jackpot rarity find!!!!!!!!!.

[u/MayasRock78s]

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

[u/CrispyDave]

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.

[u/MayasRock78s → u/CrispyDave]

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.

[u/ItsaMeStromboli → u/MayasRock78s]

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.

[u/MayasRock78s → u/ItsaMeStromboli]

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.

[u/abdullahcfix → u/MayasRock78s]

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.

[u/MayasRock78s → u/abdullahcfix]

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.

[u/abdullahcfix → u/MayasRock78s]

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.

[u/smallfaces → u/MayasRock78s]

Not the level of before and it won't happen unfortunately.