PlayTape Machine?

[WindowsDL]

Hi, I found this really cool machine called a playtape player on ebay. The guy says it is the first portable machine invented to play your own music. Is this true? Do any of you know about these things. I was thinking about bidding but I don't know. It is aready up to $43.00. Is that too much to pay for a machine and tapes? Here it is. http://cgi.ebay.com/1-Beatles-PlayTape-Player-More-15-2-track-Cartridge_W0QQitemZ170231742988QQihZ007QQcategoryZ618QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

John

[vtech]

Something that is more aimed at "collectors" and those who are intersted in history-- otherwise the whole xtrack technology while it was great in it's time (circa 1960's), it is antiquated & awkward by today's standard.

Here's some info
http://www.8trackheaven.com/playtape.html

[torbjorn]

Indeed, there was a lot of different tape cassette formats in the 60's before Philips' "compact cassette" finally was adopted as a worldwide standard. But even before that, attempts were made, in particular by japanese companies, to make cheap, portable open reel tape players.

Besides ordinary magnetic tape cassettes, there were also systems that used a mechanical groove in a PTFE (teflon) tape, that was played back by a needle and pickup like a vinyl record. For instance, the "Tefifon" that was manufactured by a german company, Tefi.