The KillerDAC Audio forum
General HIFI => Reel to Reel => Topic started by: Peter A on May 31, 2013, 06:35:04 PM
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Has anyone had anything to do with the Elcaset format. Reading Elcaset sites on the internet and it should sounded as good as Reel 2 Reel. What are your opinions. Does anyone have one. Give us your thoughts.
Peter
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No information, but i remember lusting after the Sony machines as a young boy!
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Has anyone had anything to do with the Elcaset format. Reading Elcaset sites on the internet and it should sounded as good as Reel 2 Reel. What are your opinions. Does anyone have one. Give us your thoughts.
Peter
I have done some research because I know nothink about it, but found some info.
The name "Elcaset" may simply mean L-cassette, or large cassette, since the 1/4" tape inside was double the 1/8" width found in standard cassettes. They were divided into six tracks. Size comparison of Elcaset with standard Compact Cassette
The cassette itself looked very similar to a standard cassette, only larger—about twice the size.
Rare format indeed.
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Has anyone had anything to do with the Elcaset format. Reading Elcaset sites on the internet and it should sounded as good as Reel 2 Reel. What are your opinions. Does anyone have one. Give us your thoughts.
Peter
I have done some research because I know nothink about it, but found some info.
The name "Elcaset" may simply mean L-cassette, or large cassette, since the 1/4" tape inside was double the 1/8" width found in standard cassettes. They were divided into six tracks. Size comparison of Elcaset with standard Compact Cassette
The cassette itself looked very similar to a standard cassette, only larger—about twice the size.
Rare format indeed.
What Steve said. Could have been a truly great format but it never really caught on. The main problem is that the shells held bugger all tape so they restricted the speed to 1 7/8" speed. The quality was a step up from a cassette deck but still no where near a good reel to reel at 7.5 IPS. The other problem was a Betacam video deck used as an audio recorder only had much better sound as the tape was bigger again and plenty of it in a shell.
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Have a read of http://home.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/elcaset/index.html
The Elcaset runs at 3 3/4 ips
The Elcaset was a compromise between the all-out performance of an expensive reel-to-reel deck and the convenience of a cartridge format
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Also have a look at http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-EL-7.html
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Thanks Peter,
Great Links. Sorry my memory must have failed me regarding the speed. I lusted over these when I was younger (much younger) and must admit have put more than one throw away bid on EPay in years gone past. It is amazing just how good these old things can sound but being tape I'm not surprised. Would love to hear one again as the last one I heard was I think in the 80's.
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I remember seeing a Sony unit at Chandler's store in Cairns when I was in my teenage years. I still remember seeing the physical size of the cassettes. They were far different from the main stream cassettes.
There must be someone out there with one of these units who can give their opinion of the sound.
Peter
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Have a look at a Sony EL-7 in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQY0kNIg2Ws
As good as Reel-2-Reel
Peter
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As good as the elcassette may be, a reel to reel deck playing 1/4 track at 3 3/4" ips in not regarded as high quality.
The elcasstette uses the full tape width at 3 3/4" but it would still not comparable with with a reel to reel at 7.5 IPS.
Tape and bits and pieces are hard enough to find and not cheap for the reel to reels let alone this format which never
really took off on the market.