It saddens me that Lou Ottens has died; as so often happens we often only get to reflect on the lives and achievements of influential people after they've died, before that we often know very little about them. It's especially so for those who work in technology, as their work is often hidden behind corporate structures, thus they go unnoticed by the public.

If you'd asked me before this article appeared who Lou Ottens was then I'd have replied 'I'm not sure but it rings a bell'. As an audiophile, I recall reading many articles about Philips and Sony and the politics of cassette tape technology after it appeared on the market. At the time Hi-Fi and electronics magazines were full of articles about cassettes so my sense of déjà vu upon hearing his name likely came from that immersion.

The audio cassette played a very significant—even special—role in 20th Century audio recording technology and with his passing we've lost a direct link to not only cassette technology but also its history.

In those days, one of the major thrusts of Hi-Fi was to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, which, by today's standards, was pretty marginal, so like many audiophiles of the day I initially derided its introduction and considered it a scientific step backward thinking its only practical use would be for Dictaphones and other low fidelity uses. When the cassette first appeared its performance was in fact only suitable for low fidelity voice, thus reinforcing our perceptions. Music sounded terrible and its wow and flutter (W&F) specifications were woeful, so too were its noise figures, frequency response not to mention its high distortion.

That perception soon changed because the audio cassette was immensely practical compared to what was already in use—that, of course, was the reel-to-reel tape recorder. And reel-to-reels were very expensive for the home user to buy, especially so if he/she wanted a good one that could complete with the best fidelity had to offer, which for the public, was LP records. Recorders such as the Tandberg models 64 and 74 met the quality criteria but they were hellishly expensive (I could never afford to buy a new one and it was only some years after the Model 74 was released that I managed to buy one second-hand).

(As I mentioned, back then achieving a good balance between the best signal-to-noise ratio and minimum distortion in the analogue domain was a never-ending battle and about the best one could achieve was ≈60 dB at 2 to 3% THD (Total Harmonic Distortion)—even for professional tape equipment such as Ampex studio reel-to-reels this was a bit of a struggle and they required continual tweaking (head alignment, bias level adjustments, etc.) to keep them within these specs.)

Nevertheless, a sort of miracle happened; as cassettes were introduced in appliances such as car radios their quality improved dramatically even to the extent that some people started to use them to supplement their home Hi-Fi systems.

Eventually, at the pinnacle of its evolution, ca 1982—some 19 years after its introduction—the audio cassette had become a very capable recording medium to the extent that its audio fidelity had almost rivalled professional reel-to-reel recorders. This was achieved with an optimal combination of low-noise, high dynamic range [metal and similar high coercively] tapes together with very well designed cassette recorders such as the Nakamichi Dragon and Nakamichi 680. These used Dolby and other noise reduction techniques, however they never made it to true professional quality but it was a damn good effort just the same. By the mid 1970s many a home listener was very satisfied and content with fidelity available from the humble cassette.

Even I succumbed. In the mid 1970s I tried to get a Nakamichi 700 duty free when my father was visiting Asia but that failed through poor logistics. Then around 1980-81 I attended a trade demo arranged by the local Nakamichi agent and the draw card was Mr Nakamichi himself demonstrating his company's then latest product, the Nakamichi 680. Several years after that I managed to buy a little-used 680 for an excellent price. The 680's fame revolved around the fact that in addition to normal speed recording of 1 7/8"/sec it also had a half-speed mode of 15/16"/sec. At that speed and using the right high quality tape, it could achieve a very respectable bandwidth of 15kHz at ≤2% THD with a ≈60dB S/N whilst also holding a W&F of ≈0.1-0.2%. (Of course, the 680's performance at 1 7/8"/sec was considerably better; its frequency response at this speed was in excess of 20 kHz).

The fact that the humble cassette had progressed this far technically in only about 17 years was a remarkable achievement to say the least. It reached its pinnacle several years later with the Nakamichi Dragon, which has always been regarded as the best cassette tape recorder ever made.
Mind you, these remarkably excellent audio specifications were only ever achieved on machines of this caliber, most others that were considered in the Hi-Fi class performed very well but never to heights of the best Nakamichi machines.

However, keeping the Nakamichi 680 in top shape and in full spec wasn't always straightforward. I broke the head azimuth alignment knob and I returned it to the local agent for repair only to receive it back in worse condition than I sent it. After whingeing loudly that the service was substandard for a machine of Nakamichi's class, the agent returned it to Japan for repair. When I received it back several months later it was still not performing up to standard (like most organizations, service usually comes a poor second to getting product out the factory door). The solution was to repair it myself which I did. Fortunately—unlike these days where service manual is an unknown term—I had the excellent Nakamichi 680 service manual to go by, so servicing it was dead easy.

I still have my Nakamichi 680 some 37 years later and it still performs to specifications.

I reckon that when Lou Ottens had gotten to see cassette machines of the 680 and Dragon class he must have been pretty pleased with what he and his team had achieved at Philips in the early 1960s.