I have a Naim NAT05 tuner fed signals via a Galaxy 17 aerial and would welcome your recommendations on a recorder, new or second hand, that will record 2 hours of radio while I am out, i.e. must have inbuilt timer or will start via off board time switch, via the analogue outputs of my amp.
I am not aware this can be done anymore. Funny new world we are living in! The only new cassette deck is Sony’s TC-WE475, but it doesn’t have the timer facility you require, and in any case 120 minute tapes were fragile. Best to get all modern fangled, go to the radio station website and download what you want. Of course, quality will be crap, usually MP3 running at 128kbps, but then it’s ‘digital of course, and that’s as far as the mindset goes nowadays in broadcasting. The quality you get from your Naim NAT05 fed from a Galaxy is now little understood or appreciated.
There is, however, a rising backlash against all this as people realise that once simple, hassle-free pursuits like recording a radio programme have been made impossible for reasons no one quite seems to understand, or appreciate. Thus, cassette is now on its way back around the world, it appears.
What next? I suspect open reel, because of its vast flexibility and potential for professional recording purposes. Quality can be continually improved, where with digital recording systems it cannot, meaning everything has to be junked when a new better scheme arrives – and we have seen how popular that has been with CD’s replacement, and with DAB.
I was even being assured, the other day, that the Sony Elcaset could be revived. Apparently there are plenty of tapes available and EL-7s are, for the time being at least, available and affordable. There’s a thought for you – and it has timer recording!
Bemused readers please go to www.thevintageknob.org /SONY/sonyvault/EL7/EL7.html , where you can see a lovely Sony brochure shot of this machine. Elcaset had fabulous quality of course and would do your NAT05 justice.
