Home Tape Trail

Reel to reel, cassette and other analogue tape formats.

RE: RTR tape question

Yes. The short answer is that they are intended primarily for the studio or serious high end user. Half track, 15 ips or higher is probably the target audience for those tapes. But....

I can't think of any reason you couldn't use either tape aside from possible biasing issues on that machine. Both tapes *will* work, but you stand the chance of having a somewhat dull and flat sound because those are both high bias requirement tapes. So keep that in mind. The good news though is that you should be able to really run deep into the red without noticeable rolloff, saturation, or distortion.

I have not used SM-900 ( the proper brand name for current production is PYRAL. EMTEC and RMGI are now technically defunct; the latter is now a distributor in name only so now the oft used term of NOS has to apply to those names...just FYI), so I can't offer any first hand insight. My understanding is that it is a high end tape intended to compete with ATR, although what I've read seems to show some preference to the ATR brand.

I have however have used ATR Master on both my Teac X-2000R and it's half track sibling, the TASCAM 3030. On both machines, the tape sounded lovely and crystal clear. No major tweaking to any of the tone controls was needed.

The only *POSSIBLE* issue that may be of concern, and I say this not based on my experience, but that of others...is that with the thicker tapes, it *MIGHT* strain the capstan motor because of the extra torque and possibly not grab the tape as well, theoretically opening the door to slippage and azimuth mistracking. I personally feel that it's a remote at best concern. But I'm throwing it out there anyway.

3M # 996 is the "thickest" tape I know of in terms of how far a known, set footage will come to as far as how much it will fill a reel (a full 2400 of the stuff comes to within about an eighth of inch of the physical top of the reel), with both Quantegy #499 and GP9 being right there at almost the same level. ATR, unless it's changed recently, a full roll leaves about a quarter of inch room in the reel diameter. So if you've used any of those tapes with no problems, then I can't think of why ATR should be a cause for concern.

As I mentioned, I have not personally tried SM-900. But I have *SEEN* it firsthand. And a full roll leaves a heck of a lot more "room" in the reel, implying a somewhat thinner tape, which would imply it being less imposing on the decks motor transport.

So in short, I don't really think you have much to worry about. And if you prefer the shorter length tapes over long play, I'd say "go for it".



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