The book of Dolby, Chapter 11, Verse 19: 'Thou shalt not covet pointless, shiny things which give no real meaning in life. Unless of course, they happen to be NOS Sony Metal ES'.
Indeed, Sony Metal ES cassette formula tape (circa mid '1980), the "godmother" of all things metal coming from Sony Audio of Japan !!! Thanks for posting the impressive stash photo, Chris ...... What are your plans for utilizing all of these cassette tape goodies ? Cheers
You're welcome! Nando (Elite-ist on TH) and I are already going to do a mixtape exchange using an '88 era NOS ES. For the rest, well I'm going to sit on them while I get through my stock of used examples.... :]
That's a nice proposed project ..... If appropriate, kindly share the music track playlist when completed. Have you considered doing an around-the-globe mixtape kind of thing? Sort of like the old-time NakTalk Marathon project from early 2000s. That involves a bit of additional effort, yet the results can be quite satisfying with collaboration internationally. Cheers and Peace !!!
Yes I've done a couple over on the Tapeheads forum. They're nice, interesting little projects where you get to sample other people's favourite music as well as the capabilities and characteristics of the equipment they used to record the music onto! The one I enjoyed most was something called the 'Bassline Travelling Tape' where I think there were about 16 of us in the loop with a group on each side of the Atlantic. I supplied 2 brand new Sony Metal XR C90's for each group and we selected 2/3 tracks each based on a theme, recorded with no Dolby for compatibility and no restrictions on song choices. Took a couple of months to complete with 2 tapes travelling around the globe at different speeds but the end result was more than worth it. I still have those tapes and digitised them to share with the contributors which was a nice way of saying thanks. Here's the EU tape playlist:
Howdy Chris: Exceptional playlist compiled by your tapeheads.net buddies ! Posting the hand-written details is a treat to view, merci . Did you set a recommended recording criteria, or allowed an "anything goes" kind of approach by participants ? Just curious ..... *****************
Not really. As mentioned; no Dolby for compatibility and I think there was a time limitation so that around 8 participants could share 2/3 songs and of course the theme for this one was 'Bassline'. So songs with a standout or significant bassline. As I remember, one of my choices seemed a bit controversial at the time due to everyone thinking that Peter Hook had dropped a note in his bassline for Joy Division's 'Disorder', but of course that's how it was written and recorded. Typical Hookie. Btw, are you 'Nakenthusiast51' over on TH as you both use the same avatar?
Oh, I was wondering if you had any recording criteria, particularly bias and level parameters ( like dB bias @ 15 Hz and dB level @ 400 KHz ) to normalize overall multiple recording outputs from participants. Or perhaps you re-mastered the individual music segments into a final mix-tape. Indeed, my identification handle and avatar are the same for both forums ...... Cheers & Peace World-Wide !!!
Damn that's marvellous! How did you get so many? And may I ask, are you the legend ChrisNAK over on TH?
Oh, I suppose by just keeping my nose to the ground, right place right time, that sort of thing, as well as being a thoroughly lucky barsteward! lol And as for being *chortle* 'the legend' ChrisNAK on TH I wouldn't quite put it that way. 'Upstart' 'Nuisance' 'Cantankerous Old Git' would probably be a more suitable moniker. But yes, 'tis I.
Browsing around, like for me when after midnight, and being at a fortunate cyberplace with the best of timing, often yields grand treasures ! Indeed, its a special feeling to land upon those golden opportunities ..... Cheers & good tidings !!!
Another little NOS tapes haul this week. 10x Fuji JP-IIxPRO C100 in a half-opened box. I wasn't really looking for these but made a cheeky bid and secured them for €100 posted. Being in a half-opened box is tantalising. I can't wriggle a tape out without tearing the rest of the perforations to open the top flap completely but I can bend the top cover up a bit to peek inside. Fortunately there's no musty smell that would indicate rotten tapes. What would you do? Open the flap completely to use one, some, all of them or leave them alone as an appreciating collectible? These are pretty rare to come accross over here in NL so I assume the seller may have purchased them abroad at some point. I wouldn't mind finding some used examples that I can play around with before I decide what to do with them..
Another little haul. 10x Sony Metal XR100 '98 era. Lovely condition. 3 have been recorded to and the other 7 have just had the wrapper removed and contain no recordings. The best combination of price/condition for recording adequately to type IV's as you're not concerned about devaluing them via removing the wrapper and reassured that there aren't going to be any dropouts from prior use. WIN-WIN!
A nice little haul of 12x NOS Sony Metal ES '86-'87 era to add to a growing collection. €29/each. Not bad considering the bonkers prices being asked on fleabay at the moment :O All that glitters... ...is not necessarily gold
That is indeed an excellent price in todays market, about 2/3s what is more typical. It really seems ES was more abundant on your side of the pond than here. I think I have 5 NOS, with the bay being the only realm source here anymore. In fact I have more SSMM & SMM than ES, & XR is way more abundant.
FWIW myself and many others deem the '88 era ES superior to the MM. There are also a few old reviews (maybe also published on here too?) that favour them. To be honest there's not a huge amount in it but the pre '88 ES's are definitely a bit more pernickety when it comes to biasing and recording with them. With the '88 ES, as with the MM and SMM it's just effortless and you get a great recording everytime.
I can’t say that I have ever compared recordings between the 2. Certainly the shells on MM & SMM are superior. The tape in MM & (and possibly SMM, though I have only sealed blanks of it) is prone to a brittleness and age related issues, as it seems highly calendared. Every one that I have bought used has issues in sections, with HF dips, yet the tape looks perfect. I have tons of SR & XR, (and non Sony metals), so I haven’t done much recording on ES and up. I know that my MMs in my test tape cache record with the lowest THD of any of my tapes (where the tape is still perfect), and has very low level inherent hiss. They all calibrate pretty easy, as far as I can tell on B215/CR-7/682zx, as well as all the manual cal decks. (Of course, so far, any tape will autocal in my 1000zxl. ) In the US, ES goes for about $40 shipped on a good day. Since I have $1000’s worth of sealed metals already, bought before the prices went truly insane, I can’t bring myself to buy more. I remember clearly thinking I must be crazy when I had tape buying fever in 2008-10, & was buying NOS MA-R, MA-XG, MM & SMM, Vertex and Nakamichi ZX for $25-30 each. I have to concede though, that if I’m not going to ever record on much of that, from an investment standpoint I really should sell off some while prices are still crazy high.
