Technics RS-M95

Successor in full of the successful RS-M85, the RS-M95 is nevertheless a boosted 85 and not really a completely new development.

The Quartz-locked, Direct-Drive, planar-opposed, DC brushless, slotless motor remained the very same while the rec and play heads were upped to HPF material (S&F for the earse head) to cope with the newly introduced Type IV (metal) tapes.

The second motor was however upped to coreless for better tape tension control - schematic shown below.

But it's mainly in the electronics that the differences appear, or 1977 vs. 1979.

The M95 has a digital FL counter with three assignable memory positions (M1, M2 and MPlay) and peak/VU / peak/hold modes, four ±20% bias fine pots (one for each tape type) and redesigned audio amps with 2-stage balanced DC and more reliable low-voltage power-supplies.

Added were a 2-tone calibration oscillator (400Hz / 8Khz) and fast rise/decay (enlarged & two-color) meters and a fully-operational rec-mute pad instead of the input-bypass lever of the RS-M85.
Other cute additions : a continuous pot for FL display brightness, EIA rack ears and a glass bottom lid.

One of the first big K7 recorders, produced at a time manufacturers had begun to realize blank tape sales were very rapidly outgrowing LP sales.

The RS-M95 was appended to the renewed 10000 series in '80/81.