Maxell LN - 1982 - US
An early 80s Maxell Type I. This was the entry level Cassette before the UR was introduced. Great shell, great looks and decent sound, from a time when cassettes were expensive and made to reflect this.
Give them some Dolby and negative bias and they make great recordings. These are actually highly underrated. Superb rich dark chocolate colour, and smooth, shinny, brilliant tape.
More a collectible than anything else, many more modern and cheaper Type Is sound at least as good as this, but those same tapes don't have the class of this one.
Note: Made in Japan (Black Shells) or Made in South Korea (Clear Shells).
About Maxell:
Maxell Holdings, Ltd. (日立マクセル株式会社 Hitachi Makuseru Kabushiki-gaisha), commonly known as Maxell, is a Japanese company that manufactures consumer electronics.
Maxell was formed in 1960, when a dry cell manufacturing plant was created at the company's headquarters in Ibaraki, Osaka. In 1961, Maxell Electric Industrial Company, Limited was created out of the dry battery and magnetic tape divisions of Nitto Electric Industrial Company, Limited (now Nitto Denko Corporation).
On March 18, 2014 the company was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.[7]
The company's notable products are batteries—the company's name is a contraction of "maximum capacity dry cell"—wireless charging solutions, storage devices, computer tapes, professional broadcast tapes and functional materials.[4][5] In the past, the company manufactured recording media, including audio cassettes and blank VHS tapes, and recordable optical discs including CD-R/RW and DVD±RW.
On March 4, 2008, Maxell announced that they would outsource the manufacturing of their optical media.[6]
During the height of the Compact Audio Cassette's popularity, Maxell's audio cassettes were held in high regard, producing some of the finest examples of the standard available. The performance of the XLII-S (CrO2) and MX (pure metal particles) cassettes was regarded by many audiophiles to be the ultimate achievement in the pre digital domestic recording medium.
Maxell audio cassettes are available in 46, 60, 90, 100, 120 and 150 minute lengths.
Maxell LN - 1982 - Made in Japan (Black Shells) or Made in South Korea (Clear Shells).