ATR Cobalt series compact cassette tapes overview / test
I would like to start from ATR Cobalt Silver,
quite simple packaging not much to write home about besides that it's made in USA which is quite rare these days, inside the Norelco styled storage box we've got hard paper inlay or J-Card - if you prefer and a pack of stickers just as it's supposed to be The storage box itself made well has a good sort of classic feel to it. Looking closer at the cassette itself, cassette housing seems to be made of better quality plastic and has a good weight to it overall looks good although not so special.
I'll continue with the Cobalt Gold 60 minutes, quite simple packaging same as a previous model not so much to write home about honestly but as soon as I've opened the case it was easy to see that this model is quite different from the previous one, the storage box itself is very good seems to be a bit sturdier and in general just slightly better made it also has the same quality hard paper inlay or J-Card and stickers as in case with Cobalt Silver. Now about the cassette, in short it looks great besides beautiful reels which some can describe as an absolute gimmick but I'm sincerely in love with watching its spinning it also has tape mechanic stabiliser which is supposed to improve wow and flutter, feels slightly heavier than the regular ones so to say, the film or tape -if you prefer is very dark seems to be slightly different from the Cobalt Silver cassette tapes
As i understood this magnetic tape has been manufactured in Springfield United States by National Audio Company or “NAC” it has new cobalt formulation and then rebranded by ATR or maybe it was just licensed by ATR unfortunately it's not really clear and ATR did not provide any information about it.
OK, done with unboxing and let's continue with testing,
for start i would like to perform an easy rewind test for this test i would use my Akai GX-35 so let's see I'll start from beautiful ATR Cobalt Gold, it is indeed a very easy test but it was always working well and now ATR Cobalt Silver …
Both cassettes were quite good even i dare to say that in my opinion both of them are far less noisy than the average type 2 chromium class compact cassette tapes even those produced in the 1990’s.
Next would be a recording test whereas i would record music piece with and without fine bias adjustment in order to test audio recording limits and overall quality for this test i would use my old friend TEAC V-1050 three head compact cassette tape deck so let's start…
So now et's talk about the results both ATR Cobalt series tapes were not very bad but also not as good as it could be i believe it has a lot to do with the hardware I've used for the test my TEAC V-1050 was simply not capable of recording well on these tapes probably this particular Ferricobalt formulation is quite heavy so to say and requires a better cassette deck in order to make high quality recording like for example one of the Akai GX-95 or GX-75, Sony high end ES series, TEAC V-8030 or V-6030 and some serious NAC's obviously. It’s all because of the quality of magnetic recording head and better bias level calibration system where it's possible to go beyond 20% in bias level calibration variation which was the standard on the late generation on budget and some premium models of the compact cassette tape decks which were produced in the 1990’s. The presence of the stabiliser and reels on ATR Cobalt Gold makes a big difference, tape runs smooth the sound reproduction is more stable as i would say, it is absolutely not a gimmick
To summarise it all the ATR Cobalt series compact cassette tapes is a very nice high quality premium product, if properly used it is capable of making fantastic hifi studio quality audio recordings with very low noise levels low wow & flutter and wider dynamic range than usual so to say type 2 chromium class compact cassette tapes but it definitely need serious hardware to work with.
Bravo ATR!
Very, very well done!
Full video review : https://youtu.be/_DGexY0yFEQ
