I was actually thinking about the Colorado tapes. Could it have anything to do with Colorado being higher in elevation with maybe thinner air? I found that puzzling, but I remember that climbing from Arizona to Colorado made a big difference in air quality and feeling. Anyone else transferred higher altitude tapes that could shed some light on this? Just a hunch but who knows. Cheers Shai Drori Expert digitization services for Audio Video Hi Res scanning for film 8mm-35mm www.audiovideofilm.com [log in to unmask] On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 5:09 AM, Richard L. Hess <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi, Tom, > > Steve Smolian's comment makes me think it doesn't have to be a separate > plant, but perhaps a separate formula? Of course, shipping as discussed > does come into play. > > I wonder what the different climates are that Marie's tapes have been > stored in... > > I know many of the tapes I receive from Canada have been stored in very > humid locations. I rescued some tapes from a Toronto basement sixteen years > ago or so where I practically slipped on my rear in the slick mud on the > floor. My wife's office is in an old house where the basement gets wet with > each rain. It's an historic old house and she works for the Historical > Society that owns it. > > Cheers, > > Richard > > > On 1/29/2016 3:52 PM, Tom Fine wrote: > ...> > >> Richard, your theory about different formulas for Commonwealth >> Ampex-branded tapes may well be true, but you'd need to suss out for >> sure where all that tape was manufactured. I'm not aware of any Ampex >> plant except Opelika AL (formerly Orradio Industries). For that matter, >> did 3M have tape-making plants other than in Minnesota? I always thought >> that Ampex and 3M tapes were made in USA; Sony, Maxell, TDK and maybe >> Memorex were made in Japan; BASF was made in Germany and Agfa was made >> in Germany and Holland. As I understand it, there was a Russian tape >> manufacturer in the Cold War era, but Soviet and Eastern Bloc recordists >> also bought a lot of Agfa and BASF tape. >> >> > -- > Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask] > Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800 > http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm > Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes. >