ECP - Electrochemical Plant in Zelenogorsk, Russia. They bought old AFGA tape manufacturing equipment from BASF in 1994. Then ECP started to produce their own audio and VHS tapes, also in 1997-2000 ECP made some of their own improvement on this tape, there was Extra Ferro (cheapest version, clear shell), Ultra Ferro (improved tape) and Green Mount (improved version of UF, green shell). So ECP tapes are really only "technology" by BASF, but made 100% in Russia. Early (1994-1995) versions of ECP tapes were not that good, tape and shells were much cheaper. Since 1997 it became a very good tape, in Russia price on ECP tapes were lower than any "Type-0". ECP stopped producing tapes in 2006-2007. Version in your video was produced in ~1998-2000, and there's no export version of any ECP.

2:59 it is Lithuanian made cassette, Acme factory in second biggest city, Kaunas. "Garso kasetė" means "sound cassette", used lots of these Acmes back in '90tees. Cheers from Lithuania ;)

Hi Tony . Greetings from Poland . Stilon XCR cassette is a Polish product. They were produced by the "Stilon Gorzów" company. Stilon XCR was produced before the collapse of the factory in Gorzów Wielkopolski. This cassette was produced in the early 90's, right after the fall of the USSR and communism in Poland. And all in all, such quick information about Stilon. Thanks for the great episode as usual. Regards Kamil :)

fun fact in 90s in my home town Gorzów where Stilon was placed find a c 60 cassettes was almost imposible

I was a kid in Poland in the 80s, and one of my best friends' dad had a tape duplicating business. Not sure how legit it was, but I remember at least half a dozen tape-to tape dubbing machines copying MIchael Jackson and such on to similar shelled tapes, and some cheaply printed or photocopied labels.

@Cassette Comeback Tony this is some fascinating history too. Interesting backgrounds on the Eastern European tapes. Thanks again!

Love the DISCO-HOUSE music.

Hi. Nice movie, I have been waiting for it. Stilon was the chemical factory in Poland. They made the shells, boxes and J-cards ( propably printed out in another factory), the tapes inside were bought in Germany for sure. So, It wasn't full production. Imagine that tapes in 80's were not avalible easilly in Poland. In Golden Age of tape recorders. ... I haven't see this model at all, however I was aware that it existed. Moreover the cassetes were sold without any additional cover, I could say it were opened. Tony thanks for that movie again. Aha, one thing at the end there were no Russian tapes in Poland at that time, opposite propably yes.

Good to hear that Stilon made up in decent category. We didn't use IV and II was occasional, because in 70/80's we had a rough time in Poland. They did not looked promising, but sound was an different manner. I still have IEC I tape, but now it's type 0 because of the bad storage probably. Dzień dobry.

Since watching your vids, I've started listening to some KZfaq library tracks. There's loads of really nice music in there, it's well worth making a 90 minute tape and listening on a loop just to relax to after work!

Well, I can see a very familiar logo there, never knew Sennheiser made cassettes... Oh, wait, it's a Stilon!

Е.С.Р- российские кассеты с пленкой basf производились в Красноярске.для того времени были на уровне basf ferro extra l.

During the 80s Bulgaria produced audio and VHS tapes under the "Видео Драгор" (Video Dragor) brand in the "Dinko Banenkin" factory for magnetic storage in the village of Dragor, Pazardjik region. The factory made type I and II cassettes with Agfa and BASF tape inside of them. The factory also produced cassettes for the state record company " Balkanton".

The embossed design on the Stilon shells are very much like 1988 BASF shells, only clear. They both have the horizontal ridges near the hubs and on the bottom, the wide triangle at the bottom, large numerals on the bottom corners, screws on side 2, and rough texture along the edges. Perhaps they used the same mold. They also use similar hub retainers and bright red leader as some early 80s BASF type 1s.

Hi, Tony! As for ECP, I got two of them, one is the UF 90 similar to one in your video, another one is the EF 90, which has the same tape in it, but he shell is just simple clear one. I really like these cassettes, the vendor was the ElectroChemical Plant (ECP) located in Zelenogorsk, Krasnoyarsk region, Siberia, Russia. That was a big factory previously working mostly for defence, then in 90s they decided to start making good cassettes and bought the technology from BASF. First cassettes has the Russian-made shells, but tape was shipped there from BASF, later even the tape was made in Zelenogorsk using BASF technology. Actually I already published the description and pictures of my ECP cassettes in your Facebook group.

The Stilon Shell Looks like a BASF from around 1986-1989 but clear Instead of black.

Good afternoon sir... Looks like you got there some of the rarest ReVox ever made...B-216!😍✌

It's glad to see, someone have product from Lithuania. Cheers from Lithuania

Am I the only one that noticed the "BASF TAPE" writing on the Acme? 😂

Thanks, Tony -interesting to see some eastern bloc tapes. Maybe you SHOULD get a Patreon set up. Mat over at Techmoan seems to get stuff sent to him all the time. I just hate to see you lose money on these videos. Just know there are those of us out here that really appreciate you taking it for the team. Also, I’m glad to see you now have a North American store .. I may have to order a couple of things I’m curious about now that shipping costs aren’t lethal.

They all sound really nice to me!

im amazed how much information you can find out, about something so niche, and obscure.

Stilon is a soviet-look tape from early 1990's, shell, hubs - are typical soviet MK-60, but tape probably from ORWO. There was a lot of ex-MK's in early 90's with different names and different tapes inside. And yes also that weird looking versions with dark slip sheet (that slip sheet from non-transparent black or white shells).

Thanks for video, Tony. 'Ve bought several packs of ECP's. Perform well,- nearly like BASF Ferro Extra. Question: LG HP 90 what the tape like?? Better than the ECP Ferro or not? Thank you!

These looks like 90´s 2000´s tapes, would be super interesting to see Sovjet era tapes.

Tony, on the JCard of the Acme it is written BASF Tape. ;-)

I have to the same ECP cassette, but it's green. The quality is amazing

I just bought a Revox B215 in mint condition on ebay.....it's all your fault 😂

Tony, Have you ever thought of doing a spectrum trace when comparing the tape sound quality? I for one would be interested in seeing what the tape response vs. the original source plots out on different tapes. I am not trying to get you to spend lots of money on this, I was more thinking using the tools in Audacity or similar to just do a rough graph looking for frequency roll-off and such. This isn't because I don't think you do a good job here, but KZfaq is compressing the audio from your comparison tests so your audience never really hears exactly what you do in the studio. With the graphs we could see visually how the tape is performing. Just my thoughts. I know it would require a lot of additional work on your part to accomplish this so take the suggestion as you will. I still find the channel entertaining and informative regardless.

ECP 👍 мне они всегда нравились в своё время

Hi. Some of these ferric tapes you're testing, really sound quite good - as far as I can tell from a digitised and youtube compressed demo. Just out of curiosity, do you know if there were ever any decks (excluding multitrack recorders) with a switch for 3.75 IPS? A good mastering deck, basically. Thanks!

the most important tool for a cassette lover is not a Nakamichi Dragon in perfect functioning state, no, it's neither a full stock of NOS tapes from Germany or Japan, no, no, no, it's just a good old reliable and French ball rolling "BIC Crystal" pen to rewind and tighten the tapes

I have to ask... where do you get these awesome cassettes? I can barely find a stock-standard Memorex, anymore... Edit: Okay, you just answered that question, literally in the first 30 seconds.

Hi Tony, Happy New Year 2020. Great and intresting video again. You proove everytime That music and tape industry is allway's makes everyone's head turning round. Now something about the Swiss brand Revox. I assume yu know Revox is the consumer part off the Profesional Brand Studer. The Revox B215 is the consumer Cassette Deck off the Studer A721. The Studer A721 does have some more futures. But furthermore they are actually the same machine. I know this because I do own both models. But now it comes, Revox is indeed a Swiss brand but they are asemblemd in Germany. Which meens the tapetransport and so on are made in Swiss but are put together in Germany. Even my Studer is assembled in Germany. But their some exeptions. My Revox B285 receiver is made in Switserland The later versions like the MK2 are made in Germany. This is even the case with their Cd Players. On the other hand the 2 factories were only around 10Km apart from echother, so in my eyes there's not much differance. Resuming, All machines are developed in the Swiss and the first editions are made in Swiss. Hope it will help you.

2:10 I would give this audio compact cassette ECP Ultra Ferro, on a five star scale, two stars. Oh, but wait, they have already given their rating and have already put two stars on the wrapping of the cassette. Nice! 📼⭐⭐ 😂

I am trying to find old Emgeton casettes. They were made in former Czechoslovakia by studio labs in Barandov. They were quite common back in the days, but once the market opened to far higher quality tapes from outside they went extinct very fast. It is almost impossible to find sealed ones, but used ones pop in from time to time in auctions.

I was poking around the net a not too long ago and found out that (I think) Tesa used to sell numbered A/V splice tape with the intention of identifying malfunctioning loading machines. So basically anyone could have used it for whatever reasons they saw fit...

Greetings Tony- intetesting, as have never seen these brand of tapes before. * Going off-piste slightly, are you aware if any persons in the South West who service/ ovethaul tape decks please? I have some that need a refresh and am worried about doing it myself. As always, thanks for the great content.

About the shells used here: - The Acme shell is from Kolormagnetics (China): www.kolorcn.com/kolor-media/cassette This exact model is not listed on their website any more, but has been there before, and is also known as the "ICM style" shell, because it is a design copy of a widely used ICM shell (JVC, Scotch XS II-S et al.) Tape in the Acme can very well be Emtec's late 90's FeCo formulation, which was used in CS II, and recently in the ATR Pro Chrome tapes. But this is wild guessing, as I don't have one of these Acme's. - The Stilon shell is undoubtedly a BASF design, but the leader tape and the screws tell that at least the assembly has happened somewhere else. Either in Gorzów at Stilon, or even in Kazan, as suggested in a most interesting comment somewhere below here. Now what we don't know is whether the plastic halves came from BASF, or it was rather using BASF's old moulding tools somewhere else, just as ECP did with the old Agfa tools. Nice detail: The Stilon XCR you opened and tested has BASF shaped slip sheets inside, possibly they are still original stock. The striped slip sheets in the second example you showed are a generic product you could find in quite a variety of cassettes, but never in original BASF's. This was one more interesting tape video, please keep them coming :-)

Nice!

Can you review insert cassette here? Please? Thank you for your videos, i hope you keep on going in 2020.

thanks for your lovely and Informative videos what is the best German deck?

You better smell the roses!

Beutiful Vintage

ECP and ACME look to both have BASF/EMTEC on the label so just a Eastern block different shell BASF and I don't expect any worse than the big player. Stillion if it smells more like a Chrome though is more likely to be another BASF import but the pure one probably.

Not bad sounding tapes, ya that is pretty hard to get a bad sounding tape on a Revox B215. Unless the tape is just crap, it doesn’t happen! It’s true about the Revox decks, it can turn beer into champagne!

Hi, could you PLEASE make a video about head cleaner and demagnetizer tapes and which ones are better that you can recommend by your experience THANK YOU in advance...

From behind the Iron Curtain. If only it were a chrome curtain?

Thank you Tony, you're the best!

how are maxell ue 90 s (green colored ones) they seem to be easily available in my country and around a dollar each for a piece

Translation didn’t pop up

So, how about that Metal Vertex review then? ;)

I remember from back in early 2000's on a movie, some guy has pulled a tape out of his pocket and look like this one in 5:00

These stilon tapes are probably from 90s, so they arent genuine communist-era stilon (which were of agfa origin probably, R2R tapes were certainly), there is a ferric iteration of that stilon one and it looks as if it contained basf ferro extra tape, might do more tests to confirm that

This acme cassette is made in early 2000's because I have similar looking cassette but type I tape which I bought brand new at that time.Those acme cassettes were actually good quality tapes like any other good manufacturer. But at that time many of us who lives in eastern europe still remember tapes which were made in USSR. Those tapes were complete rubbish. Even using high quality deck they sound awful. Look for brand "cbema" as reference. It will be interesting to see demo test.

Hey...!👍

👍👍👍

I'm from Moscow, and I'm your fan. In my childhood I used a lot of ECP cassette tapes, but now my fav cassettes are Maxell, TDK and Sony. From 1980s and 1990s. Wait for my playlist!

Hi, Tony! Black slip sheets are coloured not for aesthetic reasons. The black coating is a conductive paint, which is supposed to elmininate static charge on the tape, to prevent the tape turns sticking to each other. But I agree, it's ugly in a clear shell, *except* if it was a white silkscreened pre-recorded cassette. The the black background is quite handy for white silkscreen. Also, you missed that the ACME J-card says there's BASF tape inside in that one as well. So both the ACME and ECP tapes are BASF-made, the ECP one might be made in Russia with BASF technology. I have no idea about the tape in the Polish Stilon cassette.

I'm from Poland but i never saw Stilons like this one. I remember and have some of those apollo-ireland.akamaized.net/v1/files/r35ktntu0eaj-PL/image;s=644x461 They was made in Stilon Gorzow Poland - we stil have football team named Stilon Gorzow and they stil use old logo that was used by tape manufacturer. I called them "Head grinders" ;) They was worse than "type0" maybe "type -2" is proper category for them :D They also produced rell to rell tape.

This must be very late stilon in basf case. The early stilon was entirely made in poland including the tape. They also made vhs tapes. It was a big chemical company employing 12000 people.

Экспортная ECP была у нас в России , у меня в коллекции есть других цветов : зеленая , серая и как у вас на видео черная , попадался брак , но и Basf тоже попалась с браком , кассеты сделанные в China мусор , так как портят лпм

Quanto costa questa passione?

Is this deck better than the dragon ????

ECP: Electro Chemical Productions. GM: Green Mount.

Came across a Russian version of an TDK MA-R on ebay lol

Tony, you are similar in age to me. Do you remember Chinese cassettes sold in market stalls in the late seventies/early eighties? They used to sell for about 25p each and each ferric particles was about 1mm across! Slight exaggeration.

I'd probably say it is in fact very easy to find all 3 brands here on your store already in original English versions for cheaper than the foriegn shell. They are all what they say they are BASF foreign tapes. The Type 1 is even you reliable WEA who had one of the so called better pre recorded duplication factories out there pre recorded tapes used tape. That was your Type 1 Ferric that you see in your Hits 7 and your Hits 9 that is put in that crappy Spectrum tapes white brittle can snap under your thumb shell that was produced for Spectrum games. Very good looking case but you can't go in it to toy with a broken tape so you have to smash it and put the tape in somewhere else adn for the looks it was brittle and the rollers just feel hard and crusty with age like they might not even more if you plaayed The Hits Tape 7 or 9 these days. I guess if your got a Hits tape this is a very expensive in the UK foreign shell thats better for storing your tape than the original after it waers out as the proper shell does look good just brittle and the rollers are very stiff as it's the same BASF tape.

У меня есть ECP, хорошие кассеты, только цвет ленты не внушает доверия...

I thought Stilon only made ferric tapes. And people thought they were bad

For some reason I was thinking about a joke (something like in America you clean the tape head, in Soviet Russia tape head cleans you). (no offence).

ECP - made in Siberia .

Хотя тест был не совсем равнозначным,две кассеты хром против одной феррум,котрая не подвела. ESP кассета сделана в России с лентой по технологии фирмы BASF. Лента как и вся кассета изготовлена в России. А не укомплектована импортной лентой,как думают некоторые.

can you make casio cassettes

Meh, I was expecting to see the old Red, Green, Blue and Purple Stilons from the time of soviet occupation of Poland.

Pack of 10 new EMI Super's? Am I the only guy that remembers this Middlesex rellic? www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pack-Of-10-New-Sealed-VINTAGE-EMI-Super-C90-BLANK-Audio-Cassette-Tapes-RARE/383668139553?hash=item5954673621:g:xawAAOSwODZfHVIx EMI standard www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EMI-C90-STANDARD-CASSETTE-NEW/324148849960?hash=item4b78c6ed28:g:TFoAAOSwfedeENha Stars www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-sealed-x-10-VINTAGE-EMI-STAR-C90-BLANK-AUDIO-CASSETTE-TAPES-LOW-NOISE/283988946449?hash=item421f0f6e11:g:z5wAAOSwy91fIBgP XT www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EMI-XT-C60-1981-Cassette-Tape-Playing-Cards-NEW-SEALED/303540751892?hash=item46ac704e14:g:bw8AAOSwxNBcfSNk Hi-Fi pre used but I remember it most www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EMI-Hi-Fidelity-C90-1970s-Cassette-Blank-Tape-1227/114323469284?hash=item1a9e35b3e4:g:8awAAOSwM2BfHXLa Soundhog www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-EMI-Soundhog-audio-cassette-tape-60-used-Rare/114280469741?hash=item1a9ba594ed:g:kA0AAOSwgMFe-Jtq Hi Dynamic www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EMI-EMITAPE-C120-HI-DYNAMIC-USED-CASSETTE-TAPE-VINTAGE/224016121834?hash=item342866bfea:g:BZUAAOSw8xxcxEJK EMI Tape www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EMI-EMITAPE-C120-VINTAGE-USED-CASSETTE-TAPE-MADE-IN-THE-UK-GREEN-CARD/224138691888?hash=item342fb50530:g:98MAAOSwkW5dmHxo Superchrome but how super is it? www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EMI-SUPERCHROME-II-C90-VINTAGE-USED-CASSETTE-TAPE-TYPE-II-CHROME-POSITION/224138691872?hash=item342fb50520:g:4V0AAOSwkoddb~B2 EMI Tape version of Soundhog www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-EMITAPE-Soundhog-90-cassette/223998893677?hash=item34275fde6d:g:VcMAAOSwjmher-~1 Job lot with many old relics like EMI Supers and one of your Contec 0s. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/cassette-tape-job-lot-emi-basf-scotch-x-35/324293316889?hash=item4b81635119:g:OREAAOSwIeVfRtC3 How many EMI tapes do you remember and do you remember them being real Type 1 & 2 or Type 0 quality? I do remember them fondly because of where they come from and the look as well as still having EMI shells I think mine were all Super/Hi-Fi/Standard though. I think as they are from our home country it's worth covering these tapes one day maybe but they are rare the company Thorn EMI of Feltham is dead now. EMI had one foreign range tape as well it seems lol. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toshiba-EMI-c60-Cassette-Tape-Sealed/362930040348?hash=item548050ee1c:g:A-AAAOSwdXheWo7S

too bad we cannot get to try some here in the west!

Yeah, I know many seem to think it looks cool, but if you know the Cyrillic alphabet, looking at the font (based on Ukrainian, not Russian) you used on your thumbnail just makes your eyes bleed.

fake stilon.