Lifelong Classic - A modern "vacuum tube" radio

The "Nostalgic Vacuum Tube AM/FM Radio" that doesn't actually contain any vacuum tubes.

[@mushroomsamba82]

If you would have told someone back when transistor radios were first coming out that, in the future, people would be slapping plastic ersatz tubes and transformers on them for aesthetics, they would probably call you crazy.

[@ivankirola2707]

You are right

[@Carlo8836]

I find myself enjoying these videos. You have a wry sense of humor and I find your demeanor calming.

[@dotdotdotr]

I agree, sounds a bit like Ray Romano after smoking a doobie, except smarter humor. Very relaxing to me.

[@OtterlyInsane]

There's always a radio station playing Journey no matter what

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

only if you live in the USA it seems :( Catching a Journey song on the radio, here in Germany, is absolutely rare...

[@utapesvhs6311]

In my country, there is no radio playing Alphaville - Forever Young.

[@Duckcalculator]

@@KRAFTWERK2K6We speak different languages so that is to be expected.

[@jaykay18]

"I buy this crap so you don't have to".

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Tech-Nostalgia critic

[@MrGlume]

Lol thanks i won' t buy this ok? Whaha

[@uxwbill]

At least they got the LED color right! Now if only it performed better and the tubes looked more realistic. It sounded to me like there is a very aggressive squelch circuit for the FM band.

[@EmergencyChannel]

I found one of these in the trash. I took it home because I thought it was neat but mine had blue led’s. I trashed it.

[@versedbridge4007]

Dang you should’ve smashed it.

[@und4287]

@@EmergencyChannel AGAIN.

[@an2qzavok]

American radio actually sounds like radio from GTA, especially on this thing.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

the radio stations in GTA games are the best culture-spoofs in the entire games. So cynical and spot on ^^ Especially the fake ads.

[@georgemaragos2378]

HAHA Flash FM its great

[@irtbmtind89]

The fake commercials in San Andreas were amazing.

[@JayTheComputerGuy]

I mean, some of the songs are real songs that are very very popular

[@gmcnewlook]

Lgr would approve of the wood grain :)

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

#RealFakeWood ;)

[@markhandrahan4520]

Yep, heard wood-grain and LGR came to mind immediately!

[@CallanChristensen]

2:58 It was probably a gift to a grandparent that was never used before they passed away. :(

[@robertgaines-tulsa]

Cute little night light! Just turn it on just enough to make the lights glow and don't listen to it.

[@jimfalls2066]

That's exactly what I do. It creates a nice ambiance in the Shack.

[@Mayala285]

I don't why but I want to see more light bulb videos from this channel

[@Mayala285]

Holy shit cool i got a heart. Thank you ☺

[@richardlindquistjr]

The one where you test the light bulb durability in the vice and then it just breaks is classic

[@Mayala285]

Frank Richards same

[@davidwalia3451]

I like these videos. Techmoan reviews and has the 'newer' real stuff in his living room, making us wish for the old days.

[@wilkes85]

It's really just a toy tube amp that also happens to function as a radio, just like those little mini toy boomboxes from the '90s. I'm sure someone got it as a gift, tried it out, then put it back in the box soon afterwards.

[@danzeldiaz7447]

Yeah, just like you said it’s kind of like one of those toy boom boxes from the 50s But those 50s little toy boomboxes had actual tubes probably

[@infinitecanadian]

Good video. I am now on a mission to watch most of your videos. I should be finished in a couple years!

[@1972myc]

I bought exactly this same radion in a flea market. Mine had a sinple liflet manual. Gave it to a friends RESTAURANT to have it in the background. Like the look.

[@s8wc3]

At least they're using amber LEDs instead of BLUE!!!! that a lot of modern "tube" devices like to use for some reason.

[@drdos4]

God I hate that.

[@senorverde09]

Have you ever seen someone restore a vintage stereo receiver? Usually the first thing they do is take out the old incandescent indicator bulbs and stick garish blue LEDs in their place. Talk about blasphemous.

[@s8wc3]

That's terrible. I've seen someone do that only once... it was a Luxmann integrated amp and in addition to the regular indicators they had drilled holes through the knobs and fitted bright blue LEDs in them. If they were dim or better yet a warm white it would have looked nice.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

LITERALLY.EVERY.DEVICE!! >_> I swear there must be millions of warehouses filled with these darn blue LEDs....

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

@ senorverde09: oh god YES!!! dude... really, i've seen some restored Czech Tesla Reel to Reel taperecorders and ALL of the lighting on it had been replaced with freaking BLUE LEDs.... Why.... just why.... even the VU meter backlight was blue...

[@Livewire91]

1:32 that was the smoothest and calmest time i heard someone say it like that :D

[@toxictechtat9511]

I believe radiotvphononut did a video on this, and the insides are basically what you'd find in a dollar store fm radio. It's just a basic radio, I suppose

[@ct1660]

Walgreens used to sell these for $4.99 years ago

[@varun2579]

Feel great watching your videos. Thanks man!!

[@retrofun41]

that is a cool toy. I expect daddy has a Mcintosh or a bob carver tube amp, Thank you for this .

[@that_one_spaceman4104]

legit thought this was a technoman video

[@kevinturner4936]

Dude! Over a year ago, I got the same model...at a Goodwill. Dead serious. No dead batteries like yours, though. For a supposed POS radio, it actually sounds decent. It’s for the retro look anyway. Now if some company can make an audiophile mark II of this baby, it would sell like hotcakes.

[@marcparsons1726]

Oh no, made in china! Was just curious after seeing it listed in vintage tube radio! Thanks for the info!

[@hi-friaudioman]

"Don't turn it on, take it apart!"

[@d4v3tm]

"Don't turn it on, throw it out!"

[@sheep1ewe]

But take it apart first!

[@jamescollins6085]

You can see that the tubes are fake just from the illustration on the box. At least they aren't trying to hide it.

[@SuperFredAZ]

At least they use orange LEDs. You can buy a $1000+ McIntosh Tube amp that has really stupid green LEDs

[@lincoln3x7]

I have that radio! Nothing beats that warm tube sound...

[@wfukfm]

I wondered if anything could be worse than Crosley - you my friend answered that question.

[@roberson644]

Man, you and Druaga1, together, fulfill all my old-stuff nostalgia needs XD.

[@MichaelWA1PJGMIKEKane]

Cool little radio

[@hi-friaudioman]

It's funny, after seeing this in one of your videos and thinking it was a tube amp, I was working on my friends delorean when in the back I spotted... The same little cheap plastic radio!

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

I think that you can still get the micro tubes with flexible wire ends that can connect into a any circuit you care to build.

[@NCF8710]

Someone left some alkaleak batteries in there.

[@johncloninger7454]

Around 8:10 that's definitely Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts from WFAN 660. But now that Benigno's been suspended from WFAN, that could easily be John Jastremski. Now what's up with those "tubes"? Looks like cylindrical mesh with LED's inside.

[@LightTheUnicorn]

Hmm, something seems a little... off with your "tubes" there ;) What a curious little thing!

[@rasoirwolf]

WCCO might overload that poor thing, I'm only a couple of miles from the transmitter, used to work in its shadow, before we moved Offices & then went remote due to Rona.

[@davekazoroski6548]

Performs as expected for a cheap little novelty radio. What more can be said. Gets local stations, reasonably loud and clear for what it is.

[@randombutler]

Just what I need to to see/hear today

[@zebunker]

The incandescent light bulb switch refers to new products entering the country. Stores have large warehouses of merchandise that will last years already in the states. This is why they are still being sold.

[@vwestlife]

The ban actually goes by lumens rather than wattage, so while most 75-watt incandescent bulbs were banned as of January 1st, 2013, the specified range was 1050 lumens and up, but the 75-watt bulbs I showed in the video only put out 1000 lumens, so they actually were banned as of January 1st, 2014. Nonetheless, 4½ years is a long time for a retailer to still have remaining inventory of a common household item. Online retailer 1000bulbs.com estimated that they would only have about a six-month to one-year supply of each lumens/wattage range of incandescent bulbs after they were banned.

[@oddballaklyama4395]

DON'T STOP BELIEVING

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

HOLD ON TO THAT FEEEELIIIING

[@EdgarsLS]

It looks like they watched the Fallout 3 game trailer as reference for the look of vacuum tubes

[@i_am_raph]

Thrift shops in the US seem to have such cool stuff in them. Have to go thrifting when I go there sometime.

[@johndowlingjr.]

I love vacuum tube radios

[@zeerust2000]

Me too. I have five of them.

[@olradguy]

John Dowling Me too, I have 100s, been collecting them for 50 yrs.

[@zeerust2000]

!! :)

[@SudosFTW]

it's probably a pre-tuned dial setup as you think. AM might be different. it was probably cheaper to do it that way than try and get a proper tuner going in there at the full range of the pot to save on circuitry costs.

[@jasonrusso151]

Almost bought it at Walgreens fifteen years ago.

[@Maxxarcade]

Too bad it's not a metal case. It would have made a nice enclosure for a DIY tube preamp or headphone amp.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Weird, i could have sworn you already had one of these. At least it has orange LEDs and no blue ones x3

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Oh yay. Don't you like it when you open up a device that runs on battery and the corroded acid is flaking out of it when you open the compartment?

[@CommodoreFan64]

I hear ya on that, I bought a couple Plug N' Play Star Wars games from my local GoodWill store a while back where you need a phillips head screwdriver to open the battery cover, but they were only $2.02USD each(Goodwill here does that $1.01, 2.02, 3.03, etc... for whatever reason) looked in good shape, but when I got them home, and took the battery covers off, I ended up spending 30mins cleaning the battery contacts because the batteries were so old lol!

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Yeah, even the C64 Plug'n Play Joystick had a screw for that battery compartment. Never understood why… a simple lock-up mechanism would have been just fine. Heck, even these little LCD games from the late 80s, that we had in my family back then, had little screws for the button-cell battery compartment cover. Luckily those never really leaked badly and didn't damage the contacts.

[@Pisti846]

Actually incandescent bulbs are legal as long as they are more energy efficient than the old style. I am surprised it is labeled "75 watt equivalent".

[@radiorexandy]

The FM is so hissy because it probably doesn't have a de-emphasis network. Also, the case the radio is in probably cost more than the electronics inside of it!

[@fixman88]

My 6 dollar Kaito KA200 pocket radio has better tuning than that thing... and wait, you can still buy incandescent light bulbs?

[@nap8187]

Joined in 2006 hot damn

[@xaenon]

I was under the impression it wasn't legal to MANUFACTURE incandescent light bulbs in the US anymore, with certain exceptions. As far as I know, there's no restriction on the sale of incandescent bulbs. Perhaps I've been misinformed; can anyone clarify it?

[@robertgaines-tulsa]

You can still get incandescent light bulbs because you still need incandescent light bulbs in certain applications. You wouldn't put an LED light bulb in an oven, would you?

[@Mayala285]

Even the home depot.... Nevermind in general you can still find incandescent light of anykind in most major shopping places. Online and even chain stores like Walmart,target and etc

[@VickyGeagan]

Yes they just made them legal again within the last year or two

[@iscander_s]

You can buy incandescent light bulbs in Russia, even 500W ones, but because light bulbs that greater than 100W is banned in Russia, they are labeled on a package as "heaters" lol.

[@und4287]

In Europe they sell high wattage bulbs labeled as not for home use.

[@guhhhh]

Pls do the full forever young vaporwave :(

[@andygozzo72]

it very likely IS a trf on am, using a zn414 equivalent chip, ta7642, and fm probably a single chip with 'pulse counting' detector, such as tda7000 or a more modern variant, using only one tuned circuit,....i bought a couple of cheapo radio kits from banggood and one uses that idea., the other is a proper superhet (am only)

[@andygozzo72]

i built a zn414 based radio some years back but came up with an alternative way of using it, getting better results, normally its run at a fixed voltage, and volume controlled in the af stages, but this way strong signals can swamp it out, i've found running it with the af amp stages at fixed high gain, but controlling the volume by varying the supply to the zn414 seems better, only problem is theres a fair amount of operating the volume control when tuning from stations of varying strength, like with most trf valve/tube sets..

[@RemiDupont]

That font used on the box... looks like cleaning products advertising!

[@frankpitochelli6786]

Would like to have seen you take it apart, just curious to see the PCB etc.

[@kemi242]

Just looked the number up on Google Patents, and it came up with "Environmentally friendly-type coffin made of agriculture straw ".

[@1959Berre]

LOL. If those are vacuum tubes, I am the Pope!

[@RedBearAK]

I'm sure it will sound much better with some little rubber feet stuck on the bottom. A real "classic" find.

[@luedriver]

I wonder if there even is a market for actual modern "vacuum tube" radios, but what would be the point of it, anyone with a vacuum tube amp could hook up a radio and have the same effect, probably

[@danzeldiaz7447]

Can you do a teardown video of this I want to see if it’s an actual tube radio

[@AMDXplusplus]

Vacuum tubes still exists in 2018. I seen 150 watt light bulbs at dollar general.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

yeah but mainly as New Old Stock.

[@TheoSmith249]

you can see the power amplifier tube absorbing the uptick in current load as crank up the volume... best save this for an EMP strike.

[@jdebultra]

Lol. I remember a motherboard that came with a tube amp and huge capacitors. I think it was made by AOpen. It was gimmicky but at least it was real to some extent. Man, that was like 20 years ago.

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

They made several motherboards with tube amps on them AOpen AX4B-533 (for Pentium 4, single tube) AOpen AX4GE (ditto) AOpen AK86 Tube (3 tube prototype for Socket 754 (first Athlon64)) ...and probably a few more that I forgot

[@airplaneengine]

I bought one of these from Walgreens for something like $10 back between 2003-05. I still have it somewhere around here, still in it's box. Poor performance and sound. I also had a Lifelong radio from Walgreens that resembled a little turntable with a clear dust cover. That too had sorry performance. They're just a novelty.

[@JacGoudsmit]

The word "niks" means "nothing" in Dutch (and is understood in German too). I guess that's probably how many they would sell in Europe, regardless of whether there legal to sell there.

[@Euroflounder]

I had one of these as a kid! When I got old enough to realize that the "vacuum tubes" were definitely fake I cannibalized it to make a theramin lol.

[@olradguy]

You can't buy standard light bulbs by the wattage ratings any more, better to go by the lumen rating, I've seen 100watt bulbs, and other wattages that were "out lawed", being sold but if you look at the lumen ratings most aren't even close to what they are supposed to be. Example a normal good 100watt bulb should have a lumen rating around 1650-1710 lumens.

[@mcdus78]

I'd stick vacuum tubes on my digital display radio. That would be a good project. Now they haven't thought of that!

[@daveb5041]

*Next time can you take it apart? I would like to see what chip it uses or how it has such bad tuning. it could be a blob chip but maybe not.*

[@vwestlife]

Radiotvphononut already did a video about this radio in which he took it apart.

[@Hordes_Of_Nebulah]

Are radio stations everywhere like required to play the same Journey songs every single day or something? It is like classic rock stations just gave up in the 90s and never changed their playlists.

[@leigh6558]

Hi dear, This is Ava from Archeer marketing department. We have launched a new turntable currently. 2 features of this new product differing from others: 1.3 vinyl speeds 33, 45 &78 RPM . 2.Vinyl-to-MP3 Recording. I am wondering if there is a chance to share your insightful opinions on the turntable. I look forward to hearing your idea. Thanks!

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Ah yes, i remember when vacuum tube equipment had their tubes and transformers on the _outside_ for easy access to 3rd degree burns. Oh wait, im lying through my teeth.

[@morgankrauss950]

Actually it's not a tube or valve based operating radio may be one chip ic

[@coondogtheman]

Seen one like this at a hobby store, time machine hobby in Manchester CT. I wanted to get it but I didn't. If it tuned this bad I would make a tube amp out of it.

[@ssks1979]

Well, time to give it back to Goodwill !

[@Destroyed007]

Too bad it isn't a Borg Johnson

[@HDXFH]

I think radiotvphononut did a rant on this

[@OntariosElevatorssince2013]

Still way better than that Tivdio piece of crap that you reviewed.

[@RuneTheFirst]

I remember seeing these in Walgreens more than a decade ago and somewhere else in my recent travels. They may still be available new. I believe these are "gutless wonders" like the tiny submini-boomboxes of 20 years ago. No selectivity and terrible FM performance.

[@Madness832]

Yeah, think I remember radiotvphononut, who did a video on one, stating that he bought it there for $10 (well over a decade ago).

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

yeah, reminds me a bit of these Pepsi cube radios that you could get somewhere in 2011 / early 2012

[@Pisti846]

That vacuum tube is so fake it doesn't even look like a fake tube, looks more like a battery powered tea candle.

[@thearmadilliestone]

Huh. Very cool

[@paul1153]

A tear down would have been interesting but enjoyable anyway.

[@Ziggysprints]

It.s legal to sell remaining stock.

[@IronUkraine]

Gonna have to dock 10 points frorm your "social credit" score for insinuating that famous Chinese "Electroninks" manufacturing concern is "highly dubious" :P

[@twocvbloke]

It'd definitely be a good idea to microwave this... :P

[@C6438911]

could you get a radio or amplifier with real vacuum tubes? unless they are crazy expensive ofc, i just realised it might be expensive to get something with real tubes.

[@1marcelfilms]

They sell 100w bulbs in German version dollar stores

[@mikedestazador5116]

Hey guys just an update on Richard Mainway. The singer whose cd was used on a demo in our beloved Vwestlife channel he closed all his social media including youtube after being unable to handle all the trolling on his horrible singing. But he didnt close spotify lol

[@vwestlife]

Nope. He's still on SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/richardmainway

[@mikedestazador5116]

Lets fix that too lol

[@retrogaminggenesis6102]

What’s going to happen to the EZ Bakes & Lava Lamps of our childhoods once incandescents are gone?

[@vwestlife]

They can use rough service bulbs which are still allowed to be sold.

[@valuevinyl110]

From a distance... it kinda looks cool... that's about the end of it...

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

If I ever come across that, I'll make it into an actual tube radio

[@andygozzo72]

it could certainly be done..😉

[@tlawler88]

I'm amazed you can get WRAT...

[@traxonwax]

Sounds like an AM tuber that’s not tuned right in.

[@makotovrc]

There is no static on this FM radio ?

[@vwestlife]

No, there is plenty of static.

[@kevintjeuh8888]

why still using classic light bulbs? led is so cheap these days and much less power consumption, my house is completely lid with led and its not even coming close to 75w of 1 bulb

[@mercuryoak2]

Vweslife if you go to dollar tree they have 100watt bulbs by sunbeam. Cool radio I agree lgr would like this woodgrain. I like woodgrain myself and tube amps etc even though they not real. Very cool.

[@vwestlife]

I believe those are "rough service" bulbs, which are still legal to be sold.

[@ZakkandtheJ]

I love these random videos of fakes. Like the fake solar calculators video

[@Hayatory]

I've never seen any other kind of lightbulb???

[@tuanhoang-wq7rs]

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