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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 20th Oct 2011, 4:07 pm   #21
brenellic2000
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

"Light bulb moment" - hmmm!

Not sure they had one of those as there were plenty of different types of cassettes /cartridges since before the war. Philips, I would suggest, happened to get it right for the 'portable' market of the '50s teen period.

There is nothing relevant in Anton Philips' biography on its development.

Good luck though, you'll soon get dragged into ever deeper research!


Barry
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Old 21st Oct 2011, 11:17 am   #22
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

I remember seeing pictures of some of these - essentially they looked like normal open-reel recorders, except the reels were encased in a clumsy plastic container.

But essentially I agree with the OP. The EL-3300 was a much bigger and more significant innovation than the iPod, as there were already quite a few mp3 players in existence when that came out. I reckon that Apple and Steve Jobs were just better at marketing.

Incidentall iDon't anything as I think they look tacky

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Old 25th Oct 2011, 10:58 pm   #23
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Reminds me of the time that I tried to create my own stereo tape recorder/player on the cheap from the PCBs of two EL 3302s, the tape transport mechanism of one and a stereo tape head I had pulled from a broken music centre. Funnily enough it never really did work so well, I had great difficulty designing a reliable switch for the record/playback function, but it was great fun nonetheless! I would not commit such vandalism now, but these machines were very common and plentiful in junk shops and flea markets in the early 1980s.

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Old 25th Oct 2011, 11:45 pm   #24
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Hello Folks,

I can remember the first time I heard a EL 3300 I was a service engineer at a local TV/radio shop and one of our customers had been to Austria and had bought one of these machines and recorded sounds to go with his slides.

We were all amazed a portable machine with no wow and flutter with the tape moving at 1.75 inches per sec impossible.

All portable tape recorders apart from very very heavy and expensive machines were awful up until this miracle machine. Here was a little machine giving "perfect reproduction" this certainly was a quantum leap in technology perhaps not recognised by youger members.

I wonder if Philips ever imagined that cassette machines would finish off reel to reel in the domestic market. Because they had one big failing nobody noticed. You could not record a concert or a play as the running time was only 45mins.

But who cares. It appears nobody did and of course the rest is history as they say. Good luck with your research.

Best wishes,
John
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Old 26th Oct 2011, 5:42 am   #25
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Quote:
Originally Posted by camtechman View Post
Why, if Steve Jobs of Apple and his "i" products brought him and the company so much fame, didn't the designer/s at Philips get the same industry accolade?!
I think one reason is that while Apple essentially is a closed environment, i.e. the only people making "i" products is Apple, Philips in contrast opened the doors to anyone who wanted to manufacture Compact Cassette recorders and tapes. The idea rightly being that the only way to get the system to penetrate the market deeply was to let the competitors in. I think it was a similar story with the Compact Disc, so it appearently can be a successful strategy, although in other cases such as DCC and Video 2000 it didn't work out for other reasons - but that's another story...

I think though that a fair amount of people know that Philips pioneered the system, but of course in the end Philips products were not much different to anyone elses, hence the lack of reverance that Apple has acheived.
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Old 26th Oct 2011, 10:39 am   #26
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Quote:
Originally Posted by ricard View Post
I think though that a fair amount of people know that Philips pioneered the system, but of course in the end Philips products were not much different to anyone elses, hence the lack of reverance that Apple has acheived.
I was greatly impressed with the EL3302 in the early '70s, in comparison to any other cheapish cassette recorder that I had seen. A friend had a NEAL cassette recorder, impressive!, yet the 3302 although mono was not far behind. So a good design.

In the case of Apple, whose products I've used since the late eighties, I think it has been the way that Apple has not just kept ahead of the curve, but defined the curve. It has adopted very good ideas from others and 'welded' them into both effective and also visually novel systems. Apple is a moving target - "innovate or perish" must be its motto.
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Old 26th Oct 2011, 5:00 pm   #27
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

I have an EL3302 among my collection somewehere and remember hooking it up to much bigger speaker, the quality was surprisingly good...

Robert
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Old 26th Oct 2011, 10:03 pm   #28
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

I got my EL3302 for my 12th birthday, i think it cost around £25 a fortune in those days, considering the average weekly wage was around £5 - £7

The results when used in conjunction with a hi fi system were surprisingly very good.

these machines were made in their Austrian factory which always built the latest technology of the day
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Old 27th Oct 2011, 6:26 am   #29
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

I still find it hard to believe that these machines (EL 3300) went into production as early as 1963/4. Just had no idea that they are that old, but probably didnt realise at the time as they were brought out for speech recording, rather than for the much later development of pre-recorded music tapes useage. My first cassette recorder was an ITTSL55 a gem of a machine which came out in 1970. Expensive too at around £30, if I recall.
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Old 27th Oct 2011, 9:02 am   #30
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

It's quite amazing, especially considering that as late as 1959 there were virtually no battery-operated machines intended for consumer use.

The little-known German company Butoba brought out a battery-operated reel-to-reel machine, the MT4, in 1959. Together with its successor, the slightly updated MT5 launched in 1960, it seemed to have caused a small revolution in the non-professional portable recorder market. It was rather expensive (don't have the figures in front of me) for a home recorder, but definitely within reach for those willing to stretch their budget, and also found a lot of use in the semi-professional market - aboriginal language studies, law enforcement and so on.

Within a couple of years other manufacturers such as Grundig (TK1), Uher (Report) and Telefunken (M300) and Philips (EL3585) (and probably others I can't think of now) introduced their offerings. The Philips EL3585 appears to have been introduced in 1962, so the next step to the EL3300 took place after only a year. That's quite a rate of development for those times! I don't know, but I think the availability of affordable transistors is what set the market flying, also, small permenent-magnet motors were not available/affordable until the mid-50s, so at the start of the 50s/start of the 60s it all started to come together.

When I was young we had an N2202 at home, and I was also amazed at how good it sounded. Perhaps they figured that if they didn't build quality machines, they would never get deep acceptance for the format, so that's why the machines are slightly over-engineered considering their intended use, with AC bias and erase, all-metal chassis, etc. I woudl guess cost cutting measures didn't come into play until the Japanese started to corner the market in the 70s.
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Old 5th Nov 2011, 4:46 pm   #31
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Have just noticed that the 3300s were made in HOLLAND and not AUSTRIA like the 3302's,
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Old 5th Nov 2011, 5:28 pm   #32
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Just had look at mine.
Both of my early EL3300s were made in Austria according to the silver printing next to the operating controls.
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Old 5th Nov 2011, 6:32 pm   #33
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Just gone a double checked. The case is MADE IN HOLLAND (small gold sticker on label) and the recorder is definitely MADE IN HOLLAND engraved under the battery indicator.
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Old 6th Nov 2011, 12:54 am   #34
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Its possible these were made in different countries ...
See my pics...
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Old 6th Nov 2011, 1:06 am   #35
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Both my recorders need belts if and when I get round to it.
I will have to look in my spares box.
When the Philips EL3300s came on the market I couldn't afford it,{ about £25 } but bought an "Alba" a few months later which was much better to look at although If I remember it was the same M/c but with a different case. Same price though.

Does anyone remember the first cassettes that came with the Philips?. Seem to remember they had white cases. ?
Just a thought. Peter W.....Reelguy
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Old 6th Nov 2011, 1:16 am   #36
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Hi all

I have also seen a pic of an EL3301 that was badged 'Made in England'

Cheers

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Old 6th Nov 2011, 7:14 am   #37
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

The Elizabethan LZ9102T (1966) looks another one that could have well been made by Philips during the early years of 3300s as so very similar.
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Old 6th Nov 2011, 10:18 am   #38
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Hello,

I too am interested in these early Philips "Compact Cassette" format machines. After badgering my dad, he forked out 27 Guineas (IIRC) for an EL3301 (an Austrian made example), which I bought from Currys, circa 1965. It worked very well, but I did get through a lot of those (then rather expensive) Ever Ready High Power HP11 (C size) cells, with those red sleeves!

A few years later, I "traded up" to a secondhand EL3302A/15G, because it used silicon transistors and had an external loudspeaker socket. The earlier version of the EL3302, the EL3302A/15D, used germanium devices, like its EL3300 and EL3301 predecessors.

I believe the following is correct:

EL3300/15; which all appear to have been made in Holland

EL3300A/15; where the "A" means made in Austria

EL3301G/15; where the "G" means made in Britain

This does not apply to later models though.

At some point, Philips concentrated production of cassette machines to their Vienna factory, which also made open reel machines and later made most of their VCRs, until it became too expensive to manufacture in Western Europe.

I have several machines, ranging from the EL3300 to the N2205, plus a few mains only decks. I particularly welcomed the arrival of the N2205, as it was their first battery/mains machine to use latching piano keys for the tape transport controls.

Of particular interest in my collection, is a Norelco (North American Philips) branded EL3301/54Z. It was marketed as the Norelco “Carry-Corder 150”.

The early Philips machines all came packed with a "Demonstation Musicassette".

I have some early Philips blank cassettes and these are made with an off-white plastic.

Regards,

Dazzlevision
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Old 7th Nov 2011, 10:16 am   #39
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

I remember having one of those old Philips cassettes; two things struck me about them: One, they didn't seem to use screws to hold them together, I honestly don't know if they were glued or welded or even snapped together. Two, this particular cassette never made that screeching noise that other cassettes tend to do when fast winding.
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Old 7th Nov 2011, 10:38 am   #40
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

AFAIK the EL3302 was cerainly screwed together, the early versions using threaded screws into brass inserts, the screws being recessed into the bottom cover. Later sets(no doubt
to save a few pennies per unit in production!)were assembled using self-tapping screws.
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