Review on 🎧 Maxell 108575: High-Quality Audio Cassettes with Low Noise Surface - 90 Minute Recording Brick Packs, 7 Tapes Per Pack by Brent Shaeffer

This review is for Maxell UR-90 cartridges which I have purchased more than one pack of. Yes, the audio is usually quite good, but there were frequent instances where the audio was dull and uneven at the start of playback. It's a little tricky to diagnose, but I think the culprit is the tape, not the cassette deck. That's why. I have a fairly new cassette deck (a good 2 cassette Teac) that uses the cassettes (about a dozen) I recorded on my previous deck (was also a Teac) thirty years ago (regular offset Maxell and TDK) plays flawlessly every time and they sound as dynamic as the original recording. No interference, ever! The new cassettes reviewed here, RECORDED ON MY NEW DECK (so you'd think there would be improved playback compatibility) regularly play poorly (that muffled, jittery sound) during the first few minutes of playback. A real disappointment. I am convinced that this cassette format, which I like but is no longer "modern" these days, suffers in quality with these Maxell tapes compared to the predecessors that Maxell once produced. (Could be a belt, mechanism, or both.) It's a shame to say that. I'm grateful that Maxell still makes cartridges, but it's a shame the current product can't match the rock-solid reliability of its decades-old cartridge ancestors. They don't make them like they used to.