The Maxell Reel to Reel Tape Reference Guide

[Zeacon69]

This was awesome, very informative especially for me I am a big Maxell Fan !

 

[stoutblock]

Excellent work!

 

[twiiii]

I used Maxell exclusively after 1975, I always preferred the XL series when it came along. I guess I shouldn't but I refer to it as UD-xl. The tape worked just great with my Tube and SS ampex professional machines. MY A-77 and B-77 Revox s liked it, too. It was really the first tape after the machines had been re-calibrated to a the newer 520 Nwb playback level that introduced almost no perceivable tape hiss. And used with Dolby A or DBX noise reduction provided CD capability long before the CD came into being. Low distortion, great signal to noise and wide frequency response. consistency, and long shelf life were the hall marks of UD xl. Its a shame Ampex Grand Master couldn't match UD's long term performance. Later on when I dubbed the Grand master to CD it became quite a chore to heat the tape with the proper humidity so the tape would pass thru the guides and over the heads correctly. I never had any such issues with UD xl. I first learned about UD in the cassette format with my Nakamichi cassette recorder. After that experience I started using the UD tape for R2R. One of our former employees went to work for the Pioneer Maxell Rep in Denver and after I had already started using the tape. He introduced the shops owner to the tape and we became a very enthusiastic Maxell dealership much to the chagrin to the National Ampex rep. The only advantage Ampex had was it was significantly cheaper. I still have all my UD XL cassettesI dubbed and all but two or three UD. They had superior tape, guides and cases. I have never lost a Maxell tape with a Nakamichi cassette machine. I still have 20 brand new unwrapped XL II cassettes. UD xl used with Dolby S on A Nakamchi yields some fantastic results.

 

[oblomov]

WOW
Such a comprehensive history, a fantastic source of info!

 

[Numone]

Absolutely fantastic!

 

[phantomrebel]

can someone make this great post a sticky please?

 

[Grbluen]

Thank you! I vote sticky!

 

[Onebean]

Great Work! Sticky please.

 

[Replycant]

Impressive document man!

 

[musicman8]

Generation 8 1987 to 2002 (dates are approximate)

This was the longest lived and last generation of reel tapes. No further innovation or modifications would be made after this generation. Analog tape, in all formats, was beginning to decline in use sharply during these years. XLII EE tape was made for awhile early on, but was eventually discontinued sometime before 1994. Only UD and XLI continued to be made to the very end.

The last box style used a mostly black cover, with only the far left edge color coded. UD now used a deep blue color, XLI used grey and XLII still used gold. The "info ribbons" that used to cover a large part of the back of the box, were dropped. And the tape thickness and run time numbers were now matched to the box color, instead of being different. Beginning sometime after 1990, a bar code sticker was added to the lower backside of the boxes. The info/sticker cards were also reduced in size considerably in this last run. They now were just small rectangular placards.

Leader tapes were modified some. Now the timing marks themselves were made up of a pattern of numbers that represented the tape thickness. UD used blue numbers, XLI used grey and XLII still used brown. The tail leaders were changed to a red "dot matrix" pattern over their whole length.

Plastic reels had gone back to a three spoke design, with patches for the label stickers on each spoke. A large M was etched onto one of them. On XLII tapes, gold colored XLII Position EE letters were added in one of the other label patches. All metal reels remained the same. Plastic 10.5" reels continued to be available and their appearance was unchanged. I believe the 5" take up reels were dropped by this time.

The line up was as follows:

Ultra Dynamic
UD 18-180
UD 25-120
UD 35-90
UD 35-180
UD 35-180 PR
UD 50-60
UD 50-120
UD 50-120 PR

XLI
XLI 35-90B
XLI 35-180B
XLI 50-60B
XLI 50-120B

XLII EE
XLII 35-90
XLII 35-180

Great job

 

[jascha]

Such fantastic work! It’s great to have all my this information handy to read. Thank you so much. It made me realise that I only have like 20% of the Maxell varieties! My recent addition came 2 days ago... a 7” Maxell blue coloured box A35-7 from eBay! A labour of love restoring the box.

 

[D. Ellington]

First of all, thank you for this exhaustive, informative project! Your sacrifice of time and personal tranquility is much appreciated.

I recently purchased 10 Maxell LN E35-7 boxes and reels only to find the tapes had been swapped with what appears to be Maxell's standard formulation. Four have the red timing marks with the yellow "150", but the remaining six have green timing marks and numbers, suggesting they conform to the spirit of generation 5, matching leader color to box. All 10 have the usual tail of red timing marks. Am I correct in assuming these, also, are Maxell Standard E35-7?

 

[Orion63]

Fantastic Information. Very well presented. Cleared all my ordering doubts about the various Maxell Reel-toReel tapes !!!

 

[pacha]

This is a treasure of fabulous information on Maxell tape. Thank you!

 

[Zloy]

Прекрасная работа!!!

 

[B.J. Parker]

Thank You, for putting all this together

 

[Numone]

Stunning level of work! Many, many thanks!

 

[Farmeraap]

I recently came across this one on a japanese action site. PM50-7B. It's not in your list of tape types during the 'last number is reel size' generations. I assume PM stands for Professional Master and 50 refers to the thickness.

 

[Farmeraap]

I've made a spreadsheet with most of this information in an easily read-able table. It can be downloaded from my google drive here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o35Cd_Follk9dZ8VQv56klCGrtoSDC81
(Download the file for use, if you use Google Drive's spreadsheet viewer the photos don't line up correctly.)

I'll update it when I get new info, contact me if you have any additions. It seems Numistrek09 is has not been seen here in a year and I'd like to continue his work in some way.

 

[Zloy]

...

 

[Zloy]

Maxell 50-15LB