Hitachi D-800

Surviving documentation on the Hitachi D-800 is thin, but the period record shows a serious three-head cassette deck. Audio (December 1976, p.39) described it as the front-loading model in a two-deck line with the top-loading D-3500. Both used three-head recording and playback, with separate gap widths: a wider gap for recording and a narrower one for playback. The D-800 carried what Hitachi called a Double Dolby circuit for recording and playback, a Dolby calibration control, a Dolby FM broadcast decoder, an MPX filter, and a CRO bias switch. Mic/line mixing was listed as a D-3500-only feature.

The front panel had VU/peak metering with a switch, a recording calibration adjust, a calibration tone, and a signal-routing display. It also had mic inputs, a headphone jack, and the standard transport controls. Hitachi stressed the head's shielding: a front core holder, non-magnetic mask, and triple shielding case. A Hitachi advertisement in High Fidelity (August 1977, p.11) listed a ferrite record/playback combination head, a phase-controlled DC servo motor, frequency response of 30-18,000 Hz ±3 dB, signal-to-noise of better than 55 dB with Dolby off and 63 dB with Dolby on, and wow and flutter of 0.05% WRMS.

The same issue's lab test, High Fidelity (August 1977, p.50), measured the D-800 at CBS Technology Center. The reviewers found performance that in some respects they expected only from premium cassette decks.

No original price, no production dates, and little owner-level information survives. If you have a D-800 or its manual, the Archive would like to hear from you.