"The allure of the project is that the magnetic tape doesn't reproduce audio cleanly because the oxide coating introduces a slight instability in playback speed. But these are the 'flaws' that Iulius Curt is after, allowing the resulting sound to have that lo-fi warmth that's ideal for ambient listening."
"Using a set of orange 3D-printed brackets, the loop erases, records, travels, and plays back continuously, with no rewinding and no end."
"A challenge that the designer Iulius Curt had to overcome was the original deck's wiring. The Japanese engineers who designed the original frame he used had connected the electrical circuits by reversing what is normally considered the zero-voltage reference point."
Iulius Curt has developed a custom portable retro player that records lo-fi songs from streaming apps and smartphones onto a continuous tape loop. The device uses a modified Privileg TC 183 cassette deck, retaining essential recording circuitry while replacing the standard cassette mechanism. A Bluetooth receiver converts digital streams to analog, producing a unique sound characterized by slight playback speed instability. This design choice embraces the lo-fi aesthetic, ideal for ambient listening. The project also involved overcoming wiring challenges from the original deck's design to ensure compatibility with the Bluetooth module.
Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine
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