Around August last year, I found this neat-looking personal cassette player of a brand I didn't recognize, going for very cheap, sold as "enclosure" in it's description. Guessing it probably wasn't working, I got it on the basis of "if it doesn't work, at least it's a cool shelf piece". Lo and Behold, it worked! But, since I found no info on it online, I've started trying to post about it so it's not lost to time. I've posted on TapeHeads about the whole saga ( https://www.tapeheads.net/threads/tokuma-portable-player-have-a-look-see.98585/ ) , but I'll dupicate the pictures here a least, so you can see them more easily. The last one isn't mine, it's from a Facebook post where someone recently had sold one. I've asked if they have info on it, but no responses so far. One interesting detail is that it has a KA2209 audio amplifier chip for the headphone output, a stereo 1 watt chip, implying it can also push speakers, and some payers did come with a pair of those back in the day, and I think that's pretty cool. Lastly, if anyone knows this player, or has any info on them, please share! I just want it to be remembered. Anyway, here's the pics:
Plus that's a Samsung Chip, it wouldn't surprise me if they were the manufacturer. I feel like "Tokuma Communications" is branding for a giveaway, some of the players were given away and the gifting company would have their name printed on it. Japanese Units, even the low-end models, always seem to have "Made in Japan" printed on them, I can't read the bottom, anybody know what is says?
I guess I'm wrong, they were a player in the cassette market, looks like there are several prerecorded tapes out there. Look at the date, 1997!
https://www-tkma-co-jp.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokuma_Shoten https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/5605005Z:JP#xj4y7vzkg https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0006071
Yes, I had already found about the company, I just couldn't find much about the player. I also don't speak Japanese which complicates things a tad. It's why I posted about it here, I thought that perhaps someone from Japan who's in this forum could know more about it or have better luck finding things. But even if nothing more is ever found about it, at least now there's a publicly viewable register of it's existence.
There's a million entry-level players like this out there, we have thrift stores called Goodwill with used stuff, you'd find 2-5 similar versions of these on the shelves any day. Back when I worked for a audio/visual company, we used to get catalogs for portable audio products that you could buy large quanties of. You'd specify color, labels and whatever else you wanted for your own custom player, you just had to buy dozens at a time. A lot of them looked like a popular style but slightly different and usually much lower quality.
