Pioneer CT-4 cassette deck

A Basic Cassette Deck

The CT-4 from Pioneer is an exemplary cassette deck for novice recordists. It's loaded with features to facilitate recording and playback. A case in point is its "power-assisted" tape transport, a feature unusual in a deck in this price range.

Despite being Pioneer's least expensive model, the CT-4 offers touch-operated control buttons, not old-fashioned piano-key type levers. Making this feature possible is the "power-assisted" tape transport, an ingenious Pioneer design that exploits the natural inertia of the rotating flywheel to provide power for mode changes. Heavy-duty, pwer-consuming plungers have been entirely replaced by this simple and dependable mechanism.

As in the more expensive model, a special sendust-reinforces permalloy record/play head is combined with a double-gap ferrite erase head to form a perfect match for metal tape. Each features high wear resistance, low distortion and high reliability. Here's a description of some more features that prove that Pioneer's "basic" deck is not so basic. Set the deck in the play mode and touch the fast forward button.

You're automatically whisked to the beginning of the next selection. Touch the rewind button instead of fast forward and you're back at the beginning of the song currently playing. This amazing feature we call "Music Search". Recording begins by merely touching the record button; you don't need to push the play button at the same time. Recording Mute lets you make blanks between selections without touching the record level controls. If you so desire, you can couple this deck with an optional timer to make unattended recordings or wake up to taped music.

Last but far from least, two electronic features make your recordings sound better. One is the Dolby-C noise reduction system that reduces hiss and expands high-frequency response. The other is the 6-LED bar-graph display (one per channel) that warns of impending tape saturation distortion with electronic responsiveness. As you can see, Pioneer expects a lot from even their basics.

 

Specifications

Type: Single cassette tape deck

Track System:  4-track, 2-channel stereo

Tape Speed:  4.76 cm/s

Heads:  1 x record/playback, 1 x erase

Motor:  Electronically controlled DC Servo Motor

Tape Type:  type I (Normal), CrO2, Metal

Noise Reduction:  B, C

Frequency Response:

Normal Tape : 25 - 14,000 Hz

CrO₂ Tape : 25 - 16,000 Hz

Metal Tape : 25 - 17,000 Hz

Signal to Noise Ratio:  57 dB

Wow and Flutter:  0.05%

Total Harmonic Distortion:  1.2%

Input:

Line : 60 mV

Mic :  0.3 mV / 30 k ohm

Output

Line:  450 mV / 50 k Ω

Headphones :  63-90 mV / 8 Ω  

DIN Play/Rec Socket :  12 mV

Power consumption: 16 W

Dimensions (WxHxD): 420 x 120 x 245 mm

Weight:  4.4 kg