Introduced in 1970 the Technics RS-275U was the World's First cassette deck to employ the Direct-Drive system developed for turntables. Based on this 2 motor solenoid controlled mechanism with Direct Drive capstan and DC motor for the reel-table-drive, Technics introduced it's first 3 Head cassette deck, the RS-279US in 1973. Being an early 3 head cassette deck the head arrangement is slightly different than the standard arrangement later used by 3 head models. The erase head is a full size head followed by a recording/playback head (as in 2 head arrangements).
The third head is a monitoring head (small window) located between the recording/playback head and pinch roller. Both the recording/playback and monitoring head use the HPF (high pressure ferrite) head with 10 year guaranty developped by Technics. Another unusual feature of the deck was the Dolby noise reduction with adjustable level. (L and R channel independently adjustable). Frequency response is 20-16000 Hz with normal tape and 20-18000 Hz with Chrome tape ... while externally it measures 440x115x325 mm. The deck can be remote controlled via the RP-9275 wired remote while for transportation the RP-985 solid carry case was sold as accessory. The deck was sold under National Panasonic | Technics by Panasonic | Technics with a National logo | or simply Technics, brand names, while the remote control was a National Panasonic branded model.
More Classic Deck.