Grundig TKI-4
Documentation on the Grundig TKI-4 is thin. What survives comes almost entirely from contemporary advertising and a handful of period references. The machine appears to have been a twin-track mono tape recorder, sold in the mid-1960s as an affordable portable model.
A classified advertisement in Studio Sound (July 1965, p.36) listed a brand-new, guaranteed Grundig TKI4 at £29.10.0. That price put it in the consumer market, not the professional one. Later that year, Studio Sound (December 1965, p.4) ran a feature on the “all-new push-button TKI4L.” It described a twin-track machine with Grundig’s “Magic Eye” recording level indicator. It recorded and played back at 3½ inches per second, which gave two hours of recording or playback time. The same piece called it “stunning value.”
The “L” suffix on the TKI4L may have denoted a specific feature variant, possibly related to the push-button control system or a cosmetic revision. The underlying model clearly shared the same transport and basic specification. No service manual, schematic, or detailed technical data for the TKI-4 has surfaced in the usual archives.
Production years, exact origin, power consumption, wow and flutter figures, and how it compared to the contemporary TK-series machines all remain unrecorded.
Known specifications (as reported, 1965)
- Track format: Twin-track (mono)
- Tape speed: 3¾ ips (9.5 cm/s)
- Recording time: 2 hours (presumably on a 7-inch reel using standard-play tape)
- Recording level indicator: “Magic Eye” cathode-ray tuning indicator
- Controls: Push-button
- Period price (new): £29.10.0 (TKI4)
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