Consumer Electronics introduced
The Wonder Years – Realistic Micro 51 Microcassette Tape Recorder
microcassette phone recorder
For many, the period of the 1990′s were the Wonder Years. Technological developments were making great strides, thanks in great part to the ultra miniaturization of electronic components and the use of IC chips. Tape recorders were also being adapted to the new advances during these “wonder years”, including the amazingly tiny microcassette recorders. From 1992 to 1996 Radio Shack sold a unique microcassette “desktop” unit using IC chips that was very popular at the time. Like many of the RS products sold under the Realistic name, it was a cleverly designed and uniquely featured machine with several useful functions. This video explores that machine inside and out. ******** Sponsored by: The Dream Angel Oracle Divination Software. Get inspiration and advice from your dreams while you are awake through your computer! Talk to one, three or five dream angels and unlock your inner wisdom. You’ll be amazed at what you discover!Get full details, including your own free demo at: www.clydesight.com ******** Microcassette tape recorders run in reverse of the standard cassette design (right to left instead of left to right) and are intended for voice recording. Their tiny amplifiers do not have the frequency response suitable for music, although their mechanical capstan drives often are stable enough for it. However they are very good for voice in many situations, and work especially well when the output is fed to a powered speaker system, as is demonstrated in this video. This …
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#3 written by clydesight 1 year ago
@Lachlant1984 I remember the radio/TV/cassette recorder combos, sure – JVC, GE and Emerson sold them. Some show up on E-Bay. I even saw one that had a STEREO micro cassette recorder built in! I didn’t win the bid on that one though. I don’t remember the Realistic ones, but I am sure if you say they made them,, they did.
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#7 written by jrcstudios 1 year ago
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#12 written by clydesight 1 year ago
What do you expect from a microcassette recorder? This one is much better than some others that cost more. Remember that microcassette tape is thinner than cassette tape, more prone to saturation, and runs at 1/2 and 1/4 cassette speed. The physics of tape recording can only go so far, and microcassettes were really pushing the limit.
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#13 written by clydesight 1 year ago
Yes, Tandy was the owner of RS here in the US as well. Although here, back in the day, TANDY stores sold leather goods and plastic molds and other hobby crafts stuff (some of it quite good!) and RS stores carried the electronics. Both were fun to visit and “window shop”.
RS used to have a lot more electronic components available than now. They still have some things, but they are so much leaning towards cell phones and such that they may drop their components altogether.
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#16 written by Lachlant1984 1 year ago
I would not be surprised if these units were available down under, I may have seen something like this in a Tandy catalogue for 1993. I’m sure you already know byt RadioShack was known as Tandy in australia, but we used the same trade marks, RadioShack, Optimus, and of cours my favourite, Realistic.
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#18 written by clydesight 1 year ago
Oh, wait, okay –
It came out in the 1992 catalog, so it sold from 1992-93 (1), 93-94(2), 94-95(3), 95-96(4) and 96-97(5). It was not listed in the 1997 catalog.
So I guess vwestlife IS correct, it DID sell for 5 years!
I guess instead of restoring tape recorders, I should work on restoring my math skills.
Oh wait, I never had any to begin with!
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#20 written by clydesight 1 year ago
Thanks, tape is good, or can be. The digital recorders I’ve tried are cheap and use 8 bit processing at 11 KHz or less, so not much improvement over tape, plus, how can you share the info except through a computer and network? With tape, you can give someone the tape and they can use it, and in the case of the tiny microcassettes, lose it too!
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#24 written by clydesight 1 year ago
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#25 written by clydesight 1 year ago
Yeah, they became the rage in the 80′s in business, like PDAs did in the 90′s. Business people follow trends like fashions folks do.
The format comes from 1969 by Olympus, but it just has never caught on except for the dictation. Dictation standard cassettes are much better, but bigger and you can’t put them in your shirt pocket and “look cool”.
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@coolbluelights
E-Bay, Look up cassette recorder belts. They come in assortments.