I share the same nostalgia and pain, I suppose. One of the more fun pieces of equipment I purchased back in 1990 for my first "real" stereo system was an incredible cassette deck by SAE (Scientific Audio Engineering). It had a Sendust head which supposidely is very rare for a cassette deck, but it made it sound better than any other deck I had heard to date. The unit design was really great, too, because it had a tray that opened slowly outward that allowed you to lay the tape down flat to play it. You could also play it with the tray open or closed. It really was such a fun piece of equipment that I hate not getting to use it now. I loved making tapes for people with it because it not only produced a decent quality product, but some of the features made the deck much easier to deal with. You had the option to choose what size tape you were using, and then it would be able to calculate how much time was left on the tape no matter where you started on the tape itself, for example. Very smart piece of now antiquated equipment.
I'm not even sure, but does anyone know if SAE is around anymore? They really put out some great pieces of equipment. And the look of them was much more interesting than the run of the mill stuff you'd find at the generic electronic stores. Much more "professional" looking in the outter design with the LED lights they would use.
