RE 321 (EMI) 1963

This is a professional reel to reel built to be portable and of high standards. This recorder would just be before the Nagra 3. An earlier version was made which ran off valves. This version has I.C's and the easiest way to tell them apart is that the IC version has a built in loud speaker. An excellent example of British technology: high quality sound and very few controls. This recorder has no fast forward control but has a mechanically driven rewind mechanism which is a little tricky to use. When rewinding, if you stop, the tape keeps going and the recorder starts to fill with unwanted tape as the take up spool is connected via a belt to the capstan. There is a lot of inertia keeping the reel spinning. These machines really were built to last and although they are large and cumbersome, this is the smallest EMI recorder ever made. The next size machine, the TR-90 was definitely a 3 man carry.