch when they had dropped the quality thinking :-) In the other thread linked above, I have posted pictures of two earlier versions of that model, with the first one being a real beauty with shiny printings and smoked clear shell.

I need to dig out the Audio Magnetics cassettes with Korean shells and make more pictures...

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.

Yes, I meant I wonder whether there was a Metafine in that last US made series of Highlander, Dynarange and Master I/II in black shells. It could also be in clear shell, but with labels and packaging modernised to fit into the rest of the line-up.

The more precise version of your Metafine shells is probably from 3M Japan, but can be assembled in the USA or Italy anyway. The easiest way to detect the Japanese shells are the hubs and the slip sheets with the big, oval cut-out. And yes, even within the US or Italian made clear shells, there are a handful ob sub-versions: Scotch logotype in old and in new font, different fonts for side 1/2 markings, slightly different slip sheets, metal cassettes with and without type IV detection holes, and maybe more details which I haven't even discovered yet.

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.

Here are some advertisements from SKM for their range of duplicator tapes, including a type II chrome/cobalt hybrid called ECX which I hadn't been aware of before.

Referring to our discussions here some weeks ago, I have also added to the thread linked above pictures of the Magna cassettes with shells that I suspect to come from the same source as your turkish Nora cassette. The tape in the Magna cassettes looks like being classic Magna/Zonal formulations which I recognise from other Magna cassettes with German shells.

Regards
Martin