"Shoebox"-Type (No Radio) Cassette Recorders: Worth Having?

[PostEnder]

Well, folks? What do you think? That is, if only for a more expendable rewinding and fast-forwarding workhorse? (Sparing the mechanism of the boomboxes themselves. A series of end-to-end rewindings of C-90 or C-100 tapes are no breeze through the park for the gears and belts of any decks out there: Aiwas, Toshibas and the like.) Kind of like the cassette rewinders in the VHS Era, yes? They were created and used more to relieve stressed VCR mechanisms and less to avoid fines in the "Be Kind, Please Rewind (Or Else)" days of Blockbuster Video, right?

 

[hopey]

Are you using a translator cause your words and narative is all messed up. Just use a pencil like everyone else.

 

[MyOhMy]

I (think) I've got your point about the 'shoebox' players being worthwhile or not? As a RW/FF to save the strain or free up a deck may seem sensible but the necessity I would question however........................despite never owning one of these, I've gradually developed a desire for one but it's difficult to find a stereo 'shoebox' player that's aesthetic, in excellent condition and looks as if it's 'of the era'.

 

[Jorge]

I am one with @hopey that something did get "lost in translation" but since English is my third Foreign language (Russian and French came first) I have to be excused!.... I just use one cheap Sony Walkman to rewind my cassettes: it takes no space at all and does the job nicely! No auto-stop in this little piece of, ahem! technology, but no torque either so cassettes are safe...

 

[goodman]

I found this. Look video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58EitSEFzo8

 

[Styleking]

I understand his post perfectly. It's a little verbose but in summation: Could using an alternate source (shoebox cassette player) to rewind or fast forward your tapes save stress in your cassette mechanism on your boombox? I say sure it could, good idea.

 

[PostEnder]

Thanks, folks, for any helpful comments on the subject matter.

And, goodman, thanks for sharing that YouTube video. (From the UK, yes?)

I was worried that I might not be able to stay awake through a 14min 30sec video like that. Even the show presenter himself said the issue was a rather "dry subject." (Although the last minutes of the show were end credits streaming past scenes from other shows with nifty -- or awful -- yesteryear tech.)

But it was interesting enough, especially seeing that slim, uncluttered Sony BA-E200 (or whatever the model number of that cassette winder/cassette eraser is).

Thanks again.

 

[Nickeccles]

I have brand new old stock Waltham shoebox recorder, purely for nostalgic reasons - My first ever cassette recorder in 1976!! Was so strange to unbox it all over again - just like the first time all those years ago...........

Came complete with everything unopened & it works like new! Well, it IS new



More Here:







https://onedrive.live.com/?id=BEA218B70F2B18D1%217413&cid=BEA218B70F2B18D1

 

[PostEnder]

Thanks for sharing the photo', Mr Eccles. I also found your April 2016 YouTube upload of this gadget by using the search term "Waltham shoebox recorder."

1976 certainly is "back in the day" -- perhaps so much so that the engineers at Orion (the company that apparently made this device) didn't even feel that a tape counter was necessary. (Well, I couldn't find one, anyway.

)

Watching the clip a second time, I thought that the five deck keys remind one of a piano's keys. (Except perhaps the red one.)

Hmm ... is the song "Ayla Part 2" (being played by your Waltham) the same as what was played by an Aiwa CS-600 in another YouTube clip?

 

[Nickeccles]

Probably yes - My favourite trance track of the 90's & often blasted on various players!!