Technics SV-DA10
(1990 - 1994+)

Probably the most sturdy, reliable and indestructible D.A.T. mechanism ever - the RAA-1001 mechanism will never let you down.

The SV-DA10 was the consumer version of Panasonic's SV-3200 professional deck ; the same mechanism was used for the later SV-3700, SV-3800, SV-3900, SV-4100 followers as well as in the SV-E10 down-sized version of the DA10 and in the Japan-only SV-D900 upgraded version. It was also chosen by STUDER for its own DAT recorders - case in point! All of these sported Technics' trademark dual 1Bit MASH with 64x oversampling digital stages, the very practical shuttle search and incredibly fast FF/REW... 400x speed! Scary but completely safe :)

Sold in black (less) or gold (more) between 1990 and 1994, with a few tweaks readily available to upgrade the i/o stages and headphones plug. AFAIK, the DA10 was the only consumer D.A.T. recorder allowing to add ABS-time after the recording! Cassettes-wise, the best match I have found are the Maxell Pro - vanishingly low error rates, even after many rec/play cycles.