Maxell XLII-S - 1980 - EU
"Widely accepted as one of the preferred nostalgic lines of the Maxell brand. These are difficult tapes to adjust and calibrate. Apparently you need to put positive bias on these cassettes to get the best out of them, but that also means you get the bass." Tony Villa
Typical high-end quality Gold/Black label that was only expected from Maxell's highest standards and choice of materials. Those days... early 80's, all top cassette companies competed to produce the best possible quality. Their aim was to beat their competition by achieving the best quality in everything... the tape, the shell, the label design, the wrapper, even the cardboard housing box had to be pretty!
Note: Added for the first time May 2022. All of these tapes have are 100% sealed but all wrappers have split tears on them or some small odd wrapper blemish. A common trait for tapes during this time. It was the plastic of choice and it became very brittle over the years. I will be posting better images at first chance. This picture shows my worst sample at hand... encased in a plastic bag to avoid further damage of the wrapper.
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-S - 1980 - EU