Cassette Decks

A cassette deck is a type of tape deck for playing or recording compact audio cassettes. more...

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History

Origins

The cassette recorder was introduced by the Philips Corporation in 1963 and marketed in 1965 as an improvement over reel-to-reel recorders designed for portable use. It enclosed both reels of the recording tape in a small case which eliminated the need to thread the tape through individual reels. The tape width was just 0.125 inches (3.2 mm) and tape speed was 1.875 inches (4.76 cm) per second, which meant that sound quality was appropriate only for voice or dictation use at the time.

Early recorders tended to be small battery-powered portable devices, in keeping with the intention of the medium for dictation, reportage and similar low-level recording duties, but by the mid 1970s, the cassette deck became a commonplace component of home high fidelity systems, largely superseding the reel-to-reel recorder for home use.In 1971, the Advent Corporation combined Dolby B-type tape-hiss-noise reduction system with chromium dioxide tape to create the Advent Model 201, the first high-fidelity cassette deck. This deck was an OEM unit manufactured by Nakamichi.

Widespread use

Cassette decks soon came into widespread use and were designed variously for professional applications, home audio systems, and for mobile use in cars, as well as portable recorders. From the mid 1970s to the late 1990s the cassette deck was the preferred music source for the automobile. Like an 8-track cartridge, it was relatively insensitive to vehicle motion, but it had superior frequency response and reduced tape flutter, as well as the obvious advantages of smaller physical size and fast forward/rewind capability.

Performance improvements

Cassette decks reached their pinnacle of performance and complexity by the mid 1980s. Cassette decks from companies such as Nakamichi, Revox, and Tandberg incorporated advanced features such as multiple tape heads and dual capstan drive without motorized reel motors. Auto-reversing decks came into popular use so the user did not need to flip the cassette manually to play the second side of the tape. Compact Decks sold by Japanese companies such as Akai, Pioneer, Sony, Technics, Yamaha, and Denon were also common, with each company offering models of very high quality.

The best cassette decks use three-head technology (developed by Nakamichi but used on top decks from all manufacturers), the Dolby noise reduction system including the newer C (in 1980) and S types, and microprocessors to adjust tape bias automatically. Bang & Olufsen developed the HX-Pro headroom extension system in conjunction with Dolby Laboratories in 1982. This was used in many higher-end decks. Manufacturers experimented with exotic tape formulations to improve high frequency response. Sony used a dual layer formulation known as Ferri-chrome.

Read more at Wikipedia.org