This was the first 3 head cassette deck from Germany's largest consumer electronic manufacturer, GRUNDIG, and the second cassette deck "Made in Germany" with 3-head design, after the Thorens PC 650. It's a complex machine built around a 2 motor mechanism with one Quartz controlled capstan and 3 Ferrite heads. For best results with any tape the GRUNDIG CF 5500 is equipped with two test tones (10kHZ, 40Hz) with separate adjustments for left and right channel. Dolby circuits are also double (recording and playback). The CF 5500 can handle Normal, FeCr and CrO2 tapes. There is separate output level control and a dedicated headphone amplifier with left and right channel level adjustments. The cassette compartiment is open type with full logic controlled mechanism, digital tape counter and LED recording level meters. The new Metal tape formulation was still relatively new on the market so there was a parallel model, called CF 5500-2, that could handle Fe-Cr, CrO2 and Metal tapes. They were both avalable with silver or brown front panel. The only distinctive visual difference between the CF 5500 and CF 5500-2 was the square LED row on the CF 5500-2 opposed to the round LED's used by the CF 5500.
