In sound recording and reproducing apparatus of the magnetic tape type, two pivotal levers of similar form are provided, each with a wing and two guide flanges, arranged in the assembled condition with their guide flanges on a mounting pin and pivotally biased by a torsion spring so that the wings press the magnetic tape against the magnetic heads. Each pivotal lever has an abutment nose which is pressed by the torsion spring surrounding the mounting pin against an abutment surface on the other pivotal lever, such that the two levers, the torsion spring and the mounting pin constitute a group which is a closed system as regards forces and shape. The mounting pin has an intermediate portion of reduced diameter, and the openings in the guide flanges and the torsion spring bear against generally opposite sides of the mounting pin, thus preventing accidental dislodgement of the levers in the longitudinal direction of the mounting pin.
A magnetic-tape cassette of the type having an opening in a side wall along which the magnetic-tape extends, for insertion of a magnetic head through the opening to scan tracks on the magnetic-tape. A pressure element in the cassette, behind the place where the tape is scanned, engages only a part of the width of the tape, including the part along which the track extends.
A tape pad support assembly includes a leaf spring which is internally housed within a magnetic tape cassette for supporting a tape pad or pads which are urged to cause an abutment of a magnetic tape against a magnetic head. The leaf spring is provided with a pair of spaced fulcrums, and each of its free ends on which a tape pad is secured is formed in a pair of elongate strips. The spring is disposed between a spring abutment and a magnetic tape which runs across a window slot or slots formed in the front end face of the cassette.
