Sony Model 355 (1968–1969)
A three-head, three-speed reel-to-reel deck that Sony pitched as the thinking person's "stacked deck" — and priced under $230.
Overview
Under $230 bought you a lot of tape machine in 1968. The Sony Model 355 was the improved successor to the Model 350 — the deck Sony notes had been picked as a "best buy" by the nation's leading consumer reporting service — and the company made sure the successor carried the same endorsement forward in its advertising. That "best buy" line was marketing copy, not an independent verdict, but the spec sheet behind it was serious: three speeds, four-track stereo and mono, and a three-head transport in a package that could sit vertically or horizontally.
The headline claim was frequency response, and Sony pushed it hard across a run of magazine placements. The Model 355 was advertised at 20–22,000 Hz at 7½ ips, 20–17,000 Hz at 3¾ ips, and 20–9,000 Hz at 1⅛ ips. The ad copy that ran in Audio (September 1969, p.19) repeated the same three-speed response figures, and the identical claim appeared in High Fidelity (January 1970, p.105) — a consistent, repeated spec rather than a one-off flourish.
Three heads are the reason this deck punches above its price. With separate erase, record, and playback heads, the Model 355 could do tape/source monitoring and sound-on-sound — features that were professional territory at the time. Sony also built in a circuit to prevent record-head magnetization buildup, which the company identified as the most common cause of tape hiss. A dedicated noise-suppressor switch added a filter for hiss on older, noisier tapes, and Sony was careful to note the filter didn't degrade the sound of good recordings. There's also a scrape flutter filter — a precision idler between the erase and record heads that tames tape modulation distortion, a feature Sony pointed out had previously been found only on studio equipment.
The transport details are where the day-to-day ownership experience lives. Sony's Retractomatic pinch roller lets you thread tape one-handed, which sounds like a small thing until you've fumbled a loose end around a conventional roller a few hundred times. An automatic tape lifter pulls the tape off the heads during fast-forward and reverse to cut head wear, and the motor sits on a "floating" shock-absorber mount to keep vibration out of the tape path. Around the front panel: two VU meters, a four-digit tape counter, pause control, a stereo headphone jack, record interlock, Automatic Sentinel shut-off, and seven-inch reel capacity. Vertical or horizontal operation means it could be stacked into a shelf system or laid flat on a desk.
The pricing drifted a touch between the launch materials. Early 1968 advertising listed the Model 355 at under $229.50, while a later 1969 placement in Audio (August 1969, p.49) carried "under $229.53." Treat the difference as catalog noise rather than a price change — either way, this was a sub-$230 deck with three heads and three speeds, which is the whole argument for it.
What it is not: a machine with a documented service history, a known failure pattern, or a thick collector market. The available documentation is essentially Sony's own advertising and catalog copy, repeated across several magazine runs. That's enough to establish what the deck did and what it cost, but not enough to say how they hold up forty-plus years on or what they trade for today. Buyers should expect the usual unknowns of any 1960s reel-to-reel — belts, idlers, and head condition are the questions to ask, and the honest answer is that this page can't tell you which ones fail first.
What the record does support is a clear picture of intent. Sony positioned the Model 355 as a serious enthusiast's deck at a working person's price, and the feature list backs that up: three heads, sound-on-sound, tape/source monitoring, a scrape flutter filter borrowed from studio practice, and response that held together at 3¾ ips. The repeated "best buy" claim in the advertising was the company's own framing — but the engineering underneath it was real, and that's what makes the Model 355 worth a look if one turns up.
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