RCA Victor Recorded Sound Tape Cartridges 1958-59

[guymerritt]

I had one of these - and a later model that was brown in color and a slightly different case design. As a kid, all I wanted for Christmas was a tape recorder.....and I got those two.

[dontleavehimfaceless]

/watch?v=5yZI230yHnQ

[PAULLONDEN]

Wow ...the once mighty U.S of A.

No wonder people here looked in awe across the ocean.

Here in war torn Europe,such goodies finally began to become common around 1970 ,with compact cassettes.

[Rlotpir1972]

I think those 'cassettes' were underrated, or we wouldn't STILL have those up to the 1990's.

[BfSkinnerPunk]

I had no idea tape recordings could last this long

[JohnFordDanceTroupe]

That tape is really large. Almost Elcaset sized.

[chameleonday]

Great way of showcasing the cases on the mirrored turntable Ricky!



[aldiakaroofus]

This is such a cool device! I love how it still works as well as when it came out! Try playing a homemade CD-R audio CD in 10 years, let alone 50 years!

[paulj0557]

Is your player mono? I found a rare ' Qatron Stereo -48' 12 8-track tape player. It works great and I've been using it for about 5 years. It plays the 12 8-tracks on a carosel (sp?) cartridge made of durable plastic. You could actually store all of your tapes in these 'ready to play' carosels ( like the kodak slide projectors). It's stereo with it's own amp for speakers, but I plug it's aux out into my stereo.

Bought this thing for $5 at a very busy thrift store one Saturday. Made 500. Ser#499!

[marbleskc]

Love this kinda music.

[cinerama62]

Nice, now if we can only figure out how to make them smaller.

[ninjabluewings]

Now That's A Neat Machine, I Bet They Are SUPER RARE! Nowadays, Where Did You Get It?

[thereelmaster]

nice machine

[jmknosp85]

was it 1/4" tape in those cartridges? I have a customer wanting to transfer one of these and I was thinking of just putting the reels up on a reel to reel machine since I don't have the player

[wurly1100]

Yes,

1/4" tape recorded at 1 7/8 or 3 3/4 ips depending on if the cartridges are RCA pre-recorded or home recordings.

[fromthesidelines]

Then you probably didn't know about RCA marketing a 10 inch 33rpm record {"Victor Program Transcriptions'}, lasting 10 minutes per side, in the fall of 1931. Problem was, you could only play those "vinylite" records on a $250 Victrola radio-phonograph {the ONLY one capable of playing 78 and 33 speeds at the time}....when very few people could afford them during the Depression. And the heavy tone arm usually ruined the grooves after a number of plays. The format was discontinued in early 1933.

[BrentAudi]

Awesome video!

I am old enough to remember these!

[atlantic1952]

Amazingly rare format. Many thanks for loading and showing us how good it was.

[fromthesidelines]

This was indeed the forerunner of the "cassette" Philips perfected in the mid-'60s...RCA was always trying to impress audio enthusiasts [and make a profit from them at the same time] with the latest devices and formats; they previously introduced reel-to-reel stereophonic tapes as early as 1955, and "Living Stereo" had been introduced on vinyl, with great fanfare, in '58. They also marketed the first commercial "8-Track" tapes in 1965 (try playing one of THOSE today!}.

[TwinMillMC]

@fromthesidelines yeah, I have many 8 track tapes and 8 track tape decks that I've restored. The tapes usually need new head pads and the metal strip that activates the auto track change switch usually need to be replaced as well. I wonder why these large RCA cassettes never caught on with consumers. I applaud them for seeking profit from their products however. I couldn't imagine a company producing anything of value to loose money.

[RantovRizzia]

Beautiful. I want one of those machines!

[AugustoAAL]

I think the Quality of the sound is very good,maybe way better than the cassette.

[BrentAudi]

@AugustoAAL Way better than Cassette! The tape ran at 7.5 IPS.

[sinistermoon]

Very nice collection of tapes in this video man! Love the sound through the video camera. That Sid Ramin and His Orchestra: Love Is a Swingin' Word was awesome! I would like to find a copy of that some day.

[D1nny2oys]

The worlds first cassette deck

[joebradio]

and just think .. .the day is not far away when we will view VCR tapes the same way we view these ancient treasures....

[lklpalka]

Thank you for this well-executed post. I thought I knew all the various offerings of the age, but never saw or heard of this format. The sound is great despite the age of the recordings.

[vieuxson]

wonderfull this cartridge seem to be brand new. i realy love to find a rca recorder like this but i think they must be very very rare in france perhaps never saled in my country i m trying to make a collection off all the rareformats off cassettes like elcaset dc cassette by grundig wire cartridges etc i will post videos off what i have already found soon cheers