Tape thickness

[Bazil]

What's the best thickness of 1/4" tape on a 7 inch reel?
I see you can buy various lengths .

[Barry]

Tape (used) to come in four thickness. In order of decreasing thickness they were: Standard Play; Long Play; Double Play and Triple Play.

The thinner the tape, the greater the length you could fit onto a spool and hence the greater the recording and playback time. However, the thinner the tape the more it would be likely to stretch and snap, and the greater the 'print through' when the tape was stored wound on the spool.

In my tape days I would never use anything thinner than Long Play, that is 1200' on a 7" spool.

[Bazil]

Tape (used) to come in four thickness. In order of decreasing thickness they were: Standard Play; Long Play; Double Play and Triple Play.

The thinner the tape, the greater the length you could fit onto a spool and hence the greater the recording and playback time. However, the thinner the tape the more it would be likely to stretch and snap, and the greater the 'print through' when the tape was stored wound on the spool.

In my tape days I would never use anything thinner than Long Play, that is 1200' on a 7" spool.

Thanks Barry , since my post I've been reading solidly about tape and already made a purchase of two 7 inch reels of LPR90 549m , I'm hoping somebody will be along to endorse it :)

[337alant]

The LPR-90 is excellent tape and the best balance of sound quality, length and cost

LPR-90 has a total coating and base thickness of 1.4mil - 35.5um and is the long play version of the Studio Master tape SM-900
SM-900 has a total coating and base thickness of 2.05mil - 52um so being thicker you get less length on the spool
The SM-900 is the better sounding tape though but not that much in it

Alan