TDK CDing 2 vs Sony HF

Makymak

Makymak

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Well, it's the week of questions!!!

Anyway, as the title says, I have a project and I need a lot of some c46. I can find the above cassettes both new and at the same price. The TDKs are type II but entry level while the Sonys are type I but not the low end.
Which one would you preferred?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: both tapes are of the later generations. Something between late 90s and early 2000. Not sure the actual years.
 
Obvious question: What type of material are you recording?

Late Sony HF's are good tapes ... unlike the much earlier ones.
 
Mostly rock.

I have some of the late EU made HF. They are sounding very good. I haven't tried the Mexico made.

I never have tried a CDing 2. I have heard not so good comments. I know they aren't Super Avilyn. The other non SA TDK I have tried is AD 2 and it sounds OK.
 
CDing are SA tape inside but the shells are not as nice as the older ones.

If you like SA then the CDing II are the same tape.
 
The cassettes arrived. I made a test recording. Soundwise, it's similar to the SuperCDing, a kind of SA. It has the sound signature of SA: drop of the mids and starts compressing a few dB over the Dolby level. Quite good detail but not as the "old good stuff". Manufacturing quality is very good. It has the classic clear shell of the '90s D which is exceptional, IMHO. No railroading neither any residue on the heads. No dropouts and no w&f issues.

Overall, a very good cassette but not a special one.

As for the initial question, I believe I made a good choice.

Thanks for the help!
 
Makymak said:
The cassettes arrived. I made a test recording. Soundwise, it's similar to the SuperCDing, a kind of SA. It has the sound signature of SA: drop of the mids and starts compressing a few dB over the Dolby level. Quite good detail but not as the "old good stuff". Manufacturing quality is very good. It has the classic clear shell of the '90s D which is exceptional, IMHO. No railroading neither any residue on the heads. No dropouts and no w&f issues.

Overall, a very good cassette but not a special one.

As for the initial question, I believe I made a good choice.

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Arriving a bit late on this thread but I am glad your CDing2 turned out to be good! :)

My own experience with later versions of TDK "budget" type2 models was very hit and miss...
A few years ago, I happened to buy a few 10x boxes of (later version) CDing2 and DJ2 for very cheap from a shop who was going to close and so he offered me such cassettes at less than 1 eur each, then I had got them all.
Anyways, some of them worked nice, others did show serious issues (even into the same 10x sealed box!)... like wobbly (non round or not well centered hole) small rollers at the lower corners of the shell and/or lubrificant breakdown in the shape of transparent (not visible) waxy/sticky residue on the transport but which was easily hearable like very heavy modulation noise... a sort of very harsh hiss noise which is proportional to the recorded signal (then it's not constant but it comes and goes just together with the recorded sounds), so that with no recorded signal you have no modulation noise but as soon as you record on tape you get such harsh noise, and then they are simply not useable.
At now, I still have quite a few of such TDK tapes still sealed also because they aren't inspiring me anymore.

Anyways, if you just recorded on some and they sound good and clean without a weird harshness on treble like I described above, then your ones would be good.... I wasn't that lucky with such models.
 
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Thanks for the detailed feedback Vince.

The newest SA tapes I have are actually SM “pro” tapes. The shells are garbage but I had no issues with the one I’ve used so far. They are 5-min a side so not a lot of call for them…

Anyway, I was wondering if the Euro versions differ from the US version in more than packaging details…
 
@vince666

Vince, it's a matter of luck. As we had discussed it some time ago (at TH, IIRC), I'm among the few people who don't have any problem with the SAs. I have a variety of them and no one suffered from any malfunction. I wish I could tell the same about my SA-Xs, though... The later SA-X I have suffer from railroading from the very first pass. It's the (not?) known issue with the rollers...
I had a problem with a TDK FE of the same era. It acted as you described, getting sticky and leaving residue on the heads. And I have this cassette from new and it was well stored (as all my cassettes). Yes, it's pure luck, especially as these tapes getting older and older...


@J!m

Jim, I don't know about the last TDKs or the Imation. I have a few (type I) sealed but I won't use them as long as I still have the old trusted ones (and I have a lot!).
 
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