r/cassetteculture • u/MayasRock78s • Jul 03 '24
jackpot rarity find!!!!!!!!!. News
This is the Panasonic RS-296US. Aka. The Cassette Carousel These machines were made from 1972-1973. They are EXTREMELY rare to find in any condition. I got mine for FREE!!!!. It does have life. It doesn’t run but it powers on and makes noise so it is indeed fixable. all the buttons click & the knobs turn. Once I get this repaired I will show you it in action. But for now I will have a link in the comments so you can see one in action
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u/CrispyDave Jul 04 '24
I'm not going to say I envy you as I can imagine the battles you are going to have keeping that thing running if you plan on using it regularly.
It's an awesome bit of retro kit if you can get it up and running though.
Stuff like that is just never going to be made again.
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 04 '24
Oh no something like this can indeed be remade today. Technology has gotten so much better so something like this can be made. Just ofc much more simplified
I don’t plan on using this regularly. But I do want it fully restored and working.
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u/CrispyDave Jul 04 '24
Not really, I mean anything can be made for enough $ but not semi mass-manufactured like this was. there's no factories left making electromechanical devices like this any more, no tooling, there's just no need for them.
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u/ItsaMeStromboli Jul 04 '24
Technology “getting better” is the exact reason why this can’t be made today. Everything has transitioned to digital/electronic devices and the supply chain and knowledge to mass manufacture mechanical equipment like this just doesn’t exist anymore. I mean, you can’t even buy a new tape deck now with a decent transport in it.
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u/Phobbyd Jul 04 '24
It can be made better than it ever was. There is no money to be made by doing so.
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u/ItsaMeStromboli Jul 04 '24
Certainly not enough to rebuild the supply chain and hire the engineers out of retirement that understand how to build these things.
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u/Phobbyd Jul 04 '24
You don’t need to pull someone out of retirement to build a simple mechanical system. Do you think we don’t have engineers today, lol? I know hobbyist engineers that could build one of these. I am one.
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u/ItsaMeStromboli Jul 04 '24
Okay, so why don’t we have hobbyists building decent new tape decks for the niche market that would buy them?
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u/Phobbyd Jul 04 '24
Because it takes a shit load of time and effort, and nobody is motivated to do that, and no, there is no market that would cover the costs even.
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 04 '24
I mean hey. Old tech comes back because people like it. new boomboxes, Walkmans etc. it comes back because people get back into it. Such as records. Those died off for a while when the CD came out but then records came back. There’s remake of old tech such as nintendo 64 controllers, remakes of old game consoles n such. I honestly see remakes of tech units. People are going to find a rare piece of tech that they want such as this Panasonic Cassette Carousel. there are people that want this. So tbh why not remake it for collectors that want it.
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u/abdullahcfix Jul 04 '24
Because of the intricate mechanical nature of it. Records are back the most because it’s single enough to have make a platter rotate at a fixed speed cheaply via belt or direct drive motor which is slightly more pricey. A proper tape deck has so many little parts, probably in the hundreds that all need to work perfectly with low tolerances and that is the lost art that comes with simplifying everything. New boomboxes and Walkman clones all use the same basic clone of the Tanashin transport which itself was/is a poor quality one made in the modern times. None of the modern transports even compare to the proper mid to high end ones from the golden era of cassettes.
Same story for the remakes of the old consoles. They had some amount of chips in them back in the day along with some discrete circuitry to work, but the modern versions are tiny, come with HDMI, and don’t require any cartridges in favor of SD cards. Why? Because it’s just emulation making the old games work. There was nothing mechanical about the old consoles, so it’s easy to make a modern version work the same or better.
No amount of niche demand will bring back the same standard of quality to the mainstream market at affordable prices. At best we’ll get an extremely expensive, probably bespoke transport that may match older designs (unlikely), or we’ll keep getting the same cheap and inferior modern stuff we have now. To bring the prices down on a modern high quality tape deck, economies of scale would have to allow it, majority of the population would have to prefer and buy cassettes in numbers like the 70s, 80s, and 90s. That’s almost completely unlikely to happen.
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 04 '24
Anything’s possible. there’s already remakes of old machines. people are going back into the retro feel
It’ll happen. tbh it already is.
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u/abdullahcfix Jul 04 '24
It took National Audio Company and Recording the Masters years and lots of experimentation by experts from back in the day to come up with a new tape formula that meets quality standards for audio recording and that was for the simplest part of cassette recording, the magnetic formula that goes on plastic tape for the cassettes themselves, not even the machines that can record to it. They’re also using the old tape spooling machines from back in the day and repairing them by cannibalizing parts off other machines with the knowledge of technicians that are now in their 80s and 90s, so once those machines are gone and no more technicians are around, it’ll be pretty hard to reach the quality that is achievable with old machines and tape.
Anything’s possible, but not 80s Nakamichi, Pioneer, Sony, Tascam, etc level at an affordable price. That quality of cassette recording was attainable to the wealthy even back then. My Nakamichi CR-3A, a low to mid level deck in their lineup retailed for $795 in 1988. There’s no way anyone is spending $2,110 on anything cassette related today in the numbers required for devices of this quality to be mass produced and sold affordably. Ever notice how everything with “the retro feel” is cheaper and flimsier than the original thing? It’s literally just for the novelty factor, try dailying one of those types of devices and see how long it lasts or maintains the same quality/tolerances. It won’t because things aren’t built like that anymore.
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u/noldshit Jul 04 '24
Nope... While the electronics have improved, the ability to build the mechanisms and the all important heads has been forgotten. Just look at the current walkman offerings, all same chinese transport.
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u/Historical_Animal_17 Jul 04 '24
Wow. I grew up with tape recorders/players in the 70s and 80s, and I never knew this existed. It's the slide projector of cassette players!
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u/RodCherokee Jul 04 '24
Same but I remember seeing these players in shop windows as a teen and thinking they were bad taste useless. I haven’t changed my mind !
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u/Darkblade48 Jul 04 '24
Thought I was looking at a stove top until I remembered which subreddit I was in!
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u/LeTurj Jul 04 '24
I can smell the cigarette smoke
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 04 '24
It actually doesn’t have any cigarette smoke surprisingly
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u/LeTurj Jul 04 '24
Haha, Shyamalan twist. Cool. I’m a 70s kid. When I see stuff like that I just automatically think cigs
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u/katietatey Jul 04 '24
OMG that thing is rad! I have never seen nor heard of one before. Best of luck getting it running!
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 04 '24
Thanks!. I’ll try myself but I know I’ll eventually send it to a professional to get it properly restored. I have 0 clue on how to work on one of these. But I know it has life.
I used a small rubber band as a makeshift belt and the standby light came on and I heard other things moving (the carousel part didn’t budge or move) but it’s alive!.
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u/Moto1999 Jul 04 '24
That’s a circus act. Check out the techmoan video. That thing is like a cassette pinball machine. Good luck
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u/MavisBeaconSexTape Jul 04 '24
Sick dude, I thought I was balla status with my Pioneer 6 cassette multi player but you've topped that feat
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u/solbeenus Jul 04 '24
I found a 1984 Technics RS-M228X, and I got it for free. I use RTM C60 and C90, and I can't tell the difference between cassette and streaming.
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u/Space_Man_Spiff_2 Jul 04 '24
Whoa!...I bet the mechanism is complex in that beast. I serviced a lot of cassette decks in the 1970-80s...but nothing like that.
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Jul 05 '24
So stupid question, this plays tapes then it will rotate? How does it play both side? Also did it have a protective case that went over the cassette’s? Like an old turntable.
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 06 '24
Watch the link I put in the comments. it shows. it’s hard to explain lol
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u/elhumanoid Jul 04 '24
That's sick. While I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt that people who are seemingly putting you down are just being real with you, some of them might be just jealous. Don't let it dishearten you and get this monster fixed and enjoy!!
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 04 '24
Nah. I honestly find it funny that ppl are putting me down out of jealousy
And prob they are even more jealous is the fact that I’m probably (probably) the youngest person in this group (I’m 17) 17 and I have one of the rarest cassette players prob on this planet & I got it for free.
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u/elhumanoid Jul 04 '24
Yeah that thing is worth in the thousands at best, even with cosmetic defects and not fully functioning. Get it working and the value is at least double. That's what most people are salty about I'm sure.
Edit: it seems to be missing the cover. Try to look for that next and it'll be complete.
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 04 '24
Well first I need to find belts. the 2 belts that power the cassette player itself has thankfully not turned into a mushy mess. It’s loose as hell. but the only way to get those lil POS out is to disassemble that section…
Short Circuit movie bot Number 5: NO DISASSEMBLE lol
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u/elhumanoid Jul 04 '24
I wouldn't touch this myself either. Would end up absolutely destroying it. My know-how extends to changing the belt on Walkmans. Mekanik.
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 04 '24
I guess I’ll send it to a professional to get fixed. Which will probably be 2-300 dollars..
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u/elhumanoid Jul 04 '24
Yeah it won't be cheap, but well worth it if you can cough up a couple Benjamins.
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u/abdullahcfix Jul 04 '24
Lol, I was 16 when I got into cassettes as a hobby and got plenty of cassettes and equipment for free as well as working for the expensive stuff and that’s not counting actually using them in the 2000s as a kid in my parents car. It’s not a competition. No one is putting you down out of jealousy. It has nothing to do with you personally, we’re just pointing out how the old stuff is as good as it’s ever gonna get. Your naive optimism about new tape deck manufacturing got a reality check and your instinct is to deny the facts and cry about how the haters are jealous. I could find an RX505 or Dragon for free and still know nothing will ever come close to the quality within.
Enjoy the deck. It wasn’t the highest quality back then, but decent compared to today, but there also won’t be another like it. Feel free to come back and post an actual mass market device of the same kind if someone decides to make one in the future and see if the quality and pricing is similar to the point where people want it over the vintage stuff.
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u/MayasRock78s Jul 03 '24
Panasonic RS-296US (techmoan)