Maxell Reel Tapes

[Des_Lab]

Maxell's penultimate and longest running lineup. Also the most sought after and beloved. Introduced about 1988. The XLII EE tape was discontinued in about 1990. Production of the UD and XLI continued until about 1998, with retail distribution ceasing about Q3 2003 after stocks were depleted. This is what I heard direct from Maxell. Because reel to reel-particularly at the consumer level, which is what these tapes were aimed squarely at, was all but defunct for most of the '90's, they sold that slowly and took that long to bleed out the excess inventory.

 

[NavLinear]

I've never owned a real to real but I've heard many over the years - mostly during the 70's and 80's. The playback was phenomenal on the R2R machines that I heard but I was a vinyl fanatic and the complexity/cost of the big tape machines kept me at bay. I dabbled in cassette recording and enjoyed that media as it was simple to handle but it did take skill in getting a decent sounding cassette. My favorite tape for cassette was and still is Maxell so I'm drooling over your photos. That is definitely tape porn - I love it! Thanks Matt for sharing.