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Old 9th Jul 2019, 6:14 pm   #7
ricard
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lund, Sweden
Posts: 1,631
Default Re: Schaub Lorenz 5001 Music Centre

What really surprised me was the lack of wind or rewind function accessible by the user. So, say you want to record a 20 minute programme and you've got 5 minutes till the end of the tape, then you'd need to play the tape for 5 minutes so it auto rewinds, then stop it, select an unused track, and press record (so that the machine doesn't start auto rewinding in the middle of the programme).

And it's not practical to listen to a track to hear if it's unused, as by the time you've concluded that that is in fact the case, you've played at least several seconds at least into the start of the tape for that track, and you can't go back, as there is no rewind.

I think I understand what they were going for - a 'music box' with one simple programme selector, and no fast wind to confuse people, but in the end this particular lack of feature would make the operation of the device rather clumsy.

As hinted in the video, in some ways this was the predecessor of the iPod with its simple user interface, but there were a thing or two they didn't get quite right.

Of course all this results in this 'time capsule' thing - people recorded a bunch of stuff with ease, then couldn't be bothered to to use it after the initial excitement wore off, preserving whatever was recorded for posterity.

Interesting point in the video about the devices being dumped by the manufacturer only to be picked up by a distributor in Britain who sold them at discount prices, hence the relative proliferation in Britain despite the German legend on the front panel!
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