Pioneer RT-701

Original version of the Pioneer RT-707 besteller.

The RT-701 is however quite rare : Pioneer must've sensed some interest in the overall package but a deception regarding specifics so an upper version was launched exactly a year later : the RT-707.

The RT-701 is an 707 sans auto-reverse and sans independent L/R record switches - therefore no repeat switch next to the pitch control know, no direction switch next to the pause button and only one play head azimuth adjustment.
Also absent from the 701 are output level pots, DIN rec/play and switched AC terminals at the back.

The RT-701S is a 701 with a narrower front plate, sans rack holes. Most probably a version planned to be set in the wood-enclosure which was shortly and sort of made available here and there. Said enclosure is rather banal and not very pretty...


The famed RT-707 indeed started as a fairly simple recorder with a minimum of features, packed in a very attractive design. That is probably the reason why Pioneer remained fairly discrete about it in Japan : if pretty as can be, the 701/707 nevertheless are basic entry-level tape recorders...
It is sales manager throughout the world which probably asked for something more meaty - enter the RT-707 and, later, this time quite above the entry-level of the 701/707, the big and magnificent RT-909.

The design slant of the 701/707 was carried on by Akai with the even prettier GX-77, also a besteller.