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#1
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"Old" Capitol vs. "Crapitol"
Hmmm...seems there is a pronounced difference in quality between the
older "Audiopak" Capitol offerings and the newer "Pretty Fruit" things. I've yet to run across a later Crapitol that isn't mechancally noisey, and most seem to yield wow and flutter readings into the multiple percetage range...unacceptable for any musical usage. However, the older, solid Audiopaks seem to give great performance as to speed. The oxide looks familiar, also...from that old-time RTR supplier, Audio Devices, Inc., sellers of the popular Audiotape line of the '50s-'60s. This is old stuff, probably handling 200 nWb/M, max, and was a mainstay of some studios, many broadcasters and all home recordists in the late '50s. My dad must've had 50 reels of it at one time, along with tons of Scotch 111. It's similar in performance to some of Irish's offerings of the era...noise being the biggest problem. Audio Devices was another outfit that offered .5 mil tape (2400 ft/7" reel) before Scotch did. Even after Audiotape and Irish started offering the super thin stuff, Scotch steadfastly refused, fearing injury to their reputation, which had been made on the back of the superior performance of 111 and later, 211, both of which were 1.5 mil professional tapes. Of course, such thin tape as .5 mil won't last long on real 3 motor machines; hitting the brakes on any Ampex immediately turns .5 mil Mylar tape into "cassette" width, and snaps acetate in half right away. 2400'/.5 mil tape was targeted at home recordists, whose single motor machines were kinder to such weak backings. Who knew that it'd be so successful in cartridge format in just a few years. The later Capitol oxide is decidedly different, but where it came from, I do not yet know...3M? The carts are garbage, as someone pointed out. The soft plastic reel looks to be very susceptable to heat damage, and the carts seem "cheesy" overall. The solution? If the tape's good, dump the Audiotape out of the "old Capitol" AudioPaks and put the "new" Capitol tape in there...best of both! I've had some prerecorded releases on Audiopaks, and they sigularly seem to be free of the speed problems found in so many others. Of course, they're still inferior to the stellar performance of the TDK carts (minus the D series)...those seem to be the best overall for critical speed performance. dB |
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#2
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DeserTBoB wrote in message . ..
Hmmm...seems there is a pronounced difference in quality between the older "Audiopak" Capitol offerings and the newer "Pretty Fruit" things. I've yet to run across a later Crapitol that isn't mechancally noisey, and most seem to yield wow and flutter readings into the multiple percetage range...unacceptable for any musical usage. However, the older, solid Audiopaks seem to give great performance as to speed. The oxide looks familiar, also...from that old-time RTR supplier, Audio Devices, Inc., sellers of the popular Audiotape line of the '50s-'60s. This is old stuff, probably handling 200 nWb/M, max, and was a mainstay of some studios, many broadcasters and all home recordists in the late '50s. My dad must've had 50 reels of it at one time, along with tons of Scotch 111. It's similar in performance to some of Irish's offerings of the era...noise being the biggest problem. Audio Devices was another outfit that offered .5 mil tape (2400 ft/7" reel) before Scotch did. Even after Audiotape and Irish started offering the super thin stuff, Scotch steadfastly refused, fearing injury to their reputation, which had been made on the back of the superior performance of 111 and later, 211, both of which were 1.5 mil professional tapes. Of course, such thin tape as .5 mil won't last long on real 3 motor machines; hitting the brakes on any Ampex immediately turns .5 mil Mylar tape into "cassette" width, and snaps acetate in half right away. 2400'/.5 mil tape was targeted at home recordists, whose single motor machines were kinder to such weak backings. Who knew that it'd be so successful in cartridge format in just a few years. The later Capitol oxide is decidedly different, but where it came from, I do not yet know...3M? The carts are garbage, as someone pointed out. The soft plastic reel looks to be very susceptable to heat damage, and the carts seem "cheesy" overall. The solution? If the tape's good, dump the Audiotape out of the "old Capitol" AudioPaks and put the "new" Capitol tape in there...best of both! I've had some prerecorded releases on Audiopaks, and they sigularly seem to be free of the speed problems found in so many others. Of course, they're still inferior to the stellar performance of the TDK carts (minus the D series)...those seem to be the best overall for critical speed performance. dB I had chicken soup this week for dinner. |
#3
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On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:47:42 -0800, DeserTBoB
wrote: The later Capitol oxide is decidedly different, but where it came from, I do not yet know...3M? snip Nope...I've been told this is also an Audio Devices product, considerably cheapened to bolster Capitol's profit margins. dB |
#4
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