Schaub-Lorenz Stereo 6000: A Serious DIY Tape Recorder from 1969

Schaub-Lorenz Stereo 6000 is the subject of an Elektor TV video that revisits a surprisingly ambitious Elektuur construction article from June 1969 — the kind of hands-on build that combined a tape transport, mechanical assembly, and real stereo audio engineering.
 

Schaub-Lorenz Stereo 6000: Elektuur’s 1969 Build

What the video makes clear, page by page, is that this was not a “kit” in the modern sense. The original article expected the builder to deal with the physical realities of tape: mounting, alignment, transport adjustments, and the knock-on effects those have on audio performance. In other words, you were building a tape recorder, not just populating a PCB.
 
The project also captures a particular moment in DIY history. There were no convenient subassemblies and no firmware to paper over mechanical imperfections. If something was noisy, unstable, or misaligned, you fixed it with tools, measurement, and patience. That’s a different mindset from today’s ecosystem of breakout boards and drop-in modules — and it’s part of what makes revisiting these older Elektuur pages so interesting.

What This Video Gets Right About Vintage DIY Audio

The video doesn’t romanticize the era (thankfully). Instead, it shows the practical detail: how much is going on mechanically, how much the reader was trusted to execute, and how the electronics and tape handling were treated as one integrated system. If you’ve ever wondered what “serious hobbyist audio” looked like before microcontrollers became the default control layer, this is a clean example. If you want to go further down the rabbit hole, Elektor’s magazine archive is a useful starting point for exploring classic construction articles and the magazine’s roots.


Do you have a really old piece of audio equipment that is still in use? Show us in the comments below!