The Maxell Reel to Reel Tape Reference Guide

[beatdrum]

Superb labor of love. Excellent reference for Maxell reel tapes.

 

[Antonio ZT]

Generation 5 1977 to 1980 (dates are approximate)

During the 5th generation, the Standard series was finally dropped. The LN series was improved in some way towards the end of the period. These improved tapes display a red label across the bottom corner stating New and Improved. Despite this, the line wasn't carried over into the next generation. The UD series was expanded and, for a short time at least, still came in both backcoated and non backcoated versions. The backcoated version was soon improved and released as it's own line, called UD-XL Professional.

Box styles changed again. No longer was the product info a label adhered to the boxes. Instead, all information was now printed directly on the box. Standard tapes came in matte green boxes and LN came in metallic silver ones. UD came in metallic gold boxes and UD-XL came in gloss black ones.

Tape leaders used color schemes that were now similar to the box color. The only known exception was on the dying Standard line. It continued to use the red timing marks and yellow play time numbers. LN now used grey timing marks, with the tape thickness in microns proceeding it. UD used orange marks and numbers and UD-XL used black marks and numbers. The tail leaders for all still used the white cleaning leader with red timing marks.

Plastic reels changed slightly, with Maxell now being embossed on each side. The adhesive labels were color matched to the boxes and curved to fit along a side of the reel. The 10 1/2" reels now received the classic Maxell double M logo and two hole cut out flanges.

Note:
There is a variation on this design from a box of this period. The Lot # of the box is very low. So it may be a early version of the new style that ultimately was abandoned. (see pics)


The line up was as follows:

Standard
St 35-90

Low Noise
LN 18-180
LN 25-120
LN 35-90
LN 35-180
LN 50-60
LN 50-120

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

UD-XL Professional
UD-XL 35-90B
UD-XL 35-180B
UD-XL 50-60B
UD-XL 50-120B

This is an amazing capturing of Maxell product line, congrats, and thanks! Would you know the differences between UDXL and UD? also what can be better between back coated and non back coated, I've read that the reduced print thru is one, correct? anything else?
I got a Technics RS-1500 and I am learning what tape can perform better, rtr is expensive and some experience is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ancien]

Well, this is a great thread, myself, I only use Maxell UD 50-120. A great sounding tape I have quite a few NOS from

 

[twiiii]

I love all of Maxell reel to reel tapes especially the last three or 4 generations. My favorite was the back coated I mil tapes with reduced print thru advanced dynamic range and increased sensitivity. Made my older Ampex professional machines stand up and sing. Back coated tape helped reduce timing errors on my 300 series decks, too. Wow and flutter wasn't the issue, bu t maintaining speed at the end of a tape when using a small 7 inch reel on the supply hub could be. Most of the time we would rewind the 7 inch reels onto a large 10 inch reel and then also using a 10 in reel for the take up make the recording. and then send it off or mastered from that 10 inch half loaded reel. Having that 4 to 8 db of extra tape dynamic range as compared to tape from the 60's was just fabulous. Then also having the extra high frequency sensitivity meant not pushing the electronics as hard either. Now some machines like Crown couldn't handle the bias requirements or compensate for the high frequency equalization required. But Studer and Pro Ampex loved every advancement in tape Maxell ever made. Even Revox later A-77 and especially the B-77 HZ loved Maxell advanced tapes. Take a ATR 100 series Ampex or a big Studer running at 30 ips and all the dynamic range a CD could handle was there on analog tape. Throw in a little Dolby. A or Decliner DBX and digital quality was there in the analog format. I got goose bumps the first time I heard a professional 15 ips DBX tape played back on Klipschorns. They were the only consumer speakers we had that could handle the dynamics of that tape. We used Mac 2155 power amp and pegged the meters with the power Guard lights just flashing away.

 

[Numistrek09]

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.

I'm still around, just not as often anymore. You are more than welcome to add to this, as is the rest of the community. And every now and then, i may even drop in with a few new goodies of my own discovering. Like these two:

A plain white box UD 25-120 7" reel

and a "Broadcast Quality" XLI 50-30B 7" reel.

 

[kby]

…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.

I mostly preferred Maxwell as well. I believe I still have XLII-180s which I mostly got for live recordings but have dipped into for some time shift tapes when the piece on the radio on log for even a 120m cassette.

That said I will note as a fellow Nakamichi user, I have numerous bad experiences with the MS-S 90 and 100mminute lengths in the iterations that’s cam3 in blue and gold wrappers. This is on a 1000zxl limited after (and maybe even worse, although that may be a too small sample space before issue) the de1ck was overhauled recently by ESL and works great on everything else. I have analyzed this failure and believe I know the cause.

The symptom is that rewinding to the beginning of tape causes the tape to fall off the pancake and get wrapped around the hub, crinkling the tape at its beginning. I believe it is worse after rebuild because the idler tire is much “grippier” so the torque is just a tad higher when the tape rewinds to the beginning.
In theory it could happen fast forwarding to the end s well, but I probably don’t do that very much at all, whereas the rewiaooens at the end of the autocal process for the tape quite frequently. It’s quite annoying; like dropping the dishes on the floor and breaking them after they’ve been cleaned.

I believe the reason the cassette is a contributing factor is that these tapes have somewhat shorter leaders. When fully rewind, the leader wraps around the supply pancake only about 3/4 of the way. Most tapes, including other Maxells, have at least one term and usually more. This means the brunt of the torque change on stopping usually falls on the stronger and thicker leader. This is even better with a textured leader.

The short leaders in these tapes put a lot more strain on the slippery and thinner tape itself causing the failure at the end of wind stop.

Other versions of the MX-S 90s and 100s have longer leaders and I have not had them fail yet.

I have also had a lot of XL-II 100 cassettes that Are sticky and need the rap technique. Some are a lo worse than othe. It usually fails in rewind and not FG. I suspect the case may have been in a hot warehouse sometime in its life.

 

[Zloy]

п50-5B

 

[Zloy]

http://rt22.ru/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=14181&p=884031#p884031

 

[Late Boomer]

Is there a similar info about Maxell cassettes? How much regarding the tape base, backcoating and branding applies to cassetes? I suppose that until early 1980s these should be similar. Have Maxell ever made basic non-LN cassette tape? When did they start making cassettes?

 

[Zloy]

http://agfabasf.com/catalog/maxell-/

 

[ALANGDS]

Hello. There are some other topics here on the forum about other reel to reel detail brands with boxes (like: Sony, Scotch, BASF)? Please the link here.

 

[Radar23]

Just picked up 12 NOS sealed UDXL 35-90B for well probably more than their worth ($200aud) but given I'm not a perfectionist and my average Teacs aren't top end.. figured having a set of tape to align my decks to is going to keep me aligned..

 

[Numone]

I’ve just bought yet another Maxell 35-180 XLI. That’ll be 20 I now have, in addition to the 50 UD 35-180’s and 20 18-180’s. Obviously, I have many other TDK, Agfa and BASF tapes as well but Maxell is the tape I’ll continue to buy. .

 

[B.J. Parker]

If I had a couple of Japanese boxes marked UDXL 35-180B - with the three spoke "M" aluminum reels, and a back coated tape with the white tape leader showing red arrows and a green ultra dynamic 150 marked on the tape leader - I see the tape leaders and reels are Generation 4, (according to this reference) but the box is a Generation 5 with a Black Ribbon written in Japanese.
Would this be the case of owner not replacing tape in proper box or did some of those things carry over from Generation 4 to Generation 5 ?

 

[sirianni]

I started using this tape in the mid 70’s, recording lots of music, it sounds as good today as it did back then.

 

[Numistrek09]

I haven't been on here in over a year, but i'm happy to see this post is still helping people and is alive and well. Keep on posting folks.

B.J.Parker, most likely the previous owner put the wrong tape in the box. If you have dozens of tapes, its easy to do.

And now some new Maxell finds of my own.

 

[Numistrek09]

More tapes. The blue A50-7 would be a cool box to have.

 

[Numone]

Still astonished at the amount of work Numistrek has undertaken and the amazing amount of information he’s provided the community. Fantastic, thank you!