Maxell XLII - 1989 - US
A classic Type II. Great tape with a great shell.
Has pronounced treble compared to it's competitor, the SA. Best used with decks with bias adjustment. This however gives it great bass too.
When you get the bias right, this is a remarkably good cassette with superb dynamic range and low noise.
This is the version for the American market, hence why it's classed as a collectible in the EU. Rarely offered tape. Wrapper has light scuffing. This is a latter release of the 1988 issue. It has the same barcode number. The difference is the shell has been redesigned into a more oval shape and it has the name "maxell" in red on top of the oval window. Made for the North American market. More difficult to find than the earlier 1988 release.
NOTE 1: Brilliant tapes rarely offered! Those who have them, keep them! These came out around 1989 for a very brief time. Scarce.
NOTE 2: ...
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.
In the 1980s, Maxell became an icon of pop culture when it produced advertisements popularly known as "Blown Away Guy" for its line of audio cassettes. The original campaign conceived by Art Director Lars Anderson began as a two-page spread in Rolling Stone Magazine ad in 1980, and was made into television spots in 1981 which ran throughout the 1980s.[10]
Maxell XLII - 1989 - US (Made in Japan)