Quantegy plant to reopen soon.
 

News is confirmed that the last manufacturing plant of analog magnetic
tape, Quantegy's Opileka, AL plant, will reopen soon under a
bankruptcy court decision allowing Quantegy to secure funding to
continue operations. Already, retailers are taking "pre-orders," but
the bad news is that the prices have gone up as much as 30% on oxides
like GP9 and 499. Once the pent up demand is satisfied worldwide,
prices may drop back a bit, but not soon.

No word as to whether they'll continue the entire Quantegy line, and
whether or not they'll make more cart tape is unanswered yet.
Remaining stocks of Quantegy cart tape (actually somewhat like a thin
641 with graphite backing) are depleted already.

Also, ATR is entering the final phase of cranking up a run of the old
Emtek (former Agfa/BASF) 465 analog tape in formats from ¼" to 2".
Latest word is that the tape will be run at Quantegy under ATR's
stricter QC requirements and special Emtak-type oxide and binder.
There was a rumor that ATR was going to open their own plant somewhere
in PA, but word is they cannot secure enough funding, so they'l
contract out to Quantegy...at least for now. You can be sure that the
ATR product will be VERY expensive...and VERY good.

Happy days are here again! I've already got back orders in on new
456. Once the plant opens again, I'll know more about the
availability of new cart tape. As stated earlier, Opelika is where
Robert Orr, at the behest of Gen. Eisenhower, started the first
domestic magnetic tape operation in the 1940s, which became the line
of "Irish" products. Ampex bought out the operation in 1959 and
dumped it to private investors in the '90s. Orr's company went west,
and Orradio made tape (and carts...Orradio and GRT) right in Ampex's
back yard, in Sunnyvale.

dB

the bad news is that the prices have gone up as much as 30% on oxides
like GP9 and 499. Once the pent up demand is satisfied worldwide,
prices may drop back a bit, but not soon.
Would that be a any reflection on higher petroleum prices?

I dunno, but tape supply is no problem, there's more than you could
ever use for sale on ebay, for dirt cheap pricing.

On 2 May 2005 05:17:08 -0700, "trippingtoo8track"
wrote:

I dunno, but tape supply is no problem, there's more than you could
ever use for sale on ebay, for dirt cheap pricing. snip

The reason it's "dirt cheap," moron, is that no pro in his right mind
would touch a reel or pancake of tape to record upon that's over a
year old, for obvious reasons. Dropouts, oxide shed and other age
related problems are simply unacceptable to a professional
recordist...something that Charlie Nudo, aka Frank L. Schoonover,
would know nothing about.

dB

On Sun, 01 May 2005 21:42:16 GMT, "William W Western"
wrote:

the bad news is that the prices have gone up as much as 30% on oxides
like GP9 and 499. Once the pent up demand is satisfied worldwide,
prices may drop back a bit, but not soon.
Would that be a any reflection on higher petroleum prices? snip

I'm sure that figures in, but there's simply an incredible demand for
new analog tape stock now, and the bankruptcy judge feels it's a good
time for Quantegy to fix its financial ills by more than covering the
petrochemical price increase. As I've stated before, now that tape is
being made again, prices on analog machines, especially the big
multi-tracks, will start to rise again.

dB

I myself am not impressed by Quantegy tape, at least the cassette
tapes. I bought a box of them (Cro2 masters) because I "thought" I was
buying Ampex......I had always thought that Ampex made a qualty
product. Well, the Quantegy tapes were no better IMHO than the cheap
Maxell XLII's that you can buy for $.99 or so at Tower Records. I
still have most of the tapes unused and prefer to find better NOS tapes
at thrift stores.


Luke

On 8 May 2005 10:38:47 -0700, "Cartrivision1" wrote:

I myself am not impressed by Quantegy tape, at least the cassette
tapes. I bought a box of them (Cro2 masters) because I "thought" I was
buying Ampex......I had always thought that Ampex made a qualty
product. Well, the Quantegy tapes were no better IMHO than the cheap
Maxell XLII's that you can buy for $.99 or so at Tower Records. I
still have most of the tapes unused and prefer to find better NOS tapes
at thrift stores. snip

How so? Were these the Quantegy 472s? If so, they are indeed
excellent in terms of sensitivity and S/N ratio, BUT...Quantegy was
having major problems with slitting late in the game. Ampex was
having similar problems late in their ownership, too...after all, it's
the same plant in Opelika, AL.

What were your problems with Quantegy cassettes? The best cassettes I
ever tested for IEC Type II were Maxell UDXL-IIs, now long since gone.
Similarly, the best Type Is were UDXL-I, and Maxell doesn't make a
"premium" Type I cassette at all anymore, only the low quality UD
line, which competes with TDK "D" tape. Maxell XL-II isn't a bad tape
at all...but not all that good. Lots of problems with THD on the XL
formulation, but with cassette going away, Maxell has discontinued the
more expensive UDXL oxide some years ago.

dB

I got a huge collection of recording blanks from a friend who passed
away, his mom was cleaning his house out. I simply bulk erase them and
presto, instant high quality cassette tape. Half of them are the metal
tapes and there must be 200 tapes there.

You are right, buying new reel to reel tape is dumb. You can go on
ebay and buy all you'd ever need for $1 a reel, and get high quality
stuff too. Just bulk erase it and you're in.

I got 2 huge boxes of Scotch original reel blanks for $1 each on ebay.
been recording like crazy on them and still have not even used half of
them. Quantegy is a good idea, but who needs them really when there's
so much old stock around ?

and you can always load empty open reels with 8-track cartridge tape in
a pinch

ps- Maxell is only middle of the road stuff, over-rated in my opinion.
They have a cool name and logo, that's about it.

Scotch made the best tape, ever.

DeserTBoB wrote:
On 8 May 2005 10:38:47 -0700, "Cartrivision1"
wrote:

I myself am not impressed by Quantegy tape, at least the cassette
tapes. I bought a box of them (Cro2 masters) because I "thought" I
was
buying Ampex......I had always thought that Ampex made a qualty
product. Well, the Quantegy tapes were no better IMHO than the
cheap
Maxell XLII's that you can buy for $.99 or so at Tower Records. I
still have most of the tapes unused and prefer to find better NOS
tapes
at thrift stores. snip

How so? Were these the Quantegy 472s? If so, they are indeed
excellent in terms of sensitivity and S/N ratio, BUT...Quantegy was
having major problems with slitting late in the game. Ampex was
having similar problems late in their ownership, too...after all,
it's
the same plant in Opelika, AL.


Yes, I believe that they were the "472's". A couple of them had
quality issues like locking up during playback/rewind or they were just
plain noisy during playback. The majority of them did work just fine
though but I was not at all impressed by their dynamic range. I prefer
a good quality TDK or Maxell tape over the Quantegy's anytime.