Uher CR 210
A seven-inch-wide stereo cassette recorder that Uher billed as the smallest hi-fi portable in the world. The period press largely agreed.
Overview
Seven inches wide, two inches high, seven inches deep. Uher's own literature hung the CR 210's reputation on those dimensions, and the claim was blunt: the world's smallest portable stereo cassette recorder. It was more than ad copy because of what sits inside the box - a four-track head, self-contained stereo amplifiers, and built-in microphones. It runs from the AC line, lead-acid or nickel-cadmium rechargeables, or a 12-volt system. According to period documentation, the machine was pitched as delivering performance equivalent to AC-only home decks. That is a tall order for something that fits in a camera bag.
The four-track head is the reason the CR 210 could do something most portables of its size couldn't: automatic tape reversal. Uher did the flip with what the company described as a photosensitive electronic control. That is real engineering, not a marketing flourish. For recording on the spot - interviews, lectures, live music - continuous playback without physically turning the cassette is a big convenience.
The numbers, as reported at the time, put the CR 210 in serious territory for a portable. Wow and flutter is listed at 0.12 percent. Signal-to-noise ratio using the Dolby circuit with chromium dioxide tape is said to be better than 58 dB. Frequency response on chrome tape is given as 20 to 16,000 Hz. Whether those figures hold up against a well-serviced home deck is a fair question, but contemporary coverage treated the CR 210 as a legitimate hi-fi instrument rather than a convenience gadget. The Audio (October 1976, p.113) advertising of the period grouped Uher with Mercedes-Benz and Leica as names representing precision. The company made that comparison itself.
This was not a cheap piece of kit. In the UK, Photo Acoustics listed the CR 210 at £300 in May 1977, and by February 1978 the same dealer had it at £310. Interphoto was advertising a "CR210 Stereo and Case" at £279 in May 1979. A private seller in 1977 offered an "almost new" CR 210 Professional Stereo Reporter - with film/slide sync and built-in mic - for £250 against a claimed list of £420, so street price and list price clearly diverged. That same 1977 Photo Acoustics advert put the 4000 Report IC at £229, so the CR 210 commanded a real premium over Uher's own open-reel portable.
Collectors note that the CR 210 sits in an interesting spot within the Uher line. It was a development point rather than a dead end. By early 1978, Uher had introduced the CR 240, described as a development of the CR 210 with several design differences - two peak-reading level meters, record level controls switchable for individual or tandem operation, and separate LEDs for record, playback, standby and Dolby. The CR 240 dropped the autoreverse facility to make room for the Dolby circuitry, which leaves the CR 210's reversal feature something of a one-off in the family.
Maintenance realities are worth stating plainly. These are machines from the mid-to-late 1970s with rechargeable battery options, and the lead-acid and NiCd packs that originally powered them are long past their service life. A CR 210 that runs on AC but not on batteries is the norm, not the exception. The photosensitive reversal mechanism is a specific point of failure that any buyer should test before committing. Uher's UK distribution network was well served by specialist dealers like Photo Acoustics in Watford, who advertised comprehensive spare parts stocks and factory-trained repair service, but that support is decades gone.
What the CR 210 ultimately represents is a moment when portable cassette recording was taken seriously as a hi-fi pursuit rather than a convenience. It is small, it is dense with function, and it was priced like the precision instrument Uher claimed it to be. For a collector, that combination — genuine capability in a genuinely tiny package, with a quirk (autoreverse) that its own successor abandoned — is the whole appeal.
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Related Models
- Uher CR 240
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