Mitsubishi DT-76 Cassette Deck With A Difference
By bohus
Are cassettes gone yet? I hate thinking that they are, but I guess it's hard to keep the market going for the format, when you can fit many thousands of better sounding song into a device that's way smaller. Still, whenever I put together a stereo set up, I always include a cassette deck. I use cassettes less and less, which makes me rue the amount of space the deck takes up in my stereo cabinet. Did anyone every try to make a smaller tape system?
Turns out that Mitsubishi tried in the mid 80's. You may recall our post about Mitsubishi turning record players on their ear by introducing a vertical turntable back then too. So the DT-76 is an example of outside the box thinking being applied to making the inside of the box smaller.
From the outside, the dual tape deck is pretty typical of mid to late 80's electronics until you notice it's a bit squatter. Hitting the 'open" button reveals the secret - a drawer trundles out, and the tapes are in there lying on their backs. Before you start trawling Ebay to get your own, the DT-76 will only save you about an inch in height - though that can be gold when you're trying to cram one component too many into a hi-fi stack. I also wish I could tell you what it sounds like, but it's not working. I would expect to be a pretty conventional sounding mid-grade unit, which would probably be fine for my third generation Heaven 17 tapes.
I wonder why this form factor never caught on? I can't think of any technical or audio drawbacks to playing tapes this way. I guess that like many other things, it's just so much easier sticking to the old way of doing things. I wonder what other oddball Mitsubishi form factors are out there?
related:
Upright turntable - Mitsubishi LT-640
Sony PS-FL1 drawer turntable
Stylish Ampex Micro 24 cassette recorder
