The Braun C 3 cassette deck was introduced in 1984 and the same year the Atelier Hi-Fi system it was part of, received the prestigious "iF Design Award 1984" in the product design category. The design was the work of Peter Hartwein under the supervision of Dieter Rams. The housings of the Braun Atelier components are flat with uniform dimensions (44.5 cm wide and 7 cm high) and on the back of the devices, hinged metal panels cover the cables and plug contacts (the contact assignment is printed on the inside of the flap). All devices were produced in black and "crystal gray" (... white) and are also part of the Museum of Modern Art collection.
The Braun C 3 is a 3-Head deck with a 2-Motor mechanism mounted inside of a tray loading mechanism. It's a single capstan mechanism with Quartz-PLL Direct Drive motor operating at both 4.75 cm/s and 9.5 cm/s speed. The heads are of M&X type while for noise reduction it features both Dolby B and C circuits. Recording level can be adjusted with a rotary encoder with the help of a LED peak level meter while recordings can be made on all tape types: Normal, FeCr, Crome and Metal.
Technical data:
Wow and Flutter:
0.03% (WRMS 4.75 cm/s) and 0.025% (WRMS 9.5 cm/s)
Signal to Noise ratio:
74 dB (Normal, Dolby-C, 4.75 cm/s) and 78 dB (Normal, Dolby-C, 9.5 cm/s)
76 dB (Chrome, Dolby-C, 4.75 cm/s) and 78 dB (Chrome, Dolby-C, 9.5 cm/s)
76 dB (Metal, Dolby-C, 4.75 cm/s) and (only) 72 dB (Metal, Dolby-C, 9.5 cm/s)
Frequency response:
20Hz ... 18/19/19/19kHz (Normal, Chrome, FeCr, Metal 4.75 cm/s)
20Hz ... 22kHz (Normal, Chrome, FeCr, Metal 9.5 cm/s)
Dimensions:
445 x 70 x 360 mm
Weight:
8.9 kg
This cassette deck can be found under the a/d/s brand name as well. These models were sold by a/d/s as Braun's USA distributor/partner. TDK has also used a BRAUN cassette deck in one of their TV comercials as seen here.
