Philips UC-II - 1985 - EU
CAREFUL! These are pure Chrome Type 2 cassettes - If you have a deck calibrated to Ferro-Cobalt Type 2, typically Japanese 2-Head decks, you will need to calibrate to these pure Chrome cassettes to get the best results.
Many cassettes say, "Chrome POSITION", but do not use any chrome particles in their tape formulation at all. BASF developed the first Chromium Dioxide "Chrome" tape and patented the technology. Most other manufacturers did not want to license it, and therefore, their Type II tapes are cobalt doped ferrics.
Why use true chrome tapes when they do not take a lot of signal? The benefits are: Extremely low hiss and brilliant reproduction, but they should be recorded at 0db levels. Best for music with a high content of classical, instrumental, and jazz sounds. Again, unless you calibrate your deck(s) to use pure chrome tape, they will sound horrible. Careful: Absolutely no returns or refunds on any true chrome tapes.
Side Note: This is a challenging cassette! Pure Chrome from 1984. Philips "Ultra" chrome, made by DuPont, the company that created CrO2 cassettes.
Tried to record it on a 2 head deck with no manual calibration features. Put it this way, if we'd bought these Philips UC-II "back in the day" we'd have been returning them as faulty, Type "0" cassettes.
Peaking at 0db, nearly full negative bias...but oh! This cassette has the lowest noise floor we've ever (not) heard. We had to guess when the leader ended and the tape began, it's that hiss free. Monstrous bass like a brown ferric, but with all the negative bias added by the deck, the highs are there; hi hats and snares crackle to the front.
This is a beast of a cassette, but you have to have a masterful deck with manual calibration features to make the most of it. Tony Villa.
Note 1: 90 Minutes: These are 100% box-fresh cassettes with perfect wrappers. Very low inventory.
More than any other cassette, this sorts out "the men from the boys" Tony Villa. No returns are accepted. These cassettes are perfect in every way. If you do have a deck capable of biasing and calibrating these tapes, PLEASE do not order them! Watch the video below!
About Philips:
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Philips, stylized as PHILIPS) is a Dutch multinational technology company headquartered in Amsterdam currently focused in the area of healthcare. It was founded in Eindhoven in 1891, by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik. It was once one of the largest electronic conglomerates in the world and currently employs around 105,000 people across 60 countries.[1]
Philips is organized into three main divisions: Philips Consumer Lifestyle (formerly Philips Consumer Electronics and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care), Philips Healthcare (formerly Philips Medical Systems) and Signify N.V. (known as Philips Lighting prior to 2018).[2] As of 2012, Philips was the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world measured by applicable revenues.[3] In 2013, the company announced the sale of the bulk of its remaining consumer electronics to Japan's Funai Electric Co,[4] but in October 2013, the deal to Funai Electric Co was broken off and the consumer electronics operations remain under Philips. Philips said it would seek damages for breach of contract in the US$200-million sale.[5] In April 2016, the International Court of Arbitration ruled in favour of Philips, awarding compensation of €135 million in the process.[6]
Philips has a primary listing on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.[7] It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Compact Audio Cassette (CAC) or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the cassette tape or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Released by Philips in 1962,[2] it has been developed in Hasselt, Belgium. Compact cassettes come in two forms, either already containing content as a prerecorded cassette, or as a fully recordable "blank" cassette. Both forms are reversible by the user.[3]
Philips UC-II - 1985 - EU