The story of compact audio: how miniature bobbins migrated into a cassette form factor
In one of the materials we talked about Fidelipac . It became the first commercially successful film format. But attempts to enclose magnetic tape in a compact cartridge were made before him. Back in the mid-fifties, RCA engineers placed two small bobbins in a plastic case and introduced a new format. We’ll talk about him.
Photo Jeh92 / PD / Compact Cassette and RCA Sound TapeReels in a plastic case
In the mid-fifties, sales of bobbin manufacturers in the United States grew steadily. According to the Magnetic Recording Industry Association, in 1955, Americans acquired 360 thousand devices - this is 50% more than a year earlier. One of the key players in the market was RCA Victor.She produced both the players themselves and the pre-recorded reels with music. For example, the company owned exclusive rights to release songs and albums by Elvis Presley, they diverged in millions of copies. Things were going well, but the company felt that it was possible to “spur” sales by making magnetic tape more accessible to a wide audience.The fact is that bobbins still remained the lot of enthusiasts - refueling the tape and setting up all the mechanisms of the tape recorder required some skills and time. Management has concluded that this process can be simplified. In 1958, the company's engineers reduced two bobbins and enclosed them in a compact plastic case. So there was an RCA Sound Tape cartridge .In shape, it resembled the usual compact cassette, only wider and longer. A feed and receiving coil was also built into the housing. Also, the cartridge received a special brake, it did not allow the tape to unwind and get confused.
Photo Mlsra / CC-BY-SA / RCA Victor, 1962 ( video with a close model)The tape itself was ¼-inch wide and had four discrete audio tracks on which it was possible to record up to 30 minutes of stereo sound. The tape speedwas3.75 inches per second (9.525 cm) —twice less than most reel tape recorders.Some cartridges could run at 1.875 inches per second. This approach doubled the capacity of the drive, but worsened the sound quality - it became unacceptable for recording music, but suitable for conversational content.Six years to oblivion
RCA had high hopes for a new format, but it never managed to become widespread - it captured only a small market share with educational audio recordings. Then, they wrote in Billboard magazine that, compared to reels, the new cartridge transmits high and low frequencies worse, and during playback at low volume a strong hiss is heard.Photo by Marcin Wichary / CC BY
Availability also left something to be desired - in 1960, one cartridge cost4,5 dollars. While a reel - with better sound quality and duration - could be purchased for $ 3.5. Another factor in the collapse of this format, experts attribute the slow production of tape recorders - RCA simply did not manage to cover even the insignificant demand that they managed to achieve. The company was also too slow in licensing pre-registered cartridges for home use - most likely this was due to the search for suitable content in conditions of reduced quality of the sound format. Therefore, the number of songs released on Sound Tape was relatively small. Perhaps the most iconic are the works of American pianist Ralph Flanagan and singer Lina Horn , as well as compositions by conductor Henry Manciniwho received four Oscars.Sound Tape disappeared from the shelves in 1964 - they were sold for about six years. RCA started producing compact cassettes from Philips. Today, Sound Tape cartridges are only a matter of nostalgia and are of interest only to collectors and enthusiasts.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/undefined/
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