the tape you recently purchased isn't necessarily from 2004. i recently purchased a 'new' unopened reel of 456 that was from 1997!

greg once wrote:

For Quantegy tape the date code is a 5 digit number that starts off with the last two digits of the year then the day number
Example:94172
The 94 means 1994
the 172 is means it was made on the 172nd day of that year.
For Emtek the date code looks like this SM 2900 B 09 27 027
SM 2 (2" tape) 900 (type of tape) B (?) 09 (last digit of year so 1999) 27 (week of production) 011 (jumbo roll code).
I don't know why they don't say "99" for the year code. Sometimes they will just have the last digit.

hmm... there aren't any five dig numbers on the bottom of the "new" reels i have for this week... there is one that says 499-97m111

it's 499 tape, so does that mean that this new reel of tape was made in 97??

there is another number that says 2004334, and i think that would more on the money... made just a month ago?? is that possible?

so strange...

i think you may be right. this reel also says '2004272', which makes more sense, i was just going by greg's info.. dunno

i still think that 2,500 number is off. i read on the ATR website that open reel tape accounted for $6,000,000 in sales for Quantegy last year and even assuming that ALL of those tapes were 2" @ $150 each (an overestimate indeed), that's only $375,000. strange

EDIT: 'twas a wall street journal article, not ATR..

Quantegy's audiotape business in 2004 was still profitable, accounting for $6 million of the company's $30 million in sales. But the company fell into trouble because of other obligations and when Quantegy lost one of its major videotape customers in July, it suffered a cash crunch. By year's end, it couldn't meet payroll and sent its employees home. Mr. Lindenmuth believes an injection of $10 million would save the company, and is hoping a Chapter 11 reorganization will give him time to find investors.

maybe they started adding 20__ in the new millennium

Just got this article forwarded from a friend - not sure if anybody posted on it already:

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,, ... m4,00.html[/url]

i have this old ampex 456 on my lap right now and it says 456 -97g111. under it says 92346. its from a session in 1993.

Jeremy Lemos, check on the sticker on your 499, it should be like this:

456-97g111 26589845656004354
2" x 2500 92346

i believe the number in the bottom right is the date - 1992.

http://www.usrecordingmedia.com/quangp92x25g.html

what's this?? are we back from the brink??!

JeremyLemos wrote:http://www.usrecordingmedia.com/quangp92x25g.html

what's this?? are we back from the brink??!

Lemos, mi amico, have no you heard?

There are fuckers making tape in Opelika!

Only 10 of them, using up the remaining materials.

But the fuckers are making it!

mb

no, i guess i haven't heard... this is good news, right??

i had tape sales men calling me last week telling me tales of them doing me a big favor by selling me their last six reels for $307 each (i guess that's the list price) and telling me about other clients paying $800 a reel... WTF.

i bet you some sorry sucker actually DID spend that much money on tape... glad i didn't... so strange... so, now that everyone i know is hoarding a stash of tape, will anyone be left to buy the new ones?? i know i won't have to buy any more tape until the end of the summer!