Anyone Else Into Elcaset?

[doity]

I have a good collection of the tapes. Some still sealed. Most came from a few different transactions over the years. They are still easy to come by and I think somewhat easier to come by in Europe where the format sold quite well. I was bored last night so I arranged my tapes by genre. I am quite surprised on how nice the tapes sound after so many years. The FeCr type II tapes still have a nice sheen to the tape and look almost brand new. Here is a pic of my Elcaset tape collection. BTW my deck is the Sony EL-7.





http://i43.tinypic.com/2ebqrg9.jpg

[braxus]

I've always had a curiousity in this format and I even see one deck for sale locally. But I decided not to get into it since reel to reel one betters Elcaset. Nice idea. Too bad it never caught on.

[NAD613]

I heard there's a law in Europe that when a blank audio format dies, the companies that introduced/manufactured the components are required to produce the blank media for 15 years after it dies out. Apparently, blank Elcaset tapes were sold in Europe well into the 1990's. That's what I heard, anyway.

[Mignun67]

Like Brax, I've always been curious about Elcaset and been tempted sorely by a number of nice units that have come up on the 'bay recently. But the blank tapes seem to be very rare and the prices for them are well into Supermetal cassette territory. However, were a unit with some tapes to fall into my lap I wouldn't say "no"....

[braxus]

I heard there's a law in Europe that when a blank audio format dies, the companies that introduced/manufactured the components are required to produce the blank media for 15 years after it dies out.

So does that mean we'll have cassettes being made well into the 2010s or 2020s? They still make cassette decks today, so its not officially dead yet.

[SaSi_Sidi]

I first heard of Elcaset when I bought my second cassette deck. A friend that was into everything new and fancy told me then that I wasted my money as "cassette is a thing of the past, I should have bought an Elcaset deck".

What I then thought of was that I already had a large number of cassettes so I needed a cassette deck anyway. And I couldn't afford two different decks and technologies.

I recently aqcuired an elcaset deck, a Technics RS-7500, mainly out of curiosity and collector's spirit, to match the rest of the rack-mounted units from Technics.

I was lucky as I bought it for half of what I was planning to spend and 1/4th of what a few other decks went for on ebay recently (i.e. ~$250). It did need some cleaning on the belts and idlers, but other than that it is in pristine condition.

I only have 3 cassettes so far and I had to "service" them to make them playable. Apparently, some form of lubricant between the spools and the case is solidifying causing either the cassette to lock up or screech.

It is not a bad format. A bit large and bulky (the cassette) and huge (the deck). But coming out at a time when R2R was being dethroned by cassette decks rivaling in performance, Elcaset was doomed from the outset.

Doesn't matter. Yet another novelty and obscure technology to enjoy.

[woadl]

Hi I have a Sony EL7 that requires a new Belt, any Idea where i would get on ?

thanks

brian