The Wire Recorder and Tape Recorder in Competition

By 1946, tape recorders were already well-known in the audio engineering communities in the U.S., the UK, and elsewhere, but few of them were actually in use. Between about 1948 and 1950, high quality studio recorders would enter the scene and begin to displace the disc "transcription" recorder for many applications.

Although the wire recorder was never taken seriously for high quality studio recording, some engineers tried to convince the world otherwise. Several former Armour Research Foundation employees formed the Magnecord Corporation in 1946. Their first product was to the Magnecorder model SD-1 wire recorder, a high fidelity machine intended for the studio. According to one of Magnecord's founders, SD stood for "super duper." It was capable of true high fidelity reproduction, although by the time it was demonstrated the shift to tape recorder was underway. While the SD-1 failed, Magnecord became one of the leading manufacturers of tape recorders.