Maxell UDXL-11
Documentation on the Maxell UDXL-11 is thin. No production years, original price, or full spec sheet have surfaced in the Archive's sources. The period record shows a high-bias (Class II) audio tape that reviewers took seriously, and one that clearly sat near the top of Maxell's line for a time.
Audio-Collection (p.193) found the UDXL-11 biased almost exactly to its reference tape. It noted that a shade of extra bias could improve low-frequency performance at a slight cost in highs, and called the tape one of the better Class II formulations then available. A second Audio-Collection piece (p.2) measured it against ordinary low-noise tapes and reported 2.5 dB higher sensitivity and maximum output level improved by as much as 6 dB. It credited Maxell's "epitaxial" oxide, and claimed that even the new cobalt-doped tapes of the period couldn't match it.
The model also had a clear successor. Maxell's own advertising in High Fidelity (December 1982, p.21) presented the newer XL II-S as proof that UD-XL II could be improved on. The ad quoted a reviewer who said those who thought it impossible to improve the UD-XL II were mistaken, and claimed a "1981 tape of the year" award for the new formulation.
Period sources spell the name a few ways - UDXL 11, UD-XL II, UDXL II - but they refer to the same tape. Beyond the reviews above, the Archive holds no further documentation: no dates, no list price, no decoded frequency-response measurements.
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