Marantz PMD220 Portable Cassette Recorder

This Marantz PMD220 is a mono cassette deck, it was first sold by Marantz in 1981 with a manufacturer suggested retail price of USD $250 and discontinued 4 years later in 1985.

The main features of the Marantz PMD220 cassette deck are: 3 heads and off-tape monitoring, mechanical 3 digit tape counter, manual tape type selection and capable of handling normal and chrome tapes with additional manual equalization selection, belt driven single-capstan transport.

Typical of this deck is the 70's top loading layout with the cassette compartiment located on the right side of the deck. Tape eject is operated mechanically and the cassette needs to be placed with the side to be played facing forward in the cassette well.

Level meters used on the Marantz PMD220 cassette deck is a single analog needle VU reading meter. Mechanical transport controls for reliable Marantz PMD220 transport function selection. Besides standard recording/playback speed the PMD220 also offers half speed recording and playback, effectively doubling the amount that can be recorded on a tape. Cue and review can be used to easily and quickly locate the beginning of a passage.

2 Speed
Super Hard Permalloy Head
Servo Control
Four Way Power
Total Shut Off
Dual Flywheel
Play Mix
PA
One Touch Rec

Historic events

1981 Dave Smith proposes the Universal Synthesizer Interface that would become the MIDI standard in 1983.

1982 Seiko introduced the world’s first TV watch.

1983 The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is introduced at the first North American Music Manufacturers (NAMM) show in Los Angeles.

1984 The first episode of the Miami Vice television crime drama series, premiered on NBC.

1985 Sony and Philips produced the standard for Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) computer discs that would use the same laser technology as the audio CD.