Philips UC-II - 1985 - EU
*PLEASE NOTE, THESE ARE PURE CHROME TYPE 2 CASSETTES - IF YOU HAVE A DECK CALIBRATED TO FERRO COBALT TYPE 2 (LIKE TDK SA) YOU WILL NEED TO CALIBRATE TO THESE CASSETTES TO GET THE BEST RESULTS*
Note: This is a challenging cassette! Pure Chrome from 1984. Philips "Ultra" chrome, made by DuPont, the company that created CrO2 cassettes.
-6db from an typical Fe/Co Type II.
Tried to record it on a 2 head deck with no manual calibration features. Put it this way, if we'd bought these Philips UCII "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.
Note 1: These are 100% box-fresh cassettes with perfect wrappers. Less than 10 available now. September 26, 2023. Update: 5 available as of May 28, 2024.
Note 2: B-Grade Tapes. Two with minor wrapper blemishes. One had the side wrapper opened (now tape up). The other has the wrapper split in one of its corners (not repaired and not necessary to have it repaired). The third B-Grade tape has a 1cmx1cm blue smudge from a manufacturing error and it has been scored open to take pictures. 100% new and wrapper is in perfect shape and attached to the case. It is just scored open. Three (3) B-Grade tapes available. May 28, 2024. No pictures available.
More than any other cassette, this sorts out "the men from the boys". 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