On 11 Mar 2007 18:37:14 -0700, "duty-honor-country"
wrote:

Oddly enough, Beta decks bring big bucks now too. snip

Yes, I know...I sold an SL-5200, the first Beta Hi-Fi model, for a
mint last year. Funny thing the "betaheads" don't understand is that
most non-Chinese made VHS-HQ decks will outperform them on low and
intermediate speeds now, due to improvements in the JVC/VHS format.
This isn't to say that the latest Chinese-made decks are any
good...they're cheaply thrown together trash. But, take any Superbeta
deck on Beta III speed up with new heads against a VHS-HQ machine
from, say, Panasonic or JVC with new heads, and the VHS machine will
win on raster noise and freedom from color burst problems.

GM is getting ready to buy Chrysler and Ford. When that happens, they
will become a huge mega-sized American corporation making cars,
approx. 3X the size of its nearest competitor, Toyota. snip

Toyota will pass GM this model year as the #1 world automaker.
Meanwhile, GM continues to commit the same blunders.

And if you
think about it, things were never better in this country for the
average working man, than in the 1946-70 era, when nearly all the cars
we drove were made here- along with our clothes, appliances, textiles,
shoes, and even kids' toys. We need to get back to that ASAP. It
will create more jobs, and high paying union jobs at that. Don't you
agree ? snip

110% on that.

Case in point: In the northern environs of the greater San Francisco
Bay area, across the Strait of Carquinez, the first large scale
cantilever highway bridge in the area was built in 1927 to carry US 40
across the water without the need for a ferry. In 1958, a near copy
of the same bridge was built next to it to convert US 40 to freeway
standards, anticipating the upgrade to Interstate standards passed in
1956. This artery became I-680, and the two bridges have been used
since then.

A seismic survey found that the 1927 span, which used built-up
(lattice) beams instead of the later rolled box beams of the 1958
version, was in danger of collapse in a severe earthquake. The span
had require extensive realignment after the 1987 Loma Prieta quake,
while the '58 span held together fairly well. CalTrans then sent out
bids for a new, modern suspension bridge to parallel the 1927 span,
allowing it to be used for southbound traffic while the old span was
deconstructed. Both spans were built by American Bridge Company, the
elder one using Bethlehem steel, the latter using Kaiser steel and
both using concrete from Henry Kaiser's Permanente cement plant.

NOT ONE US company returned a bid on the new replacement span....NOT
ONE. American Bridge? Gone. Chicago Steel Products? Gone. Every
one major steel fabricator in the country? Gone. Who won the bid?
Cleveland Erectors, a BRITISH firm. On top of that, all the major
materials that make up the new bridge DO NOT COME from the US. The
precast towers and roadbed sections come from overseas. NO US
manufacturers even BOTHERED to bid. This came quickly to light during
construction, when, one morning, the Union Jack and the Aussie flag
were flying on top of one of the recently erected towers. Public
opinion went awry instantly, and a US flag was then placed between
them. Not enough, so the Union Jack and Aussie flags were removed.
But the problem remained after the flags had fallen. The ONLY US
product in the assembly of the bridge is US union labor...that's it.

Rick Waggoner isn't saying a word about the Chrysler buy, and neither
is "Dr. Z," meaning that they're talking for certain. But, as the
Toyota chairman was quoted in today's LA Times Business section,
Toyota passed on Chrysler, even though, being flush with cash from US
buyers, they could afford to buy it for cash. Reason? "No synergy."
There's "synergy" in the marriage of two losers??? What I think
attracted the idiots in the Henry Ford (a joke in itself) Renaissance
Center HQ of GM was that Chrysler had been more successful in the US
market than had GM of late. Not that this matters...Chrysler group is
still stuck with hoards of big pickups and midsize SUVs that no one
wants. So what do they do??? They start production on a BIG SUV, the
Aspen! How stupid is THAT?

Meanwhile, the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid worth 150 MPG in city
service, can't be produced for at least 10 years, because GM forgot to
perfect the battery technology that they were supposed to get from the
aborted EV-1 project. Meanwhile, Toyota will have a similar plug-in
available in the US by 2009. Loser? GM...again. Once Toyota runs
around GM as the #1 automaker some time this spring, the idiots on
Wall Street will run for cover and start dumping bonds and warrants,
and the common stock price will head for Ford's territory in the
single digits. Ford, meanwhile, had a little success with their
Fusion intro, but was cancelled out by the dismal failuire of the 500,
which is now rebadged as yet another Taurus. Looks like they're not
making very good decisions, either. Toyota is, and has been. The
shame here is that the 500 is really not a bad car...it's just that
Toyota's cars are PERCEIVED by the American public as being better,
due to their own stupidity. They simply do not trust the Big 3
anymore, and gladly send their dollars to Tokyo...at our own national
peril. Meanwhile, Ford fritters away capital it doesn't have with the
Ford Edge/Lincoln whateveritis "crossover" SUV...which no one seems to
think is worth a crap, and isn't selling. Rather than "get real" with
their "green car" program, what do you see in their advertising? The
new Lincolns, which look alarmingly like '48 Chryslers.

And there's one groups of villains in all this mess....the stupidity
of American corporate management and their Wall Street "get rich
quick" pals...period.

you need to pick the stick out of your own eye, before you go levering
the log from someone else's- have you read your posting history ?
You're the one that just posted pictures of women from someone's
family on this group, that you dug up on the net. That's stalking in
the eyes of any law enforcement officer. And someday, that may come
home to roost at your door. snip

Publicly available images, Noodles. Sorry...doesn't wash. But yes,
you DO look amazingly like Pauly Walnuts!

not what I meant- and not worth joining- once you're in, you can never
get out snip

Sort of like being stuck in Bumler, eh??

You can save yourself the aggravation. It'll perform very much like a
good quality consumer grade 3¾ IPS 4 track machine of the same era.

That's what I want- I have (4) Akai R2R machines that will play to 15
IPS, who wants to thread a reel to use them all the time. I'd rather
load a cassette. snip

If that's your only requirement, there are far more standard ways to
go to get the same equivalent performance. The Elcaset is a rara
avis, at the very least.

Getting cassettes for that thing is a real bitch.

This one comes with cassettes already. Besides, that's what you said
about the decks- yet I found one in 10 minutes. Ebay is worldwide
now, not just USA. There are lots of tapes on Ebay all the time, 4
lots sold in the last month on Ebay USA alone, and many more available
overseas NOW. There's a lot on Ebay USA right now. The facts are
contrary to your statement. snip

Well, have fun with your Elcaset, then.


Tape handling is superior to either of the "cartridge" formats, as is cassette.
Wow/flutter performance is only average, despite the appearance of
dual capstans. Any 7½ IPS machine from the same era using the same
format will clean this machine's clock.

no kidding, speed= fidelitysnip

Not always. Past 30 IPS, speed DETRACTS from audio frequency response
flatness in the bottom end. It's a function of head geometry versus
tape speed.

The Akai 1800 SD will record 8-
track carts at 7.5 IPS but requires external EQ ingenuity to make it
work. But as of now, that's a trade secret.snip

That's no "trade secret," stunod. You simply have to change the EQ
turnover points to match 7½ IPS NAB equalization, that's all there is
to it. Usually all that takes is change of two capacitors in most
consumer grade machines....duhhhhhh.

You're really funny when you think you've found out some startling
discovery, only to find that you've, in effect, tried to reinvent the
wheel!

Many higher-end 10½" reel
machines were being offered by the likes of Technics, Akai, Pioneer,
Teac/Tascam all the way to ReVox at this time. Why would anyone
sersious about mag tape recording at home empty their wallets of the
same amount of cash for an EL-7, when any of the big RTRs of the era
were better all around.

You answered your own question- "BIG RTR'S"- the reels are too big and
clumsy, not to mention threading the tape. That's what cartridges
have over reels. Anyone with the money can just buy all of the decks
you mention tomorrow, if they wanted to. What's so hard about that ?


Bad investment...sorry!


Actually, an Elcaset is money in the bank- and will only appreciate
with time. Check the Euro prices on them, they are through the
roof. snip

Only when some dork like you does a "BIN" at $500 PLUS $100 in
shipping!

Bona fortuna, Noodles! Elcasets were yet another failed Sony
marketing scheme that fell on its ass...a product "looking" for a
market. As a conversation piece? Fine. Maybe you can even play it
now and then and get better audio than you currently get from 8
tracks. But what's hard about threading a reel of tape??? Also,
let's see you find an alignment cassette for THAT thing! Of course, I
have a number of 3¾ IPS Ampex alignment tapes that could do the trick,
but...that's me. Not you.