Even though it never really made it out of West Germany, the Tefifon was a legit audio player at the time. Bigger cartridges held around four hours of music, and sound quality was better than shellac records. Then again, it was not as good as vinyl, and as the 1950s died down, so did the short-lived audio player. The Tefifon plant closed down in 1965. If they ever do a German reboot of Mad Men, this is one period detail they could get right for the early seasons. You can still buy vintage tefifons on Ebay.

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[Techmoan | Obsolete Media]

GIFs by Andrew Liszewski

Contact the author at kate.knibbs@gizmodo.com.
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