The article is reproduced from the audiovisual front
Audiophile circle, everyone changes the law to play this way and that, enjoy it. CD play from 16bit to 24 bit, from HDCD to XRCD, from aluminum alloy coating to 24K pure gold coating, from DVD AUDIO to SACD; from CD to vinyl revival; from vinyl revival to opening band revival... In short, whether you follow the trend or not, you have to admire the audiophiles and the good audiovisual practitioners. After all, there are new things to play, there are new market hotspots, and this industry and this circle will not lack vitality and driving force. A recent new trend can be summed up in one question – do you remember the tapes you bought in those years?
tape? Are you the tapes that you've all thrown away after you started buying CDs? Probably for most people, the first reaction that comes to mind when they hear this question is like this. For young people after 00, there may be no such thing as tape in their memory, because CDs are about to become things that are about to be eliminated for them, let alone tapes that have been eliminated earlier. And for those fans living in the post-80s, who has not been mad about the memories of recording tapes and card holder tape recorders? However, as technology continued to update, the advent of CDs soon ended the market career of recording tapes. Nowadays, tape is no longer everywhere, but with the revival of vinyl records, the possibility of seeing vinyl records and vinyl record players around audiophiles is far greater than seeing tapes and card holder recorders, and it is no wonder that some people sigh: tape is dead. However, more and more market winds are showing that tape is not only not dead, it may be preparing for a counterattack.
Not to mention that located in the Nakameguro area of Tokyo, Japan, there are more than 6,000 kinds of tapes in the sale of "waltz" tape stores in recent years, the sales volume of goods has been increasing, statistics in the United Kingdom also show that tape, which people think can no longer return to the market audio-visual products, its market share has also increased year by year, although it can not be compared with CDs, but almost enough to threaten the proportion of vinyl records. In everyday life, tape has not completely withdrawn from people's vision. In fact, much of the world's data is still preserved on videotapes, including basic scientific data such as particle physics and radio astronomy, human heritage and national archives, major films, banking, insurance, oil exploration, and more. There's even a group of people whose job is to continuously improve tape storage technology. Tape may seem like a retired product, but it also has many benefits. The main reason why many companies use tape is more due to the low cost of tape storage. Tape storage costs one-sixth of what you pay to maintain the same amount of data on a hard drive. In addition, the performance benefits of the tape itself are also obvious. Tape storage is more energy efficient first: once all the data is recorded, the cartridge sits quietly in the library slot and doesn't consume any power at all. Tape is also very reliable, with error rates four to five orders of magnitude lower than hard drives. Tapes are very secure, with built-in dynamic encryption and the additional security provided by the media itself. The rate of data theft through cyberattacks is now growing. If the tape is not installed in the drive, the data cannot be accessed or modified. For music appreciators, the value and meaning of tape is equally irreplaceable.
In the tape market, which has formed a small boom, it is difficult to imagine that there are not only middle-aged and elderly consumers who have experienced the heyday of tape, but also some young customers who have never been exposed to tape. In this regard, Mr. Tian, the protagonist of the "Waltz" tape store, said: "In the eyes of young people, tape is an emerging medium. Older customers see it as a high-end item they were reluctant to buy when they were younger. For them, it's all a whole new musical experience. The tape renaissance is not so much nostalgia as a culture that is evolving. "Maybe people think back to the joy of ripping tapes or transcribed CD music from tapes years ago. At that time, people could use stickers to label tapes and make them unique. However, with the popularity of computers and the digitization of audio and video, people are accustomed to storing digital music on iPods, MP3s, lossless players or mobile phones to enjoy, and the culture of "tape recording" has disappeared unconsciously. Now that times have changed, digital media services have become mainstream, and people can choose unlimited songs on the Internet, which is indeed very convenient. However, digital media music services naturally have their advantages, but tape, a music medium with limited playback time, is more suitable for some music fans who also have unique needs. On the one hand, the tape does not play music indefinitely, it has "interruptions" and "ends", and when you realize that the tape is about to finish, you will even be a little reluctant. From this point of view, tape does have its less cold and more human side. For modern people with retro feelings and the pursuit of slow life, using tape to enjoy music is a tasteful and attitude mode of life.
After accurately grasping the taste of consumers and successfully launching a vinyl record series and opening a series of records, Epixi Culture Communication Company, which has always been keen to grasp the tastes of consumers, will soon be the first record company in China to eat crabs, and launch a series of high-quality analog boxed tapes, bringing the gospel to the majority of tape lovers. Epihi company's analog cassette products, all for the Japanese factory Seiko manufacturing, the current product for a limited edition of 500 boxes, the outer packaging is very exquisite, each box of tape with independent number, buy rare, never again version, extremely precious. It is worth mentioning that the analog cassette products of Epixis are not ordinary tapes that everyone is familiar with in the past, that is, a type of tape, but a second-class tape with good quality.
Audio tape is a magnetic material, it is composed of magnetic powder and tape base (acetate fiber or polyurethane film, etc.) two parts.
The tape base of the tape is the carrier of the magnetic layer, and its quality determines the mechanical properties of the tape; it is required to be able to withstand large tensile forces without elongation, deformation or fracture. The tape base should be soft enough, itself non-magnetic and not prone to static electricity. At present, most recording tapes use acetate or polyester resin as the tape base. The key to affecting the sound quality of the recording tape lies in the magnetic layer. The magnetic layer includes three components: magnetic powder, adhesive and additive. Magnetic powder is the body that records and stores information. It is a granular hard magnetic material. The purpose of the adhesive is to mix well with the magnetic powder so that it can firmly adhere to the strip base. The role of the additive is to further improve the performance of the tape. The nature of magnetic powder determines the quality of the tape. The magnetic powder usually used should have a high saturation magnetic induction strength, its coercive force is moderate, the magnetic powder particles are uniform, and the performance is stable. Commonly used are iron oxides, cobalt iron monoxide, chromium dioxide or metal powder. The so-called second-class tape is commonly known as the chromium tape, the magnetic powder is made of chromium dioxide material, the magnetic performance is much better than the first-class tape, it is a kind of high-grade tape, the manufacturing process and cost are much higher than the first-class tape. In general, the most common type of tape market in the past is larger with noise floor, lack of dynamics, but the mid-frequency is full, suitable for popular vocal performance; the extremely rare type II tape background noise is small, the dynamic is larger, the high frequency is transparent, the medium frequency is natural, suitable for popular, classical and jazz and other categories of music; and the less common three-class and four-type tape floor noise is very small, the dynamic range is large, usually used in the professional recording field, and the playback equipment used is different from ordinary household equipment.
Audiophiles who are quite demanding on sound quality must be very concerned about the on-machine performance of Ebich's analog cassette products, and also want to compare the high-level cassette tape and CD record when playing the same recording. Epixie Company has launched two "Analog Eternity" CD records specifically suitable for AB comparison, which is equivalent to disclosing the music content that will be involved in this batch of cassette products, and can also help fans and friends to review the long-lost sound of analog cassettes in advance.
■ "Simulating Eternity: 100% Special" (No. : HDS-316)
■ "Simulating Eternity: Sound of Perfection" (No. : HDS-317)
Vocals are the type of music that analog cassette tapes are best at expressing, so "Simulating Eternity: 100% Special" (No. 316) earns a considerable proportion of audiophile vocal recordings, such as jazz diva Selena Jones's "You Don't Send Me Flowers Anymore" and "Autumn Leaves", Tony Benitt's "Life of a Rose", "A Wonderful World" by the Four Brothers Choir, as well as Schumann's cello sketch "Dream", Tchaikovsky's piano suite "Seasons" and the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" excerpts, ballet "Gloria" Classical songs such as the final dance music, the interpretation of the team is a famous lineup, which comprehensively shows the mellow and warm musical taste of the simulated recording. The vocal recordings of Analog Eternity: The Sound of Perfection (No. 329) include King-level male singer Humpertink's "Too Young", Kenny Rogers' "Lady", feverish singer Ava Cassidy's "Tennessee Waltz", Radkatonife's "Serious Moonlight Lady", etc., as well as the first movement of Rossini's "String Sonata", mozart's opera "Figaro's Wedding" aria "Who Can Tell Me What Love Is", and the instrumental version of Bach's "The Musical Sonata of Strings", mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" "Who Can Tell Me What Love Is" adaptation, Bach's "Instrumental version of "The Wedding of Figaro" Classical repertoire such as "Little Steps", Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite", Masné's ballet "Leader" excerpt "Castilla", and the jazz trumpet song "When I Fall in Love" as embellishments, and "Simulated Eternity: 100% Special" with a suit, is a rare audition masterpiece, which makes people look forward to the AB comparison between cassette tape and CD record.
The development path of tape for more than 100 years since its birth reflects not only the progress of technology, but also the tireless spirit of human exploration. When we see and touch a tape, we can awaken the music in our memory, and this fun does not come from hearing alone, which is why music media such as tape and vinyl records can become popular again in the digital age. When some classic songs and some excellent analogue recordings transcend the constraints of the times and rely on the charm of tape to convey to the listeners, their significance is far from being fully summarized by technical factors.