howie
New York Giants
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
edit:
July 25th, @11:06AM
| Anyone Remember the Elcaset?
I thought I'd post some pics of my Sony EL-7 Elcaset Recorder for those who have probably never even heard of (or seen) an Elcaset. It was a new tape format introduced by Sony around 1976. It took the best features of an open-reel deck (3-motor, 3-head, closed loop dual capstan) and added the convenience of a cassette. The sonic quality of recordings made on this machine are pretty much the same as a good open reel deck. The machine itself is extremely well made, and is a pleasure to use (with it's electronic transport) as well as look at and it easily tops 30 pounds in weight. The removable door is glass and made it easy to clean the 3 heads (record, erase, playback), capstans and pinch rollers. It originally sold for $750-$1000+, but after this format's support was sadly ended a few years after it's introduction (mainly due to the ubiquitous Compact Cassette and improvements in tape formulations for that media), I was able to pick up a brand new top-of-the-line EL-7 for about $100 USD (the cheaper, 2 head EL-5 was $80 USD or so) and a case of FeCr tapes for about $20 from a small, local electronics dealer here in Northern New Jersey way back in 1980. More of a curiosity than anything nowadays, it's a shame as they really did make superb recordings and the quality of the machine itself is amazing. A pristine example like this one would fetch a lot more than the $100 I paid for it back in 1980 as they are quite hard to find in this condition. I saw a RM-30 wired remote online for the EL-7 (supposedly NIB) but the guy wants $175 and that's a bit much, IMO. 
Here's an excellent Elcaset website that describes in great detail everyhing you'd want to know about all of the Sony Elcaset models:
»www.elcaset.ca/index.htm
[EDIT] I added a picture of the Elcaset itself. Besides being physically larger than it's smaller cousin, the Compact Cassette, the tape was twice the width (1/4") and ran at twice the speed (3-3/4 IPS). Even at 3.75 IPS, the sound quality equaled open reel units running at twice that speed (using FeCr tapes).
In operation, the tape is lifted out of the cartridge (there is a spring loaded door on each end) and makes contact with the heads at the top of the Elcaset recorder well. The illustration shows how this was done. The EL-7 uses dual capstans and pinch rollers so there would be a second set located on the upper left side of this illustration as well as separate record and playback heads (in addition to the erase head). |
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b10010011
Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
| I don't remember that... But I do love that 70's styling. The brushed aluminum, wood side panels, and all them knobs. 
Makes the matte black finished, six little buttons, and one giant knob on my HTS look sad.  |
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howie
New York Giants
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
| Yeah, the 1970's Japanese-built audio components were great looking and are extremely popular today among vintage audio collectors. It was the era of brushed aluminum, wood and the high-power wars. This pretty much ended in the early to mid 80's when the "black plague" took over with tons of plastic and digital displays (not to say there aren't some great audio components from that era).
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N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions |
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drjim
Premium,MVM
join:2000-06-13
Torrance, CA
clubs: | That's a new one on me!
Those tapes look quite a bit bigger than a Compact Cassette. Was there ever a mobile version of it?
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One man's Magic is another man's Engineering. |
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howie
New York Giants
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
edit:
July 25th, @07:01AM
| 
Sony Elcaset EL-D8 |
said by drjim  :That's a new one on me! Those tapes look quite a bit bigger than a Compact Cassette. Was there ever a mobile version of it? No, it was never meant to be a car audio format (assuming that's what you meant by "mobile"), just an alternative to the huge reel-to-reel decks of the time. They did make a portable Elcaset, though, the EL-D8 (shown above). I want one! 
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N.Y. Giants - Super Bowl XLII Champions |
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