Vintage Tech: 1960s Pocket Reel-to-Reel Cartridge Recorder - The Grundig EN3 Luxus Dictation Machine

In this video I take a look at a neat portable reel-to-reel tape recorder from 1965. It’s called the EN3 (EN being short for Elektronische Notizbuch, or Electronic Notebook), and it’s made by the German firm Grundig. The design is pretty neat, it’s small enough to fit in a (fairly roomy) pocket, and while it’s primary market would have been businessmen and the like, it’s also compact enough to be easily hidden for more clandestine analog recordings. This unit has some interesting tech - It uses a pair of reels holding 1/4“ tape in a handy cartridge that can be flipped over to record on both sides, and is small enough to easily be mailed back to your funky 1960s office for transcription. It runs on AA batteries, and even though the mechanism and electronics are very simple and quite ruggedly designed, the auuddio quality is just fine for regular voice recording and dictation, even if it isn’t suited to recording much else. Of course, it doesn’t quite work properly (it’s a Grundig, not a Studer), even thought it was last serviced in the 1970s, but I fix it up and get it running, demonstrate how it operates, and even try recording some music on it. ----------SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE---------- ----------SUPPORT MY CHANNEL---------- Every dollar helps me make more videos for you! Patreon supporters get bonuses regular subscribers don’t! ---------FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER--------- ----------LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK----------- ---------CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE--------- Thanks for watching!