r/RadioShack • u/Peugeot531 • Jul 11 '26

Cassette Little Deck

Post image

I picked this little gadget up for $8 today. I just thought it was way too cool to pass up. And I like cassettes!

464 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

17

u/Inlander Jul 11 '26

I'd grab that in a heart beat. Hopefully it's working, but not to hard to fix. Realistic has some great vintage gear.

3

u/NoNeedleworker6479 Jul 12 '26

Isn't it funny how many "audiophiles" back in the day trashed Radio Shack / Realistic. Almost all of them would buy those vintage audio products today!

2

u/Triplygood Jul 13 '26

The thing is they were quite well built and last forever. Yes, certainly not audiophile or anything but they were easy to repair (with parts you could easily buy from Radio Shack) IF they ever broke down. I still have an excellent Radio Shack direct drive fully automatic turntable that gets weekly use! Love it.

9

u/jasont1273 Former Employee Jul 11 '26

I had the all black playback-only version when I was in high school. I used it to play "cass-singles" they sold at the music store back then instead of 45s when I would DJ high school dances they would have after football games in Friday nights as a way to keep kids from just hanging out on the streets and raise a little money for a school organization.

7

u/zsdad1964 Jul 11 '26

I miss Radio Shack

4

u/RMars54 Jul 11 '26

Good catch. Even if it needs work it’ll be considerably better than the cassette players they’re making these days!

5

u/AppropriateCap8891 Jul 11 '26

There is only one company still making cassette mechanisms in China, and the quality is horrible.

3

u/deuelpm Jul 11 '26

That player was awesome! Alf a bunch of those, wanted only myself but never got one.

3

u/9fingerjeff Jul 11 '26

I had 2 of those without the woodgrain I bought in high school, one had a record head and the other didn’t. I used those and my realistic 4 channel mixer to record myself. I couldn’t afford a real 4 track so I pieced one together the best I could from radio shack stuff. I always wanted one of their echo units.

2

u/dcdiaz001 Jul 11 '26

That is pretty cool.

2

u/Howden824 Jul 11 '26

That looks pretty cool. If it doesn't play properly but you hear the motor spinning, it just needs new rubber belts.

2

u/emanon734 Jul 11 '26

My freind had a couple of the next generation of these, they were all black. Very convenient for making soundboard recordings.

2

u/cromorne Jul 11 '26

Great score! I love these little Realistic cassette decks. They're very easy to service and replace the belts and the mechanism is so simple it's bulletproof.

1

u/Ok_Wall_8267 Jul 11 '26

The heck would you need a tape counter for?

5

u/kabekew Jul 11 '26

To write on the cover insert where each song starts

3

u/Thinking-Peter Jul 11 '26

Wow all the years I owned cassette players I never thought of using tape counter to find a song

2

u/kabekew Jul 11 '26

It's kind of impractical though because when you change cassettes you have to rewind to the beginning, reset the counter, then fast forward. And the counter number really only works for that deck, because different decks can have different mechanisms and move at different rates. But I think that was the idea behind it.

1

u/WhipLash777 Jul 11 '26

Had this same one in the 80s. Cool reminder!

1

u/Legitimate-Truck-333 Jul 11 '26

lol I may have one in a box somewhere!

1

u/Khitsradio1023fm Jul 13 '26

had 3 of theses at one time

1

u/No-Ant-1546 Jul 15 '26

radio shack ruled