The 300 Series came out AFTER the 500 Series?
No way.
Look at the features, build quality, Tascam logo, and the Knobs they use.
The 500 Series is very similar to the M-600 Console which was mid-late 80's.
I thought the 300 series mixers went with the 32, 34, and 38 Recorders(Early 80's)
And the 500 series went with the 52, 58, and ATR-60 Series Recorders(Mid-Late 80's)?
The 500 series is MUCH more professional because Tascam started to
become more directed to upper scale building quality and features.
The 300 Series is still a bit ancient and very reminiscent of the 1970's TEAC gear.
BTW, I'm not angry towards you about this or anything, I'm puzzled.
According to Teac/Tascam I'm correct.
You're assuming that Teac/Tascam only ever had one line of mixers that evolved over time but they had multiple lines and the model numbers aren't indicative of the chronology and evolution but denote the different lines. Of course the M-500 series has a more advanced feature set but that's not because they came out
later per se, but because it was a higher-end line, just like the feature-set of the M-600 is beyond the M-500 series, and the same goes for the M-700 to the M-600. The fact that the M-600 has a more advanced feature set than the M-500 has less to do with the fact that the M-600 was introduced in 1987 and the M-500 series in 1983 and more to do with one being designed for a higher-end bracket in terms of feature demand. Apples and oranges. The M-600 and M-500 series were marketed and sold simultaneously, not as predeccessor and successor.
Same goes for the M-300 series and M-500 series. BOTH were introduced in 1984 but the M-500 series hit the market first followed by the M-300 series later in the year. I believe the M-512 may have begun creeping into the market in late 1983 as I believe the M-50 was introduced in 1983 which is nearly identical to the M-512, but 1984 is the official year of the M-500 series. The M-500 series was not "the next step" of the M-300 series; the M-500 series was specifically designed for more advanced recording applications with the 8-buss architecture and prominent monitor section, and the M-300 series was designed as a more true dual-purpose FOH/recording mixer...still a VERY full feature set but slimmed to 4-groups with some key differences in frame construction that helped the price-point. Love 'em both.
The M-35 and M-30 were both introduced also in 1983. The M-30 was a replacement for the Model 3 and the M-35 was an advanced version of the M-30 with modular construction and was expandable with the M-35EX expander. Otherwise they were similar in their feature set.
You're also assuming there is some correlation between tape machine model numbers and mixer lines. While there may be some loose conventions that exist there they are far from hard and fast and that can be supported by reviewing pertinent manuals and seeing that Teac/Tascam presented some variability in what gear they paired with respective gear in their manuals...pairings were more scenario and feature-based rather than "this tape machine was designed to be used with this mixer", since they were diversified with some of their lines sharing territory.
The 30-series and 50-series tape machines were both introduced in 1983 as a diversified evolutionary replacement for the Teac 80-8. The 58 came early in the year and the 52 followed later in the year. IIRC the 38 and 32 came at the same time with the 58 and the 34 followed later in the year. Might be wrong about that.
The ATR60 series came in 1985, the MS-16 and ATR80 series in 1987.
Couple other comments...
The M-500 series uses potentiometer knobs and color caps from the old style cosmetics that go all the way back to the 144 four-tracker...the M-300 series uses a new style that AFAIK was introduced with the M-300 series and also used on the 388, M-200 and M-100 series mixers.
The M-500 is an interesting unit because I believe (based on my in depth work with my prototype M-500 mixer) that the M-500 grew out of a down-scaling of an upper end concept that started as an evolution of the M-16. I'm hypothesizing here but we see where, at the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's Teac was growing in two directions, one was the advancement of their professional home-recordist lines (bringing new features at a reduced cost to those lines) and the development of lines designed specifically for professional markets. The 80-8 split to the 30-series and 50-series recorders is a prime example that occurred at that time; the 30 series a more refined unit with all the best of the 80-8 for the professional home recordist but with changes and
advances in construction to focus on making it even MORE accessible to the consumer market than the widely popular 80-8, and the 58 with advanced servo control and sync capaility as well as balanced +4dBu I/O for the video production industry. Teac/Tascam saw the 80-8 struggling because it was out of reach price-wise for a share of the market but didn't meet the needs of the video industry. My prototype M-500 mixer is of modular construction like the M-16 and M-35 but is pure M-500 cosmetics. I think they (Teac/Tascam) recognized that the market they were going for with they prototype concept was not fruitful, and the concept was split into the M-300 and M-500 lines...certain features on the prototype are found on the M-300 mixers but not the M-500 and vice-versa. Still other feature profiles made it to neither and came out in other products like the eq section which is almost identical to the eq channels on the PE-40.
But make no mixtake that the both the M-300 series and M-500 series are solid performers in eaither FOH or recording applications...they call upon different feature conventions to get the work done.
So my point is that, especially during the 80's there was just a lot goin' on at Teac with product development...a lot, and product lines bled into each other, split, melded, etc. Their product development in the 80's really looks like a couple ladders strapped together rather than one or two vectors.
Here's another great example of non-logical product numbering:
the 90-16, the first ever 1" 16-track tape machine succeeded by the............[drum roll]..............85-16.
