Uher 4000 Report-S (1963)
Four speeds, five flashlight cells, and a cigar-humidor footprint - the portable that put broadcast-grade tape in a briefcase.
Overview
The size is the first thing you notice: roughly 10½ by 8½ by 3½ inches. The Audio reviewer of the day compared the case to a cigar humidor, then conceded it was a humidor that was larger. You could carry the 4000 Report-S in any position and jostle it during recording or playback, and it still held speed and azimuth. The magazine's tester said its facilities amounted to virtually everything a mains-operated deck would give you.
Under the hinged lid sit 5-inch reels, and the transport runs four speeds - 7½, 3¾, 1⅞, and 15/16 ips. A chromed knob selects them. It doubles as the amplifier switch and locks into each of its four slots. At 7½ ips the published response runs 40 to 20,000 cps within ±3 dB. The numbers step down as you slow the tape: 40-17,000 at 3¾, 40-10,000 at 1⅞, and 40-4,500 at the crawl of 15/16. Studio-Sound (October 1963, p.24) published the machine's frequency response as 40-20,000 cps at 7½ ips. That helps explain why the thing turned up in broadcast and government work rather than just on hi-fi shelves.
Uher's own advertising billed it as "the incredibly versatile portable tape recorder," and the company advertised this model relentlessly through 1965. The period literature notes the 4000 Report-S took an industrial design award at the Hanover Trade Fair in both 1963 and 1964. It was also in wide use by the B.B.C., in industry and commerce, and across Government departments.
Five 1.5-volt flashlight cells give roughly 12 hours of intermittent running. Swap in the rechargeable "dryfit" storage battery (Uher's Z 211) and you get about 10 hours continuous. The same battery recharges from either the mains unit or a car battery. The machine will also run from any storage battery between 6 and 24 volts, and the mains supply unit - model Z 111 - is sized to drop into the same compartment as the dry battery.
The control layout is dense but logical. Six organ-type keys run along the top right for rewind, start, pause, stop, record, and fast forward. A row of knobs sits across the bottom: speaker volume, tone, recording level, and a three-position input selector for phono, radio, and microphone. Pull the volume knob out and the internal monitor cuts off, which kills feedback when you're recording from a microphone. The recording-level knob hides a momentary switch that flips the illuminated meter to a battery-voltage check.
The electronics are fully transistorized and more elaborate than the box suggests. A four-stage record/playback amplifier feeds a two-stage output section with a push-pull stage good for one watt into the internal speaker or an external 4-ohm load. A separate transistor generates bias and erase at a nominal 63 kc/s, and another drives the level meter. Three more handle electronic speed control - a 90-kc/s oscillator working against a governor switch in the motor, with a two-transistor regulator holding speed constant across a 6-to-8-volt input window and a zener clamping the filter input at 7.5 volts. That is a servo system in a battery portable, and the wow-and-flutter figure holds at ±0.15% at 7½ ips across the audible range.
The input section reflects its European origins, and American users had to adjust. Studio-Sound (October 1963, p.24) laid out the levels: microphone at 0.1 mV into about 2,000 ohms, radio at 1 mV into 47,000 ohms, and phono at 25 mV into 1 megohm. The reviewer noted that the radio input happily takes a high-impedance dynamic microphone, while the phono input is really meant for a tuner or another tape recorder. Outputs run about 1 volt at 15,000 ohms at normal tape level, with 2 volts at 4 ohms off the speaker tap. Signal-to-noise was quoted at 55 dB.
Playing time is generous for the format: 32 minutes continuous on one track at 7½ ips with double-play tape, 64 minutes across both tracks, and a full 8 hours per reel at the bottom speed using both tracks. The ½-track mono format was the standard configuration. The same range also offered the 4002 twin-track stereo and the 4004 quarter-track version at £115 10s., against £97 13s. for the Report-S as listed in the period trade pages, microphone and LP tape included.
What owners report, decades on, is a machine that rewards patience and punishes neglect. The mechanicals are robust — the transport was built to survive being carried and manhandled — but the rubber parts, belts, and the governor contacts in the motor are the usual service points, and the electronic speed control is unforgiving of a tired motor or a dirty switch. The dryfit batteries are long gone, so most surviving units run on the Z 111 mains unit or a bench supply. Cosmetically, the hinged lid and the rotatable reel locks on the spindle tops are frequently missing or cracked, and the illuminated meter lamp is a common failure. None of that is fatal; all of it is the normal cost of owning a 60-year-old field recorder.
The accessories are where the 4000 Report-S gets interesting for collectors. The AKUSTOMAT automatic switch starts and stops the tape whenever sound begins or ceases — a voice-activated recording function decades before that became a checkbox on a digital recorder. A "power" microphone allows remote operation, and with the right accessories the machine can control a slide projector. These bits are scarce and priced accordingly; a complete set with the original leaflet and the Z 111 supply is a different proposition from a bare deck.
This is not a machine for someone who wants plug-and-play. It's for the person who wants to understand why a battery portable from 1963 earned a place in the B.B.C.'s kit and an industrial design award two years running — and who doesn't mind learning the battery compartment's geometry to get there. The 4000 Report-S is the rare piece of vintage gear where the legend and the spec sheet actually agree.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.