The microcassette was introduced by Olympus in 1969. The microcassette is significantly smaller than a Compact Cassette but it uses the same width of magnetic tape. Using thinner tape and a 2.4 cm/s standard speed you can have 30 minutes recording time per side, and double that duration at 1.2 cm/s. Unlike the Compact Cassette the tape spools in the opposite direction, from right to left and it is capstan drive just like Compact cassette.
Microcassettes proved to be popular for recording voice in dictation machines and answering machines. However, Microcassettes have also been used as a medium for recording music on Type IV metal tapes. This article presents some of the higher fidelity Microcassette decks that were manufactured for a short period of time in the early 80's.
microcassette Capstan Drive
It has to be noted however that before microcassettes, PHILIPS intoduced the minicassette that was featured in the movie A Clockwork Orange but everybody mistakes them by the OLYMPUS microcassettes. They are very similar in size but the Philips minicassette system does not use a capstan for tape transport.
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| A Clockwork Orange movie scene featuring PHILIPS minicassette !! |
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| A Clockwork Orange movie scene featuring PHILIPS minicassette !! |
An (almost) complete list of Higher Fidelity microcassette recorders:
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| SANYO RD-XM1 (1980) |
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| FISHER CRM 500 (1981) Sanyo rebadge |
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| JVC D-M3 (1981) |
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| Lo-D (Hitachi) D-MC5 (1982) |
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| SONY TC-MR2 (1982) |
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| Technics RS-M212 (1981) |
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| Technics RS-G800 (1982) Tuner-microcassette-amplifier |
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| AIWA 3-head, Dual Capstan, Prototype 1981 |
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| PIONEER MT-C8 (1984) |
