Kenwood KW-8077

Early 1970s 21kg reel-to-reel recorder of the "Super Recording" kind.

Three motors, solenoid action micro-controls, six ferrite-core micro-gap heads, big two-color VUs, 5-step NAB equalizer, L/R separate monitor switch, 4-digit tape counter, playback level controls, 9,5 and 19cm/s speeds, low-impedance MIC inputs (600 Ohm) and... auto-reverse !

The RC-77 wired remote was however optional. Besides 7" reel-size, the s/n spec however shows that this was no professional machine : 52dB.

Unexpected paraphernalia : the tape set on the left reel is named "A. Charlin in Japan". That's André Charlin : the french recording and stereo pioneer ! Not so surprising given the european origins of this catalog but, still, a very nice touch.

Just as for Sansui, I still have no idea about who actually built the KW reel-to-reel recorders for Kenwood...