Opinions on New Reel to Reel Tapes

To buy try Jandr.com or check on ebay for a reliable seller . You want fresh stock. do a search on google with the exact model # and a few professioanl audio dealers may also pop up.

I second the maxell, TDK's and if you can find BASF tapes, try them. I have had aging issues with the Ampex 456. After about 12 years + the tapes tend to shade the oxide and stick. I have BASF tapes that are 40+ years old no problems and Maxell and TDK that are 30+ year pod no issues.

Where can I purchase these tapes?

When I was a recording arts student 10 yrs ago, the go-to studio tapes were Ampex. It appears they (either the tape div, or the whole company) was sold to a 'Quantegy'. Ampex 456 Grand Master was *the studio tape. I see they (Ampex by Quantegy) have 7" reels for around $10. I would certainly audition the current product.

You gotta love the metal reels; no cheepshit plastic stuff...

Ampex Grand Master cassette tapes were another story. They sounded great, but IME, they had a longevity prob. After many years, say over 12, a rewind would snap the tape off the takeup reel. Grrr... But then again, I wouldn't consider the tape cassette an 'archival' medium. Kinda like 3.5" floppies are turning out to be...

The top Maxell or TDK Tapes listed above are really great ! I have some very old ones and they still play fine.

Say Dave, since you have owned the Teac X-7s for so long, maybe you can help me... Recently I bought an X-700R and I will have an X-7 coming to me shortly. I really like these decks, but do not have an owner's manual. I have heard that the motors require periodic lubrication with a special syringe (and don't have one of those either).

Do you have any maintenence tips you can share on these machines? Secondly, if I send you some money to cover your costs and trouble would you be willing to mail me a copy of the owner's manual?

Thanks in advance for any help or tips you can provide!

I'll second the TDK GX 35/90B. I have had 2 Teac X7R decks in the system for the last 20 years or so and of the 800+ reels in the library, the best sonically are the TDK. They have also held up the best over the years for shedding, squealing, and other sundry problems.

The question I have is whether they're still available. I stopped adding to the R2R side of the library ~7 years ago and haven't looked for new tape in quite a while.

I used to use Maxell UD 35-90B to good effect. These tapes were "back-coated" which I thought were much better than their standard version. (Allowed less saturation) In my personal experimentation many years ago w/Teac deck I found
the TDK GX 35/90B was slightly better than the others. I would buy "back-coated" tapes, whichever brand you decide to buy. What R/R did you buy and are you using a DBX noise-reduction unit? Bill

Depending on what tape deck you have, and it's bias selections, you may need to use standard Iron Oxide, or Ferrichrome, or CrO2, or Metal tapes. I have had some reel decks in the past and found good quality from Maxell, in all of the above formulations.