Sony Tapecorder 101 Review (Vintage Reel to Reel)

[hoverdonkey]

If that's 315Hz at 19cm/s, that's 630Hz at 38cm/s.

315Hz is close to the 328Hz DNA regeneration tone, but it is often used intead as it is easier to generate.

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[fordiebianco]

Transistor Tapecorder 101 R-Player Sony Corporation; |Radiomuseum.org

Transistor Tapecorder 101 R-Player Sony Corporation; Tokyo, build 1959, 11 pictures, 1 schematics, 2 tubes, 4 semiconductors, Japan, , Sound/Video Recorder

www.radiomuseum.org

JSmith

Ooh, interesting. Thank you for posting! Sorry, my electronic diagram days are long gone: what kind of port is that? 3.5mm?

 

[JSmith]

what kind of port is that?

I think one is an RCA line out and the other may be a 6.35mm (?) headphone jack.


JSmith

 

[GambaKufu]

OH, the exchange rate must have been a lot different than what I used today (naturally). Using $99, it would make it almost $1,000 in today's pricing.

Between the end of the Second World War and 1971, the value of the Yen was fixed at 360 to the dollar to try and stabilise the Japanese economy.

 

[thewas]

You simply can't beat the serious engineering and quality of the electronic giants of the past, now this is real sustainability, love it!

 

[EJ3]

This was what we would likely today consider "early adopter" tech. When I was about 2 & 1/2 years old (Sept 1959) I was crossing the Atlantic from Belgium to Willmington, NC on a frieghter with my mother and a man on the ship had a tape recorder. He recorded whatever utterences I was making at the time (which where most likely in German as we had just spent several months in Salzburg, Austria) and played them back for my mother (and other people on the ship).
I think it would be interesting to check some tape decks in about 5-6 year increments to see the development as the technology matured.
I have a couple of AKAI 7" home (GX-220D & X-1800 SD [not readily portable]) decks, one from 1968 (also has a built in 8-track [don't know if it records & plays or just plays) and a later AKAI 7" (from the early 70's), both of which where bought originally at a military exchange. One is supposed to work & the other is not. I haven't tried them yet, as I have been renovating a home for my wife & I to live in and don't have any furniture in the home yet.
I do have an unplayed tape of the conversasions that went on in the facilities in Houston of the first landing on the moon. So once I have a known to be working deck and the ability to digitize what I play, that will be on my agenda. But this is probably a year or so in my future.

 

[Aperiodic]

Understood. Interesting that it can read and output the two simultaneously. I wonder about the use case of this

Playing your Beatles records backwards?

 

[respice finem]

It really shows how much progress was made during the last few decades, in some aspects...

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www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Rja4000]

315Hz is close to the 328Hz DNA regeneration tone, but it is often used intead as it is easier to generate.

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That's a good one ;-)
I read 528Hz though

 

[JSmith]

Interesting that it can read and output the two simultaneously.

It's twin/double track mono in this case, so it's one mono track on one half of the tape, then one turns the reel over to play the other mono track, hence reel to reel.

Think of a stereo cassette, one would turn the tape over (unless it had a rotating head) from side A to play side B, however 4 tracks, 2 on one half of the tape for L/R stereo;

... basically a mini reel to reel inside the cassette casing.


JSmith

 

[Doodski]

Transistor Tapecorder 101 R-Player Sony Corporation; |Radiomuseum.org

Transistor Tapecorder 101 R-Player Sony Corporation; Tokyo, build 1959, 11 pictures, 1 schematics, 2 tubes, 4 semiconductors, Japan, , Sound/Video Recorder

www.radiomuseum.org

JSmith

Wow. 4 transistors and 2 tubes for the entire unit. That's awesome.

 

[anmpr1]

Many of these 'portables' were used in A/V types of situations: schools (language classes where you could record your voice), business meetings, other training sessions, and so forth. At the slower speed (and even half of that--15/16) speech was intelligible. Music typically required the higher speed. Then, fidelity was probably equivalent to suitcase record players of similar form factor, using the built in loudspeaker.

An alternative in A/V training/education applications were portable record players hooked up to a projector that would display 'film strips'. I'm doing this from a poor memory, but I think sometimes the record would 'beep' and this would signal the projector to advance the strip. Or maybe it was done manually.

Domestically, at Christmas, families might make a tape recording and send to relatives who might also have a player. Record birthday parties and such. By the mid '60s, with the popularization of 'Super 8' home movies, tape wasn't too important for any of that. Then came VHS. Everyone has old VHS tapes they can no longer play. To rectify that situation you could have your VHS turned into a DVD. I don't think home movies ever made it to Blue Ray. Now it's all real time video chat on your cell phone. Humanity can sleep better at night, with all the progress, that much is certain!

 

[restorer-john]

Wow. 4 transistors and 2 tubes for the entire unit.

Nothin' for you to fix Doodski.

 

[restorer-john]

@amirm I know you're just having fun on April fools, but seriously, take a decent open reel, run a FR plot (rec-to-replay), after you've calibrated and bias set the tape.

Even at 7.5ips or 15ips, a good 1/4" RTR is amazing. Out to 26kHz or more. Sure S/N is ~50dB, but the sound is awesome and you know it.

 

[phoenixsong]

I'm unsure how to vote for this one- outside of performance (which is respectable), it is still a treasure imo

 

[peniku8]

I too tested a tape machine. Judging from the (very helpful!) comments, more performance can be had if you know how to properly maintain a device like that (re-capping, adjusting BIAS levels etc).

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www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[pma]

It would be good to see at least frequency response of this unit. To use an audio generator and to record a set of frequencies and then to replay and measure level. It would tell much more than a single frequency distortion test. Frequency response was a key parameter of those simple vintage tape recorders.

 

[Doodski]

Nothin' for you to fix Doodski.

Speaking of fixing. This Sony Tapecorder Model 101 R2R seems to work pretty good. I wonder if it is working with the original idlers and belts.

 

[mhardy6647]

What's today's date?

 

[mhardy6647]

PS: My 777* approves



______________
* kindly passed along to me by one of the regional gurus.