I SPY STUFF / Voice Recorders

Sponsored by "Symphonia Felina" neoclassical music collector's cassette album. Limited quantity available NOW for our YouTube audience at: Symphonia Felina Web Site! Click here: http://www.clydesight.com/csp/symfel/


This video is all about the benefit gained when I picked up a fine quality business machine that was thrown away by a careless business which abused and did not appreciate it.

SONY built (and continues to do so) excellent cassette recorder solutions for different markets. The SONY BM-11 was built as a dictation machine, but it is actually a high quality cassette recorder, probably built in the 1980's "Walkman Era". It uses standard cassettes, features "SONY-MATIC" recording, AC Bias, FOUR belts and SOLID BRASS drive components. Most of the machine is made of metal, minimizing the use of plastic. Although designed primarily for dictation, it can record and playback music (in mono, of course).

This video shows the high quality SONY dictation machine in operation - playing music - a selection from the "Symphonia Felina" neoclassical music album, and accepting dictation through both it's built in electret condenser microphone and an external microphone.

I found this machine in the trash, tossed away because battery corrosion destroyed a vital power contact on the machine, making it inoperable. It also had a stretched main drive belt which I replaced, and a dead amplifier which I "revitalized" when I restored this machine - a broken wire and "cold" solder joint was all that needed help. Although the inside of the machine is tightly packed with components, they are remarkably high quality and capable of much longer service than the business that tossed it away realized. Perhaps it was too expensive for them to have it repaired when the trouble first started? The condition of the leather case shows it did receive a lot of use, probably by traveling executives.

The mechanism is entirely unique, having a DOUBLE flywheel arrangement to assist the capstan in maintaining constant speed!

While a dictation machine is a specialty business product (often more expensive than a general consumer product), as the SONY BM-11 proves, it is not necessarily limited to dictation. This machine is an example of how SONY "thought outside the box" and used clever innovative engineering to make a high quality cassette tape recorder suitable for a variety of purposes, from dictation to music recording and playback.

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"Trash To Treasure! A SONY Cassette Recorder Adventure." is sponsored by ClydeSight Production's SYMPHONIA FELINA Gold Collector's Edition music cassette which features 17 original neoclassical compositions in orchestral style performed on Synthesizer. The cassette, produced in 1999 for fans of ClydeSight is a unique musical experience. We have a very limited supply of these first run collector's cassettes available for our YouTube audience. Hurry to ClydeSight and get your copy TODAY! (cassette recorder is NOT included) Just Google: Symphonia Felina" or click on this link: http://www.clydesight.com/csp/symfel/

The title music of the video: "Toccata Temporal" is one of the selections on the Symphonia Felina neoclassical music cassette album and is played by the SONY BM-11 and also presented as a direct feed through the computer.

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Note: The SONY BM-11 cassette tape recorder is part of the ClydeSight Collection and is NOT FOR SALE.

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