Topic: Not your daddy's cassette deck...!

[runonce]

Here's something I got at a garage sale yesterday - MONSTER cassettes!

Pretty cool RCA "StereoTape" unit - The "Soundtapes" are 3 times the size of a normal cassette and spooled with regular 1/4in reel tape.
Runs at 3 3/4 ips, I think.

The motor and transport linkages need some lube, but it seems in nice shape.

L/R 1/4in mic inputs
Kind of a bummer there is no output on this - just the speaker.

Kind of a good idea - taking the handling out of reel to reel recording - but I guess it never caught on.

[dogmusic]

Great find! My garage sale hat goes off to you!   

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Nice!  Now you gotta lug that to a show and roll tape.

[OldNeumanntapr]

I had a book from Radio Shack in the 70s that described various audio components. That looks like what they had listed as an 'L-Cassette'

I'd never seen one but my friend Dave knew about them. Apparently they were only made for a short time.

[runonce]

I think that's "Elcaset"  - a similar idea - but with 1970s NR techs - and faster tape speed, I think.  Looked kind like beta video tape...

[rjp]

The Elcaset was a (predictably enough) a Sony design. Like the much older RCA tape, it ran at 3.75 ips. High-quality cassette tape formulations made it obsolete by the time it was released, so it didn't really gain much traction.

[Ozpeter]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_tape_cartridge has some info.  Nice find!!

[runonce]

UPDATE: Had a chance to tear into this last night.

The good - I got the transport working, motors, capstan, spindles are doing what they should.

The bad - the pinch roller is dry rotted - and has shrunk a bit. Also the little felt pressure pads that run above the heads are missing.

The belt that runs the counter is broken - not a big deal.

Also - the gease on all the mechanical linkages (the play/stop/rew buttons) is dry, making their movements very stiff and questionable.

But it did play a tape (as well as it could), and FF, REW, and stop.

So - for the moment, without any pressing need for a working deck like this - this project is officially moth balled!
Although I will continue ot keep my eyes out for media and parts for this machine. I think the pinch roller is likely replaceable.

One extra observation - this box seems to be equipped with a killer tube amp...2 6V6 - has phono inputs - probably have to mod it for line level.
In the worst case - you could harvest a nice stereo amp!

[Redrock]

Very cool. That tape reminds me of when I was in college we would record audio to VHS tapes. 

[OldNeumanntapr]

Very cool. That tape reminds me of when I was in college we would record audio to VHS tapes. 

I guess things do deteriorate after time. It is a nice novelty find.

I too used to copy DATs to VHS (before I had a DAT recorder of my own.)