Hello everybody, I'm new here and this is my first post regarding an important anniversary.
This year we celebrate 80 years of tape recording since the first tape recorder, the MAGNETOPHON K1 was presented by AEG at the Berlin Radio Fair in 1935.
This machine was using tape made by BASF that was 6,5mm wide.
The tape speed was 76cm/sec with a frequency response of 50-6000 Hz.
Signal to noise ratio was -35 dB and recordings could be made up to 20 minutes on a 30 cm diameter tape. The original price was aproximately 1200 RM (Reichsmark)
This year we celebrate 80 years of tape recording since the first tape recorder, the MAGNETOPHON K1 was presented by AEG at the Berlin Radio Fair in 1935.
This machine was using tape made by BASF that was 6,5mm wide.
The tape speed was 76cm/sec with a frequency response of 50-6000 Hz.
Signal to noise ratio was -35 dB and recordings could be made up to 20 minutes on a 30 cm diameter tape. The original price was aproximately 1200 RM (Reichsmark)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Interesting.
What strikes me is the poor S/N ratio compared to the very decent frequency response (for that time).
Had they already succeeded in managing the bias problem? That could be the cause of this weakness.
Anyway, for something made 80yrs ago, this was quite an achievement.
I wonder what kind of medium they used for the tape: mylar might have existed, but probably not in industry-ready shape. Cellulose acetate or nitrate seem more likely.
Funnily enough, metallic wire magnetophons were in use until the sixties.
What strikes me is the poor S/N ratio compared to the very decent frequency response (for that time).
Had they already succeeded in managing the bias problem? That could be the cause of this weakness.
Anyway, for something made 80yrs ago, this was quite an achievement.
I wonder what kind of medium they used for the tape: mylar might have existed, but probably not in industry-ready shape. Cellulose acetate or nitrate seem more likely.
Funnily enough, metallic wire magnetophons were in use until the sixties.
No, it had DC bias. AC bias was introduced with the K4 in 1941, which also had a better frequency response (up to ~10kHz) and ~50dB SNR.
BTW, the speed of these machines was 1 m/s for the K1 and 77cm/s (not 76.2cm/s=30ips) for the K4. The ips speeds (30, 15, 7 1/2, … ips) were standardized after WW II.
First (for the prototype K0 in 1934) paper, then cellulose acetate (since K1; the tape was developed by BASF) and later (beginning in the fifties) polyester.
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I took the information regarding tape speed of the K1 model from a TELEFUNKEN brochure. It shows a tape speed of 76 cm/s however the pictured model is a K2 so the information regarding tape speed could also be wrong.
The tape was made by BASF, the MAGNETOPHON C1, and it used a cellulose acetate-base.
The tape was made by BASF, the MAGNETOPHON C1, and it used a cellulose acetate-base.
This is taken from a brochure for Telefunken consumer tape recorders (late fifties …), so I would not take technical statements too seriously. Telefunken consumer electronics division and the division for studio tape recorders had absolutely nothing in common (in the eighties the consumer electronics were sold to Thomson-Brandt and the studio tape recorder division to Studer).
A rather good source for information (on the net) is the "Tonbandmuseum" web site (in german). The first machines really had 1m/s. To my knowlegde, 77cm/s came up with the K4, but it seems that some older models (K2, K3 …) were modified to run at 77cm/s and with AC bias.
The speed (1m/s, 77cm/s) and the tape width (6.5mm) were both metric until the end of WW II.
A rather good source for information (on the net) is the "Tonbandmuseum" web site (in german). The first machines really had 1m/s. To my knowlegde, 77cm/s came up with the K4, but it seems that some older models (K2, K3 …) were modified to run at 77cm/s and with AC bias.
The speed (1m/s, 77cm/s) and the tape width (6.5mm) were both metric until the end of WW II.
The speed thing is quite interesting. As most people probabably know, EMI were among a number of companies after the war who "borrowed" the German technology and produced a tape machine, the BTR1 in 1948. It originally ran at the Magnetophon speed of 77cm/ s (30.31 ips) but at some point between 1948 and 1952 it was changed to run at the incoming CCIR standard speed of 30.0 ips (76.2cm/ s). It is only a small difference but significant in terms of absolute pitch and of course, programme timing.
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