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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 26th Aug 2012, 5:24 pm   #121
Ekcoman
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

I still haven't grasped that these machines date from 1963 although the oldest I have seen is 1964. Do you know when Philips thought about using the format for music rather than just speech was it about 1969? These would be tapes of course pre-Dolby.
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Old 27th Aug 2012, 8:04 am   #122
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Chris,

The first 'Musicassettes' were launched in Holland and Germany in 1965 followed by the UK in 1966 (as a joint Philips/EMI venture), so their use as music players was undoubtedly considered viable before its launch in 1963.

Legend has it that BASF's new 'LH' low noise/high fidelity tape, formulated in 1961, was developed for the yet to be released cassette recorder. Perhaps Philips had left its development to BASF?

Needless to say when 'Tape Recorder Magazine' reviewed the first UK produced 'Musicassettes' in 1967 they fully recoginsed the format would not compete with an LP... as is still the case!

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Old 27th Aug 2012, 12:47 pm   #123
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Thanks Barry! I have a few of those early cassette 1967/8 and the quality wasn't always great. Memorex in later years used ghastly foam instead of a spring to push forward the tape onto the head. I wonder if others remember that one?
Looking closely at the 3300 and 3301s machines I have (3!). The only real significant change is the recording protection but am sure someone will jump in and correct me on that one.
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Old 27th Aug 2012, 1:21 pm   #124
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

"... the quality wasn't always great" ... me thinks you're being polite! I'm afraid I never took much interest in cassettes so can't help with the tape head contact business. To my mind the best quality cassettes rattled the least!

I had Pye car cassette player when they first came out ... it changed speed quicker than the car!!!

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Old 27th Aug 2012, 3:21 pm   #125
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

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Looking closely at the 3300 and 3301s machines I have (3!). The only real significant change is the recording protection
The other major difference between the 3300 and the models that followed was that the 3300's motor was not electronically contolled for speed stability.

The motor in the 3300 had an internal, mechanical, centrifugal control whereas the later model had the additional electronic circuit board.
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Old 27th Aug 2012, 6:13 pm   #126
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

I'm still intrigued by such late production dates on EL3302 variations (*). A date code of 417 either means week 41 of 1967 or week 17 of 1974 depending on which factory and which point in time (they really liked to make a mess of it). Based on the unambiguous examples of the 4-number date format used up to 1966 in the WT factory, I'd propose a 417 date in a WT code actually means week 41 of 1967.

Does anyone (maybe camtechman?) have any unambiguous date codes to verify this? For example ones wherein the supposed week number is 00 or exceeds 53 if it really were a week number?

I will also re-read this entire thread shortly, to see whether I missed anything.


(*) EL model numbers for consumer products were discontinued by 1974 for some time already, so a Philips branded recorder surely would have had an N... model number. TR or other letters in front of other brand's model numbers could be from either the EL- or the N-era.

Last edited by Maarten; 27th Aug 2012 at 6:33 pm.
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Old 27th Aug 2012, 7:25 pm   #127
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

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The motor in the 3300 had an internal, mechanical, centrifugal control whereas the later model had the additional electronic circuit board.
That's interesting as my one and only 3300 plays a just a very slight tad slow but guess as only designed back then for recording voice wasn't an issue.
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Old 28th Aug 2012, 10:05 am   #128
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

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Does anyone (maybe camtechman?) have any unambiguous date codes to verify this? For example ones wherein the supposed week number is 00 or exceeds 53 if it really were a week number?
I recently acquired a Norelco badged 3302 (EL3302/94G) & the label on the motor housing stated: AH02 828 and so, my interpretation of that was: Week 28 1968, based upon an intelligent guess & that I couldn't imagine that it would have been made in 1978?

When Philips changed it's date coding from one system to another, I can't imagine that Philips would have thought that the EL33XX series would still be selling into the mid 70's and, as a result, that the later coding could lead to confusion.

In hind site and that we have the advantage of knowing that these machines were no longer manufactured beyond that date/period, that we can work out most of the date codes but it can still throw one from time to time.

In fact, as a result of this, I've been re-coding the date times for my Historical Audio Recordings Collection, that I've made for future generations to hear (yes, that's another passion of mine). E.g: Where I'd used the date codes: 05-08-22 (for 5th May 1922) I've now put the full year in: 1922. For, in years to come, someone could be asking: "Is that 1922 or 2022?"

Leason learnt.
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Old 28th Aug 2012, 3:36 pm   #129
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

errr.... did you mean 05-05-22 for 5th May 1922? Then of course the Americans put month first then day, not that it make much difference for 5th May, but 5th August is another matter!!

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Old 28th Aug 2012, 3:47 pm   #130
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

AH 828 is indeed unambiguous. Most of the time, it's relatively easy to guess the right decade as you did (clearly 1968). So for Hasselt (AH) production we've established without a doubt that by 1968 they adhered to the standard format of 3 digits - year first, then week.

Unfortunately, this doesn't say anything about Vienna (WT, WR) production. Even WT and WR codes could differ from eachother. I have even seen different formats from the same factory.

Sometime in the mid 1970's, the 3 digit - year first then week, became a standard format. Sometime during the 1980's Philips decided a 4 digit - year first then week format would be better, but on some internal stickers the 3 digit format is still in use to this day.
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Old 28th Aug 2012, 4:06 pm   #131
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

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Then of course the Americans put month first then day, not that it make much difference for 5th May, but 5th August is another matter
Today, I are mainly wearing my wooden head.....
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Old 28th Aug 2012, 4:33 pm   #132
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Would week 22 be September?
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Old 28th Aug 2012, 4:49 pm   #133
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

September can't start before approximately week 35 or 36. According to ISO spec, the first week of a year is the week that contains the first thursday of that year. Every ISO year has 52 or 53 weeks, numbered sequentially.
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Old 28th Aug 2012, 4:54 pm   #134
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

I used to think that week 1 was the first week in April like the tax year.
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Old 29th Aug 2012, 9:24 am   #135
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

All manufacturers' code are intentionally meant to confuse the opposition!

It may be true today that ISO rules stipulate Week '0' commences on the first Thursday, but that is probably due to ISO 9001 etc compliance. I don't think the old BS5750 and its predecessors were that specific. Usually in the UK it began on the first Sunday or Monday.

The whole point about these date codes was for QA to assess when a problem first ocurred to identify which batches to recall. Often a major customer would require a more specific traceability - especially so the US FDA which caused panic in the medical industry in the 1970s!

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Old 21st Apr 2014, 9:33 pm   #136
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

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Originally Posted by 'LIVEWIRE?' View Post
AS a matter of related interest, the mechanism used in the EL3300 series was also fitted,
mounted sideways on in a French-made Philips Car Radio-Cassette Player. Unfortunately
I can't remember the model no. and don't have any pictures of it, but remember servicing them back in the mid to late 70s.
i have one, it's a 22RN312/19 and also has a built in MW-LW tuner
the cassette player mechanism is the same used in the EL33xx series recorders with the addition of a cassette loader mechanism

the mechanism is operated by a lever connected to the usual control "joystick" of the EL33xx mechanism, which allows only two functions: play and rewind, FF is not possible even though the mechanism itself is fully capable of it.

My unit is stereo, a mono version with a grey front panel also existed
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Old 6th May 2014, 11:56 pm   #137
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

also the EL33xx recorders were nicknamed "Pepito" here in Italy
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Old 7th May 2014, 3:57 am   #138
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

So what does that translate to English. It sounds like an affectionate term for something small & sweet.
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Old 7th May 2014, 2:01 pm   #139
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

"pepito" is the male term for pepita (nugget) in Italian and Spanish etc and is indeed used as an affectionate term
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Old 14th May 2014, 6:13 am   #140
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Default Re: History Of Philips EL33XX Series Cassette Recorder

Just found an article in the Billboard Magazine from April 1967 which mentions the Elizabethan LZ 9102T and Dansette version which never knew about. Seems Philips were out then to push the pre-recorded tapes big time.
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