Another great video Tony! I can vouch for the UR's toughness. I worked at a AM radio station in the 80's where we used UR 120's for recording radio programs from satellite and playing them on the air later. We used them over and over again but even when the tape was very worn out it never broke or jammed up. Anyway we cassette fans should respect the UR for being the "Last of the Mohicans" survivor of all the legendary tapes that came out in the 1980's. My favorite version is still the 1985-88, it made a big impression on me when I started using them. I never saw the BASF made UR in the USA, and it seemed the hissiest of all of the three you tested.

I bought many tapes Maxell UR-60 since 1999 until 2004, and this material actually has excellent preservation. I recorded many radio programs in this wonderful cassettes, in Mexico fortunately saled this brand and model of tapes.

1985 version 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 it makes a very specific sound when you shake it.

0:20 - 0:25 utter respect from me, mate.

Man, that 1985 wrapper is so classic. Only have one left unopened right now that I found at a thrift store years ago. That 85 Maxell range are some of my favourite looking cassettes. Have a bunch of the later guy in a chair URs of a few different designs. Never seen the Original before.

I used some of the 'red' maxell UR tapes back in the late 80s, I always liked them, but I didn't know they were famous :)

How comes nobody mentions a very specific, distinctive smell of the oval Maxells? It was actually part of the experience!

Fantastic as always... The UR will always have a special place in my heart! I used to buy loads of them and in the early 90s, I could still find the 88 version from the local store I used to buy from. I got super nostalgic when I saw those labels. I remember putting them on as you had to be careful to stick it on its proper position. Thanks Tony for this video!

'88 seems to be just a great year for Cassette Tape design... Love the '88 UR, love the '88 D, and love the '88 SA/MA - Keep up the awesome work Tony

The '88 version with the solid hubs are some of the smoothest type 1s I've used. Put The Beatles on quite a few of mine, and always on the lookout for more in the 60 min lengths. Really enjoy these "cassette in profile" videos, like with the vintage cassette database you can see the evolution of the tapes- except that website doesn't have Tony's chair in it.

That hiss is part of analog!Without that hiss,never i buy again a cassette tape,a cassette deck!In that case we must stay with cd,MQA,DSD etc.I love that hiss,and all my recordings they are made without using dolby.....

Lasting memory of 88 UR's - the smell, they had a really particular and peculiar smell! Also the hub clips always looked like little crowns to me

Also, the first Maxell UR I ever had was an 85 version a friend gave to me with...the Miami Vice Soundtrack on it! Jan Hammer sounded great on it, even on the cheap boombox I had at the time.

Maxell has been my favorite cassette for many years.

Excellent Tony,got about 1000 of these,all used & catolouged,...love #CassetteComeback 👏👏👏

Even WITH the sticker, the '85 UR still doesn't look complete to my eyes.. I'd feel much better if you would please write "Michael Jackson - BAD" on it 🕺

Maxell UR is still the best sounding cassette on the planet. I have so many of these, including the 1985 version with light gray J-Cards along with the original box in a 10-pack that I got in a flea market a long time ago, along with a few with red J-Cards, and both has the same cassette as it was in the ‘85 version. I also have a few ‘88, ‘91, ‘93, and ‘95 all the way to the last generation which is the ‘99 and still continues to this day. There were other predecessors like the LN and UD both came out in the 1970’s, along with the cheaper low end cassettes like the LN and S-LN as well while the UR was made.

Another nice video! I'm cassette collector and I love your videos

I had a 5 pack of the 1985 when I was a young teenager, possibly my very first 5 pack, and I was probably given them for Christmas by my parents. I recorded my NOW 10 LP on two of them, and used the rest for Dire Straits. They remained my only (heavily played) copy of Dire Straits until I bought them on CD many many years later. They weren't great copies, having been dubbed off another copy. What I never realised was just how good the tape can actually sound. I just got some of the 1988 version yesterday, and have just tried recording a digital source onto them, having calibrated bias and pre-recording level on a good 3 head deck. I also used Dolby C (which because the deck is well calibrated to the tape, works superbly). And wow, does the '88 version sound impressive. It's so so close to the source once bias is tweaked, I can't quite believe it. I really struggle to tell UR and source apart, listening on decent open back headphones and a rather nice tube headphone amp. I tested a bunch of other ferrics, but also an AR, an SA, and a late model XL-II as well. Those last three are all indistinguishable from the source. The TDK D and Sony HF kept up with the UR too. I clearly need to find some more challenging test music, but for electronica (Goldfrapp's NeverStop in this case) all the ones I've mentioned were awesome. And the quality of the design work on the 1988 model - it's timeless. The inlay card looks contemporary; great typography, good colours. I think I might have a new favourite amongst the standard Type I's. I'm tempted to go and re-record my Dire Straits albums…

They all sound great, the '85 and '88 look great and, as always, great video! Never seen those "original UR" (or any Maxell with non-Maxell hubs, I think) here.

Hi Tony! Indeed Maxell are among the best and i always loved the look and the sound of these cassettes. By the way, the stickers for the 1985 version looks very much like the stickers of Fuji FR II.

The 1988 UR is my favorite UR as well...especially with the half moon labels

Thanks Tony for the vídeo!I like the most 85 and 88 URs The 85 Is a legend, due to have been the First UR Made by Maxell; it has beautiful label colours, wrapper, AND the 88 which has a More refined style of Shell and that is very good sounding as well.I Think as with TDK D , you cant go wrong with a Maxell UR.Generally speaking Maxell makes everlasting cassettes for tough work.I like its criteria of simplicity beautifully conceived, and the fact that they are built like a tank.Thanks again Tony!As always I'm very happy to learn something new every day .Regards!Rafael

As I have posted elsewhere, the UR 120's helped me to find one of my favorite bands quite by accident. I loved listening to two radio shows in my car. But I listened to them on cassette. The two were Dr. Dementio and Cartalk. I originally used my Nakamichi 600 to record these with a timer. But once I bought my auto-reverse Kenwood dual well deck in 1997, I moved to a 2 hour record mode on 120's. Cartalk was a one hour show. In order to put less stress on the C-120 I let the Kenwood record for two hours. Thus I didn't have to rewind the tape. One week in the last segment of the second hour I heard a group play a Canadian Folk Waltz that almost hypnotized me. I immediately hit the rewind button and played it twice more. Arriving home I played it for my wife on our home system. The group was Bottine Souriante, but the song was unknown to me. I attempted to contact the group by email. I wanted to buy a recording of that song. I sent an mp3 copy as an attachment but the response was less than enlightening. First, there was a language barrier. The recipients of my email were French speaking and couldn't completely grasp the question. "Is that wonderful song played as the last piece of the radio show available on CD?" Second there was a technology problem. They informed me that at that time in the late 90's their Mac computers couldn't play mp3's. I filled my question in my brain until Amazon, IIRC, CD's were sold on Amazon with the ability to listen to track segments before buying. I bought Xieme which includes the beautiful "Ciel D'Automne" (along with a couple other CD's by Bottine Souriante. ) My wife and I were lucky enough to attend one of their rare US concerts on the campus of Dartmouth College. Thank you Maxell UR C-120!

6:49 I recorded on a few of the oval Maxell UR90's mainly electronic music from CD's and they were great cassettes and had an awesome smell to them as well. I liked how the labels matched the oval design.

Thank you Tony, on the spot all the time. I´ve never had any luck with Maxell UR. Maybe I was recording them too hot? Will give them another try. Working on a deck upgrade like you suggested. Have a nice one.

When the western world moved from tape to CD, I did too. CDs have some good qualities, but after growing up on cassette tapes, doing all my radio air checks on cassette, mix tapes, etc. I preferred cassette. Recording to CD requires hardware and software that can burn a CD. Too many variables to bugger up. Recording to cassette has always seems easier and more reliable to me.

I’ve never come across a bad Maxell tape, especially UR. In my humble opinion, Maxell UR cassettes are great, look nice and are very useful. Maxell UR tapes, I would, on a five-star scale, give five stars. Cheers! 🍻 📼 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I myself have some sealed Originals, however, they have the different tape inside. The hubs look like stars or cogs, the "Original" has been moved to the right hub instead of in the middle and the tape is a slightly transparent pure chocolate-like brown. Personally I love how clean this shell is, looking almost crystal clear and nearly no resistance when spooling at all. Cheers!

My workplace actually has a strategic reserve of mid-00s Maxell URs for dictation use. Like bulk boxes stacked 6 feet high. There was a scare that supply of new cassettes was going to dry up so someone scoured all the remote offices and built up the inventory. We had problems with our digital dictation workflow and still have the trusty old cassette+Sony dictation player with foot pedals on standby (they were still in active use a few years ago). Amazingly there is a Telex high speed duplicator that still works too!

Been looking forward to any tape evaluation you’re doing. The ‘88 sounded best to me. Could be that track had more going on both in the lows and highs. When you talk performance at this level, this is a really good standard for ferric tape. Still looking for a Revox B215. Just haven’t found one yet I can sink my money in. It’ll come. You always do a fun program Tony! Stay safe!

Great tapes, always relied upon them

Hey Tony! I love your channel! Got recently into cassettes again and bought myself a Sony TC K-415 and an Akai DX-49. As i watched all your videos i found something missing. I'm equally into the tapes themself as i am into the devices they are meant to be played back on. It would be really awesome if you could let us have a look on your deck collection. So far i always see a new deck pop up in your videos and am curious what i haven't seen jet. You could do a deck a week/month with all its history and story behind it or just a long video going through them all at once.

Sir you are a great man never betray cassettes please we need them coming genaration need these cassettes and walkmans

Even the later 90s and early 2000s American URs (which look similar to the one you didn't have but pictured) are really decent tapes, I've found (and have a ton of currently). Well, you've covered the HF, the D, and the UR in depth now.. I think it's about time for the Ultimate Vintage Type I Throwdown - maybe the '85s/88s/95s - D vs UR vs HF! See who comes out on top. (unless you've done it and I missed it lol) .. Great video, as always, Tony - thanks!

The 88's version were made worldwide, yours is made in Korea, I got mine in Antwerp, 1992, it's made in Germany and more than likely loaded with light brown Basf tape. I personally stick to classic Maxell LN, slightly better response at high frequencies :)

I had some Maxwell cassette tapes in my lifetime!

I was always a TDK man back in the day for some reason, maybe it was the look or the just more availability, but of all of them the 88 UR is a nostalgic cassette for me, I still have the Bon Jovi concert at Milton Keynes bowl I went to on tape, it was broadcast on radio 1 FM and my sister recorded it for me!

I have a few LNs from the late 1970s. The tape colour was lighter brown, with a mat finish rather than high gloss. It was noisier with muted highs, but it worked for disco. I still have cartons of unopened XLII s we bought at good prices before CDs took over. Most of my cassette decks are worn out though.

Those maxell UR tapes are my favorite to use

Tony, this is your conscience talking to you... prepare a review of your Nakamichi Cassette Deck 2!!! :D Thanks for the UR review! Thoroughly enjoyed it!

In Slovakia, in the case of "original ur", it was something like this: Around 1998, it was sold in a blue package with the large inscription "EURO". Inside was a "original ur" cassette made by Maxell. Cheap transparent shell with cast Maxell inscription. Probably Pure Crystal, the tape was good. Cheaper than "UR" Shortly afterwards, it came in a red package with the words "original ur" and the cassette was exactly the same. In about 2002, the EMTEC cartridge was sold in the same red packaging, just like in your video. Maxell sold OEM products in Europe in 2002 and then only Indonesia products (PT.Panggung Electric Corp.). Probably at that time there was a change or sale of Maxell's production equipment. Maxell "UR" was also an OEM Emtec or Saehan in 2002.

the maxell ur 90 is the one i use most often. Sometimes i use new old stock cassettes but the new ur is cheap and get's the job done as well.

It's funny, after the '88, the wrappers and printing were different here in America.

Our Tony, what have you done? The power of KZfaq means there were no URs left in our Tesco Haydock or St Helens after you gave the game away. A few months ago they couldn't give 'em away now, like the whispering grass, now everybody knows, Lofty T, that they are being discontinued. I should be angry with you but you are so informative and entertaining. Continuing the 70s theme, you are awful but we like you. These guys may be hissy, but we grew up with them. What is not to forgive? They gave me hours of pleasure back then, and cassette Gods willing, they will continue to give me pleasure in the future. I recorded the charts on the '85 version and it's predecessor the UL in 83 and I can still listen to the late Tommy Vance run down the chart long after he has gone to the monsters of Rock Valhalla. Excellent video and I hope you will find more UR stock to purchase from your store our Tony?

I have all of these Maxell Cassettes which I played over 5,000 times, besides other hundreds of brands of tapes I also played on my Professional Studio Quality Audio Compact Cassette Tape Deck, and they still sound amazing! Since I Professionally Record them from being, Louder Sharper and Cleaner than CD's and especially MP3's! I played them so much, that the pinch roller is permanently embedded with the chemical reaction from the protective layer of the tape, the pinch roller is naturally grey, but there is a dark black, mirrorish layer where the tape gets pinched between the Capstan and the pinch roller, you can see the Capstan's reflection spinning in the part of the pinch rollers in ether deck. I never, ever use alcohol or tape head cleaning solution on the rubber pinch roller, since it will dry it out! And I'm still playing one of the Maxell UR 90 with the Green "Original" lettering and White & Red hubs tape playing in my Tape Deck B, right now! Not to mention, I just purchased brand new blank Maxell UR 90 Minute Tapes from Fred Meyer today. Im glad they still sell them today!

Great... I'm a big Maxell-fan. I use the UR for "background" mix tapes, and mostly XL-II for jazz, country, 50s-70s pop, 50-60s folk. So I'm definitely looking forward to a similar story on the many incarnations of the XL-II (because even my UD-XLII cassettes stil sound great), I'd love to see a comparison between the UR-UD-I,XL-I and XL-I-S, same for UD-II, XL-II, XLII-S, perhaps even a "entry level chrome"-comparison: UD(S)-II, SX, SQ. In general, I like the 1985 lineup (that great looking UD-II in shiny gold, and the XL-II in a brushed-look version), and the ones that came right behind that with the "retro" hubs (like here: vintagecassettes.com/maxell/maxell_files/image817.jpg).

funny you should do this video as i have brought a couple of the ones with the bloke sitting on the wrapper and the 88 version one also xlII-s and a Ln also this week i have some of the last ur's and used one of them and found the hiss not to be that bad tbh what the diff on the original between the 90 stamp on the cassette being in either white or green the 88 ur looks lost in the revox(the tinted part looks part of it) it looks really cool again i love the wrappers and tape design on the maxell will have to get more of them what do you do with all these tape to use in the videos. i have finally managed to get me a 3 head deck when it turn's up i cant wait to have a go(after a strip down and clean)

I've loved The Maxell Type 2 tapes. Rarely any lemons. But I used to prefer the TDK type 1 .Just had more Highs and compression especially for radio shows. But hardly use them now. Been lucky to find plenty new old stock and hundreds of used type 2 I could probably take over if I needed to. Got a good deck being fixed up since I have hours of good live music from the past to rediscover .

Old but Gold...

Man that 88 UR is a legend. I used to have so many and somehow I got rid of all of em 🥴

I got in contact with Maxell a few weeks ago and they said they have discontinued the maxell UR ☹️☹️

That first ur90 is the first kind of cassette I've ever used

I have these in the red wrapper and some in the green wrapper. is there any difference.. and maxells XL-II 100 minute chrome tapes

oh yes that sony had maxell pengion hubs which I remembered on one of ur of maxell.

Great vid to wile away a Friday evening. I picked some of the '88 Green ones at a charity shop few months ago for 20p each- bargain methinks. Stay safe and keep up the great work. P.S.- Have you used Sharp blank minidiscs at all?

God we where spoilt back then, quality cassettes for peanut prices.....My oval shell still perform as good as the day they where opened in the 80,s...:):)

5:05 I had some maxells like that before

I like the look of the early-to-mid-80's tapes. Love your videos. Only one criticism- when you test the tapes, you start with the sound from the tape instead of the source. For me, it's a spoiler that takes away the suspense/surprise aspect. It's just my glass onion.... I mean opinion (just felt like throwing a joke in there), that it would make it better to put the source sound first. Thanks for your dedication. PS I did end up going , finally, to the store in Brooklyn, and the tapes have some familiar similarities to tapes you've described, like the hub design. I will have to go back to that video and let you know about it. :)

The URs that we have here in Connecticut look closer to the 3 pack you have but not exactly, I think they are either a 3 or 5 pack.

Nothing compares to the smell of a brand new opened maxell cassette. Nothing...

I got a bunch of the originals at a charity shop still wrapped up for 20p each.

Why is 88 the prime year for tapes? The SA reference from TDK. The Maxell UR. Just to name two. Oh and the Fuji FR-II. Hahah that’s 3 - I digress! Those URs were also my Normal tape of choice back in 88-90. Made so many tapes. Mostly hip hop and dance and boy those sounded great even on lousy decks. :-)

Hi Tony! Just going back to an old video to comment because it's about this brand. TE channel, a young guy from Vietnam that restores vintage electronics did a neat video on decorating plain new Maxell UE cassettes. I thought you might like to check it out.

I have the red UR- 90 with ELVIS Madison SQ Garden recorded on it. It's not a great quality recording. But it's entertaining!

@7:10 Easy to use cassette, maybe they were talking about basf pure chromes or phillips pure chromes where you have to do a biasing analytical physics and dynamics audio test before recording 😅😅

Hi Tony, what camera are you using?

1:31 my favorite one

Hi friend. Could you pls to help me! What do 70us and 120us EQ mean? I can not find out what is it? Thank you!

is crazy that audio quality didn't evolve like video , today we have 8k but audio quality is quite the same

Где вы покупаете кассеты???? Пожалуйста ответьте мне??????

Take a look at the ed-x 60

Nevermind that Nonsense. Let's talk cassettes!! Awesome

Could these virgin cassettes be valuable?

Well the UR's and the HF's and the D's don't give me the fizz to use. But for a quick and dirty mix tape they get the job done.

I was browsing cassette tapes and found this cassette on USA eBay 6/8/20...TDK Gold cassette tape With a special case Not for sale difficult to obtain

Maxell is my favorite cassette brand. They’re very reliable, very high quality and rugged. Does anyone know what UR stands for? I can’t seem to figure it out. Just curious.

Strange, the Revox scale should really be the same as the Nak's scale. Maybe someone was working on it and got that wrong. Service Manual clearly says 200nWb/m Dolby Level should be zero on the PPM. Nice tapes and video though.

Could you review some east german OrWo tapes? That would be great!

Why is the tape different colors? They are all ferric tape and all based on clear Mylar with a coating of a waxy base with rust particles, at least in theory. Is simply different dyes? Do various additives have a different color? Does it denote how much of one doping agent vs a different one?

IT WAS TIME to TRYING but YOU CAN'T :v)! I've been telling you for months that you opened those cassettes with your a**! XD Calm and patience!

Not much difference in sound quality from the source to any of these cassettes besides some tape hiss. In the 80s and early 90s I would have been blown away by this sound quality coming from my boom box. :)

Something peeked my interest, so i randomly trye'd to see if i could order cassette in my country, and well it seems so Theyre name is Crosley Blank Cassette, probably Type 0 mimic i dunno

Some were korean made back in the day too

It seems to me that the rec level is a bit low for these tapes. That's the reason they sounds hissy.

I remember preferring the sound of Maxell Ur to TDK d. Was that just me?

The 1985 version of which I own a few remind me of the TDK D, terms of looks. They are very similar, looks wise. Just a plain black tape with an ugly colored sticker. While I had pretty good luck with the Maxell, the TDK D sounded awful in whatever deck I used it in. Because I still have one of them that has a terrible copy of Deepest Purple (Deep Purple) on it.

Cracking video! Thanks man. It's a bit of a novelty but would you be doing a review of the Tape2? www.reloop.com/reloop-tape-2

shit Tony!! i used so many of these UR's back in the day i truly could not tell you just how many i went through-lol

are all cassette music albums type 1 from mid 80s and 90s

I have one made by SAEHAN.

I don't know what it is with the new maxell UR tapes. But my deck really does not like them at all.even with Dolby s in use, an old, used agfa LNS 60 from the 80s still sounds better, have I just been unlucky and got a bad set? Or is it my deck (SONY TC-S1) , the heads are cleaned once every two weeks.

Frequency sweeps at -25dB? Push them levels to 0! :)

2:01 Prophecy? A man in a mask against covid-19 listening to music? Joke, I've seen this photo or similar on books cover of Aleksander Witort, polish audio guru about hifi equipment. Dźwięk i Technika HI-FI (Sound and Hi-Fi technique - Aleksander Witort).

No explanation as to what Maxell actually meant by 'original UR'.

The modern URs 2:50 are utter Type 0 garbage in and out.

Recording way too low

These boring graphs are ... boring

Pinch rollers get worn & need replacement. Tape reels stop turning freely. Tape gets eaten in tape decks. Cassette tapes are NOT a good media! They all should've been replaced by the LS-120 super-disks: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/a9GjZtiU2tPNnIk.html

Someone is still making cassettes? WTF for?