Trash those records, now we have tape!

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Back in the day, audiophiles listened to music on tape, but they were hard to change. Here's an orphaned tape format RCA was eager to sell you: 4 tracks of bliss in one easy-to -load, huge cartridge

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This is a great ... ( 4 months ago by clydesight)

This is a great historical video! RCA and Phillips were neck and neck on cartridge development and even though RCA got out first, Phillips beat them with the smaller portable format. This video has some inaccurate information though, clearly it was a hard sell piece. But what fun to see it! Thanks!

I've never seen ... ( 4 months ago by theblackhand2)

I've never seen this tape format before. It's very much like the cassette tape of the 80's only huge. Thanks or posting.

I remember when ... ( 4 months ago by DSM1G90)

I remember when these units came out in the early 60's , My father, being an open reel audiophile, scoffed at these units since the tape speed was reduced in half and quality was somewhat reduced. Yet, RCA had something going with this unit being so user friendly without the hassle on how to lace up a tape recorder. Thx to the RCA units, Philips managed to develop the cassette to be the hit that the public needed in portability usage since RCA failed to develop portability with this concept.

Amazing how serious ... ( 4 months ago by DSM1G90)

Amazing how serious reel machine audiophiles laughed at this unit since the main drawback with this concept used speeds that was slower than the studio quality 7.5ips. Yet, RCA did their best with this concept to be very user friendly-friendlier than having to hassle with lacing up a regular recorder. Yet, the biggest drawback was the failure on RCA's part to make this concept portable - where Philips and their cassette made a winner to the public the next year..in 1964

whoa! big ones. ( 4 months ago by ToastmachineIdiot)

whoa! big ones.

Actually, ... ( 3 months ago by jshorva65)

Actually, L-Cassettes were another format altogether, from the 1970s, intended to approach the fidelity of open reel with a cartridge format. Its 3.75 ips speed was advertised as twice that of Phillips cassettes for greater fidelity and returned to the staggered-track stereo format of open reel. The L-Cassette format also utilized a VCR-like external tape path. When inserted into the machine, motorized guides threaded the transport automatically as in a Beta or VHS video transport.

they had auto ... ( 3 months ago by VideyoJunkei)

they had auto reverse tech back then? cool! Never saw one of these tapes...

Glad David Sarnoff ... ( 3 months ago by sandhgreen)

Glad David Sarnoff got beat on this one!

whwn was this RCA ... ( 3 months ago by andybowe)

whwn was this RCA Tape format released?

Ah, the RCA Sound ... ( 2 months ago by SpeakerPolice)

Ah, the RCA Sound Tape Cartridge, the compact cassette on steroids. XD Basically a set of four-track reels inside a plastic shell. It was a really interesting format, but was less popular at the time than open reel and vinyl. I believe this format was introduced in 1954.

tape...the Product ... ( 2 months ago by rxzboi90)

tape...the Product of four and one half years of ray-search

Couldn't you ... ( 2 months ago by ViktorDragmire)

Couldn't you understand the speaker finely? Nobody speaks that clearly any more. Everyone wants to spit things out as fast as they can. Life could be more comfortable is people took the the time to at least speak clearly. We live in an instant-action world.

omg that tape is ... ( 2 months ago by overmind2)

omg that tape is huge O_O

Heh Falcons66, if ... ( 2 months ago by StargateFan2389)

Heh Falcons66, if you did that I think they would think it is some sorta spy device and you would be put in prison for being a treasonist but that is just my opinion.

I just saw on of ... ( 2 months ago by clydesight)

I just saw on of these on E-Bay, it looked more modern. Got outbid though. These old machines had a unique sound quality to them. CDs and MP3s can't match the warmth of the sound. But then, these machines could never handle the bass and high end demand of a lot of today's "in your face" music. Can you believe the "American Family" in the ad? Dad has his pipe, the little girl looks like a doll, Mom is just so super. Were those really "Happy Days"? Fun video to see. Thanks

when it was? ( 1 month ago by AliOllieWoodson)

when it was?

Those Are Even ... ( 2 weeks ago by glennmillerfan)

Those Are Even Bigger Than My Dads 8-Tracks!

Thanks for posting ... ( 2 weeks ago by bctvguy)

Thanks for posting this. This was big news to me. Looks like RCA invented large format stereo audio cassettes in 1958 - 5 to 6 years before Norelco released its "compact cassettes" in 1963-64. Marketing of the RCA tape cassettes must have been awful. I was only a little kid at the time but already tuned into technology - including transistor radios, hi-fi, color TV, battery TV and reel to reel tape. Nevertheless, I never heard one word about RCA cassettes before I stumbled on this YT video.

I never knew RCA ... ( 2 weeks ago by Jerraph)

I never knew RCA was part of HMV. Learn something new every day.

My dad still owns ... ( 2 weeks ago by musicistheproblem)

My dad still owns reel to reel tapes. He prefered the sound over the cassette tapes. I just find reel to reel to be such a hassle. You have set up the tape every time you play it. It takes like 5 minutes just to play one album.

I Wonder What They ... ( 1 week ago by ninjabluewings)

I Wonder What They Sounded Like? I Bet They Were REAL GOOD! What AMAZING TECHNOLOGY! For Them To Have Auto Reverse, There Are So Many Types Of Players For Records And Tapes That I Have Never Seen Before, VERY INTERESTING! I Would Take A Bet Those Machines Cost A Fortune When They Were New And I Bet They Are Very Valuble Now

I never knew these ... ( 1 week ago by Escomillo)

I never knew these existed. They could have really built this into a big business. I wonder what went wrong?

Once you practice ... ( 1 week ago by EntilZa1)

Once you practice at loading reel-to-reel it's not as bad as you think. Overall the sound quality is superb. While I love MP3s and digital recordings today, they've lost a lot of fidelity due to compression techniques. Once you get to AAC level, there's not really much left. People don't realise how much music they're not hearing when they use these formats. They're designed to satisfy the generic consumer market, which generally doesn't care much about good sound.

i never these i ... ( 18 hours ago by cbowman61)

i never these i rember 8 track

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