Alba R-150 Cassette Recorder

The R-150 (also known as R150) was a mono cassette recorder manufactured in Hong Kong by the Alba Corporation. It is virtually identical to the Harvard Elegance MK II (model H-40). The Alba R-150 is mains powered and battery powered requiring four dry cells to make 6 V. It has jack sockets for earphone, microphone, and remote switch. Its main feature was an LED recording indicator.

Review

In the evolution of cassette tape recorders, this is a more modern unit based on the BA527 power amplifier IC. With a 4 Ω loudspeaker, and 6 V power supply, the IC is capable of producing 800 mW audio output with 10 % THD. The tape transport mechanism has automatic-stop facility, and is built on a metal chassis, with metal pushbutton selector mechanism. I remember using this unit with my ZX81 home computer, because it has microphone and earphone jack sockets. The downsides were that there is no tape counter facility, hence one has to press rewind and play buttons continuously when searching for the beginning of the program. The overall circuitry is very simple having just one transistor, and one IC, which consists of the power amplifier and preamplifier built-in. There is no motor speed regulator IC, nor a preset for adjusting the speed.

Price/eBay

These were mass produced in Hong Kong, and because of the metal tape transport mechanism, I anticipate many survivor models. A broken unit would therefore not be worth much more than five pounds, however a unit in mint good working condition in its original packaging can fetch a small packet on a good day. Although changing the drive belt in this unit is simple, the flywheel requires a flat belt which tends to be expensive to source.

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