This thing is drenched with coolness, I'd love to get my hands on one and really go retro. Swiss Made and it looks like it set up the design elements for portable tape players to come. I don't know much about the company but it seems the later models weren't as nice and got bigger. It's so retro that some might see it and think it's a limited edition newer high end model http://vintage-technics.ru/Eng-Fi-Cord_101S.htm
i used to own exactly one of those, quite a cool little thing, when you have it in you're hands it looks like handbuilt. amazing: manufactured by "Stellavox". if you look on your pic bottom left, right under the lid there's a little window with a counter (wich i never found out how to reset), and that huge round button next to the controlbuttons is the battery-lid - this sweetheart works with one AA-cell only.
There's a speaker that piggy-backs off the unit, it looks like it runs off existing battery. (photo from the great website vintage-technics.ru)
wow, mine didn't have that. it used as speaker that tiny round thing, front left (limited frequency-range)
N's Page (website), some more information, I'd love to find one but they seem kind of rare. http://ns-page.com/recorder/101s.html
That looks to be a really high quality unit. Unfortunately during the 1960s the Japanese were making some really cheap poor quality (capstanless) ones that look quite similar. I have one somewhere. Northener mentions Star Trek. The Japanese ones were actually used extensively as props on Thuderbirds being the right size to go in the puppets Mine is exactly the same as the one on Thunderbird 5 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net...rbird_5.png/revision/latest?cb=20141202012927 http://thunderbirds.wikia.com/wiki/Thunderbird_5?file=Ocd42.png
For some reason, I always thought the Thunderbird Sets were not full size.... Check out N's Page in the link above Longman, he's got a few Sanyos and Sony's (Tapecorder Baby), they are so cool, I might have to put up another shelf!
The puppet looks very small here. http://thunderbirds.wikia.com/wiki/Thunderbird_5?file=TB.5.png I don't have the recorder to hand but from memory would say it is about 8 or 9 inches (20 to 23cm) wide. On the back it says Yaesu. I don't know if there was any connection to the now well known Amateur Radio Equipment maker.
They weren't that big in this photo, they probably weren't filmed close to the real equipment. My neighbor had the Thunderbird 2 Corgi Model, we didn't have the show over here but all the cool Corgi's were in the case at the local hobby shop.
I lost out bidding on a Fi-Cord FC-331 (below), a neat little unit but it looks about 1.5 x the size of 101S. I really wanted to check one out and see if it was as cool as it looks. I'm kind of glad I didn't win cuz I did get something 10x better (at least for me).
We didn't get Captain Scarlett over here except maybe at 5 am, I'm checking it out on YouTube but it's hard to not get sidetracked by all the Corgi Videos....
It's been a long time but I found a cool brochure on this model, hope you enjoy, I still haven't found one yet. This was on Archive.org and the poster filled in a lot of advertising cards and got a million brochures. In the old days in the back of magazines, they'd have a postcard with numbers on it that matched with an ad or product from the magazine, addressed back to the magazine. If you wanted more information mailed to you this is what you would get if you sent it back. This is really cool because of all of the extra information they included like the signed letter and list of users, very cool!
Looking at the date on that letter I am wondering how they would compete with Philips newly released cassette. Sure it is a bit heavier but but it looks to be so easy to use https://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2013/08/30/50_years_of_the_compact_cassette/
While searching Safari for The F1Cord105 1 came across this interesting site from Rewind museum which gives a record of Philips portable www.rewindmuseum.com Reel to Reel (open reel) Audio
If compact cassette had a smaller footprint when it came out, I have no doubt it would have creamed these little R2Rs. This was the age of James Bond and cool gadgets and the Fi-Cord fits the bill at first, but because cassette players had a big footprint initially and didn't have that budding spy appeal, they would have lost the first round. I think the use of a small cassette would have been much appealing than old clunky reel to reel tape, the Olympus Zuiko was really cool and it seems like it would have been for the same applications but I don't know how well it competed and it came out a few years after the Fi-Cord. The Philips EL 3585 in your article Longman with the top loading R2R is really cool Longman, never seen one like that, it's almost a true boombox, does it have a radio?
Although I had looked at that site many times, I hadn't ever looked at the Audio section. I am old enough to remember Reel to Reel tape recorders. My aunt had one, while both my Primary and Secondary school used them for language lessons. In secondary school I was usually the kid the teacher sent to get the correct tape from the storeroom and lace it up. No. In fact that poses an interesting question. Was there ever a Reel to reel recorder incorporating a radio ? I can't think that I have ever seen one. Edit. After reading the comments in the video below I found out about this https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/saba_sabamobil.html but it isn't a recorder. The Radio Cassette recorder was another Philips / Norelco invention launched in 1966 It looks as if they have stuck an EL3300 on top of a large radio. Skip to 14:10 to see the tape deck.
