Crappy 1992 Labtec speakers meet creepy VHS animated intros

[@ericvictor0511]

Ha! I'm pretty sure these were the ones that came out of my grandmothers house when she died early August. To explain the yellowing, it sat flat with the box facing down with the bottom facing the window. Funny how it worked its way up to New Jersey since she lived it Reading.

[@user-lt2rw5nr9s]

They have some "Okay class, we're watching a video today" vibes.

[@stonecrestmovies]

Exactly what I thought

[@brcardoso00]

Will you set up a gofundme to pay the $250,000 fine?

[@RuviaPawz]

Good one

[@Livewire91]

The question is: Do they sound better than the built in speakers on a Crosley cruiser ? :D

[@vwestlife]

Yes, they actually do!

[@Livewire91]

@@vwestlife Maybe Crosley should partner up with Labtec and sell a Crosley Cruiser record player + Labtec speakers combo. Or maybe have Labtec implant these *3* inch speakers inside a crosley and call it: Labley Soundbruiser.

[@markm0000]

Live Wire Crosley should stop selling heaps of garbage.

[@Livewire91]

@@markm0000 It was meant as a joke what i said.

[@EA-58]

lol :-)

[@ms_enj]

Recorded in EP mode, so they pay the duplication house even less for a shorter blank tape.

[@VectraQS]

And then sometimes they forgot to take that out. Strangely, I have a copy of "The Princess Bride" that retains the EP disclaimer, even though it's duplicated in SP! The lengths they *didn't* go to...

[@plan7a]

So you can manually adjust the tracking so it is out of sync, to make bad movies play twice as fast (or better). LOL.

[@VectraQS]

@@plan7a if the tracking is really, really bad, yes. You'll probably need to have some control track damage for the VCR to completely lose track of the playback speed.

[@i_love_soup]

VectraQS or just duplicate it 18 times

[@BilisNegra]

VWestlife buying junk so you don't have to... Now extending range to even warn people owning time machines!

[@BilisNegra]

@Ya Ever Seen ??? Had forgotten about this. Much appreciated!

[@Eyetrauma]

11:00 Don't be fooled he only ejected it because he was fearful of his audience gaining a TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF SELF CONFIDENCE

[@The_Conspiracy_Analyst]

How can you be so sure?

[@keepingitreal71]

I love New Kids on the block... Got to see then in concert and it was awesome.... I think that they got more reaction then the Backstreet Boys did that night..

[@ProjectGeek1]

Yep, I had a set. I do miss the term "Multimedia".

[@rartolak]

The name "Juster" also ring a bell, or really in this case floaty.. bloated midrange sound quality.

[@ABCEasyas--]

That Guy it’s just not used that much nowadays. In the 90s, “multimedia” computers allowed users to listen to CD’s and watch videos.

[@5roundsrapid263]

Ironically, VHS had really good audio on the hi-fi tracks. It was almost CD quality. I have a Sony VCR connected to my 5.1 system and it sounds fantastic!

[@Nomad-Rogers]

5Rounds Rapid It is sad that not more people know about VHS stereo HiFi some recordings even sound better than the CD, if the CD sounds to cold the VHS gives it a more natural instrument sound.

[@KylesDigitalLab]

@@Nomad-Rogers That's caused by analog distortion, which is actually a weakness of VHS HiFi. A CD can also capture analog distortion if it's in the source recording that's used to master the CD.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I bet the reason why these crappy speakers have dual volume controls is because they are both pretty much exactly the same but with some slight changes, to reduce costs.

[@SamanthaTheSonicFan]

8:39 There are those lovely DTMF tones!

[@Eliotime3000]

I remembered one lf the SkyCorp shitposts when I've seen the intro of Airplanes and Airports.

[@JessHull]

I like the sounds of all the VHS tapes going in and out of the VCR and the sounds of you handling them clanking around. I was hoping you were going to take apart the speakers and give us a look at the little amp inside/

[@vwestlife]

I did a video about a very similar set of Sound Blaster / Labtec speakers in which I did take them apart.

[@splo1nger909]

Ahhhh, memories lol.

[@BlackEpyon]

They're not that impressive inside. I've got several similar sets (one of which actually IS a KOSS set).

[@claypf4795]

Why did "Pinnacle Video" make their logo out of a well-marbled steak?

[@eduardoavila646]

The real question is why not

[@hexus9198]

Or maybe the real questions is how does it taste?

[@RuviaPawz]

Lol good questions

[@themirrorsofmymind]

Triangle cut Ribeye! @ 12:00 How did I not notice that? 😋😋😋😋😋😋

[@JonnyInfinite]

That New Kids on the Block video really sucked.... But for some reason I want to drink a Coke

[@Musicradio77Network]

It was the boy band of the late 1980’s. I remember when New Kids on the Block came along, they were popular and had many of their hits back in late 1988 and 1989.

[@JonnyInfinite]

@B P not very sub

[@veganguy74]

Turn it off, turn it off!!!

[@veganguy74]

B P Yvan eht Nioj

[@gatt0203]

hysterical hysteria

[@ArlenMoulton2]

That is such a nostalgic sound, the amount of speakers I've had over the years that sounded like that is upsetting, especially considering how cheap a really good set is nowadays!

[@mikkomatilainen5602]

fluorescent light tubes are the couse for blister pack yellowing, been working at retail for 15 years and seen it a lot in store without any sunlight :)

[@SpeakerFreak95]

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cut myself with packaging like those speakers were packed in.

[@markm0000]

Neat video. I remember watching pirated movies at a friends house and listening with those crap Labtec speakers. I have a set of 2.1 Yamaha beige speakers from back then and they still sound good.

[@splo1nger909]

My goodness this channel is so relaxing, top notch!

[@JaredConnell]

They came in a blister pack to be sold in stores but this pair was probably sold as a pc bundle and the owner never bothered to open them, sticking them on a shelf with only the bottom exposed to light so the rest of the package and the speakers themselves were spared from the uv light yellowing them

[@weasel2htm]

I wonder if the computer speakers were part of an advertised sale (such as black friday) and the chain realized they could not get the Koss speakers mentioned (or maybe were shipped the Labtec speakers instead.) It should be noted that I have seen Koss computer speakers that appear to be rebadged Labtec speakers (at least coming from the same OEM.) From fairly early on, I used my stereo for my computer sound, but before I got that hooked up, I used some speakers out of a small cassette radio in some enclosures made out of butter containers. Later I used some Soundesign stereo speakers for my computer sound before getting long enough cables made to get the sound over to my stereo.

[@theoblivious2001]

Based on this testing, the speakers sound very “hollow” to me.

[@plan7a]

Partly depends on the surface the speakers are used on. The sound could be changed/boosted a bit with different surfaces; as this will alter the bass and treble settings.

[@MrKornnugget]

I miss the 90’s in all their crappy audio video glory.

[@joshm264]

Glad to see you're a fan of the archive as well!

[@AneeshSeeYay]

The last Tom and Jerry is from the episode : Timid Tabby.

[@RockotheZangoose]

12:15 is legitimately the best thing I've ever experienced on VHS

[@dhpbear2]

I avoided all these crappy speakers. I simply added the computer as yet another input to my existing stereo system! Now, it's the ONLY input that I use on my stereo system!

[@dwindeyer]

These were bundled with computers, I had a pair of the KOSS "Hard Drivers" branded units come with a Compaq 486

[@20035079]

props for mentioning the oddity archive!!

[@mix3k818]

Yay!

[@Fluteboy]

@@garnet4204 If you ain't OA, you ain't OK!

[@5roundsrapid263]

I started watching him way back when he was on Blip. Not many people have been making videos that long and keeping the quality high like he has.

[@dhpbear2]

"PMPO": "Department Store Watts" :)

[@renaissanceman7145]

I'm impressed with the VCR. That sucker is FAST! It's cool you shared this, gives the younger crowd a glimpse into the crappy hardware we had to put up with back in the day. It also shows the start (+/-) of computer graphics. More importantly, the earliest days of what has become the most annoying part of movies, the ever expanding company ID clips that run first.

[@BilisNegra]

Both speakers have their own amplifier... and you have to put batteries into both of them to power those, I don't know if I should cringe or laugh about how ridiculous that is... Guess a blend of both is the way to go.

[@privateaccount1338]

They came out almost 30 years ago and went with (2) D cell batteries per speaker..So if you have (4) D cell batteries in one of the speakers, "I cringe that one speaker is bigger than the other". So what, they're not that bad as passive or amplified speakers. Also the battery argument doesn't mean sqwat when you have a power adapter.

[@jmurray01]

Looking back now we can see (or rather hear!) how bad these speakers are but back in the day I don't think we really cared, or I didn't anyway. These days though most laptops provide a better sound quality.

[@Kundalini12]

Their speakers might be crappy but I do have a pretty decent Labtec keyboard with the model number Y-SAD65, I've had it for about 18 years with no issues.

[@8_Bit]

3:47 "Works with COMPTUERS and COMPUTERS!"

[@elliottsimmons9024]

😂😂😂

[@jpolar394]

Those are the kind of speakers and packaging that you seen in the cheep electronics shops on 8th ave in hells kitchen in Manhattan in the early 2000s. They sell nothing but crap but the tourists seem to be attracted to them.

[@Lachlant1984]

When we got a sound card put in our 486 PC, we got a pair of KTX speakers with it, those speakers weren't very good, probably sounds as good/bad as these ones, but guess what? The sound they produced was monaural, yes, monaural. You heard sound from both speakers, but it wasn't stereophonic, I'm dead serious.

[@Lachlant1984]

@tone167 They did, my father had one, its power cord was permanently attached to the back of the monitor. One day he had some painters come and paint his house, the painters pushed the computer desk against the wall, damaging the monitor's power cable, sometimes the connection would come loose and the speakers would produce a horrifying 50 Hz buzzing noise and monitor would turn on and off. Can you say electrocution and fire hazard? My family also were given a KTX monitor when our MAG monitor broke down and the shop we took it to went and lost it. Then we discovered the KTX monitor we had in question was the subject of a product safety recall because of a faulty power transformer, needless to say, we got rid of that monitor lickety split quick.

[@dhpbear2]

10:50 - Letterman had this tape as part of "Dave's Video Collection" back in the 80's

[@5roundsrapid263]

I remember him playing an audio test CD once, too. I actually had it and used it.

[@splo1nger909]

I cant wait for the update on airports and airplanes!.....yes!!

[@reginaldlawrence412]

We all know that you were jamming out to new kids on the block.

[@splo1nger909]

Im totally hanging tough.

[@RCAvhstape]

He was just letting it play while he went to the fridge to get a Coke.

[@alexdragu5898]

Lol, I have these speakers. They came with a Packard Bell from my grandparents. They're absolutely GARBAGE

[@QoraxAudio]

That's probably why most of them already have been trashed and incinerated.

[@Musicradio77Network]

The tape you see is a VHS of “King Kong” the colorized version which it’s even worse than the colorized Shirley Temple films that I have on VHS, and the Fred Ladd’s redrawn “Looney Tunes” which was retraced in color from Korea from the original B&W versions from 1936 through 1943. I also have the VHS of the “Absent-Minded Professor” which was part of the “Walt Disney Film Classics” series and it was awful when it was completely colorized, so I might as well stick with the original B&W version. The three companies that used colorization are American Film Technologies (AFT), Colorization Inc., and Color Systems Technologies (CST) has been there since the 1980’s, and they stopped using them during the 1990’s. Colorized movies are okay, but not as good. I had a good old B&W TV set to watch it when it was originally made, or turn the color down on my TV set to see how it looked when it was originally made in B&W. @ 9:44 is the first Turner Home Entertainment logo which was taken from “Room Service” with the Marx Brothers and the Turner logo @ 9:53 was also taken from “The Wizard of Oz” 1999 Warner VHS and “National Velvet” 1990 or 1991 MGM/UA VHS. The gold Simitar “S” logo @ 11:28 was also taken from “George Burns: 100 Years of Comedy” 1996 VHS that I used to have, and finally, the CMV logo @ 16:11 was taken from “Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker” 1988 VHS that my dad used to have. There is only one VHS tape that he didn’t have in his collection are one of the Magnetic Video VHS tapes from 1977 through 1981. Magnetic was the very first home video distributor to put out movies on VHS and Betamax right up until 1981. I’ve seen openings to every Magnetic Video releases on “TylerTristar2IsBack’s” channel.

[@brentgoeller8257]

I had those exact speakers with my 486. That's awsome!

[@oldcommodoremediacorporati3005]

Oh, you think those are creepy? Take a look at the Erry Vision Films logo.

[@EdotJdotOriginal]

Hey, I'm someone from the logo community (yes, this exists), and I want to point out something a bit minor. While you are right that Scanimate was used for a lot of these logos, it depends on the time period. Later logos (like the simitar logo) used CGI; most likely from another company. Scanimate was mainly a 1980's thing; though it was popular in the late 1970s but more people associate it with the 1980s as it was frequently used. These logos would mainly be produced by another (usually unknown) company, unless the company was a more popular company, like the Turner Home Entertainment logo. CGI was used in the late 1980s, but caught on more in logos during the 1990s. Its also important to note that digital software (most likely private or only available for companies) might be used, an example being the Warner Home Video logo on VHS or DVD's.

[@vwestlife]

I know the later logos I showed were CGI, but especially the Closed Captioning and Valley of the Sun logos definitely look like Scanimate with the way they're animated.

[@EdotJdotOriginal]

I would say so myself, though I think the CC bumper was used at some time on a station (maybe HBO?).

[@Sparky_Bunny]

Should do a review on the DTMF tones on the beginning of the VHS tapes which I find interesting.

[@vwestlife]

Wikipedia already did.

[@5roundsrapid263]

Cable channels used to have them, too.

[@Sparky_Bunny]

@@5roundsrapid263 I never knew that

[@Sparky_Bunny]

@UCKeGGykGcvqpKgUHS6ZwPdg from 94 and up I wouldn't remember it because I was a bab at the time

[@horrortimeproductions5504]

@@Sparky_Bunny All through the very early 2000's, I heard DTMF tones on both VHS and TV. I was also born in 1997, which in 2005 I was using antennas and not cable. I would always leave my tiny CRT TV on, which PBS would have this long DTMF tone, that would wake me up in the middle of the night. Lol

[@spicemasterii6775]

Thanks to your chirpy attitude, the video ended up non campy and not at all choppy.

[@ArlenMoulton2]

What do you mean "campy"?

[@DEFGI]

I have that small radio shack tv in the background! Bought it at a car boot sale for £2

[@chriskalkman3815]

I have a pair of labtec speakers, but they are those large, bulky, and beige/white bricks that are about a foot tall and have a massive 15+V wall wart. They are from 1999, I found them at a thrift store for $5, and they sound fantastic! They are model LCS-1030.

[@ViperJay5]

13:28 Hey, I know this song! It's by Django Reinhardt called Echoes of France. Anyone who has played Mafia: City of Lost Heaven should be familiar with many of his tracks. This particular one was played when you visited Oakwood and also in the country near the motel.

[@JohnAudioTech]

I remember the slim Juster computer speakers with the 300 watt PMPO rating on the box. Inside was a tiny TDA2822 amplifier IC which was good for only half a watt with a 6 volt supply.

[@themaritimegirl]

I NEVER realized that my Koss speakers had the ability to store the cables inside the battery compartments!

[@henryatkinson1479]

WELCOME TO *AIRPLANES AND AIRPORTS*

[@kingdededelicious]

Henry Atkinson WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!1!

[@QueenDynamo]

AAAAAAAAHHHH!! WOOOOOOOOH!!!

[@ozonesama]

What's that series of DTMF tones at the beginning of some of the tapes ? I don't think we had those in Europe on our VHS tapes.

[@und4287]

Data for the duplication machines

[@vwestlife]

Ask Siri.

[@splo1nger909]

VWestlife mostly she says “thats not nice”

[@daviddanser7801]

I have a set of speakers that are identical to these, except they have the sound blaster label on them, they came with a sound card that I bought for my first PC I ever had, a 486 running at 33 megahertz, the speakers came with the first sound card that I ever bought and had installed in my first PC. I still have them, and they still work. Cool video, I love to see vintage stuff like this.

[@lesrogers7310]

This reminds me of how hideous early powered speakers were.

[@SeñorDossierOficial]

Sounds ok, for a very cheap pair of speakers.

[@Vynncent]

I have a pair of these. An interesting quirk they have, is when they're switched off, they can operate completely passively, albeit very quietly

[@kodessa]

the picture at 0:07 reminds me of a youtuber that had the same setup in his basement and did cool retro tech/ audio stuff.

[@gochem3013]

Creepy VHS Animated Intros? That was natural.

[@ABCEasyas--]

Love how you also watch The Oddity Archive. Any chance you’ll find some Laser Karaoke in a thrift store near you?

[@coen123]

He posted a couple of laserkaraoke videos on his other channel.

[@ShiftyLizardStore]

14:00 Goodtimes Home Video, the good old days.

[@Madness832]

Also, IMO, I still believe that the New Kids' biggest sin was the cover of "Hangin' Tough." That is, they're from Boston (in fact they all lived within maybe 4-5 miles from where I grew up!), but are seen on a NY subway.

[@Caltash]

Nothing good ever comes blister packaging. Ever.

[@5roundsrapid263]

Prescriptions, maybe...

[@ThriftyAV]

"Digital Ready" computer speakers with the Compact Disc logo playing VHS tapes that advertise DVDs, all being streamed on KZbin! I have two "universal" AC adapters, but one creates more noise on my Yamaha PSR series keyboard... So you might try a different adapter and see if you get less noise than your versacorder adapter. Were you using the built-in microphone on your camcorder to record these? Look forward to the Cloner Alliance Box Pro, as I am interested in a capture device with similar features.

[@vwestlife]

Yes, I was using the camcorder's internal microphones.

[@nickhumprey1]

16:12 I haven't seen that logo in years. If I remember, I think its from the Computer animation festival (1996) VHS.

[@anser2723]

This video made me realise that i still use labtec speakers and the left one doesn't work, yet i have done nothing about it.

[@NJRoadfan]

There were clearly multiple designs of the CS-150 over time. I have an earlier circa 1993 version of these (still not yellowed!) with volume sliders that appear in my Apple IIgs videos. I'd say these are likely 1995ish.

[@Danny-oi8yl]

Funny thing is I bought the Labtec pulse 485 about 15 years ago for 29.99, it now sells on amazon for 5 times that price and mine is working like a champ to this day. Sounds awesome too so it just goes to show

[@lincoln3x7]

I bet someone was selling a "complete computer package" that included koss speakers, they ran out or had difficulty supplying those and grabbed these 'retail' packaged labtecs... slapped a sticker on them and full-filled the orders. Fun video as always from VW. Thanks!

[@SkiBumMSP]

I know I am three years late to the party here, but after seeing this video, I remembered I thought I had those same or similar speakers. Yup, sure enough! I managed to find my trusty ol' pair of Koss SA/30s. If I recall, I remember buying a Koss portable CD player (a "Discman" type unit) and these speakers came bundled with it. They are identical to the Labtec CS150 speakers shown in this video, other than mine being black with the Koss branding. Otherwise, identical controls and panel inputs/outputs with the same cable hook-ups. Just for s&g, I hooked them up and plugged in my Astell & Kerns AK120 mk II Digital Audio Player (DAP) just to see how it would sound through these little things. The headphone amp on the A&K player was powerful enough to drive these passively (don't have a power adapter, nor any C batteries on hand to try the built-in amp with). Nothing like plugging in a $1,600 DAP into a $15 pair of speakers. Yup, hardly any bass, and the treble a bit strident and they distorted a bit if I turned the amp up too loud, but still, for such a cheap ass pair of speakers, they actually sounded fairly decent. At the very least, since they are battery operated and thus can be entirely portable, they can come in handy if I need a pair of speakers to hook up to some device to give a quick listen and test.

[@mangu8s]

13:28 who played original Mafia game, will remember this soundtrack

[@dogcowrph]

In 1992 these.were nice compared to the tiny internal speaker in the case. They were cheap and showed it. A couple of Altec Lancing what were a clam design and a seals sub woofer. Those were great, powerful and made music brilliant for both computer work and on a CD player.

[@nick_nt7574]

I'm not too sure if the speakers are worse on the video or my ear speaker phone is distorted

[@hotchalupa]

These were everywhere like someone fed one of them past midnight!

[@BlackEpyon]

I've got a few similar sets kicking around the house. These dual-amp C-battery speaker sets were everywhere back in the day. Myself, I had my computer connected to the stereo microphone inputs on my tape/phono deck, with a cassette tape perpetually on record and pause (I was a kid at the time) to function like a line-input of sorts. I've noticed that some such speaker sets would have some sort of batting inside to reduce the resonance, especially the ones with reverb ports.

[@DoughnutMasterStudios]

oh man, just listening to these speakers reminds me of the horrible quality of the 90's speakers we had before. Somewhat nostalgic too, even though the low quality

[@Madness832]

About 14:05, Goodtimes Home Video. I remember those EP-recorded (think I have one in LP, too) tapes quite well.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Madness832 That’s crazy, EP and LP speed tapes!? I’ve never seen a commercially sold tape recorded in anything other than SP before, but I’m from the UK, so maybe it’s only an NTSC-region thing.

[@Musicradio77Network]

Goodtimes also did put out movies that were in the Public Domain back in the 1980’s recorded in both LP and EP mode, and also put out a series of Public Domain cartoons on VHS under Kids Klassics, and a dozen of Hanna-Barbera TV specials as well.

[@Madness832]

Yup, I actually have a Kids Klassics Hercules tape that I forgot about.

[@imploud]

11:27 - what, this is an EP mode? I didn!t know this could have such a great quality!!!!

[@RCAvhstape]

God those speakers bring back memories. Even the foam in the battery box.

[@audiocrush]

From the looks of the box the bromide (flame retardant in plastics used back then) must have been released and sunk down in the packaging and maybe caused these yellow/brownish colors

[@CommodoreFan64]

I had these exact speakers back in the day, but I don't remember them coming in a blister pack, but in a cardboard box, I guess this was the later cost reduced packaging, but these are a sweet find if you are building a period correct PC.

[@RCAvhstape]

The special message was probably "Enjoy Coca Cola."

[@Fuzy2K]

"Drink Ovaltine"

[@QueenDynamo]

Drink Sprite?

[@albertocabezas282]

How I hated all of those horrid intros... and yes, the speakers suck.

[@brianbuddy2ACP]

13:49 That's likely because the write-protect tab is still intact, and when the tab is still in place, the VCR knows it's ok to record onto the tape, and id doesn't do anything until you tell it to

[@firenado4295]

lol I have a different type of labtech speakers i got free from my old school. they have been used for the tv in the fron room, as when we got it the built in speakers where so intolerable anything was an improvement. that being said they are good speakers have nice frequency range too

[@mercuryoak2]

I remember having a set of speakers from Walmart back in 2009 they didn't sound bad but they died lol. I got some later on from goodwill and they were HP branded I still have them I just gotta replace the 3.5mm jack I believe . but they sounded good and were gunmetal color.

[@ian_b]

It's strange, not sure why but ever since i first watched this video I've had incredible self-confidence.

[@tangofizz77]

This is the content I crave.

[@dhpbear2]

Great video! i was curious. Was that first clip at 8:41 made when the speakers weren't 'broken in' yet? if so, could you re-post the same footage so the before/after quality could be compared?

[@RyanFeatherston]

My grandfather had some Labtec speakers with his computers.

[@BigDHomeVideo]

11:29 Alright, what was it with logos with horizontal lines in the 80's? Was it a lazy designer go-to like minimalism is today?

[@gavincurtis]

Some of those intros.... meant your rental night was going to be a dud.

[@mspysu79]

Macintosh SE approved, because the 8 bit 22.5 kHz sample rate mono sound of the SE, is perfect for those speakers.

[@abx1312]

I asked my dad if he had a microphone and he brought home a labtec "stereo" microphone and when i tested it it was mono

[@angryshoebox]

I bought a couple pairs of Labtec brand speakers back in the ‘90s. Yeah, they weren’t the greatest sounding speakers, but they were cheap to buy.

[@CARLiCON]

I can remember anything audio-related (headphones, speakers, stereos, etc) that came out in the late 80s, early 90s was marked "digital ready." I kept asking people what was different & no one could explain that or what it meant. Total buzzword.

[@BanazirGalpsi1968]

The company only probably had one form of package, and someone just slapped the substitute label on. Either there was a sale on koss, or as you said, a bundle pack. And they just grabbed these in the only pack they had.