Sony TC-K22

Name: Sony TC-K22
Brand: Sony

A metal-compatible cassette deck from Sony with a slim design, Dolby NR, and a 4-stage tape selector for bias and equalizer switching

Overview

The Sony TC-K22 is a slim cassette deck for high-fidelity playback and recording. It is built to handle metal tape and has the specialized parts for it. It has Mic and Line inputs, a stereo headphone jack, and an auto shut-off. It supports Dolby noise reduction and uses a soft eject system for tape handling.

Specifications

Heads	Erase : 1, Recording : 1
Motor	FG servo motor (green motor)
Signal-to-noise ratio	58 dB (Dolby off, peak level, metal cassette)
Frequency characteristic	30 Hz ~ 15 kHz (Metal Cassette)
Wow and flutter	0.07% wrms
Distortion factor	1.0% (Metal Cassette)
Power consumption	10W
External dimensions	Width 430 x Height 105 x Depth 290 mm
Weight	4.5kg

Design

The TC-K22 has a newly developed SD head, made of high-density magnetic material, to support metal tape. The erasing head is a MagneFocus 4-Gap type, optimized for metal tape characteristics. The tape transport runs on a specially polished FG servo motor known as the "green motor." The twin level meter is a wide-scale type, ranging from -20 to +5 VU. A 4-stage tape selector switches bias and equalizer together, and a timer standby switch handles unattended recording or playback. The deck also has a soft eject mechanism, an auto shut-off, a Mic/Line input selector and a stereo headphone jack.

Market

The Sony TC-K22 was originally priced at ¥33,800 around 1980. One owner reported trying to repair their unit to revive a cassette tape collection. Another noted that the forward and reverse functions stop working after a few seconds, so some units may have an operational problem.