Philips EL-3302 Head Design

The record and playback head K1 is an interesting early design taken from reel-to-reel tape recorder designs. This was one of the first designs for use with the compact cassette. This one records only on the left track area of the tape. The later models recorded on both left and right track areas in mono.

There are three terminals for this record and playback head. In the service manual, K1 is a single coil with a centre tapping. One terminal connects to earth through R5, which is a 22 Ω resistor. During playback mode, the full coil is used, however during record mode; only a part of the coil is used through the centre tapping. Interestingly, one end of the coil connects to the centre pin 6 on the DIN socket SK2.

Philips has always been the leaders in the creation of some of the best products.

The erase head K2 is a single coil driven by the erase bias. It seems to work well!

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