On 11 Mar 2007 14:12:15 -0700, "duty-honor-country"
wrote:

The more I look at Elcaset the more I'm liking that format- 1/4" 4-
track with 2 stereo sides- 2x faster than standard cassette- 2x wider
tracks than 8-track cartridge

Has anyone here tried the Elcaset ? snip

I had a Sony Elcaset recorder from a Superscope rep on accommodation
for awhile. It was a good enough home format, but it failed at
achieving the raison d'être for ANY prepackaged tape
system...smallness of size, convenience of use and yes, cost.

The Elcaset performed just about like any 3¾ IPS RTR deck of the
era...which is to say, not all that great, but would kick the crap out
of 8 track, noise and fidelity wise.

Looks like a kick-ass format to me. snip

It was, actually, the best performing of ALL packaged tape formats.
The expense and typical unreliability of Sony made it not work, and
Philips AG kicked their ass in the marketplace simply by pushing the
1981 IEC cassette standard changes, which increased the MOL of
cassette from 160 to 250 nWb/m. That put cassette, using Type II
tape, on a par with the Elcaset in several areas as far as consumer
users went, as did the use of micron gapped, assymetrical head bridges
that finally gave cassette a "virtual 3 head" configuration. Elcaset
lasted a scant 6 mos. in the marketplace before Sony threw in the
towel.

Anyone serious about tape, though, never touched the Elcaset. Why
give up all that versatility of a good, 3 motored, 3 head RTR just to
have a non-standard cassette you can't use anywhere else, anyway? Not
that they'd go with a Sony RTR, anyway, since they were universally
crap. Anyone who ever suffered with a Sony TC-630 or similar can
attest to that!

Can't wait 'til I score a player ! snip

LOTS of luck on that. There is a VERY tiny sect of Elcaset devotees,
and they don't like stunods like you, Noodlez. Elcaset players and
raw tape stock are quite expensive among collectors, but every now and
then some idiot will find them in an estate sales (like how you find a
lot of your crap, Noodlez) and sell them for a few bucks on fleaBay.