Marantz SD-9020

Superscope didn't need any help to make full-size Christmas trees and this is what one could easily call... tacky !

Before seeing a brief ESOTEC version (SD-7), the Compudeck SD-9020 boasted a quickly passing fad of the late 1970s : 9,5cm/s double-speed transports.
If that upgrade to the old Philips Compact Cassette standard did allow for extended frequency response and improved signal-to-noise ratios, the drawback was an increased heads' resonance, leading to peaking some frequencies as the heads weren't expressly developped for that upgrade...

The SD-9020 only had two motors but nevertheless sported the "Sensor Stop" buttons flanking the cassette compartment which would stop the transport as soon as one would take the cassette off the deck.

The RMC-1 wired control plugs to the back with an RS-232 plug ; optional RHA-8 rack mounting handles could be purchased for the ultimate in pro looks... which, in 1979, were starting to become somewhat old salad.

The Compudeck part was the new salad and what makes the SD-9020 such a busy item : digital counter, timer, clock, repeat modes, memory modes, pause programin, timer settings etc.

I don't know yet who really built the SD series for Superscope but suspect one of the asian OEM'ers such as Tatung or Alpine or whoever - whoever had an assembly line free at the moment.
The SD-4000 was built by Miyako Audio, a Marantz subsidiary/supplier between 1972 and 1990. After Philips' partial takeover in 1979/80, it isn't Philips who built the Marantz cassette decks but... another OEM supplier.

The SD-9000dbx is a later version : without double-speed (aha !) but adding the supreme dbx noise-reduction system.