Maxell XLII - 1998 - US
A classic Type II. Great tape with a great shell.
Has pronounced treble compared to it's contemporary, 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. These were made in Japan and/or assembled in Mexico. There is no visible difference between them, however we all know how we feel about products made in Japan and made anywhere else.
NOTE 1: 60/90/100 Minutes: (Made in Mexico or Japan). Nearly perfect to perfect wrappers with none or little scuffing worth noting. A-Grade cassettes.
NOTE 2: 90/100 Minutes: B-Grade: Made in Mexico. These have very clean wrappers, but somewhere along the way they got one to two small rips, rather insignificant, and most especially for those whose intent is just to unwrap them and use them as... intended. However, they cannot be sold as perfectly clean, box-fresh, zero-blemishes A-Grade cassettes.
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.
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 audio cassettes are available in 46, 60, 90, 100, 120 and 150 minute lengths.
Maxell XLII 1998 - US - Made in Mexico or Japan.