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RE: Maxell response

Posted by J.L (A) on February 3, 2009 at 21:51:34

In Reply to: RE: Maxell response posted by kingseiko on January 30, 2009 at 21:26:44:

I was a big fan of Audiocasetttes in the 80s and 90s
the best fun with audiocasette i had in early 90s to midth 90s
thats when the audiocasette started to decline

I agree it make no sense economically since the demand is not enough
even if every audiophiles buy tapes it will not make up for the huge losses the blank media corporations are facing which is sad.
Still i am sure some company might be willing to release some audiocasettes as a limited release but thats what it is limited a short time.
Where i live i can only get Type I tapes mostly and some type II like
Sony CdII, Tdk Cd-ing and Tdk D and Sony Hf the usual.

Let look at each brand and what their be up to

Emtec (Old good Basf):
===============================
Basf somewhat got bankrupt and sold most of their stuff to other companies, today is Dexxon in franch that owns the company
they only make one audiocasette inface they keept the Worst of all Basf tapes just a shame
You can find theme here:
http://www.emtec-international.com/en/gamme.php?categorie=STMAG&gamme=AUDIO

I contacted Emtec 2 years ago why there was just one tape
and i got a short answer from the once proud german company which now is french the answer was "Time has changed nobody wants Casettes anymore"
also considering the financial situation i doubt Emtec-basf will ever release more tapes

Fuji magnetics:
=========================
In Japan it was called Axia they made Tapes,casettes and Cds
and in 2004 they stopped with most products
in 2006 Axia closed and Fuji dont make Audio products anymore in Japan

In Europe Fuji sold a Lot (i realy mean a lot) of casettes to about 2007
there reason was maybe rests from old Fujifilm productions of old cameras
once most of the huge amount of film was getting dry and Digital camera took over more and more the analog camera disapeared and hence also the demand of film production declined
so 2 years ago Fuji reduced their Audiocasette line
living only one or 2 Normal bias tapes , again the worst ones
however outside of Japan the quality of Fuji tapes was very poor so not something we miss
Fuji was still one of the company that could profit selling a huge amount of different audiocasettes but now that time is over

You can contact fuji magnetics here now is called Fuji recording media
http://www.fujifilm-recordingmedia.com

Maxell
=================================================
Could been seen everywhere in the 90s today is rare to find any Maxell tapes outside of UK here in europe.
They reduced the line to like 2 tapes one Normal UR and one High bias XLII, last time i spoke with Maxell UK was around 2007 and then they said they will only continue to make 1 tape the Maxell UR.
again they choosed the worst tape because the newest maxell UR is a very poor UR compared to previous version

As late as today i was surprised to find out that Maxell JAPAN
have done the same the all mightmy Maxell Japan have reduced the tapes to just one guess which one ? yea the UR normal pos.

Even Singapore the biggest Maxell producer in Asia outside of Japan and one of which sometimes suplied tapes to Europe have reduced the tapes to only 1 normal Tape and they stopped with Minidisc too (Japan still have)

Maxell is likely Hit by the financial crisis and i doubt Hitachi is such big this days to could offer any help
the solution is rely on media like Blueray that likely will arise demand and Flash cards.

I doubt maxell ever goes back to tape now but maybe they can make something limited?

you find maxell europe here
http://www.maxell.eu.com

Memorex:
===================================================
Once the happy makers of colorful and fun audiocasettes
todays almost no longer make tapes
not worth even trying to get them to make something
they was swallowed up by big Imation so not to get bankrupt

Memorex has changed their Logo and done some drastic design change
see it here:
http://www.memorex.com

SONY:
==============================================
Ok i admit i never realy liked so much Sony tapes
except of the Sony UX-S and UX-Pro
they was the one that saved cost in the 90s being one of the first
to magneticly seal tapes instead of using screws i never liked that
once a tape was messed you was screwed
fortunaly sony tapes didnt got messy that often

Sony has reduce the tapes in europe to most HF normal bias
yes thats it only one tape
but somepart in europe they still have UX-S high (the cheap new version) and Sony Cdit II slide
But i guess soon all except HF will be gone
Will Sony change their mind?
Well you offer Sony something they can earn profit of they surely will
Will they make profit of selling tapes
unfortunaly we already know the answer and is defently not yes

Sony headquarter in europe:
http://www.sony.de/product/rec-audio-media
and in japan
http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/mediabattery/md/index.cfm?B2=100

sony usa:
http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/category/recordable-media


TDK
=============================
I was surprised back in 2007 to know that TDK had taken huge losses
TDK was on its way to bankrupty
altrhough nobody dared to menation that word that was not to far from be truth.

TDK acted quickly and was swallowed up by Imation just like memorex
today TDK is a brand under imation

in 2009 The crisis continued and in 2009 they had to cut 8000 Jobs
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/08/japans-tdk-cuts-8000-jobs/

This surely worried me
but even sony has done the same
one month before TDK cuts job sony did:
http://gigaom.com/2008/12/09/sony-cuts-8000-jobs-time-to-cut-the-ps3-too/

So what Audiocasettes does TDK MAKE?
in europe mostly TDK D normal bias and TDK SA chrome bias
In japan Tdk AE (D) and Cding high pos.

In early 2008 TDK told me their answer about the future of Audiocassette
their answer about if they will continue to produce audiocasettes
was "WE DONT KNOW, WE HAVENT DECICED YET"

Tdk europe:
http://www.tdk-media.eu/en/

Tdk Japan:
http://www.tdk-media.jp/tjbbb01/index.html

Tdk Usa:
http://www.tdk-media.com/


So to summ up:

Which one of this corporation can start make many audiocasettes again
and considering the financial crisis how profitable is it?

This nobody can answer for sure but the profit wont be big if any
But i can think the corporations owns the consumers a little loyalites after faithful buying Audiocasettes over so many years
dont you think?

Many here Sees TDK as the Saver of Tapes
Are they?

TDK just as Sony cuts 8000 Jobs in 2009
that clearly means they are not earning profit

What TDK can do is maybe sell some good quality tapes
but put them in packs of 5 Tapes
then we that like those tapes buy them
and it will be profitable

TDK can keep the SA tape and renew it to a more modern design
without loosing the quality , yea they can even make it better

if there is someone that can make Limited editions it is TDK
TDK and BASF was one of the few companies releasing limited editions tapes.

The last corporation to update tapes was Sony back in 2002
thats it since 2002 nothing have happened in the tape marked

Basf-emtec will likely not listen
Fuji will not they stayed just too long with a lot audiocasetttes and just gave up on it

Maxell.... well it depend on their financial situation
to be frank i dont know where they stand
Maxell have not anounced any cuts in jobs but they are likely suffering

SONY too busy with Ps3 and Blueray will not listen
but there is a BUT if you can convince SONY to make more Tapes
they CAN make it SONY is big and even their financial situation they have the money
So Sony CAN do it thats IF they want to

TDK.... well is all about money there now
and maybe it depend abit of their boss Imation
TDK maybe can do something but you have to be quick TDK is likely to make up their mind about Casette future shortly, if they not did already

In fact as soon as this summer 2009 The future about Audiocasette in Europe from TDK can be settled

So who can make Audiocasette.

TDK or SONY?

Well the answer is.......

SOMEBODY NEW

Yep, when someone sees there is a demand for it
a new company from (audiophiles) can rise up
and sells Audiocasettes .
sure it be nothing like you can get into any shops and get
but it might still be the best out there

it will not last forever either but can mean a new era of tapes
who has the knowledge, the money, the skills and the guts to start with this..... time will show

until then there is Ebay

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