Elcaset, RCA Cart, Playtape, Minipak

[Quad Linda]

ELCASET 1977: 3 3/4 ips cartridge with adjustable record prevent. Sony, Teac, and Technics made them, few cared.
RCA TAPE CARTRIDGE 1958:
PLAYTAPE 1967 (held much less than an album's worth):
PLAYTAPE & MUNTZ MINIPAK CARTRIDGES:

 

[CobraJet]

I was station in Guam, making frequent deployments to Japan, during the mid-70's, and wanted to buy an Elcaset, but the technology was advancing so fast that today's model was obsolete next month! I was waiting for the format to stabilize, and then it just died. But, it did push the standard cassette manufacturers to improve their models, along with the new tape formulations and Dolby, to keep up, The consumer wins in the end. Now, where is my old cassette deck?

 

[cupboy]

The standard SLH elcaset tape produced better results than the FeCr. I had a machine. Somewhat undependable due to tape slack problems, but had high frequency response to 27khz. Pacific Stereo tested it for me. Sold long ago for a give away price. Should have kept it a bit longer but I was in the mood to just get rid of stuff. Paid about $800 for it. What a shame. What a sucker.

 

[Quad Linda]

I worked for Pacific Stereo during Elcaset's brief life. I was at the largest store in the region, and second largest in the 110 store chain. We never sold a one. In the early '80's, our service manager bought one used. I tried to get him to sell it to me, but he wouldn't. Antiques.

 

[phydo]

I was stationed at Clark AB in the Philippines when the El-Cassette arrived on the scene. I looked at them but already had a very nice RTR and cassette deck. The El-Cassette just did not seem to be worth the expense. Only one of my friends ever bought one. I wonder if you can even purchase the tape cartridges?

Remember the mini-systems. There was a short period of time when several of the manufactures attempted to market HI-FI stereo micro-cassette decks. Don't know if they showed up in the USA but I saw them in Asia. I did not buy one of these either.

Justin

 

[Malcolm2010]

had an EL7, still got an EL5 absolutely wonderful machines. I ended up replacing the tape in a few carts as they became sticky but it is now languishing in the attic.

Malcolm

 

[winopener]

Remember the mini-systems. There was a short period of time when several of the manufactures atemped to market HI-FI stereo micro-cassette decks. Don't know if they showed up in the USA but I saw them in Asia.
Justin

You mean this?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42434267@N02/5214576857/lightbox/

 

[Quad Linda]

I remember those.

You mean this?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42434267@N02/5214576857/lightbox/

 

[Quadrockasaurus]

I had a non-functional TEAC AL-700 Elcaset with about 30 tapes given to me free about a year ago....beautiful big machine, hope to get it working at some point (..along with heaps of other non-functional stuff I have..). I like the big-ass chunkiness of the format. Elcaset was bulky, but still more convenient than reel-to reel tape, would have worked a treat as a high fidelity QUAD format...a shame they couldn't get it to work commercially.

 

[Disclord]

Growing up I listened to my sisters Playtape portable and her tapes of The Beatles and The Outsiders constantly. A few years ago she gave me the player and about 30 of the tapes. I love that little format. The Playtape company actually tried to develop a home video recorder that used the Playtape cartridge to record on... Imagine, 50 lines of resolution and a recording time of 5 minutes! It would be kind of like the Pixelvision format. Funai made a prototype camcorder that used DAT tapes, but there was no interest in it since 8mm was doing well already.

The prerecorded micro cassettes sold in Japan were encoded with Dolby C noise reduction in an attempt to get decent sound quality. I think that even with Dolby C, the S/N was something like 58db at most.

 

[Quad Linda]

Amazing as always, Ty. Good to have you back, Disclord!

 

[Quad Linda]

Sanyo Micro Cassette deck:

JVC Micro Cassette deck: http://www.hifiengine.com/files/images/JVC D-M3.preview.jpg

 

[Quad Linda]

This format existed from 1958 to 1961. Prerecorded RCA cartridges:

RCA Tape Cartridge vs. cassette:

RCA Home Tape Cartridge machine, image from radiomuseum.org:

 

[Quadwreck]

There was also the Revere Tape Cartridge, out at about the same time as the RCA Sound Cartridge, almost the same size and worked more like an 8-track does, in a continuous loop. You could stack them on a player and it would play them and eject them from the bottom of the pile. Somewhere I have a few pre-recorded tapes and some blanks.

 

[Quad Linda]

TEFI!! Tefifon Tape Cartridges. If you crossed 8 track with Dictaphone, you'd have Tefifon. It was an endless plastic tape loop, played by a stylus. The tape was 16mm wide, with 56 parallel grooves. Invented in the '30's, with limited military use until the '40's. Made in Cologne, Germany. Pre-recorded Tefifon tape cartridges were available in the '50's & '60's. The '50's were the heyday of Tefifon, with stereo Tefi cartridges made in the '60's. Production ceased in '65.

You Tube demonstration of Tefifon (titles in Polish): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWI4RwSt-BU

Demonstration of Tefifon portable on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7F2KdCL-8U&feature=related

Tefi cartridge:

Radio w/ built-in Tefifon:

Self-contained Tefifon:

Tefifon jukebox:

Tefi store: Radios in Europe had short wave, hence Tefi welt (world) radio.

1952 Tefi ad: Over 1000 prerecorded titles already in 1952!!

 

[Quad Linda]

TV/Radio/Tefifon:

Revere Stereo Tape Cartridge system, 1963 ad:

They all play 45's:

1960 Philips car record player:

1960 RCA car record player:

ARC car record Changer:

 

[Quad Linda]

Minifon Attache, made by Protona GMBH, from 1959. Telefunken made the tape cartridges:

 

[phydo]

You mean this?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42434267@N02/5214576857/lightbox/

I do remember the micro-cassette boom boxes. I also saw actual component items designed to be integrated into ones stereo system just like any other component.

The "mini-systems" I saw were, in some cases, high quality components such as a tuner, cassette deck, maybe an equalizer, and high performance speakers. The systems I remember seeing were usually designed to be stacked on each other (not the speakers) for use in a bedroom, study, etc, and could be easily moved from one location to another. As a point of reference in Asia they came out about the time full size "rack systems" appeared.

Justin

 

[John Svensson]

Growing up I listened to my sisters Playtape portable and her tapes of The Beatles and The Outsiders constantly. A few years ago she gave me the player and about 30 of the tapes. I love that little format.

Although their heyday was a little before my time of buying any equipment, I 've acquired a couple of players and some tapes over the years as curiosities.
A "cute" little format, as they marketed it....The first time you could easily carry your own personal music with you, like a transistor radio. Some interesting titles available also.

 

[Disclord]

Although their heyday was a little before my time of buying any equipment, I 've acquired a couple of players and some tapes over the years as curiosities.
A "cute" little format, as they marketed it....The first time you could easily carry your own personal music with you, like a transistor radio. Some interesting titles available also.

Playtape also sold a professional version for dictation in offices. There was supposed to be a slightly larger cartridge and home player/recorder that held enough tape for an entire album, but that never came to be. I think there were some stereo Playtapes issued, but I've never seen a portable that was stereo, nor have I seen any prerecorded stereo Playtapes. For such a small company they sure got a lot of music released - I doubt that a company like that could get the titles today. Record companies now hold on to their music beyond reason and "Special Products" licensing divisions seem to have gone the way of the Dodo bird. It's a sad situation because it deprives them, and the artists, of revenue and deprives the consumer of music they want on the format they want, flat-out encouraging piracy. As we all know, the current situation with old quadraphonic titles is the same - the high quality transfers many have done, and made available on torrent sites, have had enough downloads to show that a company would have made money had they released the titles on SACD, DVD-A or BD Audio. Yet they continue to do nothing with them, all the while screaming about the losses they are suffering. It's a sad situation as we all know well.

Sorry to get sidetracked with a rant.