Maxell UDXL-II - 1977 - US
Made in 1977, when cassettes were relatively expensive, this Maxell UD-XLII gets our vote for the best looking cassette ever. You think of a stereotypical cassette, something that looks like this is usually what you think of.
Gorgeous to look at, a heavy well made shell and tape that really does capture music well.
You need to put negative bias on these cassettes to get the best out of them.
Priced really for collection only, modern XLII admittedly sound better, these still look so much cooler in your deck when taking pictures, rather than those latter XLII.
A true classic... at an unbeatable price. Look anywhere. Look everywhere!
Please note: These are 40 year old cassettes, and the plastic wrapper is very brittle, and breaks apart. It was the type of PVC shrink film they were using at the time. This is also evident in TDK tapes from the 1975-1979 years. Some XHE tapes also have this "brittle wrapper" problem, and there were others. In some cases I've put small pieces of clear tape (no fingerprints) to keep the original wrapper in place.
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 UDXL-II - 1977 - US
Note: Some tapes have been re-sealed to protect the original wrapper, and to protect it from any additional handling. Keep it as is (sealed), or unwrap it and record on it!