Sony TC-K80

One of the rarely seen "prosumer" cassette recorders, the K80 was very quicly replaced by the K80II : METAL tape white papers had finally been accepted by the industry... exit the K80, enter the K80II !

Beyond Type IV compatibility, the other feature that made the K80(II) something special was AMS : Automatic Music Search.
Something which we take for granted nowadays (just press skip !), AMS was a major battle when the ELCASET format was to take center stage.

Planned, implemented inside prototypes (Sony EL-D9), outside prototypes (Technics RS-7900 or Teac AL-700) as early as 1976, it took a much longer time to finally help sooth... the consumers' natural impatience and lazy-ness.
Here implemented with all-Sony ICs and circuitry, programming was however limited to... nine tracks :)

The K80II is a solid cassette recorder sporting the second best meters ever (Sony's deep LCD !) and a 'power on' button borrowed from the TA-F80 integrated amp - another unit which also vanished rather quickly, sadly.

It was probably too expensive to include the one expected feature for that price point : three heads made of Sony's Ferrite&Ferrite material.
The counter was also plain mechanical and not (yet) digital... Maybe why the K80II didn't sell too well ?

Made to be used with the x-rare RM-50 wired remote control, to take full advantage of AMS,
aka Automatic Music Sensor,
aka Automatic Music Search,
aka Just Press Here and You're There.