Minicassette

The Minicassette (also mini cassette) is an electromagnetic storage medium ( tape) for analog recording and playback of audio signals. It was developed by Philips and first presented in 1967. It is a small version of 1963 also introduced by Philips Compact Cassette. From this it differs by the much more compact housing with dimensions of 56 mm × 33 mm (to DIN 32750 ).

Developed for the Minicassette devices operate at a tape speed of only 2.4 cm / s (compared to 4.75 cm / s at normal cassette recorders ). This in spite of small dimensions rather long recording times are possible, but the usable frequency range is very limited.

Since the Minicassette no capstan drive is used and the band support is provided only by the winding drive, recordings on MiniCassettes due to the non-defined band gap to the head and the slightly fluctuating belt speed are mainly used as sound recordings for language, such as answering machines and dictation devices. Further application found at the end of the 1970s as data carriers for computer (Philips P2000 ).

To date (2011) tapes with a playing time of 2 × 15 and 2 × 30 minutes is available. ( Types 005 and 007)

Similar developments are the 1969 presented by Olympus Mikrocassette and introduced by Grundig in the 1970s stenocassette 30 (see Grundig Business Systems ).

• Electromagnetic Media