The sweet spot for home turntable enthusiasts on a budget seems to be the $200 mark. This might be the best of the bunch.
One can only imagine the sake-fueled club hopping that led to the development of the Seiko Frequency drum machine watch.
Birth of the Compact Audio Cassette
By James Grahame
Philips developed the Compact Audio Cassette in 1963. At the time, it was
only one of several competing cartridge based formats designed to simplify tape
recording. RCA had developed a magazine-style system in 1958, and several
German companies began pushing to develop a standard.
Philips approached Sony Corporation in Japan after realizing that Japanese acceptance of the new format would vastly improve the chances of success. After some hardball negotiation, Philips agreed to license the system to Sony without royalties. In fact, by 1965 Philips had opened the format up to other manufacturers free of charge.
The format initially offered fairly poor fidelity and
was marketed for voice recording and dictation. Technology improved quickly,
and advances in noise reduction technology, its ability to play stereo tapes,
and new tape formulations soon assured high-quality sound from the compact
format.
Incidentally, Philips went on to co-develop the Compact Disc.
