BASF...good paperweights?

I fooled around with a couple of BASF "Performance 90s" this morning.
I think they'd be best used as paperweights! A hotter tape than
Scotch 175 (the perennial baseline for 8 track), it's also a lot
noisier than it is hot. I had a HELLUVA time getting any real good
top end on this tape until I cranked the bias WAY down, showing that
it's an easily coerced oxide...and that usually ain't good for noise
OR frequency response.

Good enough headroom, but I abandoned testing it when I started to get
some strange dropouts and bad HF response on playback. Reason? The
usual BASF/Rat Shack/Scotch bugaboo...peeling oxide! Yes, evidently
these carts had been, at some time, exposed to some moisture, and
promptly went about shedding oxide all over the solenoid contacts,
head and capstan. There were "sparkles" inside after I opened the
cart up, also, showing that the back coating was also starting to shed
already. I had similar problems with the "Rat Shack Stupidtape," also
made by BASF.

Conclusion: Give it all to Noodles...if I hate it, he'll like it, and
it'll gum up all his crummy cart machines! HA!

dB

DoucheBoB wrote in message . ..
I fooled around with a couple of BASF "Performance 90s" this morning.
I think they'd be best used as paperweights! A hotter tape than
Scotch 175 (the perennial baseline for 8 track), it's also a lot
noisier than it is hot. I had a HELLUVA time getting any real good
top end on this tape until I cranked the bias WAY down, showing that
it's an easily coerced oxide...and that usually ain't good for noise
OR frequency response.

Good enough headroom, but I abandoned testing it when I started to get
some strange dropouts and bad HF response on playback. Reason? The
usual BASF/Rat Shack/Scotch bugaboo...peeling oxide! Yes, evidently
these carts had been, at some time, exposed to some moisture, and
promptly went about shedding oxide all over the solenoid contacts,
head and capstan. There were "sparkles" inside after I opened the
cart up, also, showing that the back coating was also starting to shed
already. I had similar problems with the "Rat Shack Stupidtape," also
made by BASF.

Conclusion: Give it all to Noodles...if I hate it, he'll like it, and
it'll gum up all his crummy cart machines! HA!

doucheBob




We're still waiting for your list of best to worst blank tapes to use.
How 'bout it ??