Sony 262-D
Eighty-nine fifty bought you the transport; another eighty-nine fifty bought you the electronics that made it sing.
Overview
The 262-D was Sony's answer to a specific problem. A hi-fi owner already had a preamp and a power amp, maybe a tuner, and wanted to add tape without buying a whole new console. Sony sold the 262-D as a bare transport - a 4 & 2 track stereo recording and playback deck - and priced it at $89.50 in its own advertising in Audio (October 1962, p.41). It was the cheap way into reel-to-reel, and Sony knew it.
The deck was built in Japan and sold as an "open frame" unit. The phrase turns up in surviving sales listings, and it tells you what to expect: no walnut case, no built-in electronics, just the transport and the heads on a chassis. The 262-D records and plays in both 4-track and 2-track stereo. That was a useful flexibility in 1962, when the two formats were still competing for the same shelf space and a tape library could easily contain both.
Here is the catch, and it is the reason so few of these survive in working order: the 262-D has no recording amplifier of its own. Sony sold the SRA-2 stereo recording amplifier as the companion piece, also at $89.50, and without it the deck is a playback machine and not much else. Buyers who didn't already own a suitable preamp were looking at $179 for the pair. That was still cheaper than Sony's own Sterecorder 300 at $399.50, but no longer the bargain the headline price suggested.
Key Features
4 & 2 Track Stereo Recording and Playback
The 262-D handles both four-track and two-track stereo. In practice an owner could play back the wider, higher-quality two-track tapes and still record on the more economical four-track format. That dual-format capability was the deck's main technical selling point, and it is essentially the only specification Sony's advertising bothered to state. The ads that ran through 1962 and into 1963 gave no frequency response, no wow-and-flutter figure, no signal-to-noise ratio. Whether that silence reflected modest performance or modest advertising ambition is impossible to say from the surviving record.
Open-Frame Transport, No Case
Sales listings describe the 262-D as an "open frame" deck, which is what the price implies: a chassis-mounted transport meant to be installed in a cabinet or console rather than displayed on a shelf. This was the component-style approach, the same logic that had buyers purchasing tuners and power amps as separate boxes. It also means any 262-D found today is likely to be either bare or mounted in something a previous owner built around it. One listing notes the deck sold with its original manual, which for a machine this thinly documented is worth more than the usual paperwork premium.
The SRA-2 Stereo Recording Amplifier
The SRA-2 is the half of the system that makes recording possible. Sony priced it at $89.50 alongside the deck, and radiomuseum.org records the same figure for its first year of sale, describing it as the stereo recording amplifier for the "Sony 262-D Sterecorder Tapecorder Deck." One collector timeline lists the SRA-2 at $97.75 instead, so the exact figure depends on which year and which market the buyer walked into. The SRA-2 is an all-tube design, and owners who have kept them running speak well of the sound. One notes the unit is excellent on vocals and drums, especially when driven, and that the electrolytic power supply capacitors had been replaced with new production cans. That is the most useful maintenance note available for the system: any SRA-2 still on its original electrolytics is a candidate for the same treatment.
Ancillary Accessories
A Lafayette catalog page from 1962 lists a walnut base for the 262-D under part number 8K-284W at $12.95, along with an RK-287W reference. Whether those are Sony part numbers or Lafayette's own catalog codes is not clear from the surviving page, so the base should be treated as a possible accessory rather than a confirmed one. It does suggest that dealers were set up to finish the open-frame deck for customers who wanted something presentable.
Historical Context
Almost nothing about the 262-D survives beyond Sony's own advertising. The Archive's records contain no service literature, no independent review, and no owner accounts of the deck itself. There are only the ads, which ran in Audio from 1962 into 1963 without ever stating a detailed specification. The deck sat at the bottom of a deep Sony line. Above it were the 262-SL sound-with-sound recorder at $199.50, the 464-D deck with built-in preamps at $199.50, and the Sterecorder 300 portable system at $399.50, all sold through Superscope in the United States.
The price makes the 262-D's place in that line clear. It was the entry point, the deck for the hobbyist who already had a system, wanted to add tape on the cheap, and was willing to buy the electronics separately to get there. One video description of a surviving 262-D with its SRA-2 calls it an early Sony import and notes that they don't turn up often. That is about as much of a contemporary verdict as the model has attracted.
Collectibility & Value
The 262-D is rare the way unglamorous entry-level gear usually is: most of it was used up or thrown out. One listing for a vintage 262-D, open frame, with original manual, was asking 5,990 rubles. An eBay listing titled "1960 Sony Sterecorder 300 262-D Stereo Tape Recorder Technic" asked $5.00, but that title conflates the 1960 Sterecorder 300 with the 262-D, and the date contradicts the 1962-63 advertising record, so it should be read as a confused listing rather than a market signal. A collector on a Sony forum was seeking a 262-D some twelve years ago, which confirms interest exists without establishing a price.
Practical advice for anyone considering one: the deck is only half a machine without the SRA-2, and the SRA-2 is the harder piece to find. Budget for both, and expect the amplifier to need its power supply electrolytics replaced. Original manuals and the Lafayette-era walnut base, if it is indeed a Sony item, are worth chasing. Beyond that, the 262-D is a machine for the collector who wants an early Sony import on the shelf and is content with the fact that almost nothing was ever written about it.
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