Maxell XLII High Bias VS Maxell XLII S High Bias

[Mark W.]

OK what is the difference between the Maxell XLII High Bias and the same tape with the letter S following the II? I see the type without the S for sale every where from Amazon to B&H photo at some very good prices.

The other I only seam to see on ebay for MORE money.

Is one better then the other? newer? the ones on ebay mention CrO2 on the label. Is that it this a chrome version of the same tape.

I'm interested in making copies of some of my albums for use in my Jeep. CD's don't do well in a 48 willys jeep LOL.

Anyone know?

[goldear]

I beleive that the the older stuff is better than the current tape. I would asssume that the more expensive stuff is probably the NOS tape. Rumor has it that the current tape stretches, and breaks easily. But since I have not tried the more recent tapes, my $0.02 on this matter might be worth even less than that...

Regardless, both are type II "chrome equivalent" formulations.

[totem]

Mark If my memory serves me right, the S stands for super elliptical. finer (smaller) grain particles. As goldear said prob. NOS tape.

[Superboy1]

The XLII-S was Maxell's TOTL chrome tape for a LONG time, but it's probably been discontinued for a good 5 years now.

When I was a kid they had really fancy gold (think Vegas) labels. I don't remember noticing much of a difference between the two sonically, even on excellent decks, and I certainly don't think you'd notice a difference when playing back in a jeep.

[Web Police]

Seems to me the S tapes had a better cassette shell materials and allowed for higher bias in the recordings. Either way with New and NOS tapes I don't think it matters much for playback in a car or truck audio system.

[Harvey/ Ga]

I'm interested in making copies of some of my albums for use in my Jeep. CD's don't do well in a 48 willys jeep LOL.

Anyone know?

WHAT??? No Pioneer auto/cassette/cd player in that jeep ??:D

[Web Police]

WHAT??? No Pioneer auto/cassette/cd player in that jeep ??:D


He probably has a vintage KP-500 under the dash. :music:

[Mark W.]

WHAT??? No Pioneer auto/cassette/cd player in that jeep ??:D


Actually Harvey there's no player what so ever in the jeep right now it being pretty much spread all over the carport in about a thousand pieces in the middle of being restored.


A vintage Pioneer Super tuner is very much a possibility.

[retrokeeper]

So...your lookin' for some of these,right?I scanned in some of the ones I've found in thrift stores and garage sales.I've been keeping my eyes open for blank cassette for awhile,find them everywhere,still shrinkwrapped and used ones in pretty good shape,lots of Maxell's,Sony's & TDK's out there.
A nice Pioneer unit would look great in your Jeep,probably one of their "truck" series they put out back in the late 80's or so,has special features for small intereiors,like Jeeps and the such.Installed a few back in the days,had a car stereo business back in 1986-1996. Rob

[lord_athlon]

I have hundreds upon hundreds of used tapes my mom made in the 80's. All XLII black carts. They still sound better than some of the new ones i can get now.

[ddino77]

just got a batch of XLII-S and they have to be the WORST tape. I checked
all my decks (13) for cleanliness, azimuth, skew, height, demag etc and ALL had severe high freq rolloff. Anything above 10K is gone. I used to use Maxell regularly when they were made is Japan. This stuff is made in England and assembled in Mexico. I don't know what's going on but I'm switching to TDK and others. In fact if memory serves me well the only other cassette brand that had such abismal sound performance was Memorex. Anyone recall?

[stuckinthe70s]

The difference I've always noticed is that the XLIIS has extended high frequency output compared to the plain XLII. Cymbals and other high sounds will sound more "crisp" on the "S" tape. I'll take the "S" over the other any day, they seem to me to be generally better balanced, and the XLII that they've been making for the last 10-15 yrs I don't care for at all. Too much boost in the mid frequencies and not enough high end "sparkle" for my tastes. There's a reason why the "S" tapes always bring more money than the others, quite simply they sound better. Especially if you're recording vinyl. Just my $.01.

[terra1]

The II-S was formulated as CD players were hitting their stride. And it was advertised as best for recording CDs and other digital sources.

Definitely a premium tape.

The original shiny Maxell XLII is a very good solidly built shell. I used this as my everyday tape. I used it recording CDs to create tapes for boom boxes and car decks that still had tape players. I used the II-S for precious excellent sounding vinyl and only for play in my home audio tape deck.

The later Maxell XLII versions came in the cheaper feeling clear shell. Stuckinthe70s mentions something I couldn't quite put the finger on. I couldn't get past that cheaper transparent shell which just from a subjective standpoint made it seem cut-rate.

In whichever case, the II-S is the better tape and I can hear the difference in clarity and smoothness sounding more like the source if not indiscernible without an A-B, which is the whole purpose.

Below are pics of the XLII-S and the original Maxell XL-II:

[goldear]

just got a batch of XLII-S and they have to be the WORST tape. I checked
all my decks (13) for cleanliness, azimuth, skew, height, demag etc and ALL had severe high freq rolloff. Anything above 10K is gone. I used to use Maxell regularly when they were made is Japan. This stuff is made in England and assembled in Mexico. I don't know what's going on but I'm switching to TDK and others. In fact if memory serves me well the only other cassette brand that had such abismal sound performance was Memorex. Anyone recall?
Wow, I've never heard of an experience like this before. This really sounds like a biasing issue to me. Did you tweak your fine-bias, because that almost always fixes this type of issue?

FYI - If your machines were all biased for an unusually high-bas tape like TDK-SAX, then the XLII-S is probably being overbiased on your machines.

[vinyldavid]

I beleive that the the older stuff is better than the current tape. I would asssume that the more expensive stuff is probably the NOS tape. Rumor has it that the current tape stretches, and breaks easily. But since I have not tried the more recent tapes, my $0.02 on this matter might be worth even less than that...

Regardless, both are type II "chrome equivalent" formulations.

I have used only the newer production XLII, and when I record it on a Type 2 capable deck, with prober bias adjustments (stupid me recorded some on a crappy deck), it wounds pretty darn good!

I had one that has real bad dropouts, but the other 20 or so I have are perfect.

[sssmokin99]

I had been using Maxell's "Studio Tape" which as I understand it has the same actual tape as XLII, but a different and better shell. Cannot confirm that; but the Studio Tape is now out of production- apparently as of December of 2007. This has worked well for me on my V-8030S Teac, although not as well as some vintage tapes (if 90's can be called vintage!). The fine bias adjustment by way of the test tone probably optimizes tape bias much better than my ears.
There are fewer cassette alternatives available every day, it seems! :thumbsdn:

[braxus]

I have bought older NOS XL-IIS tapes and the one I tried had severe high end roll off. I reset the bias to 10 oclock and it brought back the high end, but also with severe distortion in the recording. It seems some XLIIS tapes don't stand the test of time. That tape was from around 1986.