Cassette

It’s difficult to overstate the significance of Compact Cassette as a format in 1979. The Long Playing record was nearing the end of its life cycle – or so we believed – with an increasing number of consumers opting for pre-recorded cassettes over vinyl. At the time, the quality of LP pressings seemed to be […]

From 1974 to roughly 2004, Sony produced cassette decks. The machines evolved dramatically over those three decades; they began as top-loading devices with small VU meters, slow ballistics, Dolby B and Chrome tape capabilities, and little else. They were multi-motor, had Metal switching, Dolby B, C, and S, electronic meters and tape counters, and a

Etsuro Nakamichi, a tape magnetics research engineer, created the Nakamichi Corporation in Japan in 1948. In 1951, he began creating open reel decks for other hi-fi businesses to put their own badges on, as he was captivated by tape. It was a difficult business to be in, needing tight tolerances and precise alignment, as well

Few other Japanese names were as intimately connected with tape as Aiwa, save from Nakamichi. Sony, JVC, and Pioneer all made excellent specimens of the breed, but there were other outstanding models as well. Aiwa produced a wide range of equipment, including some unusual and unusual items such as the LP-3000 turntable and AT-9700 tuner,

Although Compact Cassette was first introduced in 1963, it was not until the 1970s that the format properly matured. It was still quite low on the evolutionary scale at the start of the decade, being the domain of small mono cassette portables that found their way into cars, toilets, children’s bedrooms, and gardens. It’s even

The TC-152 is one of the most widely available classic Sony portable tape decks, with TC-152s appearing out of nowhere! That’s because they’re tough tiny things, capable of working over the decades. It didn’t bring anything new to the party when it was released in 1974, other from attractive aesthetics and good ergonomics, which may

For 1974, Sony’s exorbitantly priced TC-177SD was a striking offering. It was dubbed “the most complex cassette deck ever built,” and it had three heads, which Yamaha’s beautiful ‘ski-slope’ TC-800GL lacked. This was originally the exclusive domain of open reel, and allowed for ‘off-tape monitoring,’ which allowed you to hear your recording while it was

A design can be exactly right on occasion. When a designer adds just the right amount of features and quality, then wraps it all up in a properly styled package, he or she has achieved perfection. The Sony TC-229SD cassette deck from 1977 was a perfect example of this. The TC-229SD was a fine recorder

It’s easy to dismiss Nakamichi as a seller of exorbitantly priced esoterica. The company earned legendary status thanks to its well-known Dragon and MusicLink lines. Its marque, like Luxman, MacIntosh, Revox, or Goldmund, had guilt-edged, twenty-four-carat gold-plated assurance. Isn’t it true that Nakamichi’s odds of doing anything even substantially affordable were slimmer than seeing flying

The range and depth of hi-fi in the 1970s were enormous. We’ve all heard of the emergence of the major Japanese labels, but there were lots of smaller continental European names developing as well, amid the last gasps of British brands like Garrard and Leak. Bang & Olufsen was arguably at its pinnacle at the