About the Company
The name Clarion appears associated with a small portable reel-to-reel series produced in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and this is separate from the well-known Japanese Clarion electronics company that is famous for car audio and later home audio gear.
Clarion (GBC) — Portable Reel-to-Reel Recorders (1959–1962)
Brand: Clarion (often shown as Clarion (GBC))
Manufacturer / Distributor: GBC Electronic Industries Ltd. (UK import/marketing)
Country of Manufacture: West Germany
Production Period: 1959 – 1962
Product Focus: Compact, portable tube-based reel-to-reel tape recorders
Market: Consumer / portable recording
Brand Background
Clarion (GBC) does not appear to be a large independent tape deck maker with a broad model range and in-house engineering like mainstream brands of the 1960s.
Instead, the Clarion reel-to-reel machines were produced in West Germany and sold under the Clarion brand by GBC Electronic Industries Ltd. in the United Kingdom.
This kind of arrangement was common in the early consumer tape recorder era, where smaller distributors marketed imported units under a distinct brand name rather than the original OEM name.
Known Models & Technical Overview
Clarion Transitape 4 (c. 1959–1962)
Category: Portable reel-to-reel tape recorder
Electronics: Tube (valve) circuits (solid-state was not yet widely adopted on such portables)
Format: Full-track mono open-reel
Speeds: 3 3/4 ips (typical consumer speed of the era)
Head Count: 2 (erase and playback/record)
Max Reel Size: ~3″
Power: Battery or mains (portable design)
Performance: Frequency response ~200 Hz–6 kHz — modest for the era’s tube designs
The unit was described in Tape Recorder Magazine (Dec. 1959) as “a miracle of compactness,” highlighting its novelty as a small portable deck.
This model reflects the typical specs of early portable tape recorders: lightweight, simple, and affordable rather than high-fidelity. They were useful for speech recording, simple field uses, or novelty home use — but not competitive with full-size hi-fi decks being developed by larger brands.
Market Position & Legacy
Clarion (GBC) reel-to-reel units were:
A niche, portable / budget segment product
Manufactured in Germany but sold under the Clarion brand by a U.K. distributor
Based on tube electronics, just before the transistor era made portables more compact and reliable
Short-lived in production, effectively limited to 1959–1962
They did not evolve into a broader reel-to-reel range, nor did the name extend into large consumer or professional open-reel machines in the 1960s or 1970s.
Clarion Name in Audio — A Separate Legacy
Be careful not to conflate the Clarion (GBC) portable tape recorders with Clarion Company Ltd. of Japan:
Clarion (company), founded in 1940 in Tokyo, became famous for car audio systems, heavy automotive electronics, and later home audio and navigation gear.
That Japanese Clarion brand did not produce reel-to-reel tape decks as part of its core lineup — its strength was in car radios first and later cassette decks, infotainment systems, and consumer audio gear.
Post-1970s, Clarion’s focus shifted even more strongly toward automotive systems and related electronics.
So while both share the Clarion name, they represent different corporate histories and product domains. The Clarion (GBC) reel-to-reel tapes of the early 1960s appear only as a small, localized vintage portable recorder brand, not as a long-running reel-to-reel manufacturer.