Technics RS-1520 (circa late 1970s)
Nearly everything documented about the Technics RS-1520 comes from Technics's own advertising. The ads ran in audio trade publications from late 1978 into 1980. The deck was positioned as the studio version of the award-winning RS-1500 - the machine Technics claimed A&M Records' top executives used to audition masters by Peter Frampton and Chuck Mangione before they became records.
The ads promise all of the RS-1500's performance plus professional studio extras. That meant per-channel bias and equalization fine adjustments to optimize any tape formula, a 1 kHz/10 kHz test-tone oscillator for equipment checks, ASA-standard VU metering, a microphone record amplifier and FET mixing amplifier, an IEC-standard playback equalization selector, and IC full-logic transport switching that allowed freedom in changing modes. The track system was 2-track, 2-channel for both recording and playback.
Beyond the advertising, the record is thin. High Fidelity (August 1979, p.7) carried Technics's RS-1520 advertising in this period, but no independent review of the model has surfaced in the archive. Production years, original price, and full specifications are not documented in any source we have.
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