This is a lovely example of an early Cassette deck. It harks from about 1976.
I love the period styling of this, with polished aluminium case and wooden surround.
The switches are enormous and operate with a satisfying clunk which would not be out of place in Frank’n’Furter’s laboratory.
Also of note here is that it is fitted with Dolby noise reduction. Not Dolby B or Dolby C. Just Dolby. B & C were just twinkles in the eye of the boffins at Dolby labs at this time in the history of HiFi.
Correction! I’ve just found out that Dolby B was developed in 1968 and up until 1980 tape recorders supporting Dolby B were just labelled Dolby NR.
I also have a Sony TC-377 reel to reel recorder from just a couple of years earlier. Some features from that have carried over to the companies cassette machines. The twin analogue VU meters and the facility to mix line and microphone sources are examples.
As is so often the case with old gear, this has it’s problems. Everything lights up and looks good, but tapes only play for a couple of seconds before stopping. The sound quality through headphones is good for those couple of seconds, which is encouraging.
A quick look inside shows a machine that is built like a brick bathroom. The take up spool is not turning and, as expected, the belts are like Nana’s nicker ‘lastic.
I only paid £20 for it. A new set of belts are on order. Lets see how it fares with new rubber. Click here to read about it.