1980s Goldstar TWS-6061 double cassette boombox

[@ClevelandStorms]

What the hell. I was at a Goodwill yesterday and saw one of these things and was going to buy it. I popped open both cassette doors, and as soon as I popped the second one open, plastic shards flew in all directions and the door fell off. I couldn't stop laughing

[@gavincurtis]

No headphone jack? This product was light years ahead of its time according to Apple.

[@avenueb]

lol

[@CptJistuce]

Even more advanced than Apple's solution. Gotta buy an accessory to get wireless sound into your ears with an iPhone, this gives you wireless sound with NOTHING AT ALL.

[@Selrisitai]

@@CptJistuce So did you buy it?

[@cryo_life]

🤣🤣🤣

[@dattallaudiophile236]

LOL

[@marksmediatv7734]

That song at 6:00 is Voyage Voyage by Desireless. A hit from France back in the 80s.

[@TheSteelSingle]

It was a massive hit in Europe. Even radio stations from communist Yugoslavia played it. Not a big deal in America, though.

[@ShawnTewes]

Marks mediaTV It was a hit in Latin America too. I wonder if that indicates the AM broadcast came from Mexico, in which case the reception would be far better than expected. Either way, another period appropriate selection for the Goldstar.

[@marksmediatv7734]

Shawn Tewes Vwestlife lives in northern Jersey where they have allot of ethnic radio stations.

[@steva7159]

Yugoslavia wasnt so much communist compared to the rest of communist countries like Romania,Poland,Hungary,Czechoslovakia etc.Afterall it wasnt communist it was Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[@bastianfromkwhbsn8498]

Great song, recognized it straight away-

[@Yeen125]

I just find it fastinating how a company like GoldStar (aka LG) goes from making cheap, mediocre boomboxes to, after 30 years later, making high end OLED TVs.

[@wildbilltexas]

Goldstar also made cheap 12 and 19 inch TV's and VCR's too. "Cheap plastic crap" Asian electronics were a godsend if you didn't have a lot of money and just wanted a affordable TV or VCR for your bedroom or apartment. It just sucks that they became so popular here that they killed off the American TV electronics industry. And they caused Japanese manufacturers like Sony to cheapen their quality and eventually move all their manufacturing there.

[@chrysanth.5700]

The world is a cruel place as such. Good thing I don't really care where my products come from as long as they're ethically made and have good enough quality for me.

[@ronaldwilliamson7963]

Gage M. I had some Goldstar VCRs. They seemed to be good quality.

[@wildbilltexas]

Most of the Korean VCR's were good enough with a CRT 19 or 25" TV. The only problems I noticed was they all used a lot of plastic parts. And when they broke it was cheaper buy a new VCR or a VCR-DVD Combo unit instead of trying to repair them.

[@Imsuchaliar]

Samsung, also! They started doing mid range midi "hi fi" music systems in the 80s, and look where they are now!

[@5argetech56]

Thumbs up for the Techmoan segment!

I love when young people like you care and like these productos. I am from the late 40´s so I had, made and serviced from valvular to Solid State. Cheers from Patagonia, Argentina.

[@uxwbill]

Cheap it may be, but I'll give them some credit for what appear to be reasonably accessible belts!

[@Kundalini12]

Recording songs off the radio, I remember doing that lol

[@angelfire2023]

The first boombox I ever had was a GE boombox from 1989-1990. It was already at least 20 years old when my dad gave it to me, and due to it's dark brown color, I assumed and the fact it had a cassette deck (it didn't work), I assumed it was from the 1970s for some reason I only recently gave it away to the thrift store, cause I """upgraded""" to a SuperSonic boombox (a rebranded QFX boombox if you catch my drift.). What a terrible decision that was.

[@twocvbloke]

Those hard-eject tape decks are great fun, you can launch stuff across the room with them... :D

[@danxepha4535]

Fun fact. Goldstar went on to be called Lucky Goldstar which was eventually shortened to just LG.

[@Browningate]

You mean "Life's Good?"

[@danxepha4535]

No. That is just one of their slogans. LG stands for Lucky Goldstar. Look it up if you don't believe me.

[@Browningate]

@Dan - I think I'd prefer to live in ignorance (if that really is true). Here's one for you though - did you know that the letters "LG" are hidden in the LG Face?

[@danxepha4535]

lol do you mean the logo that is literally an L inside a G? It's hard not to see that! I'd hardly call it hidden!

[@Browningate]

@Dan - It's not immediately apparent, so I'd consider it to be "subtly hidden," sort of like the arrow in the FedEx logo.

[@FurzfliegeHD]

at least you need to say that this thing survived those decades, I think no cheap product or even higher quality products today would survive that long

[@billyboi57]

I can remember in the late 60's a neighbor gave me my first ever AM transistor pocket radio. It was the "Audition" brand which was a brand of Woolworth's. I thought i was in heaven having that radio. My only radio before that was a primitive "crystal" radio which actually used a double sided razor blade and pencil lead for the detector.

[@orion1983uk]

Appreciate this video was uploaded a fair time ago now... I only started watching your channel a few years back and have now started working my way back through some of your older content. I really enjoyed this one and I'm convined it is for the same reasons you wanted to save this 'cheap' boombox - nostalgia. My first twin tape boombox, which funnily enough I got as an 8th birthday present, was an Ingersoll T160. I can't find anything about it online, but it was also a budget device that was very much on par with this (although it did have soft opening cassette doors from memory). I remember the excitement of getting it and making my own recordings, as well as thinking the 'high speed dubbing' was so cool. I also remember it didn't take long before the volume controls started crackling and when trying to copy a tape, the copy ended up being a horrendously poor, noisy recording.

[@TheRadiogeek]

Wow that is one sad little boom box. I will say that it still works and I bet a lot of things made today probably won't in 30 years. Nice video.

[@kylesummers1966]

I have a old 80's Panasonic boom box that I bought on eBay. Great sound and has great features. 4-band equalizer, external speaker hook ups, rca Line in and line out, metal, CrO2, and Normal tape options. Love it too! Only thing wrong with it is the battery cover is missing

[@Sakamoto196]

6:32 ＶＡＰＯＲＷＡＶＥ

[@vubhuhjkbhubohjb]

My mate still uses one to these daily to listen to the radio in his barn

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

I’m such a fan of these radios 📻. They are so retro to me. With their 1970’s, or 1980’s styling, you’d find me at every thrift store 🏬 and yard sale that has one ☝️. As cheap as you’re saying these are, I don’t know if that means price, or quality, or both. I still say these cheap radios 📻 are far better than today’s, even if it’s about quality. I’d own 500 of these if I could. Your friend, Jeff.

[@WaybackTECH]

My first "boombox" was a GPX. One of those transparent ones. Only single deck. I think i payed a whole $10 at Target for it in the early 90's. They had these cheap Christmas gifts for like $10 and that was one of them. I still have the transparent GPX portable cassette deck which was bought around the same time. I wouldn't mind having the clear boombox back though. I am quite sure it was probably a tad cheaper quality than even this Goldstar unit, although not by much, but being transparent made it cool.

[@SuperRecordman]

|I enjoyed the video and it took me back to the 80's! I heard Yes - "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" playing. Just a bit of trivia here, the drummer Alan White is from my hometown of Ferryhill, County Durham here in the UK. :)

[@LawrenceMacMacster]

The unknown language is french, the song is "voyage voyage" by Desireless, it's actually a pretty good song and a huge hit back in 1987... In french Canada & France that is.

[@BigFredMachine]

In Poland too ;)

[@shooting44mag]

I was also gonna say the antenna feels tight, along with the tuner knob, and volume, I'm thinking maybe this one got very little use, then was stored away in a closet, or box or something. Thanks for posting this video, it's nice to see some of these cheap boombox's survived this long, and are still cranking out tunes.

[@rezganger]

U r so lucky,we dont even have FM in norway anymore...!

[@MichalGorkaTruskaw]

ddmeltzer8 DAB only?

[@MrMrdavis98]

I fear the day when all the radios I and others collect will have the same fate that vintage TVs have...we'll have to obtain some kind of converters that will hopefully be available.

[@theLuigiFan0007Productions]

@ddmeltzer8 Get yourself one of these, and plug it into your PC's headphone jack and use a chopped off USB cable for the power terminals. Tune it where you want, and open Spotify, Soundcloud, etc, and then use all the FM radios you desire within a 30M radius. www.ebay.com/itm/271990373821

[@1sonyzz]

gg wp ez

[@wildbilltexas]

There's too many small AM and FM stations here that would be forced to go off the air because they couldn't afford to upgrade to a digital transmitter.

[@bastianfromkwhbsn8498]

Great to see that boombox again. I had the exact same one as a kid in the late 80s and well into the early 90s. Listened to a lot of tapes on it and loved it. Can't remember what happend to it though.

[@irtbmtind89]

Super old school looking PCBs, they look hand assembled. Labour was still very cheap in Korea in the 80's so it would have been cheaper than investing in automatic insertion machines. And the Chinese "International" boombox that Techmoan reviewed is far worse than this.

[@HamtaroEL]

irtbmtind89 The International cassette deck at least has a proper AC erase head instead of the permanent magnet head found on low end decks.

[@FSM_Reviews]

I use 3 in 1 fan motor oil on my volume pots, and that works just as well. Also makes the volume knob turn more smoothly.

[@chookwangzhee1889]

And goldstar is from S Korea, which became LG in 1995.How fast they have progressed!

[@gmcnewlook]

Choo Kwang Zhee ironically whenever I need to program a remote for my 2012 era lg tv, I still have to look up gold star remote codes...... lg doesn't exist in those code listings even though the remote was made way after the name change.....

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

@@gmcnewlook Originally LG just stood for "Lucky Goldstar", before they adapted the bogus "Life's Good" marketing blurb, so listing it as Goldstar technically isn't exactly wrong...

[@shooting44mag]

I just found, and bought this exact goldstar this last Tuesday, it looks to be in very good condition, just had a little bit of dust on it, it cleaned up like new, and inside the battery compartment looks brand new. I'm just a fm radio guy, and it puts out very good volume, no scratchy sounds at all when adjusting the volume. For a cheap radio back in the day, it's sounds great.Looks great sitting right next to my recliner. I have other 80's boomboxes, mostly Sony's, and this cheap one is one of my favorites, it defently screams 80's. I miss the 80's I guess, lol.

[@ZanderLexx]

6:38: Look, it's buffering :)

[@danrulz98]

Recording from radio plays: "That doesn't sound too awful" Cassingle plays: "Oh... no that previous one was crap"

[@maurexretrovision]

My uncle had many years ago, an Goldstar Stereo System, which Included CD, Phono and Double Decks. The sound quality of the recordings sounded just like scratches, that of this boombox.

[@Zankuho]

4:53 Madonna - Into The Groove (1985) 5:36 Desireless - Voyage Voyage (1986) 6:08 VWestlife - Best Joke (2017)

[@alleykat6273]

Zankuhaaa! 9:10 Yes - Owner Of A Lonley Heart

[@xenon2Merchant]

7:07 johnny hates jazz - heart of gold

[@deeppurplefan9648]

How can you guys forget 9:56 Every breath you take by Police and 8:05 Turn back the clock By Johnny hates jazz?

[@brigganthewolf1461]

Anyone recognize the song from 9:27?

[@Fluteboy]

And last of all - 17:07 - Sylvan Esso "Kick Jump Twist" kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJrCYWiQfdOosNE

[@kevinpatrickmacnutt]

I bought a case of Radio Shack switch cleaner when they went out of business. That stuff is amazing.

[@HBC101TVStudios]

6:09 is a French song from the 1980’s.

[@ttheone3518]

5:35 suprised to see voyage, voyage, an european 1980s classic than didn't even chart in the US or Canada. weird to see it here

[@ropewalkingelephant]

The tapes sound *perfect*

[@kbhasi]

14:09 I wonder how many lines of BASIC could be encoded into that 5 minutes. Probably a lot.

[@peraperic8775]

I remember being so proud of mu Sharp boombox when i was a teen. it had only one door for two cassettes and opening was so cool,slow.

[@cyberwolfe]

4:53 - NOW THAT'S MY JAM!!!!

[@kevinpatrickmacnutt]

I love the dual arrows on each transport door making it appear as if it has auto reverse.

[@Xantylon74]

Goldstar also made some good stuff an good big boomboxes as well, like the Goldstar TSR 951

[@ABCEasyas--]

I know most people don't like noisy controls, but I like how it sounds.

[@ct1660]

tape deck is perfect for vaporwave lol

[@pentium4person2]

yeah i agree :D

[@IntellivisionDudeGaming]

I had a boombox just like this one as a kid. And i wouldn't be surprised it was the same model. But it's been too long to remember for sure. I recorded a lot of songs off the radio with it.

[@ralphreinhardt6020]

This is most likely from the nineties as it's not painted. Manufacturers made radios cheap as they could in that decade. Very little to no chrome, no separate bass n treble. No line in or out, etc.

[@HamtaroEL]

Definitely not casseivers.

[@douglasallen9428]

Ahh, yes… the prototypical vintage “painter’s boom box”!!! If that thing had a headphone jack (and possibly an auxiliary input), it would make a somewhat decent unit.

[@drdos4]

What you have there is a certified, patented vaporwave machine.

[@HAMYVALUTECHREVU]

Great videos. Thought I would add my 2 dollar info. Lol. Goldstar made in Korea I find this interesting because a well known brand of today which goes by the slogan "Life's Good" or "LG" for short was actually founded under the name "Lucky Goldstar". Big brand - humble beginnings. Made in Korea.

[@EffendiChung]

Every cool kids at my neighbourhood at least have one of these. Being a kid we care less on how it sounds, as long as it plays loud music. Still have mine as a workshop sound system. something about the flat music sound reminds me of the old days.

[@mspysu79]

My "Boom box" was a Hitachi single cassete with AM and FM/FM Stereo, it had Mic inputs1/8" and a 1/4" headphone jack. It had a "4 speaker system" with 5.25" woofers and 3/4" or so tweeters.

[@PaulJCost1]

Interesting video... This is the typical contruction worker radio kind. It needs to be loud and cheap. If they know that you repaired it they will be trying to get it from you again. lol I like this stuff! Bring the Cassette back!

[@pentium4person2]

yeah this is exactly the kind of radio i would keep in the basement or for working outside! :D

[@MsCori76]

Paulo Fixo - Agree.....bring back the cassette!

[@MattHayesVinyl]

I had a cheap, crappy Tatung boombox when I was a kid. It was a piece of junk but I didn't know any better at the time. The Tatung DID have high speed dubbing, though...but man, it sounded terrible. Didn't help that I knew nothing about cassettes as a kid so I just recorded on any old cheap, store brand tape. Thanks for the video. I finally subscribed... been watching your videos for a while and didn't realize I hadn't subbed until now.

[@ed10523]

My first tape player was a panasonic tape recorder..my sister and i had fun with it. it was until i was 14 when i got a double cassette tape deck with high speed dubbing...i know what you mean it was very current and cool at the same time back then.

[@djhaloeight]

I had a boom box almost exactly the same as that one that my grandfather gave me when I was like 10. Nice. It served me well until I got a nice Sony CFD-50 a few years later.

[@yanikkunitsin1466]

6:00 - Voyage voyage.. thats the song. Classic I can't understand French either

[@gageparker5831]

lack of headphone jack iphone 7 confirmed

[@gmcnewlook]

Gage Parker gold star was "courageous" in the mid 80s :)

[@TheSteelSingle]

Or just really low-end! :)

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Gage Parker there is an adapter/dongle for that 😀 what? you've lost it already!?!?

[@baaelectronics]

So GoldStar helped design the iPhone 7?

[@rarbiart]

5:45: it's french language, it the 1986 title _"Voyage, voyage"_ by french singer _"Desireless"_

[@wilkes85]

I bet it's been YEARS since this thing has even been plugged in, what with the extremely scratchy controls and sluggish tape mechanism. Ah, the boombox isn't all that fantastic, but it would have been good for a kid. When I was a kid, I had a little Craig AM/FM cassette boombox that actually made this Goldstar look high end in comparison, but I absolutely loved it.

[@turntabillist]

I don't know...are we maybe a little too harsh on these cheap-o units from days of yore? I mean, the dang thing is still working. If the belts were replaced and the dust cleared out from the selector switches, it might just perform good as new. Plus, how much did these things retail for back in the day? I'll guess something like, $29.99.

[@mdamaged]

Your nostalgia is getting dangerous!

[@MSI6728]

Dear VWestlife, FYI the European version has the very same features except for the voltage regulation, of course. So, no DIN sockets, or anything else that you mentioned as an assumption in your video... I own the very same modell branded as PALLADIUM rather than GoldStar but otherwise, there are absolutely no differences whatsoever--even the model number of TWS6061 is the same. My dad bought this through some German retailer chain back then, so I imagine GS just rebadged it to PALLADIUM and called it a day. Mine does make terrible 'recordings' indeed, and it also has its belts replaced as well, but as you can probably guess, I haven't used it since like 15 years. Was very surprised to see this POS as a GoldStar, well! Greetings from Budapest, Hungary and keep up the good work, thanks...

[@HamtaroEL]

At least the European version can be used in North America.

[@wildbilltexas]

I had a friend in the 80's who had a similar cheap boombox, I think it was a Emerson. These small boomboxes were never that good for reproducing bass anyway. I still have my first dubbing boombox from 1987, a Sharp Twincam WQ-T282 that records with AC bias. It made good recordings on TDK D or Maxell UR tape. It still plays the radio and tapes except that the foam on the speakers are deteriorating. I wish I could find replacement speakers or find someone that could refoam them.

[@adamdavies163]

I remember reading an article in the early 90's that said Goldstar were one of biggest component suppliers, many parts such as video heads, TV tubes etc found in other manufacturers machines were made by them. They also made a lot of the own brand stuff for the big electronics chains. However I always thought their kit to be cheap & nasty compared to the Japanese or home (UK) built stuff. I still don't really rate their stuff, despite the fact that my Philips TV has very likely got one of their (LG) panels and other components in it. :-)

[@marksmithcollins]

I understand Japanese, but UK? :)

[@bosmanragga51]

It looks good it looks old school and I like the fact that it sounded in Stereo, even FM I miss that red FM Stereo light

[@supremo9217]

Just open the cassette and remove inside's paper and you can run it smoothly in cheap players.

[@kaitlyn__L]

huh, that thing about deoxit wanting product placement... made me suddenly remember in LGR's woodgrain PC build a year ago he specifically mentioned it being deoxit contact cleaner, rather than just "some contact cleaner" or whatever.. it could be totally unrelated, i often specify brands in regular speech, say, but. yeah. just something i thought about.

[@aris95]

I have this twin-sister Luxor 9552 it has three area equalizier also. Best thing in this little boombox is very sensitive radio. The sound volume scratches was easily fixed by electric repair spray, you have to open the case for this.

[@Ashivlogzz]

06:04 is French song Voyage voyage by Desireless...One of the greatest hits of the 80's..

[@CPPRODUCTIONS1001]

Even if it was crap I wouldn't throw it away as I manage to convince myself "If everyone else threw this away, does that put me in the minority?" and i feel special.

[@subbookkeeper]

Does anyone know the performer and song that girl is singing at the very end at 17:07?

[@subbookkeeper]

Thank you!

[@battra92]

You can get a collection of belts on eBay or AliExpress for a couple bucks. They are good to keep around to swap out even on "for fun" radios like this. Honestly, I could see this as a good outdoor radio or good for playing spoken word cassettes.

[@nobeac]

wow that was Jem and the Holograms on the radio awesome

[@UzumakiNarutoX3]

Still better quality than the stuff you get nowadays^^

[@codebeat4192]

I have a Sanyo MW705L, looks very similar however more advanced and have a headphone jack, tape dubbing switch, balance and.... equalizer ;-D yeah! In good shape too ('excellent' shape after cleaning, removed some slight scratches with silver polish), paid $4 for it. Fun to have, save some history and useful too when I need to paint my new home ;-D

[@mcfrdmn]

Excellent video of 1980s Goldstar TWS-6061 double cassette boombox Quite possibly the cheapest dual cassette boombox ever made.

[@weasel2htm]

6:50 vwestlife does vaporwave! :P 14:35 that radio station followed Madonna with Hoobastank? That sounds suspiciously like something out of The Weasel Show playbook, right down to the transition!

[@willptech7565]

weasel2htm tell uxwbill to make a video!

[@weasel2htm]

He's been making more videos than I have lately!

[@willptech7565]

ok thanks!

[@DaniRadioCat]

I remember a station here in Albany (I wanna say either 99.5 The River or Kiss 102.3) following I believe "Right Here" by SWV with "Ain't It Fun" by Paramore... was laughing at the segue ;)

[@traxonwax]

That recording with Madonna and Hoobastank sounded sort like listening to an AM station that was so strong that it was distorting. Also, who had that crossfade set on that transition. Holy frig, the fade should only have lasted during the first 3 or 4 notes and then be faded out completely when the song actually kicked in. I'm a very picky guy when it comes to something that no one really cares about like music transitions. Only for the fact that the 2nd track didn't fade in, i would have guessed that it was played through iTunes. iTunes transitions are the worst. Enjoyed the video, took me back in time to when i was a kid and i could only get the latest in craptacular gear.

[@MrSpacelyy]

The French voyage voyage song was so 80 ties

[@TheNewStoryteller]

I wanted to tell you about The Sony Video8 Camera that I used again. I made a film called Brum Visits Wee Georgie Wood. But when I captured it on the computer it didn't show me all the separate clips only a few which are long.In some of your videos you said about using Digital8 Cameras to capture The Video8 Quality they were interesting to see after I found the same idea.I don't think you've heard of Wee Georgie Wood he's a narrow gauge engine who lives in a village called Tullah part of Tasmania where I live.

[@phillipallen5564]

the tape has a warmer sound as youd calll it and better highs

[@stevenvandenbosch5528]

Doesn't sound any worse than modern crap, which is sold for a lot more.

[@DJPenguino51]

Basically a no-frills "boom" box meant for kids and pre teens. :)

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

The original LG!

[@stonent]

The red and blue lines remind me of the Realistic SCR-31 I had when I was a kid.

[@antonioederlopezlopez7341]

1:50 my player doesn't even open, so it's a great unit

[@moviebod]

Nice thing. Send it to me and I will refurbish it for you. I am in the UK and I normally only do my own stuff. I love your Nakamichi. It is sublime. I am surprised that you don't get copyright hits. I got one recently for a very old recording of a Beethoven Opus being played by an obscure orchestra.

[@garethsmyth6593]

I remember a friend of mine having a gold star boombox something similar to this back in school in the 80s. It was DC bias but of course back then it was considered luxury. I have an old Sharp Single deck boombox from the early 80s which is a nice well built Machine but unfortunately it is DC bias but never the less for playback it is pretty good.

[@windowsuser321]

Vwestlife - please answer this comment. I have this really nice late 90s Sony boombox that has great sound, a good cd player, and a perfectly functional am/fm tuner, it just needs an antenna (I wore out the original one, wouldn't hold up anymore. Tried to fix it but just made it worse). But, it has a tape deck, but the tape deck eats tapes, as in, it pulls the tape out of them. Do you know how to fix this? I'd really like to fix this boombox because as I mentioned before the damn thing has GREAT sound with really good bass feedback.

[@frazzleface753]

omg Johnny Hates Jazz cassette! Remember that one vividly

[@projectnewwave6859]

Is that true that people use boomboxes while painting, cause I have a Montgomery Ward boombox that has some paint.

[@cb1671]

My grandfather has one of these (I think the exact same one, in fact) under his tv stand.

[@1marcelfilms]

TO hell with soft eject. i hate having to pull on the door to force it faster

[@gweagraff]

I have yet to find any boombox (low-end or high-end) to have a cassette deck that works properly

[@600322]

Your home must be filled with this retro things,I suppose?

[@morisruso1919]

I think there are variations of this product. I've had this product back in 1989- received it as a gift. But somehow I remember it had 3 bands graphic equalizer placed between volume and mode selections; exactly where written SYNCHRO DUBBING. It was assembled by Aselsan in Turkey.

[@Trance88]

Pretty sure the OEM of this radio was Sanyo. I had a Sanyo that looked extremely similar to this one, but with only one cassette. That's crazy they didn't include a headphone jack. I figured that was a necessity back then!

[@I967]

We had a GoldStar TV, worked fine.

[@joohop]

No Digital Tuner ?

[@vwestlife]

No Digital Tuner !

[@dJ.kNiGhT23]

Back then I wish I had one of this boombox