Sony TC-K81

It’s hard to understate just how important Compact Cassette was as a format in 1979. The Long Playing record was now in the late autumn of its life – or so we thought – with ever more people buying pre-recorded

The second age of Sony cassette decks

Sony set out its stall as a high end cassette deck manufacturer as far back as 1974 with the TC-177SD. A top loading, dual-capstan, three-head design, it was one of the most sophisticated machines around at the time, and presaged some excellent recorders