Toshiba 840-S
A four-track stereo reel-to-reel that hung its speakers on a hinge and cost $219.50.
Overview
The 840-S dates itself the moment you lift the lid. Toshiba listed it at $219.50 in a period tape-recorder roundup, as advertised in Studio-Sound (May 1971, p.55). The spec sheet is a checklist of late-sixties portability ambitions: solid-state electronics, detachable speakers, and the ability to run either flat on a shelf or standing on end. The cabinet measures 13½ × 15¾ × 10 inches and the whole thing weighs 28.7 lbs. That's light enough to carry, and heavy enough that you'll think twice about doing it often.
Collectors latch onto Toshiba's "Electro-Hinge" speaker mounting. The speakers detach from the main body with no cable to unplug, because the hinge itself carries the connection. Setup takes seconds - swing the speakers off, set them where you want them, and the signal follows through the hinge instead of a dangling pair of leads. Whether that arrangement held up over decades of opening and closing is a fair question, and the documentation on file doesn't answer it.
The transport does four-track stereo and mono record and playback at 3¾ and 7½ ips, with a selector switch that also allows quarter-track mono record and playback in the "stereo" position. Tape handling is simple: a single knob controls the tape functions, there's a digital counter, and the deck takes reels up to seven inches. Two dynamic microphones came in the box. Two recording level meters plus dual volume controls let you set levels for each channel independently.
The published frequency response is 60 to 10,000 Hz at 7½ ips. It's an honest number. This is a machine built for spoken word, location recording, and casual music taping, not for archiving a symphony. The top end rolls off well before the 15,000 c.p.s. that Toshiba claimed for its own GT810S in the same roundup, so the 840-S's figure is the more modest of the two by a wide margin. Buyers who wanted wider response paid more or stepped up the line.
A warning for anyone chasing this model: the period material is thin and the model designations sit close together. The same roundup that lists the 840-S also lists a GT810S and a GT 840S, and the GT 840S shares the 840-S's dimensions and price almost exactly. The sources on file don't settle whether the 840-S is a variant, a regional designation, or the same deck under a different badge. Confirm the exact model number on the rear panel before assuming a listing is the machine described here.
The archive can say less than owners might hope. The 840-S is documented as a solid-state four-track stereo portable with detachable Electro-Hinge speakers and two speeds. It came with two dynamic mikes and weighed 28.7 lbs. Production years, service literature, sales figures and the long-term reliability of that hinge are all missing from the record. Anyone with an original manual or a working example would be doing the archive a favor by coming forward.
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