EL-3505 (Philips) 1950

The Philips EL-3503 is what I believe to be the first of the Philips tape recorders, thought to be around from 1950/1, the recorder has a very common styling to the AEG Magnetophone K-4 through to K-8, these machines came from the mid 30's to mid 40's though I do not think this machine is as early. The recorder comes in two half’s, the main tape deck which runs at speeds of up to 30 inches a second, the other half being the valve amplifier, this recorder is one thought to have been lifted from a radio station, sadly the case has been lost but if it had the original case it would have been a metal box with a brown crackle paint finish. Philips did not make very many reel to reels for the professional market, some of these machines were the EL3509 (Looks very similar to the EL3505), EL-3501 (Pro 51), the EL-3503 and the Pro 36, there is an in between machine to the EL-3509 and the EL-3501 but I do not know the modle number. Another interesting difference to moft of the recorders from the time are the reel platters, they are not smooth like most platers but have a patterned tecture, the control knobs apper to be missing but they are actually set via a control key to prevent the controls being tampered with during use.