Philips EL 3312 (c. 1966–1969)
A stereo cassette deck that bet against the industry's own tracking convention - and paid for it in crosstalk.
Overview
The Philips EL 3312 is a mains-powered stereo cassette recorder. Its odd feature is a design decision nobody else made. Every other cassette machine squeezed four tracks onto the eighth-inch tape in an interlaced pattern - left-right-left-right, with each stereo pair separated by a neighboring channel. Philips ran the two tracks of each stereo pair adjacent to one another. Adjacent-track stereo made the deck compatible with single-track mono and single-track stereo cartridge recorders. The price was crosstalk between neighboring tracks. Philips, the magazine noted, made no claim for the machine as a four-track mono recorder. It was a stereo deck, and it behaved like one.
That trade-off is the whole personality of the EL 3312. It is a specific engineering argument, made in a specific direction, with a specific penalty attached. Collectors who prize it tend to prize it for exactly that.
The mono EL3310, its stablemate, sold at £36 15s. and managed two-track mono only. The EL 3312 was the stereo step up.
The pricing record is useful, and also tangled. Philips's own advertising in Studio Sound (January 1967, p.5) listed the mains/stereo EL 3312 at 48 guineas, with the matching GL 559 speakers extra at 10 guineas each plus purchase tax surcharge. The same campaign billed it as "super stereo" - it played Musicassettes in stereo, recorded with its stereo microphone, and offered variable tone and stereo balance controls, a push-button cassette ejector, high frequency response, and a teak-finish cabinet. By April 1968 the advertising had moved to 55 guineas for the recorder, and a 1969 dealer table in Studio Sound (February 1969) shows the EL3312 at £66 19s 10d cash. The price climbed with the years, so an early example was not necessarily a cheap one.
The review literature supplies the numbers the advertising didn't. Studio Sound (January 1968, p.41) tested the EL3312 with its GL559 speakers and published a manufacturer's specification of 60 Hz to 6 kHz frequency range, a 40 dB signal-to-noise ratio, 0.5% peak-to-peak wow and flutter, a VU meter, a three-digit instant-reset tape position indicator, and a weight of 7 lb for the recorder alone. The recorder measured 12½ by 8¼ by 3¼ inches. Each GL559 speaker box was 10½ by 7¼ by 7¼ inches. That 60 Hz to 6 kHz window is narrow by any standard. This is a cassette machine of the period at 1⅞ ips, not a hi-fi component in disguise. An earlier Studio Sound (October 1966) round-up listed the EL3312 at 60 c/s to 10 Kc/s ±3 dB with 0.6% wow and flutter, so the published figures drifted between the announcement and the formal review. The 1968 test-panel numbers are the more careful measurement, and the 1966 figures read as the optimistic pre-launch claim.
A correction in Studio Sound (March 1968, p.28) helps anyone reconstructing the pricing. The magazine apologized for mis-quoting the EL3312/GL559 package in its January issue: recorder and speakers together were £57 15s, not £71 14s 2d as printed. That £71 figure was a typo, and it has propagated. A seller who quotes it is quoting an erratum.
The feature set is period-typical. Philips's advertising added socket facilities for microphone, radio, gramophone, amplifier, and a second recorder, enough to slot the deck into a domestic system rather than stand alone. The 1967 campaign promised a free demonstration Musicassette, a library rack, a microphone with stand, and a recording lead with every machine. Those accessories are the first things missing from a survivor.
One quirk deserves flagging because it will catch out anyone who assumes cassette lugs are sacred. Studio Sound (June 1967) reported that the new stereo EL3312 would, in fact, erase pre-punched Musicassettes — the ones with the record-protect tabs removed — provided the red record button was held down before and during loading. Philips had claimed current machines would not do this. The magazine was disappointed. Owners of an EL 3312 should treat the record button with the same caution they'd give any deck of the era, and should not assume a punched cassette is safe in the tray.
The EL 3312 turns up in dealer tables alongside the Ferguson 3232, Sony TC200, Sanyo MR929, and Philips's own EL3555 and EL4408. It competed in the budget-to-mid four-track stereo cassette bracket, not against the reel-to-reel specialists. It suits someone who wants a working example of cassette stereo at the moment the format was finding its feet, and who is content with a 6 kHz ceiling and a tracking scheme nobody else adopted.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.