Cassette Decks

A cassette deck is a type of tape recorder for playing or recording compact audio cassettes. A deck was formerly distinguished from a recorder by containing no amplifier or speakers for direct listening, except a headphone jack. more...

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The deck is connected to a sound system for playback. The two terms are often now used interchangably.

History

Origins

The cassette recorder was introduced by the Philips Corporation in 1963 and marketed in 1965 as a device for vocal dictation designed for portable use. It was not intended to be a replacement for reel-to-reel recorders. 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 with high end response dropping off beyond 10 KHz and high noise levels.

Early recorders tended to be small battery-powered portable devices with automatic level control, 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 with manual level controls and VU meters became a commonplace component of home high fidelity systems. Eventually they replaced the reel-to-reel recorder, which had found only limited home use because of their large size and inconvenience of threading and rewinding the tape reels. A cassette can be removed in the middle of the tape without rewinding. Cassettes can also be used in automobile and personal portable applications. The common practice of splicing (cutting pieces of tape and attaching them together with adhesive tape) songs together was impractical for cassette, as users typically simply recorded songs off records in sequence to make a "road tape". Cutting blocks and related materials were available for cassettes and used for repairing damaged tapes.

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. Dolby B raises treble levels well above the noise level, and reduces them on playback, while CrO2 used different bias and equalization settings to do much the same, and extended frequency response into high fidelity range beyond 15 KHz for the first time. This deck was based on a top loading mechanism by Wollensak, a division of 3M which was commonly used in audio / visual applications. It featured an unusual single VU meter which could be switched between or for both channels, and lever operated controls, similar to those used on reel-to-reel mechanisms.

Most other manufacturers adopted a standard top loading format with piano key controls, dual VU meters, and slider level controls. There was a variety of configuations leading to the next standard format in the late 1970s, which settled on front-loading (see main picture) with cassette well on one side, dual VU meters on the other, and later a dual-cassette format with meters in the middle. Mechanical controls were first replaced with mechanically assisted and later full electronic buttons, though low cost models would retain mechanical controls. Some models could search and count gaps between songs. Cassette players pioneered the modern set of control buttons, play, pause, stop, record, fast forward and rewind. Unlike modern CD controls, most had a "locking" fast forward and rewind which could be depressed once, and remain until stopped. Most DVD players today lack even a fast forward or rewind control on the front panel to save on cost.

Read more at Wikipedia.org