Rotel RD-840 Stereo Cassette Tape Deck

The Rotel RD-840 is a stereo cassette deck with Dolby B and C noise reduction, it was introduced by Rotel in 1982 with a list price of USD $210 and discontinued 3 years later in 1985.

The main features of the Rotel RD-840 cassette deck are: 2 heads, analog 3 digit tape counter, tape type selection with support for normal, chrome and metal tapes.

Typical front loading cassette deck with the cassette compartiment located on the left side of the deck.

Level meters used on the Rotel RD-840 cassette deck are generic digital peak reading meters. Soft-touch controls for fast and easy transport function selection of the Rotel RD-840 cassette deck.

Dolby C-type used in the Rotel RD-840 provides 20 dB of noise reduction above about 1,000 Hz, fully doubling the amount given by B-type.

To make live recordings this deck has 2 microphone inputs to connect microphones with a jack connector. For undisturbed listening a jack connector for a pair of stereo headphones is supplied. Connection to other audio components for plaback can be achieved by a RCA cable and recording from a source by a RCA cable.

Historic events

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.