A Brand New Twin Deck, Stereo, Boombox - Panda F-539 - Unboxing & Review

[@draggonhedd]

the dc input they're referring to is the batteries. runs on 6 1.5v UM-1 (D) cells, which is 9v. It says 'DC 9v - (1.5v x 6 UM-1)'

[@scanman975]

Gotta admit, I'm really enjoying these cassette player/recorder reviews.

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

Gotta love the glass half full approach to reviewing modern boomboxes.

[@CassetteComeback]

Got to be that way, otherwise you'd just be hitting your head against the wall...

[@Ruinwyn]

It's really promising that there are multiple brands actually trying to one-up each other on players. Higher end decks have no real market, unless there are plenty of casual listeners. Vinyl came back because people wanted something tangible. But vinyls aren't portable, cassettes are. When there are enough people with portable working players, who are buying cassettes, then there is market for new decks. And, until some of the new companies gets a good reputation, people won't trust a new company enough to buy something significantly more expensive.

[@jerryspann8713]

Yeah really promising when they all use the same shitty mechanisms. Real competition. Bullshit

[@lovedeathdisco]

you and i think alike man! no other portable analogue medium. they're amazing and durable af. need to make a whole powerpoint presentation as to why they're the best. #cassettetapesupremacy

[@wonk1976]

That was surprising much better than I thought it would be

[@TheAmazingSnarf]

thanks for documenting the progression of the return of cassettes to popular culture. gratitude!

[@matthewrichards88]

I always looked for a cassette boombox with mic input in the late 90s/2000s and found them hard to find in the shops. The recording quality for this unit is good!

[@WuBrotherNumbaOne]

yes the quality isn't the greatest thing in the world but man I'm happy to see progress. we're slowly seeing these cheaper things get better and thats a good thing.

[@LuciferStarr]

34:00 Precisely. When you've had to wait for it to load, and you'll have to wait just as long for something else to load, you're more likely to dedicate some time to giving it a fair go, rather than switching to something else at the first frustration. We no longer have the "I spent my meager pocket money on this, I'm going to figure it out" factor, so the wait time is all that gets some of these titles playtime.

[@mikestackhouse9001]

If they could make the controls more understandable and put good speakers in them you have a nice little portable that is light to take wherever and retro high speed dubbing of old games could really be fun! I appreciate your review Tony. Well done!

[@johntammaro]

Ive been really enjoying these recent videos. Thanks for your time and effort.

[@jitmancanth6698]

My mate had a C64, and we tried tape to tape, double decks, high speed dubbing, and we could never copy C64 games that way, although copying Spectrum games was a doddle. We realised that the difference was in how the computers saw the devices. The Spectrum saw a tape deck as an analogue device, and had a whole lot of leeway in the baud rate it could read. That's what allowed for programmers to use speedloader routines to get the data in quicker. The C64 saw the Datasette as a digital device, and it was a lot more strict on the baud rate it read data at. That's why our attempts at copying games didn't work until my mate got a Datasette splitter that plugged into the back of his computer, connected 2 Datasettes and copied the games that way.

[@BubbaBigDude]

It's good to see progress, left and right channels wired correctly... now they need to improve the specs like frequency response & wow/flutter but they are on the right track.

[@CassetteComeback]

I see it as getting the fundamentals, i.e. the next and heads right first, then they can work on the amplification and fine tune the rest.

[@tvelektron]

Would be interesting if main components like the tape head are new manufactured or if they use old stock or even recycled components...

[@michaelturner4457]

I'm very sure the entire mechanism and all components including heads are all new manufactured. There's several companies in China making cassette mechanisms, based on the simple and cheap Tanashin type design. However I'm pretty sure nobody is still making metal tape compatible heads, and no new machines will have Dolby noise reduction either. As Dolby Labs no longer licenses it.

[@tan2ksl153]

The "9 volt DC" on the label is referring to the 6 D cell batteries.

[@CassetteComeback]

Apparently it is 😁

[@hughjanus6975]

Back so soon? Very welcome. Thank you for another free video.

[@c128stuff]

Those were 3 nice games to start out with. As to a modern C64, there is the Ultimate 64, which is a replacement board with fpga based C64 hardware, support for datasette, floppy drives, cartridges, but also lets you use disk images, tap files and crt files.. and can write tap files to real tapes, and the other way around, capture tapes to .tap files.

[@CassetteComeback]

That sounds expensive...I'm googling it now 😁

[@chessoc7799]

Is it just me or did they print the panda logo on a slope to the left? That really inspires confidence :) .

[@abzhuofficial]

I think doing a C64 TAP-to-cassette video would be a neat idea, especially for retro gamers

[@tarstarkusz]

The 9vdc input is literally the battery. 6D cells is 9v.

[@CassetteComeback]

AHH....

[@michael5089]

Brilliant. As these Boom Boxes gradually become more refined please keep reviewing! Then eventually we might get to the pinnacle of where we were somewhere in the past!❤️👍🤘📻📻📻📻

[@sezwo5774]

This will never happen as previous products were made for the First World, for white people, while now in the era of globalism manufacturers adjusted quality of their products for the Second World for brown people. It is like that with most products, ...maybe when the Second World has REAL income similar to that of the First World in the 70s and demands quality then maybe will see a comeback of a decent quality cassette player.

[@amnril]

At this rate of improvement it’ll only take another fifty years 😂

[@ytn00b3]

prob is once they starting to show some progress they disappears and then come back under different brand and start again

[@Narayan_1996]

If I had money to import one to Brazil, I'd buy one... Sadly that ain't happening... Awesome video as always,, glad you did it ♥

[@vidtech2630]

I edmire your enthusiasm, for this THING .

[@pgtmr2713]

The dubbed recording sounded better than I thought it would.

[@DonnDeVoreMusic]

The design is reminiscent of a Sony CFS-W301. In the 80s, these were often found covered in makeup powder on the countertop in your girlfriend’s bathroom.

[@ralphreinhardt6020]

Another cool video from the Tonemeister ! So nice to see another radio review vid from you Tony. Thank you sir, I enjoyed it very much. 🙂👍

[@GaryKeepItSimple]

Looks like a step in the right direction. Good video Tony.

[@G.B...]

Admittedly this thing is better that what I expected when I started watching the video. Of course, the non-existent quality control strikes again. The cherry on top is that it seems to be a fingerprint magnet as well.

[@CassetteComeback]

Hmm. Can't beat cheap plastics.

[@garethde-witt6433]

Why just why?

[@LeChave]

Blimey! The Alba "Walkman" at the top left of the catalogue, I had back in the day! It survived several years of school bag abuse and worked perfectly in extremes of temperature. (Heat wave summers/Snowy winters, except back in the 80's they were just normal summers & winters!🤣)

[@WuBrotherNumbaOne]

keep doing these reviews. I cant stop watching them!

[@winroo1274]

The digital language repeater thing or whatever it is called is apparently very common in China. It’s a cassette recorder with a digital memory that is used for language learning. Apparently they are still making cassettes and recorders for learning English and other languages. I’m curious on how the digital stuff actually works.

[@cliz305]

“Was” very common. I grew up in China. My middle school was still using cassettes in English classes something like 15 years ago (it was a big vertical machine with a single big loud speaker, made to last). In my high school, every classroom has a computer, so no need for cassette any more but I was still using a cheap portable cassette player for some time. I bet by now, not many people would still use something like these unless for special reasons. Maybe some teachers still prefer cassette for the control and the lack of distraction.

[@cliz305]

I remember as a student, I didn’t really care about the digital repeater function. Normal rewind worked just fine for me (actually more intuitive).

[@winroo1274]

@@cliz305 quick search on Taobao shows that there are quite a few manufacturers that still make the portable ones. They are definitely still in use but probably on their last leg.

[@OneRoomShed]

You opening a box with a newly made boom box that is a double cassette deck; signifies that hell might actually be freezing over right now.

[@CassetteComeback]

Satan's gonna be skating to work 😁

[@yanks1fan09]

These remind me of the low end stereo equipment they used to make to compete with Sony and National like Thomas. I guess we will never get a name brand producing any of these anymore.

[@LapisandHamtarolover]

This boombox have the colors of record and replay the reverse way around; red for cord/play and green for play.

[@Ghennesph]

That really isn't as bad as I was expecting. Not great, but for a cheap modern cassette deck from china that really isn't too bad. Playback especially is quite respectable.

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

Hey, that's not awful! You could even pass it as "retro sounding" 😉

[@einkanal7149]

You also should have a look at the SOUNDMASTER SRR70TI if it is available in your country. In germany I paid about 60 Euros for it. It is a tiny boombox, all stereo, and it features a digital radio DAB+, an alarm clock, SD and USB playback, bluetooth, cassette recorder. For me it is prettty decent. The only lack is the permanent magnet erase head, if you want to record tapes. But for cassette playback only it's really okay.

[@wasiuuu1]

wowwww another box day , thank U Tony 🙂

[@shaunsiz.itsbetterbytube2858]

You can just imagine the Revox and the Dragon saying" Really ".

[@benkrake3678]

I still remember the CAF twin cassette/radio player I had back when I was in early primary school, then that broke, and then I got a Sanyo single cassette/radio player shortly after that. When I was 12, I got my first boom box with a CD player and twin cassette deck and radio in it, which was a Sharp. The laser in the CD player was not overly good, as it wouldn’t play certain CD’s in my collection for some reason, and this was from new as well. I really hope that manufacturers will start making decent Hifi cassette decks again, as it is really hard to find vintage cassette decks that are in good condition, and even then 9 times out of 10 when you find one, you still need to at least get the belt kits changed over.

[@maurexretrovision]

The recording sounds a bit distorted, but compared to what you did with the retro-style boombox in the previous video, it sounds much better, and in stereo.

[@richretrotech9426]

I wonder if we’re seeing progression, or if it will just stop here. Interesting times.

[@dean6816]

I remember my first twin cassette deck by Matsui I would use to copy my ZX Spectrum games and it worked flawlessly! Even when I used high speed dubbing! 📻

[@jasonhandy8442]

Happy days they're slowly getting there

[@Seiskid]

Interested in how you get the games onto tape. Definitely watch that.

[@robine5280]

Its amazing that you've been uploading more videos lately. Nice to hear your voice on a more regular basis again. I'd be interested in a video on copying games to tape, I never had a C64 and probably never will (90s kid) but I'm just curious.

[@truthfinder4973]

In the 80s this would been seen as a portable radio boom box than was big this kills me lol

[@doskungen]

Hello Tony! This double radio reminds me of a Luxor brand one that I had as a kid (back in 1989). It might actually be that this Chinese made cassette radio performs better than the Luxor from back in the day. I would listen to cassettes and record stuff off the radio on it and no the sound quality wasn't good. So if someone buy this one and complains about the sound quality it wasn't any better with the low end cassette radios back in the 80's either! I'm also a big fan of the C64. I have one original breadbin Swedish/Finnish variant and a UK C64C. Datasette emulator device and an Ultimate II+ cartridge. I also have a reproduction Datasette that I bought brand new but I haven't messed around with it yet. Intention being doing some turbo tapes with it for the nostalgia 🙂 And yes I would be very interested in a video on how to transfer TAP to cassettes (properly!) Thanks again for your excellent beyond excellent videos! Love em'!

[@CassetteComeback]

I'd be interested in seeing this "reproduction" datasette

[@m80116]

Just trying to kill my time, I was wondering... how could a youngster want this MONSTROSITY that's the copycat of 100 products that weren't even in our dreams when we were young. This isn't the reproduction of some famous JVC, Sharp, Toshiba portable STEREO... It was called STEREO back then, not boombox, and AUTO-REVERSE STEREO when it was really super nice and fitted with the automatic flipping feature. And I see a lot of people doing this observation -it plays fine-. The whole point of using cassettes is that they can be recorded, not how they were commercially recorded: however you want them to sound over an infinite formulations of tape and styles of cassette. I CRY inside whenever I hear anything pre-recorded up until the mid 80s, and yet cassettes can be so good that even a basic ferric played over a competent system Hi-Fi system can be confused with a CD player. If we want the young to be enjoying this sport in the future, we should certainly advise them to never even consider something like this. There are tons of cheap to be saved units from back in the day and several others sold in working conditions for LESS than the amount of this unit. I am still glad you've found some decent usage for it as a cheap duplication machine of data cassettes, but portable stereos are and were a completely different thing than this funny monstrosity from China... oh, and they''ll never reach similar quality. Nobody can nowadays, we have such a different concept of quality that even the chemistry has moved towards rotten green... and you can't expect something built today using rubber, plastic, resin, lacquer, tapes to outlast or perform like something produced during the 80s. The lines and plants that were responsible for the production of those top quality materials used in those products are long gone. Just another reason to leave this unit on the website it came from and save one that will probably be in the future much like today's vintage classic cars: a bargain you could one day tell the story of to your children and grandchildren, what a bargain it was and how it could have made you rich, if only you gathered a quantity of them now that they sell for crazy money. After all they will remain a unique example of human progress and transition from the traditional and secular ownership to the subscription OWN NOTHING world we're heading today, where we'll never see the likes of magnetic audio recording ever again.

[@michaelturner4457]

We called them ghetto-blasters back in the day. I'm sure in the 80s many youngsters wanted the nice and expensive JVCs, Sharps, and Toshibas, but then would end up having to make do with a cheap crappy Saisho, Bush, Amstrad, or Binatone instead, because that's what their parents bought them for Christmas or Birthday. I can imagine my dad saying to me as a young teenager, "Son, if you want that JVC RC-M90 stereo, get yourself a paper round.".

[@CassetteComeback]

Missing the point completely, even though I mention it several times. It's not that it's good, it's not that people who remember "the good old days" should but it...it's a sign of how the Chinese are improving. You said yourself the old production lines are gone. They're starting almost from scratch. Their stuff 10 years ago was utterly rubbish. This is kinda ok. Progress.

[@m80116]

​@@CassetteComeback Hello Tony, I am missing the point deliberately you know... but since I noticed some enthusiasm around these products, we should all be aware we're beating a dead horse here. There is no way they can improve beyond a certain point and even if they could make some more refinements they're still very far away from historical levels and it's always a case of hit and miss. You can't expect every bit to be a hit every time, and when they miss they miss hard and by far... it's always going to be ugly, be it a boombox, a Walkman or cassette. But I guess this makes your job... and probably that's very fine for you as a content creator, otherwise we wouldn't be here squabbling about it and that's fine by me, entertainment...

[@CassetteComeback]

"But I guess it makes your job" You do realise with the amount of views I get, I lose money on every video? I do this for fun, as this is a small niche channel that will never be a "job" for me.

[@dougbergen8157]

Always a great video Tony. Nice to see the C64 in there too. Love my C64 also. Cheers. Keep the cassette videos coming.

[@vnv_jruza]

I'd be more than fine with this playback quality for the bedside or working around the house! Also a very pleasant surprise to see the recording quality isn't absolutely abhorrent. Just a shame about the pre-exploded speaker! Love the C64 test too

[@tarstarkusz]

Yeah, but even if the speaker wasn't broke, how good can a 1.5" speaker sound?

[@S7EVE_P]

3 inch 6 Euros....mmmm sounds like a bargain if you're in Amsterdam that 🤣🤣🤣. Keep these reviews coming👍👍😁

[@HammondDirk]

My mother had a Sanyo twin-deck boombox, I used it for my MSX to load games, by putting the game in the playback deck, putting the record deck in record mode and activate the high-speed dubbing option, the game would load twice as fast ;-). Worked at least for most 1200 baud games, as the MSX supported 2400 baud as well.

[@samwright8599]

Unbeatable feeling? Squeaky clean😊

[@oscarestivencarabalyherrer1279]

I gotta love this new boombox!

[@petercreed2539]

We all can’t afford a Nakamichi dragon this may be all that people can afford if it gets them back into cassette tapes is that a good thing 😊

[@CassetteComeback]

That's it, a "gateway drug" 😁

[@jaha_trini_2]

Been a while since I've been here! Feeling some of the nostalgia flowing out of this video. This thingamajig went beyond my expectations also! Great video, but I'm sure this would be DC biased. If only they'd switch to AC!

[@markparamore2978]

It’s the Batteries that are the 9 volt dc supply Tony! Still enjoying all your content hope you are well keep up the great work. Still got the Marantz PMD520’s I purchased from you cheers Tony!

[@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777]

@36:00 - the Roller looks kinda cool.. it was known under Magnavox as well and CD versions too. Looks like a tough unit.

[@paulmalone1208]

Love your videos they just relax me.

[@plan7a]

This has the extended FM band, as they have in China (as opposed to what we have in the UK), Regarding the buttons on the left: I'd assume they are for the karaoke function, but they are probably used differently to what's expected. The 'silent' one is possibly to remove the music (or maybe add echo to the microphone input), the other could be to isolate the vocal track (or remove it; as best it can), but this is just me assuming. The 'loop' one would be probably for selecting the bit to repeat, as you said. It seemed to be mostly fine in other ways, apart from the speaker issue. It's a bit of a fingerprint magnet I noticed, but it seems robust enough (with no fancy lights and unnecessary bits that won't ever be used more than once).

[@michaelturner4457]

The extended FM band down to 76MHz, is actually the "campus radio" feature. Because some universities and colleges in China use that band for academic purposes, like audio for exams. FM in Japan is extended as well, 76-108MHz.

[@bletheringfool]

I'm really glad the Chinese are working hard to make these things better. I do think if they had a guiding hand from someone who knows better, they could make great stuff. The Ghostbusters game brings back memories. I had a Ghostbusters baseball cap too. It met a sticky end when a seagull shat on it and couldn't get it cleaned. I hate when people say that it is supposed to be good luck. It never is. Thanks for another great video. Look forward to more from you soon.

[@paolorams767]

yes agree with others, in new cheap chinese recorders, this is the best one!

[@troyc294]

Double the decks means it's double the times better right? RIGHT?

[@FSM_Reviews]

The cassette transport buttons on the recording deck look suspiciously similar to the ones on the Sony CFD-S50 and CFD-S70.....hmm....

[@sega9683]

Здравствуйте. Кассетные головки действительно Стерео? СтереоЗвук с кассеты?

[@weightlessliving9856]

Absolutely we want Commodore 64 content! Brand new software still comes out every month for our beloved 40 year old C64!

[@retrorambles517]

Monsieur you are spoiling us Wiz all these videos of late

[@gavincurtis]

So high speed dubbing would be called Panda Express?

[@matthewgatskie1287]

DC 9V referring to batteries.

[@richardhalliday6469]

Looking forward to this one

[@danniielle]

Well that certainly surprised me too! Not tragic at all. Love the C64 segment. Very cool! 😎 You could probably get rid of most of the motor noise by soldering a 0.1uF ceramic capacitor across the motor terminals.

[@HostiaRecords]

I'm surprised, can make copies very good

[@jasonwilliams6005]

Is the 9v referring to the 6 batteries?

[@cptsalek]

Great review, things seem to be improving in China, maybe they'll really produce a decent tape deck or boom box one day. White the recording quality is really better than that from last week, is it really a stereo recording? Listened to it twice using my headphones, sounds like mono to me. Edit: Dann, it's really sad that one can only hit the like button once, never thought I would see a C64 in one of your videos. Love your stance on waiting for a game to be loaded, same here. :) Kudos für being able to high speed dub computer tapes, I tried when I was young and failed several times. Maybe I should give it a slot again. :D

[@MaurizioGalliHK]

I got one of these and although I was pleased at first with playback I realised recording had some serious issues. While recording one side of the cassette, the other side would deteriorate (partially delete?) Not sure what was causing it but i’m sending it back. Thinking if I should try my luck and order the unit again because I kinda liked it.

[@CassetteComeback]

Probably as the erase head is just a magnet. I reckon that all will be the same.

[@MaurizioGalliHK]

@@CassetteComeback Thanks! I wrote it off as a factory defect but you may be right. Is there a way to mitigate this or it's a known issue affecting everything that uses this mechanism?

[@azoriusmage]

Wow you are on fire recently so many new episodes

[@yonghoju]

Yes, Tony please do a video about transfering C64 disk images on to cassette tape I'd absolutely love to see how it's done mate! Cheers & thanks for another great video. 😀😀😀

[@josephfrye7342]

well, tony i just got two sony cfd s70 and donated one to pcs so now I finally have one. at last but got the Bluetooth dongle but the deck still works though. but some units are ok though it's just a minor annoying grinding and such. but I prefer to sleep with a hi-fidelity stereo system on. so it's a cassette deck radio and cd mp3 boombox though. i do have victrola which supports mp3 flash drive and blue tooth and sd card also. at least it has some bass and treble boosted ish but some are excluded for some reason. i do not know why.

[@mabbaticchio]

Would it really be that hard for just 1 manufacturer to make a KILLER boombox in 2023?

[@Rick_Todd]

Yes would love to see more C64 tape stuff. Did you not have to adjust your C2N azimuth to match the Panda ?

[@CassetteComeback]

It was adjusted with Interceptor Micros adjustment kit recently, and that was it. It just worked.

[@Rick_Todd]

@@CassetteComeback Is that the one with Bandana City game on the flip side ?

[@CassetteComeback]

That's the one.

[@mosesbrowning8055]

Definitely would love to see a C64 game how-to download to cassette. I just got one and have tried and i couldn't get it to work but i dont know if my C64 is faulty or my cassette program and tape drive are faulty

[@TheLumpenMaoist]

the DC input refers to the batteries, 6 x 1.5v is 9v

[@paulb4uk]

My first computer was the zx spectrum 48k plus i have had my bbc b and master 128k for years and i have many other spectrums including the next and a c64 and amiga,s. we oten used the twin decks for copying games .I am impressed with how close to correct speed and how stable it was ,i reckon the motor noise most likely comes from the Chinese made motors as most the fake ones i see people trying seem to cause noise in different decks .

[@defaultuserid1559]

In the US, early Apple ][ integer basic computers only had cassette for storage. I still have cassettes for the Sargon chess program and for Orion, a space battle strategy game. There was a recommended GE cassette recorder to use for this but tape operations were always sketchy. This helped Apple sell the Woz machine floppy drives (I ended up getting two of them).

[@timothyverbist5795]

What's that catalog at 35:30?

[@CassetteComeback]

Argos

[@theaylesburycyclist8756]

Argos

[@timothyverbist5795]

@@CassetteComeback Okay, but what year?

[@CassetteComeback]

1988

[@hughjanus6975]

I absolutely love the fake "It's a Sony"

[@michaelturner4457]

"It's a Panda" that's what it should have had on it. :D

[@CBitsTech]

Looks good, sounds respectable (faulty speaker notwithstanding). Thanks for the video!

[@alexdolling]

Tony 9v power is the batteries as in 6 x 1.5volt D cells

[@Kumimono]

It does seem the DC input refers to the 6 batteries. Sort of, bunched up together in the legend, "DC 9V (from batteries)". One wonders if the left speaker is just badly mounted. Concussive maintenance might be in order. :) Also ildly wondering if the F539 alludes to a model of Ferrari.... I'd imagine the ten second repeat would be useful for language studies.

[@michaelturner4457]

Either the speaker is badly mounted, or something like wires are fouling the cone possibly. Definitely worth taking the back off, to see if it is something simple to fix it.

[@amnril]

I love the ‘sarcastic’ enthusiasm in these videos 😂😅👌 Time to ditch my JVC RC-M70 for this bad boy.

[@slashtiger1]

C64 .TAP to Cassette? *Yes please!*

[@tarstarkusz]

Great video Tony.

[@jasejj]

WTF? in all the years of owning Commodore computers I never once got a speedload tape game to copy. What is this witchcraft?

[@theotherchannel2279]

27:14 And wired the right way around in stereo!!!

[@Robekc]

Would you do a review on the Panda 6501? It's hotly on sale over some Asian platforms.

[@PeterMilanovski]

Try testing it using batteries, I suspect that the transformer (I'm assuming that it has one) is probably not shielded and thus coupling to the right speaker directly and possibly coupling to it's circuits.... So you might find the hum gone using batteries.. Panda make's MIDI keyboard controllers, I have one which is identical to one from Arturia the MiniLab... And it's quality is amazing for $60Au.... A lot cheaper than the Arturia MiniLab... I'm surprised that it recorded as well as it did... We didn't get to see if it's using a permanent magnet erase head which is easy to identify due to not having wire's connected to it....

[@CassetteComeback]

Yeah, it's just a magnet.

[@richiehoyt8487]

Given that all modern cassette players, even the 'hi~fi' component - type ones seem to be built around the ubiquitous Tanashi(??) motor/chassis (or - Ye Gods, that it's come to this - _knock~offs_ of the Tanashi!) does the Panda follow suit..?

[@michaelturner4457]

I like the knock-off SONY logo. It should have had "IT'S A PANDA" under it. :D

[@pokepress]

Any idea what’s wrong from a technical perspective with the speaker? Is it a wiring issue, or something else?