ok fellows, talking about stereo portable cassette units in 1979 Sony started creating a lifestyle with a portable stereo cassette player named WALKMAN, wich off course and no doubt changed the world. we‘re talking here about a nicely and tough built converted pressman-recorder, wich allready existed in a monoural form a few years before. it‘s absolutely wrong to think, the Sony Walkman was the first ever portable stereo cassette player - 8 years before in 1971 the munich based company UHER started the serial production of a portable stereo cassette recorder called CR-124. UHER was known for their solid „REPORT“ reel-to-reels, wich were broadcast standard in many, many radio stations. not as professional as swiss NAGRA‘s, but good quality and more affordable. when the compact cassette came out, UHER didn‘t immediately jump on the train as they thought it would never ever replace reel-to-reel (...and they were proved wrong). well, starting with a compact cassette movement, they released their first unit „only“ in 1971 - but it was a bomb: a solid built stereo cassette recorder, easily in hifi-standard and - featuring autoreverse (!) it was usable on rechargable battery or with a powersupply, fitting in the battery compartement. if they only had known how a portable stereo cassette player could change the world - but as so often in history, german engineers did well, but didn‘t know how to sell it properly... i‘m lucky to own two of this great and extremely underrated units (later followed by technically very similar CR-210 and even in our forum often discussed last UHER own constructions CR240 and CR-1600). folks, if you ever have the chance of laying your hands on one of those: DO IT, you won‘t regret it !
...and by the way: i can‘t find an earlier compact cassette unit featuring „autoreverse“ than a CR-124 anywhere, no records about it, just nothing - so it might have been the first AR - unit ever !
I never liked the term "autoreverse" as a kid I thought it was confusing, I thought it meant the tape rewound automatically before I saw a unit. It took a couple of years of hearing about the technology before we got to play with one. I think there were some reel to reel that were the early autoreverse tape players but I'd agree the UHER was the first portable. Maybe a better name would have helped with understanding what autoreverse was. These are beautiful small portable units, I bought the UHER CR-160 AV after drooling over your units and love it. These are mid-80's build but it's really unique with two stereo speakers and a larger bass speaker built into the unit, how cool is that? I've wondered how Andreas Pavel (from Germany) was able to beat Sony when a portable stereo product (UHER) was already on the market, I have to believe it had to do with the headphones, maybe somebody has more information.
well, the headphones off course made the difference. we all know, a TPS-L2 wasn‘t rocket-technology, it was a tough built small cassette-recorder, taken it‘s recording ability and speaker and converted to stereo in combination with a headphone, very cleverly sold as a lifestyle (...i know what i‘m talking about, i‘m proper walkman-generation). no other unit made that before, no Uher, also not Pavel‘s little machine, which is so ugly that even me wouldn‘t keep it if i was one given... from the technical view a TPS-L2 compared to a Uher 124 is (sorry) japanese junk - and that‘s me who commits that, the one who hoards Clonemen same way as years later there were already quite a few cellphones on the market, suitable for internet-use. it needed apple to combine touchscreen with it to change the world completely, with a technic, which was already existing... b.t.w. when your CR-160AV was made, UHER was allready fooked, but those were the very last units from the legendary munich factory. it‘s bigger than the 124, and technically more a (lovely) CR-240 with a few changes...
Yes it was the headphones that were the innovation with the Walkman. I have posted the Tomorrow's World video clip from when the Walkman was released. They spend about ten seconds looking at the cassette player, and five minutes looking at and testing the headphones which were unlike anything that had been made before. I find it kind of ironic is that the headphones that came with the famed Boodo Khan (sp) Walkman look like almost every pair of headphones made in the mid 1970s. I'm not saying they sound like them, but I'm sure thae Walkman would have been a flop if they had shown people roller skating in large heavy over the ear cans like those. As for in ear headphones they were popular(as mono units) in the 1960s, but at the time had worst sound quality than the 2" speaker in the "tranny" they were usually used with.
It's good to know mine is from the old factory, the case on yours is top-of-the line, even those were almost as expensive as a new Walkman. The headphones are what made the Walkman, when it first came out I never heard about the cool small stereo player, it was more about the miniture headphones that didn't make you look like a dork. Back then stereo was still in it's infancy, we had a few FM stations, mostly classical and maybe one rock station everyone still listened to AM for the most part, and stereo tape decks were still on the fringe for the home user. The second generation tape decks (1976+) were pretty expensive and cassette car stereos were just catching on (there were still lots of 8-tracks). While the Walkman had stereo, I bet a ton of the first users were using mono tapes. The clarity of stereo using the headphones was pretty cool when I first heard it.
CR 124 open and from inside, checkout the quality it‘s made - absolutely stunning for 1971 - and an impressive tapehead !
...btw. this is the rather rare early type with the round eject-button, most of them have a square one
Now that's a volume knob, I bet you have to stay on top of keeping that head clean, there's lot's of spots to collect shred.
So did I, as a kid... but I learned. And yes, there are some open-reel tape machines that have Auto-Reverse. My Ampex 2176--picked up from a charity resale shop in '92 for under $20.00--is one of them. I first saw it's kind in the "What's New" section of an old Popular Science magazine, where a female model was demonstrating the easy-thread aspect of it. Sadly, though the special reel that permits using that feature was included, it didn't include the special cover for it... and it needed work. LOTS of work! I couldn't find direct replacement belts, and the shop my cousin referred me to quoted over $200.00 in repairs needed! So yeah... it sat for about 20-years, until I found a sister model with textured black overlays on the case, instead of finished wood. It lacked it's full-face cover and had coiled spring belt replacements in it, but a workbench test run showed it to work okay so I just swapped control knobs & levers between the two and slapped the other deck's cover on it.
UNDOUBTEDLY it was the tiny headphones...! Can you imagine how awkwardly small the Walkman would appear if set next to your typical 70's pair of ear cans?! And... having endured the tin vibrator, fully hard-plastic monoral headphones for our 13" portable color television, and a "Why are my ears sweating?" padded-vinyl cuffed Realistic Nova 40 cans my brother had, those little things were a relief! Until you immediately rest them around your neck... after using them outside on a hot, sunny day.
