Anybody got some Maxell UD XL II EE tape???

[Andyman]

I bought some tapes on Ebay for the metal reels and may have got a bonus; several reels and cartons indicate EE tape may be on them.
But how can I tell? The tape has a more dark brownish grayish color to it than the more common milk chocolate color. The leaders look like Maxells, but have no markings on them other than the "35" and some arrows on a blue, red or brown square.

If you have some what does it look like??

Thanks,
Andy

 

[jblmar]

Try recording on them. The EE tapes may be brighter on playback than the non EE tapes if your deck is not biased for EE. You can always rebias your machine for the EE tapes. Usually, there's some headroom on the record amplifiers.
Ron

 

[goldear]

OK, I just pulled out an old reel of Maxel XL II 35-180 EE tape. For reference, I also pulled out a reel of Maxel UD 35-180 tape.

My EE tape reel has gold colored "35"s every few inches on the white leader tape. The UD has blue colored "35"s every few inches in a similar arragnement. As far as the tape color goes; I can't tell much of a difference; they both look essentially black to me.

But, if you don't have one of the rare machines with EE tape capability, then it isn't going to do you much good. EE tapes required both a MUCH higher bias, but they also used a different playback EQ (exactly like chrome cassettes did).