A Look at the Tefifon, Germany’s Doomed 1950s Music Player

After World War II , people in the U.S. started buying vinyl and criminal record players more than ever before . But over in West Germany , another music player took off : the Tefifon .

manufacture in the 1930s by a German engineer name Karl Daniel , the Tefifon is like a mash - up of several disused music technology . Like an 8 - track , it plays a cartridge . Unlike the 8 - track , a Tefifon cartridge — promise , adorably , a “ Tefi ” — is not magnetized . It actually works more like a disk player , since the Tefifon reads these cartridges by pressing a stylus to deep plastic grooves . And like a Minidisc player , the Tefifon is now almost impressively disused .

Even though it never really made it out of West Germany , the Tefifon was a legit audio thespian at the meter . big cartridgesheld around four hours of music , and sound qualitywas better than shellac records . Then again , it was not as good as vinyl , and as the fifties died down , so did the short - lived audio player . The Tefifon plantclosed down in 1965 . If they ever do a German reboot of Mad Men , this is one period detail they could get veracious for the former season . you could stillbuy vintage tefifons on Ebay .