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Quantegy Inc. was a manufacturer of
magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic ...
and professional external hard drives based in
Opelika, Alabama Opelika (pronounced ) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Alabama, Lee County in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States censu ...
. Their tape products were primarily used in analog audio and video recording studios, but they also have some use with digital
data storage Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are con ...
devices and instrumentation recorders along with some audiophile home hobbyists. The company was created at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
by Major John Herbert Orr as Orradio Industries. This was a result of the US Army requiring an American supplier of magnetic tape. Magnetic tape was a German invention and after the war, the German manufacturing ability was destroyed. * In 1959,
Ampex Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name ''AMPEX'' is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excell ...
acquired Orradio Industries and it became the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division. * In 1995, Ampex divested this division, then called the Ampex Recording Media Corporation. At the same time, 3M was also spinning off its magnetic media division. Equitable Life Insurance acquired these combined entities, which became Quantegy Inc., and later changed its name to the current Quantegy Recording Solutions, with the Ampex product line being the nominal survivor, although much use of the 3M technologies later found their way into Quantegy products including the high end GP9 tape. * In January 2005, having previously filed for bankruptcy protection, Quantegy closed its manufacturing facility in Opelika. This event received substantial media attention. * On April 18, 2005, Quantegy resumed operations under new ownership. * In January 2007, Quantegy announced that it will cease production of magnetic tape in April 2007 and is taking orders up until February 22. The only remaining manufacturers of new magnetic tape for sound recording were RMGI and ATR Magnetics. * In April 2007, Reel Deal Pro Audio purchased the majority of Quantegy's reel-to-reel audio tape and accessories and began to sell it on their web site.Reel Deal Offers Last Quantegy Tapes
/ref> * In June 2007, Quantegy ceased sales of the FHD and Black Diamond FHD3 series of
hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...
products to the professional audio recording industry. * Most of the tape production facilities, located in Opelika, Alabama, were sold in 2008. * In 2009, Quantegy began working on reviving Quantegy 456 Studio Mastering Tape, Quantegy 499 Gold Studio Mastering Tape, GP9 Platinum Studio Mastering Tape, as well as the Black Diamond Series of products. But , no progress had been made.


See also

* Audio tape specifications *
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is Magnetic tape#Audio, magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containi ...
*
Videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...


References

{{Reflist


External links


Corporate Homepage
- From Internet Archive (Warning: mostly FLASH)
Quantegy History Page

NPR story on 2005 plant closing/bankruptcy

Rolling Stone story on 2005 plant closing/bankruptcy

More info on new ownership
* An ol
advertisement
for Irish brand ferro-sheen tape.
Reel Deal Offers Last Quantegy Tapes
Video storage Audio storage Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct manufacturing companies based in Alabama