I'm so glad that RU-vid helpfully suggested your channel to me. I've been a fan of tapes and tape recorders since I was a kid, so working through your videos has been a fascinating journey for me. Your knowledge and enthusiasm is infectious. I'm glad you're seeing success on your channel. Not to mention it's great to have found a stockist of rare tapes, I'm looking forward to trying some of them for myself. Thanks, and keep up the good work!
I decided to deal in cassettes because I love them, I don't love them because I decided to deal in them 😊 Glad you like the videos, I enjoy making them.
Been looking for a tape like the SKC-AX for many years. Looks like you found it. My first tape deck was a Marantz 2 speed two head deck. I ended up recording a lot of stuff at 3 3/4 on to TDK-90s because most of my albums fit recorded one side and flipped the tape and album over for side B . This is were i started noticing the potential of bargain ferric type I . My SA's at normal speed didn't sound as good. So one day I bought an OD to try and was very happy with the extra level it could be recorded at which sounded good in the car. The a while back I came across a JVC DD-7 in a thrift store so I bought it kinda automatic like , because i was using one up every couple of years. And was blown away when I put the first TDK D-90 in it .I didn't know that there were decks the could record a D like that. I mean some of the things I record seem to sound better than the digital sorce I was using. And cranked up I don't get the ear fatigue I usually start noticing before I finish listening to one of them cranked. But the tapes I listen for hours with out that happening. Anyway the SKC-AX sounds great. Right there at the top . I really can't remember pushing anything to +10 you almost ran out of meter there . The videos are a good resource thanks for doing them. Even the used tapes in the dig and save thrift store a getting sacked as soon as it opens. Yeah a line of a dozen people every day waiting for the doors to open it's kinda crazy the guys goes in and starts throwing every piece of electronics equipment into a pair of shopping 🛒 and takes everything good.
as i was shuffling songs on spotify i accidently came accross villarosso , and have to say its very good! and only just found out that it yours tony, so keep it up!
Ah, finally some Scotch cassettes. My father worked for the 3M Company and used to bring home all sorts of tapes for me when I was young. The late 70s to early 80s were the best tapes they made (Master Series and Metafine). After that, they started subletting all their tapes to companies like Denon and the above-mentioned SKC.
@@RUfromthe40s You obviously have never been in a recording studio. 3M tape was widely used as were their recorders. The original 3M-made (not Denon, not SKC) cassettes were excellent.
I think that the SKC branded cassettes had some of the coolest designs of all time, especially GX90's with all the paint splotches and sprinkles on it. Love the look of that one
Nice! I used to have an SKC GX cassette that I had many years ago, but gave it away. I noticed the three hubs on the cassette. There was also a yellow three hubs on a Memorex dBS cassette are all SKC. I have a bunch of these Memorex dBS tapes that are all SKC made which dates back to the late 80’s and early 90’s known for their colorful designs like the triangle. The 90-minute cassette was blue, the 60-minute was pink, and the 120-minute was green. Those were three different variations of the Memorex dBS tapes. Scotch also did the cassette tapes that are SKC. It first started in the late 60’s and early 70’s with a decent shell that are welded into the mechanism. By the mid to late 70’s, it went to a black shell, and then in the early to mid 1980’s it went to a rigid black shell that looked like a “Type 0” cassette where it was used until 1989 until Scotch went to a clear shell by 1990 where it continued right up until they stopped production on Scotch blank tapes in the mid to late 90’s, because Scotch doesn’t make blank cassettes anymore. Scotch has been making blank tapes since the early 1950’s where 3M began making blank reel-to-reel tapes known as Scotch Sound Recording Tape (aka Scotch Magnetic Tape). As of today, Scotch continues to make Magic Tape and Transparent Tape for repairs and also makes Scotch Brite for kitchen use.
Loved the particular type of SKCs in my youth - the 120 min cassettes :) They helped a lot with some albums which did not fit onto 45 or 90 min. The tape quality was also decent, and I liked the slim cases too. I'd never thought that SKC was such a giant in the tape world!
Great channel. Recently sold a Nak CR3E with NOS belts within minutes of posting the sale, hardly had the time to box it up :-) Currently running a 1989 JVC TD V711 superDIGIFINE TOTL Dec (the tape handling is very smooth) and still have a case full of unopened tapes inc. a few TDK AR-X, MA-X, Fuji JP-IIx Pro, That's MRXpros and some other rarities. Always wanted the Nak CR7.... maybe one day
Glad to see your channel picking up steam. I think its mostly to do with your no-nonsense approach and live demonstrations / results from your own tape testing. Like you’ve said many times, this is a hobby and keeping it fun is the entire idea and this resonates with me very much as I’m sure it does many of your other viewers. It also helps that you’ve been cranking out the quality content lately too. All the best! EDIT-Watching you crack open expensive rare NOS tapes certainly helps too!
The Qx cassettes are good cassettes,most others chromes from those days were too. Bought them around 93. Have to laught again when i think of the moment i bought them. I wanted 10 cassettes and told the seller " best if you give me one box instead of 10 cassettes thinking the box would contain as always 10 cassettes but when i got home i discovered there were 12 in the box. You would expect he as a seller knew it or noticed it but he didn't.
Another nice video Tony. I have been using the Memorex CD2's and they make really good recordings. They're affordable and plentiful here in the U.S. Congrats on your channel success, keep up the great work sir.👍👍
Just scanned through the small number of recordable cassettes I still have...and I have some Memorex dbs, Memorex MRX I, Memorex HBS II, and even one Scotch CX which all have the same basic three-holes-together pattern in the hub. The dbs and the CX both say "Made in Korea" on the J-card.
The Dutch HEMA Department stores had their own brand of tapes, but they were always rebrands. I have an "Chromedioxide HX60" tape that's very clearly a late 80s SKC, down to the hubs and shell. Their 90s tapes were very similar to the BASF ones, which I think were rebrands themselves too. The very last they sold, were Fuji DR rebrands. Weirdly the J-Card for that one had a negative image of a clear shell SKC rebrand on it. I'm a fairly late cassette user (born in '98, used to buy tapes at the HEMA stores, mostly TDK Ds, in the early to mid 2000s), so I only remember those late HEMA tapes, and some of the 90s ones as my parents' old church used those for recording services, some of which were hosted by my dad.
@@CassetteComeback That's awesome! Hopefully we get to see it. Oh and btw I almost forgot although I don't know if you had noticed but there were also SKC products on some regular see through tape shells (the ones with traditional black tape sheet and black tape hubs)
The shell on that GX60s are really cool looking. It's really interesting how many different companies have made stuff and the name Memorex got slapped on it.
@@CassetteComeback wait, you meant that Memorex and Scotch had joined the SKC brand? I guess that makes sense since I started to notice those cool 3 hole hubs from Memorex in the early 90's.
Yeah, there's SKC, Saehan, RAKS, EMTEC, possibly Goldstar (later dB series tapes) and finally a very poor Far-Eastern manufacturer in Europe in the mid-2000s (possibly Acme or similar, who definitely moved to producing tapes with a clear shell around this time). Pretty much every one of the big OEM manufacturers. In fact there was a Memorex "Studio - for the discerning audiophile (Ferric Acicular Particle)" ferric tape sold in Europe in the early 1990s that was nothing of the sort. I think it was from a European manufacturer, possibly ICM of Switzerland, but the tape was dropout city for the first 2 or 3 minutes each side rendering the cassette unusable (a shame as once the dropouts passed the sound quality was very decent).
Enjoying your videos, very watchable. Strange really as despite remembering the cassette era well, I'm not really interested in using tapes now. I guess knowledge and enthusiasm for any subject is infectious.
I remember SKC's. I bought some in the late 80's- but only type 1 (I was taping a lot and on a tight budget so I never really got into type 2's or higher.) I never knew there were so many variations!
PS- when I finally could get a deck, I bought a Pioneer CT-980W (on sale of course) at PC Richard's. I still have it, but the heads and pinch rollers need replacing. Hoping to get it repaired some day if possible.
Had to come back to this video after cracking open the box of AX 60s I bought from you. I definitely have a new favourite Type 1... Thank you for the recommendation and demo!
I recently found your channel. Well done with lots of info. I like your straight forward style. I thought I had a silly stockpile of tapes, but it's nothing like yours. I also have a habit of fixing up old decks. I have two on my bench now. People think I am crazy for spending so much time fixing tape decks. I do have a few boring videos of some of them going under the knife.
When cassettes had just come out, my friend was visiting the States. I asked him to get some for me as they might be cheaper than in the UK. He bought me a few "Irish" brand cassettes, probably mistaking the name for Scotch. They were rubbish, might still have them.
Thanks Tony, I haven’t been serious into my tapes and recording since the 1990s I think the SKC AX reminds me of my old 1980s Sony UX, HF-ES & HF-S, and sound is a contender for the HF-ES, definitely will keep an eye out for the AX tapes.
been buying a few new pre recorded cassettes .... nuclear blast have been issuing them for some new albums, as well as some reissue labels in america and europe ...
Hi, Just wanted to say: Thank you so much for making these great cassette reviews! i allways thought ferric tapes were allways junk before I saw your reviews. Back in the day my mother bought me a 3 pack of type 0s I guess, and I held a grudge against ferric ever since. I just placed an order at your shop, and I'm really looking forward to trying out some ferric tapes, and opening some fresh tape wrappers again for the first time in 20 Years.
That's it. I think some did a bad recording on a cheap Type 1 and then never went back to them when in reality Type 1 are the most "cassette" sounding cassettes 😀
After watching the Saehan tapes video and seeing that Saehan made Memorex, I remembered the Memorex Ciré I 100 tapes I liked to buy in the late '90s/early '00s (good sound and cheaper than 90 minute tapes from other brands, probably unwanted old stock) and that they didn't look like that Saehan one. I dug one up and it looks like an SKC :-).
I have a cheap, no-name tape (along with several others) that I got from a relative in China which has SKC style hubs. However, it shares the same shell with two other cassettes that came in that bunch, which don't have SKC hubs.
Great to hear this channel is getting popular. Yes, that AX is superb. I'll have to get myself some of that. I don't know if you are familiar with Techmoan, but I feel you two getting together could produce some great videos.
Certainly have. He's the reason I started doing videos. I contacted Mat and he got back to me saying he didn't have the knowledge or desire to go in depth with cassettes, but if I did, I should do my own...
So I did have an SKC in my collection after all. The name never stuck, but then I saw that picture on your website. It's a 1990 GX 90 that is mix tape from 1989. I have two memories of this tape: it recorded hot and the reels like to bind-up.
@@CassetteComeback So glad I nailed a box of the AX C60's, along with a box of the Capture C60s, & a box of the Schneider C60s, plus many of the other off the radar tapes, Socimag & the Tudors etc.. Happy days
Maybe (just "maybe") RU-vid aac lossy sound plays a role in the issue you point out. Sure, a good recording of Mahler's 8th Symphony "Of a Thousand" had been more revealing for that purpose (and I'm talking serious, don't get me wrong). Regards.
I guess something must have made the RU-vid algorithm take notice of your channel, because even though I watch channels like Techmoan I only got your videos in my recommendations a few days ago.
yeah I remember we had some skc style tapes I think we will search some but ferric tapes sticked out better I was surprised at the end of the video. :)
I have been in contact with tape recorders and cassette tapes for a long time. Unfortunately, I was born on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. To play and record cassettes people here had to have a lot of luck in buying domestic equipment from Unitra, Diora or ZRK, or have dollars to buy cheap versions of Technics, Sony or Pioneer in Pewex. The average Pole in those days did not even hear about Nakamichi, Akai, Alpine, Revox (Studer), Tandberg or TEAC (Tascam). Over the years I have been struggling with MK 232 (Unitra), RM 222 (ZRK), M9108 (ZRK), and MDS 502 (Diora). It was only after the fall of communism that I bought a few decks of a higher standard than people's democracy stuff. These were Uher CG321, Uher CG 326, Marantz SD 230, Aiwa AD-F 500 and three copies of the Siemens RC 777. And then I started a family and love for Hi-Fi equipment had to wait for better times. Now I could collect something again, but in the meantime the equipment prices have gone totally crazy. I earn 2,000 PLN monthly and the Nakamichi Dragon deck costs 12,000PLN. Nak 1000ZXL - 40000 PLN!!!
I have several friends from Eastern European counties and they echo what you say. They are now very happy collecting cassettes and decks they only dreamed about in their youth. Enjoy!
I didn't heard anything about these omnipresent Korean made cassettes. Thanks for let me know. Nevertheless, and taking into account RU-vid's ACC lossy sound and the fact the comparison has been made with different volume levels, my taste goes for the chromium cassette. The last one sound a bit distorted when pushing the recording level too high. The pure chrome sounds to me the better, more detailed and clearer when compared with the source. I've benn listening to the comparison with a pair of AKG K-1000 headphones.
Cassettes are very cool and I just watched the dirt as well so that's cool that you saw the dirt too anyway back to what I was saying I think you are cool too and very entertaining and informative and I really like your videos
Hey Tony, love your videos! I'm learning so much about cassettes, and I'm even from that era myself! Quick question --would you recommend someone to take my Nak DR2 to for a general checkup? I'm in London but can travel around the UK if it's worth it. Cheers and keep the videos comin' :)
You're lucky, Bowers & Wilkins do full overhauls of NAKS and they're down south. It's where I take mine and I've no issues with their service, but it ain't cheap (but it is worth it).
Do a review on OMEGA SOUND chrome dioxide cassettes. They were manufactured in Honk Kong +30 years ago, and they sound flawless. They have the same silence as BASF chrome dioxide cassettes.
Came here from tapeheads.net because I simply love your videos and the research and preparation you put into them! Anyway I hope you don't mind if I point out that the Emtec tapes have nothing to do with SKC. Their tape was Emtec's own production, and the shells are said to come from a Chinese company called Kolormagnetics (not 100 % sure here). Their hub design was simply copied from the original Sunkyong (SKC, Smat...) design. If you look at the clams that hold the tape in the hub, they are different. The Memorex dBS I in your video is a tricky one: They exist as SKC and as a Saehan version, and you have the latter :-), while your Memorex CRX II is SKC. As well as all dBS I in this design that I have come across so far. GoldStar did also have their own production lines, so probably that one is no SKC either. At least not the shell. I don't know how much the three big Korean tape companies cooperated when it comes to the magnetic tape itself. Keep up the good work!
Thanks! All we know is what we've been told. That's the joy of this hobby, you can't argue where an MP3 came from :-) I'm surprised at the MRXIS as it has the same shell as the SKC models from the same year. The EMTEC, is a complete minefield towards the end, the copied SKC hubs? I can't imagine why they did that, I've seen 3 different hub types in the late CEII, they're all kind of Bitsa cassettes it seems...
Yes, you've nailed it, Bitsa cassettes! I don't know either why that Chinese (?) factory copied both SKC's and GoldStar's hub designs and put them into shells for Emtec. The late Emtec CS II shell comes from the same factory, copying the Denon "S-port" series design. On the other hand, not all parts of a shell are necessarily made by the same supplier. I have seen ads in old editions of Billboard for hubs, slip sheets, pressure pads,,, you name it, aimed at those companies only producing the plastic halves of a C-0 shell. Regarding the MRX I-S, there are two versions, they look very similar. This is the Saehan: www.45spaces.com/audio-compact-cassette-blank-tapes/r.php?r=aud125943 And this is the Sunkyong (SKC): www.45spaces.com/audio-compact-cassette-blank-tapes/r.php?r=low-noise-uk-aud Cheers!
Great channel, I still have 3 taperecorders left from the 1980s, the east german (communist era) made RFT HMK 100 tapedeck (best they made), a late 80s Sony TCK-950ES Esprit and a 1990 Akai GK75 MK2, just cleaning and restoring the recorders with new belts, idler wheels etc..., you inspired me for doing some cassette rolling and even tapercorder rotating, will also post some sound comparisons with East German RFT top of the line tapedeck uying genuine east german communist made 1988 VEB ORWO Wolfen Chome super tape material VS Japanese high end 3 Motor 3 Head Sony TC-K950ES & Akai GX75 Mk2 (also 3 Motor 3 head) deck with the same east german material compared to western BASF german made 1988 Chrome Super 2 and some Japanese HQ tapes. :-) At the moment I am doing vinyl rips using a soviet made Klingon turntable: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-57bv3z0KkE8.html&t :-)
I don't think all of these are SKC. The Memorex MRXI S looks like Saehan or Goldstar hubs. Saehan made tapes for Memorex outside of the USA in addition to SKC. I'm not sure any Saehan Memorex tapes ever made their way to the USA. Also, Goldstar I'm told made their own tape. How do you know SKC made the CDX (aka Chrome-X)? It's been speculated that Ampex 472 is rebadged Goldstar CDX.
The QX is a type 2. I'd say it's more like the GX than the AX. But there are other types of the late Ferro Extra, some BASF, some Saehan. Emtec didn't care...
I have never seen these before. I will be checking them out... I heard you mention Synthwave. Anyone ever tell you you sound a bit like Adam McNab from Le Cassette? Coincidence? Destiny?
That would be telling, but a benefit to setting up a website, a RU-vid channel and Facebook groups is that you become visible. Then people approach you 😎
I read somewhere that they did some outsourcing towards the end, but can't be 100% sure. However if you find any Sony cassettes that say made in Korea, I'd hazard they'll be SKC.
Once I bought 2 of these SKC pure chrome thinking they were great and recorded them in my Philips mini hi-fi (at the time I didn't have a decent tape deck to record my tapes) just to discover they sounded awful. Thinking they were defective I sell them... Duh! Shame on me for doing that!
@@CassetteComeback Ok . I use to use one for Dance UK Radio APP I Prefer The Blackberry tablet for the sound but I no longer use the Wi Fi as it was messing with my Memory & sleep a bit . I now use the cable with PC & laptop .
@@leotimtom6637, you may believe however you wish. I refuse to have an argument on this subject. I do this for fun, I am not fighting with someone over it.
