It’s not a cassette - so what is it?

When is a cassette not a cassette?
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[@Techmoan]

UPDATE: While I was putting this together I had a vague memory in the back of my head that Sanyo had made a visually similar but incompatible cassette. However when I checked I couldn't find any mention of it. Well a couple of people have confirmed this in the comments - and searching for 'Sanyo Tape Cartridge' instead of 'Sanyo Cassette' reveals a few results with pictures that match this cartridge. So it transpires that Sears licenced and rebadged the Sanyo Tape Cartridge.

[@deus_ex_machina_]

Funny how they licensed an incompatibility...

[@Rompler_Rocco]

Sounds like another episode to me!

[@demodemo5146]

Techmoan! Thanks for your videos they are really awesome.

[@andlabs]

First that Channel Master thing, and now this - what was up with Sanyo and incompatible losing tape formats anyway? =P

[@nakyer]

Very kind of you to help Mike out.

[@The8BitGuy]

Neat.. I had no idea these existed. I guess they are pretty rare since the format probably didn't last long.

[@EvilishDem0nic8732WhatItDo]

You should do an episode as well. AST video was super cool Love your videos too!

[@KaiNLinda]

Ha! subbed to both of ya!

[@zakofrx]

They had more common sense in the past than us.. Now people ignore a permanent cd to have a temporary licence to some music they can be pulled anytime.. You could love a certain band but have their songs disabled because some group protested the music company due to their politics etc....

[@Tim_3100]

Cool 8 bit guy watched this awesome

[@vandalsavage1]

Like your channel?

[@THX-vx8vm]

Just when I think I've seen every obscure and obsolete audio or video format, Techmoan surprises me with yet another.

[@maniatore2006]

OH yes indeed :)

[@numanuma20]

Yep

[@luh2112]

Hmm there could be something about our nicknames. But i can't put my finger on it.

[@benjimenfranklin7650]

Ever seen a wire recorded ?

[@Doustaneh]

exactly :)

[@dangermartin69]

That was a damn nice thing you did for those people. I'm sure it meant alot to them.

[@jamesmolloy5350]

"The museum of obsolete media only keeps the media, not the machines on which to play them" WhYYYYY

[@moamber1]

Cost and space. Machines are expensive and take a lot of space. I think Techmoan's collection makes more sense and is more valuable, from scientific point of view, but each private collection is important, on the long run.

[@f115Recs]

@@moamber1 That's pretty ridiculous, frankly. Every one of our basements and storage untis is a 'museum of obsolete media'. It helps no one! lol!

[@Halterung01]

Imagine being a Betamax collector just in it for looking at the physical tapes :P

[@PokeMaster22222]

Because it's not the Museum of Obsolete Media and Players, obviously.

[@steckelton717]

To make the media extra obsolete. What is more obsolete than media you can't play?

[@johnFruetel]

You are quite the man for doing all this to help an elderly lady hear old recordings of her family members Bravo!

[@cebruthius]

...and Joan Rivers xD

[@Akikosdream]

A good deed indeed ^^

[@adamkatt]

@Jacob Mayes that is awesome man!!!!

[@freund333]

I did a similar thing one day when a nun got into contact with me after watching one of my videos about minidiscs. She had some recordings from some religious radioshows on minidisc. But since they were recorded in lp4 she couldn't play them in her sony mz r55. So she send me the discs and i started copying them and sending her the recordings.

[@LerRhann]

Agreed. Great guy.

[@onlineidentity6826]

Can you imagine the smile on the man’s wife on hearing the voices of her relatives ? What a beautiful and kind thing you did for them. 🙏

[@thatbiguy1975]

just don't let her hear them backwards. that was a bit creepy/weird

[@hugostiglitz6914]

The museum of obsolete media not having the machines is a bit like a library only having the alphabet!

[@SardonicALLY]

I guess they don't want to be inundated with requests of this variety to solve incompatibility problems!

[@Pooua]

"We only carry books that are written in forgotten languages."

[@iamnobody8]

@@Pooua exactly!

[@Carlton-B]

I recently had some experience with a Sears electric typewriter from the 70s. It had a proprietary ribbon cartridge which was only available from Sears. They discontinued these typewriters and cartridges decades ago, so no new cartridges are available. The cartridge is fused together so you have to break it to add a new ribbon. There are no new ribbons available anywhere, so the typewriter is useless. Way to go Sears.

[@cpufreak101]

I just have to say, that sounded like the cleanest recording I've ever heard of a 1960's TV show

[@MazeFrame]

Probably because the tape was not playable in any device except the forgotten ones.

[@sailaab]

precisely my thoughts

[@kirmutsalter5770]

Because it was rendered through Audacity program,,

[@raddypex]

@@kirmutsalter5770 Audacity can only provide quality equal to or lesser than the source. It does not improve it.

[@writerpatrick]

If the TV had a headphone jack it and the recorder had a mic input, it would be possible to plug a line directly in. You have to limit the volume on the TV or it will be too loud and cause distortion. I did this in the past, mostly for TV themes, and got some good audio recordings. It's much better than holding the tape player in front of the TV.

[@NM-zq5tf]

"unnecessarily and deliberately made incompatible", sound an awful lot like a particular tech giant we know

[@user-ys4op3ux1p]

All of them?

[@SavingSergeantLiam]

@@sammie9999 what brand do you use? Also FYI there's at least three companies doing that now unfortunately! I know of Google and Samsung phones joining that particular band wagon

[@fernandogonzalez5770]

@@SavingSergeantLiam darn shame too, if i was lg id market the hell out of the quad dac, it already had an edge over alot of phone audio outputs, and now its more of a factor than before

[@SavingSergeantLiam]

@@fernandogonzalez5770 I prefer wireless headphones anyway (I'm not a big sound enthusiast, I prefer the flexibility over wireless to sound quality), but it is a shame to see aux dying out slowly. It seems to inflexible to be only be able to charge your phone or listen to music.

[@fernandogonzalez5770]

@@SavingSergeantLiam i understand, and yeah i just think it sucks that were getting one option removed, there are many high end headphones that people use on their phones, and even though bluetooth adapters exist, youre losing fidelity that you had when you had the jack, so some manufacturers can save a few dollars or maybe a little space.

[@j.vonhogen9650]

Forcing customers to stick to an exclusive ecosystem of one company by producing incompatible playback media is a much older business model/-strategy than one would think. It was common practice in the years after 1900 when reproduction pianos and grand-pianos became incredibly popular. Pianorolls could only be played on a reproduction piano of the same brand. One exception was the 'Vorsetzer', which could be placed in front of the keys of any regular piano, but it still had its own pianoroll format, incompatible with other brands. Not many people seem to know that pianorolls were big business in the 1910s and 1920s, and that famous pianists that had signed a contract with a pianoroll company were treated like popstars. I thought this would be worth mentioning here. Sorry, if this is not relevant.

[@drmodestoesq]

Indeed, George Gershwin toiled away in the composition of piano rolls. The rolls had a interesting feature. In order to "fatten" up the musical piece, they would often cut extra holes. So essentially, the work could not be played by a single human piano player only by a machine. It's interesting to note that so much music insists on human physical interaction with an instrument. Unless there is fingers on strings or lips on a mouthpiece many of can't emotionally react to the piece. Even if it can explore extra-human musical possibilities.

[@Flshbckmn]

Fascinating, never heard of this!!! Every day is a school day

[@j.vonhogen9650]

@@Flshbckmn - It is indeed fascinating. Although famous pianist had already made lots of 78rpm recordings for record companies like HMV, the sound quality was very limited, due to the fact that only after 1915 the electrical microphone started to be used by record companies (which would significantly enhance the quality of the recordings). Having a famous pianist or composer 'play' for you 'live' in your own home, on your own piano, was of course way more appealing than listening to faint sounds on a fragile spinning disk that mainly produced hiss and loud spikes of white noise. This explains why companies like Welte Mignon could afford paying so many legendary artists to record pianorolls for them (including very famous people like Saint Saens, Strauss, Mahler, Grieg, Debussy, and Paderewski). Judging from the thousands of piano & pianoroll ads I have seen in newspapers and magazines of the early 1900s, there was a lot of competition among producers and distributors of pianorolls and reproduction pianos (which by the way could also be used as a regular piano). Of course, this was a big market with lots of opportunities, since you didn't have to learn to play the piano before buying and enjoying a piano. The content (on pianorolls) motivated people to invest in a piano/grand piano, just like iTunes did with the iPod and later the iPhone. It always puzzled me why so few people know about this part of the history of recorded audio/music. At least there is enough interest over here, which is great!

[@ChrisMelville]

It’s similar to the deliberate decision to split DVD compatibility into regions. There’s no technical reason for it. Purely a marketing decision because they believed it was advantageous to separate market regions - thus introducing technical impediments artificially.

[@j.vonhogen9650]

@@ChrisMelville - Was that really a marketing decision, though? I thought the regional restrictions were introduced because of the difference in movie premiere dates and subsequent DVD release dates around the world.

It was a relief to see that you could save the recording on that tape. :)

[@Stefan-]

@@andymerrett Yes, you can since many years correct speed and pitch and many other things in the computer, i know this since i use professional softwares for recording and mixing music, being a musician.

[@simontay4851]

Even without software, he could modify the cassette player - swap the polarity of the motor to make it run backwards or flip the head the other way.

[@Stefan-]

@@simontay4851 Swapping the polarity of the motor would probably not work that well unless you have a autoreverse deck at least since the autoreverse ones has capstans on both sides. I think flipping the head would work since it would then play the other side of the cassette which would normally be backwards compared to the first side. I had a 4 track cassette portastudio in the 80´s, on that thing you could have just played the tape and transfered it correctly since all 4 tracks was in the same direction so that may be an option far easier than modding a tape recorder. its of course easier to use the computer though since you want to transfer it to digital audio anyway. (Flippin head ! or Flippin heck ! :-) )

[@slamlander3360]

We have a similar problem with backup media. ;)

[@williamschroeder3070]

Kudos for helping the man and his wife out. Proprietary formats have never been, and never will be, a benefit to the consumer. Computer software and hardware are notorious for this.

[@stuartcole4845]

We only call them “proptietary “ from an historical context when they didn’t end up being the dominant format. History is written by the victors.

[@Fifury161]

@@stuartcole4845 Agreed - One example is Firewire was proprietary, however Apple licensed it and eventually it was available license free as IEEE-1394 when it became standardised...

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

@@stuartcole4845 not really though. If it can only be bought from a certain producer and only used with stuff from that company it is proprietary no matter if it becomes the standard format or not. It is just that proprietary formats generally have little chance to become the industry standard. There are loads of "open" formats that never got any traction and we do not call them proprietary.

[@video99couk]

@Jacob Mayes Yes, Sony who co-invented that obscure format called CD. History writes what people call a proprietary format. Sony also invested Beta which became Betacam, the defacto standard in TV studios for decades.

[@dj1NM3]

@@Fifury161 Firewire did get abandonned pretty quickly though, as USB 2.0 was faster and camcorders started to use SD Cards (or Memory Stick or xD card, depending on manufacturer) so they could just be plugged into a media reader for dumping files onto your computer's HDD for editing.

[@ScrewThisGlueThat]

While working for a repair shop we often noticed Sears Licensed Products had parts which changed the appearance or function of the item and those replacement part were only available through sears and often were the parts that broke and needed replacement. The same item under the original manufacturers often didn't have those same failures.

[@ShaneMcGraw]

I'm so glad I found this channel. When I'm watching I am 100% aware that I'm geeking out on what a lot of folks would call "old junk," but it's episodes like this which truly trip my trigger. It's especially satisfying to watch it unfold when you run across a format of which you were not previously aware. Keep it up! Thanks for posting.

[@corvusprojects]

The museum doesn't keep the machines to play the media? How ridiculous. Is there a museum of obsolete media players???

[@JasonStevens]

It's next the museum of dodgy leads. Or across from the museum of batteries.

[@BlaBla-jj6sh]

Luckily, there is. It's Techmoan's house. And I agree the actual museum seemingly not caring about machines to play their data is Captain Picard facepalm meme level 3000.

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

@@BlaBla-jj6sh it is pretty obvious. If they also had the players it would become "the museum of obsolete media, and their players...." ;)

[@HerecomestheCalavera]

What is the point of preserving the media if you don't have machine to play it on? That is beyond ridiculous!

[@michaelarmer256]

@@HerecomestheCalavera could be a decent unviersty project where your given a random bit of media and have to make a device that can actually play it back somehow

[@graemenias577]

From the context I'm assuming Mike's wife is suffering from some form of dementia. I lost my dad to Alzheimers a couple of years ago and it's absolutely heartbreaking to watch someone fade away like that, but old memories like these can really help lift their spirits and stave off some of the effects. I can just imagine her face lighting up as she listens to those recordings! Massive respect to you for taking the time to help these people out.

[@simontaylor4832]

Lovely video, never comment on 11 years of youtube but this was touching. Well done pal.

[@EggBastion]

3:14 - "it's backwards" Your delivery, sublime.

[@zappawench6048]

Techmoan, you're a top bloke, helping an old lady to hear the voices of her loved ones once again.

[@nozmoking1]

I screamed for a tape recorder as a kid. Yes, the old man went dutifully straight to Sears and came back with.... A silver and brown sears tape cartridge recorder. It came with exactly ONE 30 minute cartridge, then quickly became obsolete never to be seen or heard from again. As I recall it was almost a hundred bucks but I could be wrong. In those days people tended to be "brand loyal" and never shopped anywhere else. In our house, either Sears sold it or you went without.

[@Trenchbroom]

Or if you lived in the sticks with parents who thought going to a town with more than three stoplights was "dangerous city driving", then Sears was your whole world. I have no doubt that with some research I could find 90%of the stuff in my childhood home looking at nothing but a stack of Sears catalogs from 1965-1985.

[@MattMcIrvin]

My dad worked for General Electric in the 1970s and we got employee discounts on GE products, so practically everything in the house that ran on electricity was GE. Fortunately in this case GE standardized on the Philips cassette. Dad had a GE recorder that he used for years to record everything we said on Christmas morning when we were little kids: getting manically excited about some of our presents, grousing over presents we found disappointing, singing dopey Christmas songs, etc. Every one of them ends with my mother saying "Gary, turn that thing off." My sister kept the tapes as nostalgia/blackmail material.

[@dougbrowning82]

If Sears sold it, then I guess they thought the Sanyo tape cartridge was a promising format. As I recall, Sears also sold Betamax video recorders, another promising format that quickly bit the dust.

[@denshi-oji494]

Doug Browning Sad but true. I never owned a sears Beta machine, but stayed loyal to the format because of how much better the video looks on it, till I was no longer able to find blank tapes for the VCRs. very reluctantly added VHS to my collection, and was disappointed always with it, needing to record only 2 hours per tape for decent quality... It was very cool when the SVHS-ET variety came out however. Finally a version I liked, definitely more video noise than Beta, but higher resolution for sure! Sadly compatibility issues are also exaggerated with SVHS-ET. oh well, I know I never said VHS was ever a format worth choosing over something else...

[@allothernamesbutthis]

@@MattMcIrvin lol blackmail.... f'ing sisters for you! :D

[@PeenWienerstien]

Wait, so the museum of obsolete media, does have the machines to play obsolete media? That seems like a bit of an oversight dont you think?

[@mycatisdumb99]

It's likely meant to be a Mueseum about the formats themselves and the history of recorded media. Lacking the visual aid of players could be called an oversight still I suppose

[@pvthudson5069]

Yes, what are they thinking? it's all useless without being able to get the information off it.

[@drmodestoesq]

@@pvthudson5069 Perhaps the museum was set up for the purposes of cautionary education. See this worthless crap.....don't do this.

[@pvthudson5069]

@@drmodestoesq maybe. It all becomes worthless crap in the end.

[@Hypercube9]

If they had the media AND the ability to play them, then they wouldn't be obsolete anymore!

[@jayfarina7263]

You are a Top Master. Amazing story with perfect result. I would be terrified to open that tape and tranfer it to the cassette plastic tape due to the important sentimental content inside, but you just made it perfecly. What a master!

[@jimdayton8837]

I wouldn't. Just take your time and be careful and it can be done.

[@someolddude7076]

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, in the Museum of Obsolete Playback Devices ...

[@greenaum]

I have to say, Museum of Obsolete Media sounds like it's at least easy to keep in an old gym bag, but most media lose at least some of their fun and utility without a device that actually plays them.

[@triplesevensix291]

Silly eh? Why keep the media but not the devices to play it on? Its a no brainer. I watched a thing on KZbin recently with Money Mark from The Beastie Boys & he had a load of those paper music rolls but nothing to play them on so I think he rigged up something homemade to do the job? I may be wrong on that though? Cheers anyway Mike. ;) Peace out...

[@joshglover2370]

You would think a place that has the media would try to have the equipment to play it... 😕

[@MrWombatty]

Otherwise known as the Techmoan Museum!

[@dozog]

Made me smile.

[@q8386]

Stunning recording from the past, Mat! Many elderly people, especially those with dementia, love to hear voices from their past that they can remember. This really helps their cognitive ability, and improves their sense of well-being. Uptick for that alone.

[@deezynar]

That was awesome that you went above and beyond to help a complete stranger. Well done, sir! And thanks for sharing such an esoteric bit of history with everyone. It may be helpful to other people who run into the same problem.

[@mbjac]

I love how this channel is on the road to a million subs, absolutely love this stuff

[@kenhensch3996]

Smearing water in the label to make it more legible?! What are you Sherlock Holmes now?

[@rongarza9488]

My brother-in-law looks at the wear on a brake pedal when buying a used car. ... What a dumbass!

[@bff1316]

@@rongarza9488 Why is he a dumbass? There is a lot of information about the car and the previous owner there. There are quite a few things to look at on a used car to prevent you buying a poorly maintained or previously wrecked car.

[@rongarza9488]

@Jill Sweeney Yeah, I wasn't directing my comment at anyone in particular. It's just that some things are good indicators of how the car was treated, and some aren't. Whether a driver slides his/her shoe off the brake or not, well that not a great indicator of anything.

[@keithheinz2120]

why the fuck are these the replies

[@killphill68]

The white paper when wet is like a wet t-shirt. When white t-shirt is wet you can see through it easier. That's why wet T-shirt contest are so popular.

[@springbay1]

You could say that Sears were a bit backwards trying to come up with a proprietary cassette system. Though, I have to acknowledge the effort of making custom labels in a typewriter and then glueing it on the cassette.

[@vadsuhanc]

Maybe backwards, but we didn't know the release date of the Sears player. I think it can have a low chance that it was released before the Philips compact casette.

[@slaughterround643]

@@vadsuhanc Lmao certainly not Nice pun, springbay1

[@musashigundoh]

@@vadsuhanc Seeing as it has the exact same tape reels, just repackaged in a slightly different shell, I'm sure it came later. Philips copying Sears is way too far-fetched.

[@CanIHasThisName]

A crappy policy is what that was. Kinda like printer companies charging ridiculous money for ink cartridges.

[@xaenon]

I think it's a bit premature to say conclusively that Sears was responsible for this format. Sears is a retailer; they have manufacturers slap the Sears name on their products, but they're not a company that develops technologies. Sears clearly sold these things, but I don't think they MADE this oddball format. Did they have an interest in you coming back for tapes and accessories? Clearly, and that may very well have influenced their decision to market this particular format, but that doesn't imply they developed it.

[@karlparsons4861]

Your care and treatment of this tape for the wife is truely touching. And I love learning such " old " tech info. Thank you.

[@gwernette5971]

Thank you for taking the time to recover these valuable memories for this family.

[@TheSektorz]

That was an unexpectedly sweet video. Glad you managed to extract the recording despite the initial oopsie - you're a real hero when it comes to audio formats.

[@fwgmills]

Reminds me a bit about Sony Memory stick vs. Compact flash and later SD cards.

[@Techmoan]

I think the only things that I could say that are _slightly_ more positive about Memory Sticks are that more than one manufacturer made them and they could be bought in more than one store. (but I’m not defending them either).

[@RandallJennings]

Not unlike the Sears Video Arcade (Atari 2600) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600#/media/File%3AAtari-2600-Tele-Games-FL.jpg

[@HappyHands.]

I shill have memory sticks that for some reason i can still read them in my computer multimedia slot.

[@musashigundoh]

At least when they first came out, Memory Sticks had some advantages over CF (smaller size, no fragile pins), were less glitchy than MMC and especially SM, and Sony didn't restrict their use to their own players and laptops. This cassette is just pure spite.

[@LogiForce86]

The advantage those memory sticks have over this obscure tape however is that those sticks were used in a widely and internationally sold product, the PlayStation Portable.

[@chrishamilton8134]

Great job, very kind of you to go thru the effort to transfer and capture familiar voices from someones past out of kindness. Great job indeed.

[@C6438911]

Great video! I genuinely felt good when you were able to help the persons with this incompatible tape. This is absolutely the best channel to find out about vintage or old equipment and media and all the strange formats they use. Thank you!

[@kopisusu2000]

Besides making users stuck with that format, I believe Sears also managed to evade paying royalty to Philips as well. That's smart, evil smart. Ow, and best wishes to Mike and his wife.

[@kopisusu2000]

​@Matthew Hopkins Ah, of course, I forgot about that part. Thank you.

[@mjouwbuis]

While Philips licensed the format for free, there were other patent holders (or maybe even Philips themselves) cashing in on patents for some technical details that improved on the basic mechanism. The name of Staar S.A., Brussels, Belgium could be found as a licensor on many a Japanese player in the past.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

You didn't play the outro music... I had to hum them by myself.

[@feronanthus9756]

i.imgur.com/KlKjGn8.gif

[@ToddVierling]

A classic example of the concept of vendor lock-in. This was extremely common until the 1970's and 1980's, and hardware manufacturers for computers still try to do the same thing today from time to time.

[@zanizone3617]

I generally love all Techmoan videos, the Tefifon, the series about Mission Impossible tape recorders, all the Nixie tube ones, but this one is one of my favorites. I've watched it several times already, in the last year. It's a little gem.

[@SeanKerns]

I do audio transfers for a living, BTW, and am always running into odd formats, and your videos have a been a great help in identifying many of them for me.

[@kensims4086]

I transfer anything for free for people.. Any format... I would feel guilty charging money for a fun hobby..

[@andynormancx]

Awaits inevitable follow-up video demoing the Sear recorder itself...

[@d2factotum]

I doubt there's much point. It'll be a standard cassette recorder but with slightly larger innards and the tape heads turned the other way up.

[@andynormancx]

@@d2factotum like there being any "point" has ever held him back ;)

[@garronmartin9507]

Thank you for posting this, very informative, I have never heard of these formats in all my years of fumbling around in audio. Always great to hear of something different and it helps fill in part of the history of these devices. Very well done.

[@Yeshuah6]

found this in my recommended a couple days ago and ive realized that tis is a channel that i desperately needed to be subscribed to. i love learning about old technology especially concerning outdated recording mediums. in the two days that iven been watching your videos ive learned quite a bit and am looking forward to future videos.

[@JohanRoman]

You are a very nice and decent man! Good on you!!

[@JohanRoman]

Thank you @Meep for saying that. I do my best

[@SwissTanuki]

Even better for the people his helping and on the bonus side also very entertaining for us. So; thanks for sharing.

[@indextron2388]

Now this has to be one of my new favorites. Short simple and absolutely fascinating!

[@Injudiciously]

There is a special place in hell for that kind of arrogant "vendor lock in". VB6 anyone?

[@tommc4916]

L Ofaday the 'Razor and Blades' business model.

[@shannondove96]

Look whats happening to sears now,...god sees everything , they are reaping what they sowed

[@reel_images]

You're amazing, you're very caring and compassionate. I enjoy watching your videos as well helping people reminisce.

[@richardhead8264]

Mat, you're a super-stud for helping this sick old lady relive better days! And I really enjoy any and all content to do with cassettes! Thanks!

[@stricm3]

Not sure if this has been posted, but the player you want for these is the Sanyo Cartridge-corder (note the spelling).

[@dozog]

LoL. Or you perform a tape transplant. 😀

[@red_ford23]

Lovely.

[@pcallas66]

I'm convinced that if there's an odd format out there, you'll find it. I enjoy your videos. Thank you for posting.

[@georgestyer2153]

Patience and persistance brings forth pleasure...Thanks for taking the time to help this lady

[@GustoTheGamer]

techmoan having a good time with al these good old audio formats. most people just press play on spotify....loosing the fun of making your own cassette’s/minidisc or cd.

[@tech34756]

My brother once gave me his minidisc player/recorder because I managed to work out the Engrish instructions to record using the device itself via the aux input. It was almost a shock when I moved on to MP3 and had most of the work done for me.

[@countzero1136]

@@Android-ng1wn And revel in the apalling sound quality of the poxy little speaker in the echo :( PROPER speakers are BIG with multiple drivers and solid cabinets. Anything else is cheap junk.

[@horchy]

I've been watching you for years but this video just blew my mind! What an amazing find. I had no idea this format existed. Your camera and video editing skills have also shot through the roof, I might add :). You had me saying "wow" every 10 seconds. Brilliant mate! Keep up the good work.

[@danh5637]

Mind boggling to see Joan Rivers listed as 'Girl Comedian'.

[@nw_naterhoadarmer1556]

A few samples would be sweet!

[@ranz2355]

I know, right? Who ever thought she was funny?

[@Hypercube9]

That must be a REALLY old tape!

[@stan.rarick8556]

Different times :-) Not PC today. (I'm not complaining)

[@johndef5075]

@@ranz2355 exactly.

[@davidkleinthefamousp]

A very nice turn you did. Kudos to your radial group, you make them look good. You man, are a credit.

[@DavidGreen_au]

This reminds me of Amstrad computers and their 3" Disk Drive. The standard was of course 3½". That worked equally well for them too.

[@tabajaralabs]

Oh, I'm quite fond of my 3" disk drive on my spectrum +3, but maybe because I was a child (in Brazil) at that time and this computer to me was an utopia, an unnatainable dream :)

[@gwishart]

@@KarlHamilton ..and then he lumbered the Spectrum +3 with 3" drives too, because he had a load of old Amstrad CPC disk drives he couldn't sell.

[@jasejj]

And of course like this Sanyo cassette format, the 3" FDD was a failed Japanese offering, this time from Hitachi, that hadn't gained traction in the market. It was a very solid and reliable media format though, so I think Sugar got it right really.

[@familyhelpdeskhelpdesk270]

Wasn't just amstrad, the Tatung Einstein used them too.

[@Zeem4]

@@familyhelpdeskhelpdesk270 And Oric, and they were available as third-party upgrades for several other machines including the BBC Micro.

[@thejoneseys]

You've probably made the guys wife very happy going the extra mile with that. Absolutely superb job, top man. Never seen or heard of those before so was very interesting indeed! 👍🏻

[@johnpalmerrushaz]

You're awesome for helping out on this kind of project for Mike :)

[@TheBrickson98]

Great video! Something about it made me enjoy it very much. I think it may have just been your dedication to recovering the audio for this guy.

[@bobd5119]

One of the things I learned is that Audacity can reverse the audio. Neat! Many thanks!

[@terencejay8845]

When it was playing backwards, I was thinking 'Reverse it! Reverse it!'

[@TheKillogicEffect]

I remember coming across some of those in a collection of old tapes my grandmother had given me when i was a kid and i was so confused at the time. They didnt fit any cassette player we had at the time. Great video, thank you sir.

[@sothic23]

Damn I love Techmoan... This was yet another thrilling piece of tech history, thank you so much bro!

[@johnnyc.5979]

Love your channel, always something different and unexpected to look forward to.

[@panameadeplm]

Are you sure that's not an Apple cassette?

[@Nylle_]

You could say that Sears was really ahead of it's time, pulling this sort of crap decades ago.

[@DibIrken]

Comes with a $9.99 cassette case.

[@PSUQDPICHQIEIWC]

The joke gets even better when you realize it required a third party to provide data recovery.

[@UgurOnderBozkurt]

and it needs a special pen to rewind :)

[@ricovali9245]

Thats the first thing that came to mind too

[@boeingnz]

I have the fear of playing unknown tapes. Watched Evil Dead too many times.

[@_Scintill8tor]

Join us!

[@BravoTwoDelta]

Make sure you say all the words correctly.......

[@SwankeyMonkey]

*_The Ring_* for me.

[@BoredInNW6]

@@BravoTwoDelta klaatu... barada... necktie?

[@andrewscrazy]

Silly atheist

[@OriginImports]

Actually one of the cooler things ive ever watched on YT

[@TEFLAudios]

First time I've watched one of your videos. Fascinating and informative. And an excellent speaking voice to boot. Brilliant.

[@ParoxyDM]

The Sears store in the photo looks amazing! Vintage styling at it's peak.

[@BegoneJonah]

Paroxy DM That’s Valley Plaza in Van Nuys or North Hollywood - I think. It was our “back to school” destination in the 1960s.

[@lazyrrr2411]

'worked at one in the Detroit area that matched it Exactly 🌴 minus palm trees

[@TurboLazer007]

I am a OCD person with a passion for electronics. This video is pure honey for my eyes and ears :) Both content and editing superb. Well done as always dear sir.

[@travena1]

Hi there, I lived in Montreal Canada in the late 60's and these machines/tapes were available from the Steinberg's Miracle Mart supermarket chain. The manufacturer of the player/recorders were Sanyo. I also tried to get these tapes to play in a subsequently purchased CC machine to no avail, not having access in those days to software based audio. In the 90's however using 'Adobe Audition', then called 'Cool Edit Pro', I was finally able to listen to hours of Montreal's early 70's FM stations.....oh the memories!! Enjoy your site, very informative, many thanx....Mike.

[@johndavies6253]

That was fascinating Matt, thank you for sharing that & well done for getting those memories back to the original owners.

[@DRDCC]

So nice of you, to provide this help. We can all learn from the “how do you say no” statement you made.

[@bland9876]

"How do you say no?" You just said it. lol also there are people who are jerks and probably would have charged them an arm and a leg.

[@DRDCC]

I was tested within 24 hours after writing this......

[@bland9876]

@@DRDCC "how do you say no" "What's the number for nine one one: "Never say never" All sentences that do the thing they say they can't do

[@p165711]

And now Sears are about to pass into history as well, certainly they have vanished from Canada.

[@Sakamoto196]

Still exist in Mexico

[@RX-8GT]

There's like 700 sears stores left in the US, filed for bankruptcy, but I think it's done for a reason, because I think they own Kmart as well.. Either they just transitioned to Kmart or simply that Walmart just took over. I remember going to sears with my dad all the time as a kid

[@cindydott452]

It's a wonderful thing that you were able to step in and help!

[@andrewtaylor940]

Great video. And great story. Thrilled that you were able to get him his recordings.

[@spiff2268]

There's good people, and then there's GOOD PEOPLE. Techmoan is GOOD PEOPLE!

[@TheRanblingjohnny]

You got to love Audacity. Like FFMPEG you never regret having those tools around.

[@TheWalrusWasDanny]

Brilliant video...dead interesting!! You learn something new every day!!! Thanks Techmoan!! Danny

[@gbarrett123]

This was probably the most informative video I have seen on KZbin in months. Thank you.

[@kevtris]

there's archives of sears catalogs on the internet; it might be possible to find models of player in there maybe. armed with model numbers/names, ebay searches could be more successful.

[@keithbrown7685]

Oh wow. I wonder if the Wish Books are there. We LOVED THOSE at Christmas time. : )

[@beiqhy]

Well made video with a heartwarming story ! Thank you for the entertainment :)

[@davidbrock4104]

Wow! Thanks for posting, never heard of this format

[@marclanman1902]

Thanks for recording this video in a format compatible with my KZbin player!!!

[@RonanNotRyan]

Sears making a cassette tape format deliberately made so that you could only use _their_ products? Now why does that sound familiar... (**cough** Sony **cough**)

[@EmergencyChannel]

*cough* Hundreds of companies over the years *cough*

[@RAMChYLD]

*cough*Nintendo*cough*

[@xureality]

*cough* red *cough*

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

Or every corperation to ever be created if you give them the chance. It is what we encourage them to do, so no need to be salty about it really.

[@IngwiePhoenix]

Sony? I thought of Apple at first. x)

[@pearlynx]

'girl comedian' - yep that's the Mad Men era alright. Sweet work, Techmoan!

[@adankseasonads935]

I love your channel man. I binge watch and then go about my life, only to return a few months later to be reminded how awesome the content is. I binge watch and the loop continues. In the odd chance you ever read this.. Thanks for all your efforts. I very much appreciate them.

[@moracomole8090]

Audio and Video so freaking good not even Camera channels have such a crispy quality

[@GroovingPict]

It's the same thing whenever a new format is invented: competing companies fall over themselves to make their own slightly different version, which they can then patent themselves since it's different enough from the original inventor's version. And sometimes those cynical companies end up with the defacto standard, managing to outcompete even the original format. It was the same with the gramophone (which, btw, back then was not a general term but specific to Berliner's sisterhood of companies), it was the same with home video tapes, it was the same with digital audio tapes, it was the same with video discs (CED vs VHD vs LD I mean), and same again with high definition video discs (Bluray vs HD DVD)

[@jezt42]

That restores my faith in human nature! Thanks for the upload. Sears’ attempt to tie you in to buying their format of tech did sort of remind me of Apple... ;)

[@shanegarstig9689]

Particularly good episode, thank you, heartwarming

[@Andreas_Hopf]

The level of in-depth obscure audio forensics on your channel is just spectacular.

[@elliottslab]

Great you was able to get the recording off the tape for them, and uncovered the mystery 😃

[@orange-op4ob]

RED is basically doing the same thing today with Mini-Mags.

[@BlaBla-jj6sh]

Yes, but Jinni come lately

[@taldmd]

Excuse me sir, how many coins have you got due to advertising your address on your username? I'm genuinely curious, not trolling.

[@mo1979ca]

That was very interesting. Sears was smart to do that. And that was so cool how you were able to recover the tape. I learn something new each day.

[@SuperFredAZ]

Very nice of you to transfer the files!

[@SomePeopleCallMeWulfman]

Wow, I bet someone at Sears felt really clever back in the day...

[@keithbrown7685]

Yeah. A clever scumbag, it turns out. : )

[@gavincurtis]

His nephew works at Apple today.

[@Devilsharck]

It was Steve Jobs doing work experience.

[@tremorist]

...but then turned out not to be.

[@denimadept]

Sears probably got the idea from Edison. Have you ever tried to play an Edison disk on a Victrola or similar? Won't work. They recorded at 90 degrees to what we now consider normal mono.

[@westelaudio943]

That's how the original edison wax cylinders were made as well. The horizontal grooves came later. Edison just stuck to them into the disk era.

[@denimadept]

@@spacemissing I learned something today! Maybe I shouldn't think I'm a recording engineer. :-)

[@DigitalDiabloUK]

This sounds like something Professor Farnsworth from Futurama might say.

[@denimadept]

@@andymerrett I ran into this problem back in 1990, when my gf at the time and I went into an antiques shop and bought a stack of the things. Took them back to her place and tried to play them on her Victrola, and learned of the difference.

[@synopticdesigns7868]

That's strange. I have quite a few Edison disc records (collected by my father) and they play just fine on a standard turntable, although the correct speed is 80 rpm. However, I also have Pathé discs which do have vertical modulation. I've never found any way of playing those discs. The stylus just skates across the surface without tracking.

[@DavidCKendall]

Yours are some of the most interesting videos I've seen. Great technique, visuals and presentation. Well done, sir! Applause.

[@cs512tr]

i love cassettes, i have many memories of my cousins and i on them. i used audacity to convert them to mp3 with the 3.5mm - 3.5mm cable