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Plessey 700 Tape Recorder

Plessey 700

Plessey Electronics took over Rola Australia in the mid 1960's and continued to manufacture products such as the "77" Mk III tape recorder badged with the Rola name but after a few years the brand name was changed to Plessey. New products such as the 700 and 707B console machines were badged as Plessey. The 700 series were introduced in late 1960's and would appear to be the first Australian made professional open reel tape machine to use discrete transistor circuitry.

Plessey 700 Deck

The deck of the 700 series has features of the earlier Byer and Rola machines such and variable speed spooling, monitoring while spooling by being able to adjust the position of the tape lifters, drop-in editing, and an accurate tape timer. New features incorporated in this deck were tension arms with good dynamics to allow fast stabilisation following a start, three tension settings for different reel sizes, and continuous capstan operation only while tape is threaded.

Plessey 700 Deck Underside

The Plessey 700 was designed for easy maintenance, two knurled screws underneath the deck are slackened off and the deck can then be rotated for easy access to the under side.

Plessey 700 Amplifier

Press buttons incorporated in the handles on the amplifier panel allow it to be released. The amplifier can be withdrawn from the cabinet to allow access to all of the preset adjustments. Finally if two latches behind front panel are released the panel will drop down allowing removal of individual circuit cards.

This is a publicity shot from a Plessely Australia booklet produced in the late 1960's.