Sony EL-7
(1976 - 1980)

Sony's flagship for the big new format.
We all know what became to ELCASET as a standard (and to its UNISETTE professional cousin) but the EL-7 is a very impressive... beast: just like the EL tapes themselves, it is HUGE. The RM-30 wired remote-control itself looks and feels like a bar of solid gold. It ain't gold for sure but it could have been - if the EL format had been launched only a couple of years earlier.

Available (sort of) in Germany as a Wega E4950 (black face of the shiny kind) and in Japan under the Lo-D (aka Hitachi) D-9000 moniker with looks being a sort of mix'n'match. Sony did produce a Japan-only version as well: EL-7B. The B stands for black but only EL-7 is written on the front plate like a regular silver EL-7. It is quite unfortunate Sony didn't export this B version for it is quite better looking - and looks also do matter if a product is to succeed, market-wise. The EL-5 only saw the original silver fashion.

If specs do reach easily those of a good upper end reel-to-reel, they don't catch those of either a TC-880-2 or an Akai GX-747 - but EL recordings do sound largely superior to any Compact Cassette recorder for sure and that was the EL goal.
I am the proud owner of a new-old-stock EL-7 with its RM-30. I must admit I don't use it but I am not willing to part with it as it is too impressive and beautiful to be entirely true - ELCASET is the most successful failed format I have ever encountered.