Technics RS-7500
(1977 - 1980)

Hard to believe, but the 7500 was the SMALL unit from Technics ! However, given the fate of the EL format, the BIG deck only saw the light of day as RS-7900 pre-production prototypes... The RS-7500 is nevertheless bigger and taller than most power amplifiers produced then or since - really.

Feature-wise being on par with Sony's own EL-7 and EL-5 decks, the 7500 bore clunky transport pads but tape type detection was automatic, just like on Sony's small EL4. The best formulation (Type 3, Chrome Bioxyde) was... never made available to the public. The three LEDs were colored to match the tape's color codes: blue for Type I, red for Type II and orange for the unseen Type III.
Sound-wise, as all other EL recorders, quite impressive and very rarely in need of using noise reduction. ELCASET was an excellent format.