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In Reply to: When will blank tape market peak? posted by mikerussell@hughes.net on January 20, 2007 at 15:54:10:
As far as availability, I believed the peak passed well over a decade ago. All we see now is NOS coming up out of the woodwork. I also suspect that Metal isn't quite the hot commodity that some of us make it out to be. I cannot help but wonder if that tape is the object of a pyramid type scheme, sort of like the California housing market: people aren't buying them to use. They're buying them, sitting on them for six months or a year and are simply turning around and selling them again, hoping to turn a profit. Then the so-called "newbies" jump in, buy those tapes, sit on them, and.....round and round we go.I have no way of being proved right or wrong, but I'd bet that less than half of the buyers on Ebay of metal are actual end-users of those tapes; they are either waiting for a chance to sell for even more profit or else are buying them simply as collectibles. These tapes are not being used.
-which means that while the SUPPLY isn't going to disappear anytime soon, the PRICES are simply going to keep going up and up and up as they get passed from one person to the next until they get so high that no one can afford them.
Then and only then will they either A) be used or B) dumped on the market, flooding it and bringing prices back down to earth.
At which time people will start buying them and then.......
right back to square one.
Just my two cents.
Follow Ups:
Thanks for all your responses. I too bought $500 worth of TDK Ma-XGs and turned them over a year later for a $1000.00!!!
I hope what you said is correct. I will definite not paying the price of METAL at current asking price but if like what you predict that it will drop in the future to a level that I feel comfortable with I definitely will buy as many as I can afford to pay on those proven brands than buying TYPE-II !!1
The Type IV tapes are somewhat over-rated. Yes they will give ambiences and air above 18Khz that the chrome and normal bias lack. But at the cost of low-mid range response.The chrome is the best compromise- and if one wants more fidelity, find a vintage 3.75 IPS deck, and have at it.
metal tapes seem to "color" the sound at the high end. It's a proven fact in test labs, that chrome distorts more than normal bias, and metal distorts the most of all.
chrome and metal tape formulations are a 2-edged sword, they were made to band-aid a low tape speed, to boost high end FR
much more can be achieved, flatter across the board, by simply increasing tape speed or track width- in the case of the Philips cassette, the 3.75 IPS vintage machines are the way to go
3.75 IPS with metal tape, would be the best top end one could achieve with that format- but again, at the cost of bass fidelity
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