The Personal Hi-Fi Blog: June 2021

The Personal Hi-Fi Site Presents:

The short story of

TEAC Reel to Reel Cassette

Any Sound enthusiasts or Hi-Fidelity aficionado are well familiar with the Teac reel-to-reel cassettes, even if you never had one you'd love to have one. because, back in the eighties, you spotted it in every Cassette Deck and it was really cool! This short and brief article will present the short story of the cool and awesome reel-to-reel TEAC cassette.

History

or how it all began?

In 1981 Thorens was the first brand to adopt the reel-to-reel tape's concept to form miniature reel-to-reel tapes and introduced us to the first Reel-to-Reel cassette - the Thorens LH (Low Hiss). Thorens was a manufacturer of high-end audio equipment. They are historically renowned for the range of belt drive type turntables they produce. however, Thorens never appeared in the history of cassettes.

Followed Thorens, in the early days of 1983 the prestigious high-end company TEAC (Tokyo Electro Acoustic Company) introduced the STUDIO/46S a Reel-to-Reel cassette it was the First Reel-to-Reel, Type IV (also known as) Metal type. It was based on a high-quality formula made by MAXELL (HITACHI Co. Ltd) and the reels themselves were made with actual lightweight metal reels, TEAC tags them as, "Metal Tape & Metal Reel".

By that time, the cassette market was completely dominated by TDK with its legendary 'Reference Standard' the unique and technologically advanced MA-R cassette. it was firstly introduced in 1979 and It was the first Die-Cast metal cassette. The State-of-the-Art MA-R was one of its kind and Teac's STUDIO was the answer to TDK's MA-R.

The MA-R legend has it that the metallic frame was introduced on the same day as die-cast frame and in the next 10 days, it was introduced to the world! Legend said the cassette was assembled handmade and the die-cast metal frame was designed and made by a team of women.

By 1984 TEAC introduced a full lineup of Reel-to-Reel Cassettes, the top-of-the-line is the STUDIO - Metal type, 46, 52, And 60 min. they come in two colors only; S - Silver & G - Gold.

Then the Mid-line is tagged COBALT - Chrome type, 52 min. they come in three colors; Silver, Gold, & Black.

And last the entry-level is tagged SOUND - Normal-type, 52 min. and they come in six fashioned colors; G, S, BL, Gr - Green, B - Blue, and P - Pink.

"TEAC'S GOT THE GOLD" - Sound series 1984 US ADVERTISING

TEAC's JAPANESE CATALOG 1984

The O-Casse

(Open Cassette)

TEAC has also introduced a full line of their flagship - the unique Open Cassette Tape also known as the O-Casse Model - OC-5.

TEAC's O-Casse Japanese Advertisement 1983

The O-Casse is a set of new cassettes family; the top of the line is OC-5M (Metal), OC-5C (Chrome), and OC-5N (Normal). each one has a cassette frame with 5 extra reels to assemble. Then we have the color OC-2NA and OC-2N in gold. also the NT-5A, five colored reels. each one has the same cassette frame and two spare reels, one in gold color and the other have different colors.

The Future of Sound has Arrived 1984 World Adv.

This new lineup was made for Professionals therefore, they had short lengths. While for consumers and enthusiasts they introduce a longer version of 60 min. and 90 min. the CRC which is Chrome type & the CDC which is Normal-type. to distinguish between the two, they were redesigned with the triangles facing out. The TEAC lineup was so cool and successful that in a very short time many other brands followed with their own version or they ordered an OEM version with their name on it.

TEAC CDC-60 Normal Japan Version & TEAC CRC 90 Chrome Japan Version

TEAC CRC 90 High Bias (Chrome) World Version & A Box of Ten

Sound-X

Teac's third and final generation of the reel-to-reel cassette was the Sound-X it was introduced later on in early 1985, it was an upgrade to the previous lineup, it was claimed to have Extremely high resolution with Adaptive super-fine (PX) Gamma Iron Oxide developed by MAXELL (HITACHI Co. Ltd). it's a high-performance tape for the mid-low range to super-high real frequency characteristics. it also developed a new aluminum-magnesium alloy

(in short, aluminum alloy) reels with HP (High Precision) mechanism. to commemorate this new lineup TEAC added a new sixth color - Orange (OR). by that time TEAC's Reel-to-Reel cassette tapes gained huge popularity and high demand.

Present-day

Now, let's fast forward 35 years later, Teac's Reel-to-reel cassettes have become collectors odyssey, not to mention sellers greed and madness, with the comeback of vinyl and the cassettes tapes popularity back again, prices have become skyrocketing and unrealistically pricey. you can't get your hands on a genuine one, be it Normal type, or maybe a used one you will still have to part from a day's salary. while a NOS O-Casse can cost almost a grand on eBay. While in Japan prices are saner for example you can find A genuine brand new Teac OC-5N for less than half price on eBay or OC-2N for less than $200. here are few examples:

Since this is the case, many have tried to get a piece of the action and many fakes have emerged everywhere, some are made very good while others have their own design of the famous reel-to-reel cassette. However, In my opinion, Teac's design is far more attractive combining all the competitions altogether.

Here are few examples of fake TEAC cassettes, some even looks like the real thing (like the red one):