Philips EL-3302 PCB

The Philips Compact Cassette Recorder EL-3302 printed circuit board demonstrates extremely good engineering design. The components are very reliable; however, there is a trend for audio enthusiasts to change all the blue coloured electrolytic capacitors to improve the sound performance, consequently, there are usually some sellers on eBay with original replacement capacitors. The old-style conventional components will bring back many memories for those who remember servicing these units.

I love the way this board has been designed and manufactured. The copper tracks have had a tinning treatment so that they last.

This is an eight-transistor circuit, and the component density is very high due to the biasing resistors and decoupling capacitors. Consequently, many components are in an upright position to minimize the footprint. The audio output was a respectable 0.4 W.

The soldered wires to the circuit board are very short and there is not much length to lift it completely. The circuit uses AC125 and AC126 transistors.

The very first version of this tape recorder, EL3300, did not have a motor regulator board. Hence, as the batteries depleted, the tape speed would drop. Later models had this regulator board to keep the motor speed constant and independent of the battery power level. The circuit consists of AC127 and AC128 transistors, and BA114 diodes.

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