Technics RS-TR575
A dual-well deck that records in both bays. That is what separated it from the budget duals crowding the shelf beside it.
Overview
The RS-TR575 is the more capable half of Technics' RSTR373/RSTR575 double-cassette pair. The cheaper RS-TR373 could only record in one well. The RS-TR575 records in both. Distributor literature from the period is blunt about it: the 373 is described as a "one record/one play dual cassette deck," while the 575 is simply "dual cassette deck," with record/play capability from both transports. If you were dubbing collections or running a two-deck workflow, that single difference was the whole ballgame.
Both wells are auto-reversing, and the deck supports two-tape sequential record and playback. Play in series and you get 24 hours of continuous playback from C-90s, or up to three hours of continuous recording. HiFI-Stereo (March 1995, p.75) confirms the two record/playback transports with autoreverse on both, plus 2-tape sequential record/playback. The same listing gives a frequency response of 20-20,000 Hz ±3 dB on metal tape and dimensions of 17½ x 5 x 11 inches.
Noise reduction is the full late-period Technics set: Dolby B and C plus Dolby HX Pro headroom extension. The review listing also notes a bias control working up to 160 kHz to prevent cross modulation between music and record bias, auto record mute, a headphone jack with its own level control, and independent left/right two-color 16-segment fluorescent level meters. Two four-digit fluorescent tape counters keep track of both wells at once. Auto tape calibration trims bias and level for whatever brand of tape is loaded, which is a useful thing to find on a deck at this price.
The transport is built for convenience, not ceremony. It has super-quick FF and REW (the literature cites 2X FF/REW speed), motor-driven cassette well doors, and high/low-speed dubbing for copying between wells. Connections are unbalanced, -10 dBV on RCA phono jacks. There are no balanced outputs here. A remote control was optional according to the period listing. Owners wanting the deck in a rack could order the RK4 rack kit, which the distributor sheets price anywhere from $30 to $65 depending on the seller.
Pricing is a mess in the surviving documentation, so treat any single figure with suspicion. Manufacturer's list is variously quoted at $249.95, $269.95, $269.00, $279.00, $329.95, and $330.05 across the distributor catalogs, while HiFI-Stereo (March 1995, p.75) lists the deck at $399. The spread likely reflects different catalog years and dealer discounting rather than any change to the hardware. The "original price" is best described as roughly $250-$400 depending on source and date. One dealer even bundled the RS-TR575 with an IHF-to-pro interface amplifier and a Middle Atlantic rack shelf as a $419 package aimed at the radio/production market.
That production-room angle shows up a lot. The RS-TR575 turns up repeatedly in broadcast-supply catalogs alongside Tascam's pro cassette machines, sold to stations and studios that wanted a cheap, rackable dual well for dubbing and aircheck work rather than critical mastering. It is not a three-head deck, and nobody should expect Tascam 122MKIII-grade metering or balanced I/O from it.
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