Sony TC-K61

Sony TC-K61 Limited

1 9 7 9 1979
1 9 8 0 1980
1 9 8 1 1981

The TC-K61 was part of Sony's mid-end recorders but was, suprisingly chosen to be upgraded as TC-K61 Limited in 1980.

To my knowledge, Sony was the first of the majors to make a luxurious limited edition of a "regular" unit : before the Nakamichi 1000ZXL Limited and much before Marantz Japan started to make its often befuddling "a", "mkII", "KI" "SE" or "OSE KI" multiplications...

However, the reasons why Sony chose a mid-end unit and not a real 3-head biggie to make such a limited edition remains... typically Sony. And the fact that Sony never did such a limited edition again in any of its hi-fi lineups is another proof that if Sony often pioneered excellent marketing tricks, it even more often... didn't do much with them.

Anyway -
Compared to the regular K61, the K61 Limited sees most of its audio componentry upgraded (rec/play input/output stages), better power supply regulation and copper plated parts in the mechanism itself.
Most visible, redesigned secndary knobs and 14K gold-plated transport pads !
These upgrades added 10,000¥ to the regular K61 59,800¥ pricetag. Specs mainly show an improvement in wow & flutter (0,035% vs. 0,04%), but I guess the sonic's finesse must've been improved as well.

The rest remains the same :
one BSL motor for capstan, one DC Servo for takeup reel, Sendust&Ferrite (S&F) combination head to allow for Metal (Type IV) compatibility, Sony-made Dolby ICs, front plug for the wired RM-50 remote (or any other non-wired remotes such as the RM-80 or RM-65) and solid build-quality.

The mechanism isn't an early version of the famed TCM-200 which was used for almost all of Sony's later 1980s and 1990s top ES cassette recorders (up to the ultimate TC-KA7ES) but a simpler model - mid-end deck oblige.

The TC-K61 Limited was also finished in dark-ish grey color. The image below, from the japanese K61 Limited catalog, was, as often wih Sony, ugly and rather misleading : harshly lighting with too much yellow added during printing.
The real color is reminiscent of the 1976 export "B" color as found later in the Scala system or MDP-605 LD player.

The added front badge bears the "limited" serial number ; the badge of the export version says "Limited Edition" instead of "Limited".

Two hundred TC-K61 Limited were produced for the japanese market. I don't know if the (few) export units were set within those 200 or if they should be added on top of this total.

Like most Sony recorders of that period, the K61 sold very well while the K61 Limited was by nature an exceedingly rare rarity.

Sony TC-K61, image 1 Sony TC-K61, image 2 Sony TC-K61, image 3
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