On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 16:56:18 -0700, DeserTBoB
wrote:

They were only in the audio stores for about six months or so around
1978, and withered quickly. snip

I looked in my manual file...I tried the Elcaset machine in November,
1978 and used it until I returned it to the rep in January, 1979. This
was before any of the big audio chains on the West Coast had ANY store
stock of them. Previous to this, if one wanted an Elcaset machine,
it'd have to be bought from Sony or one of a very few Sony dealers. I
remember Shelley's Audio had them, as did a couple of the other high
end stores in LA, around that time, but the biggies, like University
Stereo, Dow Radio, Federated and CBS' Pacific Stereo didn't carry
them...or much of anything else by Sony.

The Elcaset did get rolled out in late '76 in Japan, and, as usual
with the Japanese, they eagerly snapped up anything with the Sony logo
on it. "Sony no breakee" went the conventional logic of the Japanese,
when reality, of course, was a bit different. Just ask any broadcast
video tech who worked his fingers off trying to keep Sony tape
machines and cameras online! A friend of mine who was stationed in
Honolulu said that he saw them on Oahu for sale about six months
later, and I saw the first one offered in Federated's "high end room"
around spring of '79, never to be seen again. About that time, Audio
magazine did a write-up of the EL-7, as did Stereo Review. High
praise as a 3¾ IPS tape machine, but both write-ups pointed out the
format's flaws, as I'd already surmised. There wasn't an Elcaset
anywhere to be found in LA by late summer of '79, and Sony decided to
put their big push on Betamax.

Elcaset was a moderate seller in the UK, as well as a hit in Japan,
but was a spectacular flop everywhere else. As with a lot of Sony's
product line over the years, it was an idea in search of a market. I
do remember the Superscope rep stating that it was Sony's goal to
"overcome the clumsy handling of reel tapes with a new, high fidelity
format." All well and good...except that Philips was well on the way
to filling that market with a more desirable product, one that was
quickly reaching total market domination.