The last cassette mechs & Aldi's 2019 Boombox

[@xgford94]

It’s amazing how high quality does not translate through KZbin compression.....but crap comes through loud and clear

[@AlexanderBellOpelika]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJ3PZq2phKyBgaM if you want the original to compare

[@phillytee9106]

LMAO totally agree

[@QoraxAudio]

Jep. Truly crappy equipment is even crappier than KZbin audio.

[@JuanDaMajikOne]

LOL! I keep telling my friend the exact same thing!

[@johnm3152]

KZbin doesn't like subtlety

[@stevecoatesdotnet]

I like how the LED is labelled 'LED'. I suppose the scale will be useful so we can learn to count to 10.

[@AtheistOrphan]

nickhill92 - I noticed that too.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Atheist Orphan Wonder if those were instructions to the factory on what to put where?

[@simonrussell4986]

At first I was confused about the blue light. Then I read LED. That's cleared that up.

[@FarnhamJ07]

One of my first thoughts too! Lots of cheap Chinese stuff takes labeling to the extreme, it ain't just about replicating the look of the 80's. Looks gaudy as hell and makes stuff reek of cheapness if ya ask me!

[@Norweeg]

Jonathan Farnham Also that god awful MS-MingLiu font used on all the Engrish “instructions.” Actually, that font is from 2008, but it’s the closest I could find to that same font type that’s been used forever.

[@JacGoudsmit]

11:55 Trolling level: Master :-)

[@davidf2281]

MAN CREATES WORMHOLE AT HOME. SCIENTISTS BAFFLED.

[@zanfr123]

wormhole confirmed!

[@paulgascoigne5343]

In years to come there will be a Chernobyl style tv series made of this.

[@CraigPeace]

Thumbs up for this alone

[@Sampler19]

What the eck? That was 11 minutes in already? Felt like 11 seconds.

[@kensims4086]

I fired up my reel to reel last night. I recorded a record on a 60 year old tape. I played it back and it sounded even better than the record. And the smell of warm open reel tape was so good i wish i could make it a candle scent.

[@freebretth]

I’m jealous

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

I’ve still have my Grundig boom box from the late 1970s. It’s heavy, brown and built like a tank. And made in West Germany.

[@alexm566]

have you replaced the belts and capacitors?

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

Alex Movsessian Only the driving belt needed replacing. It turned all gluey.

[@namesurname4666]

what is the model?

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

RR220 International.

[@namesurname4666]

@@AmigaA-or2hj thanks

[@purplefuku]

You mixed up the batteries again... Energizer is alphabetically before Sony! 😂😉

[@edwardwood6532]

They are organized by color, not maker.

[@Not-Great-at-Gaming]

Alphabetical order (Duracell, Energizer, Sony, Wilco) is also arguably the order from best to worst.

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

wilko* you probably aren't British are you? its a store like a single priced store (e.g. Poundland/Dealz) but without being single priced and focusing more on DIY and home furniture and less grey imports. edited to add "Poundland/Dealz" incase anyone isn't british but from another European country such as ROI that has a "Dealz" store which is a brand owned by Poundland.

[@Not-Great-at-Gaming]

@@wclifton968gameplaystutorials I actually just thought it was some old brand people don't use anymore, like Rayovac.

[@Noxedwin]

@@edwardwood6532 They're organised by how late in the year their respective lead engineers' first-cousins' birthdays are. It just makes sense.

[@DoRC]

Next time add a c cell with a wad of aluminum foil for maximum trolling:)

[@NigelDixon1952]

How dare you! This is Great Britain, we say ALUMINIUM not ALUMINUM! You deserve three lashes for such a travesty!

[@cpufreak101]

lol I remember using a wireless mouse that way with a AAA battery shoved in there

[@previousslayer]

Relevant EEVB (the new XKCD): kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4KUfoOonMqUZ68

[@redston_1]

Throw in different kinds of batteries too, he-he. (I. E. Alkaline, lithium, rechargeable etc.)

[@Terminus_El_Camino]

Haha - I did that very trick to get a boom box functioning in short notice to go to a drive-in movie about 20 years ago. Everyone thought I was a genius, and I'm like, what - it's the same voltage, we just fill in the space and it will work just fine. For the youngsters, a drive in movie is a place where we used to go see movies in our cars on a large outdoor screens. Before FM broadcast at drive-ins, we listened to tinny mono speakers that we would mount in our windows. Good times.

[@cedarstuff]

Sony batteries are renowned for poor bass reproduction, especially when mixed with Duracell.

[@Richard-bq3ni]

You can only get good sound reproduction by using high end audioquest batteries. The produce s more open en detailed sound stage. But not before they have been broken in and put in the fridge for a couple of hours. 😁

[@thanasisathanasi4965]

cut the crap all of you

[@karl_3885]

@@thanasisathanasi4965 lol

[@sicks6six]

pound shop battery's produce best bass and treble. you just end up with lots of dead battery's on your coffee table,

[@joshuarosen6242]

@@Richard-bq3ni Don't forget the low oxygen 100% silver battery terminals. They are critical to maintaining crisp response at high frequencies.

[@kelvinham8576]

A special feature of that unit, distortion enhancement. Distortion so obvious so up front, amazing.

[@19seventy97]

Its funny how a new “vintage” tape player sells for £30 but you can get a much higher quality 70s player for £35.

[@theabandonedyoutubechannel5251]

I got my Vector Research VCX-250 for $35 USD (probably about 30 in your currency) and it was a good investment, unlike the piece of shit in the video.

[@JosipMiller]

@@theabandonedyoutubechannel5251 These are different class of decks, there should be no comparison.

[@vipervidsgamingplus5723]

I mean what do you really expect, now it is quantity over quality unlike in the past when it was quality over quantity

[@zyriuz2]

Its ironic, most old boomboxes still work and where pretty much indestructible due to companies taking pride in their product quality, now they just take pride over their price. But we only have ourselves to blame because most people go for the "price > quality" menatlity when shopping wich is of course not good because all we get is shit products that break after 3 years so we can buy a new one. And that sucks both from a consumer perspective and an environmental perspective because all these shitty products pile up on the landfills and pollute the planet even more :(

[@heinzerbrew]

@@vipervidsgamingplus5723 What past are you talking about. There have always been companies/craftsman that would make poor quality products to make more money. Get off your high horse.

[@andymadden8183]

15:38 I notice that LED just says "LED". Helpful.

[@vulekv93]

I'm surprised they didn't write: Light Emitting Diode.

[@tubical71]

I got a end 70s boombox where the power LED is labeled "Power L. E. D. Display" ;)

[@Roxor128]

Clearly they have Captain Obvious as a part-time employee at whatever Shenzhen company that made that hunk of junk.

[@thanasisathanasi4965]

Who buys this shit?

[@Dan_07]

Roxor128 “Shenzhen nangfang electronic product” I have seen before

[@johnwelch703]

But it must be a good quality player, the tape door opens so slowly.

[@RustyPetterson]

In the words of Alan Partidge: "Nice action".

[@rogeliolopez2190]

If only it was still like that

[@Richard-bq3ni]

Did you notice the impatience when he pulled it open? It should have label like "soft open door" or something. At least that wouldn't have been a lie.

[@pauldzim]

No doubt that was the sticky stuff he got on his fingers at the end

[@dashcamandy2242]

I'm old enough to remember when "Soft Eject" *WAS* a sign of a higher-quality unit!

[@kissingfrogs]

I think that worm hole you opened up created a time dilation field making the tape to run 3% faster. You should have not mixed batteries!!!

[@zanfr123]

when this baby hits 88% flutter you are going to see some serious shit!

[@xamanto]

Imma gonna leave your likes at 69.

[@NOWThatsRichy]

When the batteries start to run down, it will play at the correct speed! 😁😁

[@Shermanbay]

Mixing batteries is OK, but never cross the streams!

[@cardboardboxification]

If everyone in the world turns that POS on at the same time the terminator will appear...

[@esa062]

I don't think I have ever seen a led marked as "LED" before :-)

[@darkdoescosplays]

It's a useful as indicator lights on an Audi ;)

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

@@darkdoescosplays You mean BMW?

[@Xezlec]

"LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE"

[@GryphLane]

@@Knaeckebrotsaege Found the Audi driver 😂

[@DaXande135]

@@Knaeckebrotsaege Nichts gegen BMW oida! Ein Abo hast du trotzdem, einfach weil du Techmoan schaust, vor Ewigkeiten Beam NG und Minecraft Videos gemacht hast und ja des wars.

[@G4t0c]

we need a 10 hour video of techmoan saying "blutup mode"

[@bandiras2]

They had the nerve to make a 2 speaker system entirerly mono... and for 30 pounds... WHY?

[@SeanBZA]

Probably because the second speaker worked out cheaper to buy in bulk than the dummy speaker. Bet they are wired in series, as most cheap amplifiers that work off 6V are not too likely to work well into a 2R load, and the coupling capacitor required would be massive. you could probably improve things on that machine somewhat, but still, polishing a turd still leaves it as a turd, albeit a very glossy one. I guess the main board was actually designed for a mono low cost player as well, and then, when whoever the OEM was that subcontracted for " cassette player with radio, 3 band, AM,FM,SW, with added on USB support and SD with bluetooth playback ability" just took existing board designs, added in the extra switch input for the added board, then replied to the request asking what case they wanted, perhaps with some existing old stock moulds that were left over from old runs. Chose the stereo one, as that fitted it all with minimal changes to the mould ( probably an extra top section for the added holes and mountings, so cheap) and then started making for as low cost as possible.

[@westelaudio943]

That has been done since forever.

[@Norweeg]

The same type of thing with mono sound and a boom box happened to 8-bit Guy if I remember correctly. It’s been awhile, but I think it was him.

[@DrewskisBrews]

Because the only design goals are cost and aesthetics. Beyond that, all it needs to do is make some sort of sound from all the sources

[@bandiras2]

​@@DrewskisBrews The really sad thing is, there's a target group who has so little musical needs, they will consider this garbage as a good quality catch... for their garbage "music"...

[@AcornElectron]

Keeps me busy for half hour on a Sunday morning! Keep up the good work fella!

[@hoppend]

Laughing aloud when he peeled back the sticker with that music🤣🤣

[@opinionday0079]

was that a piss take of unbox therapy ....he loves removing plastic from things

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@hoppened >>> "TMP". "TechMoan Porn". 😊

[@randywatson8347]

Boombox on nitro lol.

[@marcusdamberger]

Check out 24:34, that ASMR you can just hear under the beat drop!

[@BertGrink]

An EPIC moment imo :)

[@johnpenguin9188]

"Tanashin" I misread as "trashbin" and as I can see from the video it's not far from the truth...

[@phillytee9106]

Actually it's more to do with the budget tape head fitted to the mechanism and crappy speakers and enclosure more than the Tanashin mecahnism itself that is to blame.

[@gentuxable]

Usually a cheaper mechanism has less parts which make it less prone to failure. But of course it could mean more custom parts which could be harder to find and replace or lower longevity because of cost-cutting measures.

[@RealEpikCartfrenYT]

A cassette mechanism is only as good as its play head and motor. If you have a quality head and a quality motor, then the cassette mechanism will perform great, but if the motor is crap and the head is mono it's gonna perform horribly

[@microlies]

I’ve got that woman living in a pair of Chinese Bluetooth headphones.... please let the batteries run down and see if you get a message about ‘the water draining the batteries’ like my headphones.....

[@LesKing72]

I have her too but she just says "low battery, please charge"

[@calebm9000]

My bluetooth earbuds give an ear-splitting beep and she screams at me to recharge.

[@TingFeng77]

Mine interrupts the music, then says "battery is low, please recharge in time" And it will do this every few seconds, stopping and restarting the music, stops when you plug in the charging cable and charge it

[@CCCW]

Niiiice, a badly soldered AC wire next to the antenna wire

[@UberAlphaSirus]

It probably only 9v ac.

[@user2C47]

@@UberAlphaSirus it could still damage an antenna preamp.

[@wisteela]

Yes, I was thinking the same.

[@8bitwiz_]

The other blue wire is clearly a bad solder joint too, the solder didn't even cover the wire. That's a sure sign that it is made of only the finest QUALITY Chineseium! ("quality" as in "quality van", search for it)

[@johnruschmeyer5769]

And such a small ferrite bar antenna, as well. Obviously, Medium Wave reception was also not a priority.

[@kenhukushi1637]

the X-parrot bit made me laugh hard. "This Bass is no more, the Bass has ceased to be, it is an X-Bass!"

[@gregkrobinson]

It's pining for The Fjords!

[@lordvalen8133]

I get it now! Thank you!

[@TheFlenen]

​@@gregkrobinsonWas that a palindrome he said?

[@tenmillionvolts]

The sticky goo at the bottom of the mech is the grease in door damper gear. It is for soft eject of the door. Oh the amounts of it that I had to wipe off over the years of servicing cassette mechs :-(

[@Ninja_Penguin]

Is that what you tell your wife? 😉

[@EmergencyChannel]

What wife?

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

They tend to harden with age, so I’ve used silicone lubricant instead.

[@HoudiniFontmeister]

I am glad you listened to people's complaints about mixing batteries up.

[@nopetuber]

lol I have a cheap blutooth soundbar and every time it annouces "BLUTOOTH MODE!" at max volume with that very same voice.

[@haulin]

And what about the "PLAY BY USB DRIVE" in a completely different, Chinese accent? 15:24

[@TingFeng77]

Yep I have probarly the same speaker. It also blares that at max volume. As to reply the guy above me, mine screams MUSIC PLAY MODE for that, in the same accent as BLUETOOTH MODE

[@greenaum]

Of course the bloke who's voice that was died in a gulag in 2017.

[@mychemicalbromance97]

my friends KIA loudly announces "transfer complete" anytime you plug in the aux cord. We arent sure what its transferring but it certainly is weird

[@paulhalvorson6122]

The Dankpods Sexy Speaker

[@ninjamaster3453]

Tanashin should colab with him to make a limited run techmoan tape deck

[@beezertwelvewashingbeard8703]

No.

[@Techmoan]

No

[@PolakritW]

No.

[@simonoleary9264]

A TapeMoan deck?

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@@Techmoan >>> *Oh, COME ON Techmoan! TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM!!* 😝😝😝😝😝😝😝

[@xalataf3365]

14:32 "The track is called 'Beat Your Competition'... something this thing won't do" 😂😂

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Xalataf Maybe in sales volume and profits. Minimum cost, maximum lies, just enough intermediaries to deny refunds, sold in a supermarket chain once famous for surprisingly good cheap electronics before selling that division to Lenovo,

[@veemacks7255]

At least it's not "beat off your competition", that's something entirely different.

[@simonoleary9264]

Beat your boombox (with a mallet)?

[@willemslie]

People have got so used to listening to music on phones and tablets that this will sound hi-fi to them. Dig that X-BASS, dude!

[@Ice_Karma]

That's the thing that annoys me most about tape decks made in the "rebirth of the cassette" era: they're almost all crap, and most of the features from back in the day are just not available any more. =(

[@Musicradio77Network]

And of course, the boombox are in mono, and it sounds like garbage. It sounds like a vintage school cassette recorders like the Califone and Audiotronics that had mono sound which is stereo compatible. I have my Audiotronics Classette 148B and it’s a nice cassette recorder that it was used in schools and it plays well, but I used a Bluetooth cassette adapter or an Updated Cassette Adapter with an SD card to play MP3’s on my Audiotronics Classette, and it’s also stereo compatible in mono, and it sounds decent than an AM radio.

[@mrbishi634]

Mono is NOT authentic at all. 80s/90s mono boomboxes only had a speaker on one side, to save space since there is no point in having two.

[@poznipracker8113]

Some people try to save this planet and other people are producing "things" right for the bin.... mad world.

[@tubical71]

My dad always says : "Brand New Garbage"

[@mrnmrn1]

@@millomweb There are models from Epson with external ink tanks, which is the cheapest way to print. You'll have headache when you have to replace the transfer film/transfer roller in your color laser. I'm using laser (mono) because I print so rarely that the print heads always clogged with dry ink in my injet printers. My current machine is a Samsung ML-2010 since 2008, which can be DIY-refilled with toner powder easily, and has no counter chip in the cartridge.

[@sonofsono1601]

I ordered myself new old stock VM-85K cassette recorder made for soviet military after watching few of these cassette related videos. Gona make good prop and nice portable player.

[@MrWombatty]

Thumbs up for doing a great job of showing how this is a complete waste of money due to it being utter junk! Honestly, if you've been given or still have a music cassette collection, then there are high-end cassette-deck out there that you can buy 2nd-hand on eBay, etc.! Mine is a Yamaha KX-380 deck that has lots of features not found on boomboxes, has very little wear on the heads, plus the playback quality on most of the cassettes I've listened to as yet has been really impressive!

[@ГхХг-у4н]

"reka" means "river" in Russian O_o Maybe, they meant "river of crap"...

[@Xezlec]

I think it's supposed to sound like "wrecker". Like "this device will absolutely wreck your audio".

[@oc2phish07]

or where to throw it?

[@mattslimmer8633]

Thank you for both the haphazard unboxing and the overwrought film peel. I did not come here for an unboxing video so I appreciate the humor aimed in that direction!

[@EzeeLinux]

I see stuff like this and I can't help but wonder how cool it would be to have the same design but with good components and in stereo, of coerce.

[@RightWing1]

Buy a genuine 80's one then!!

[@heinzk023]

11:00 The power switch is mandatory due to EU regulation, I think, in order to stop standby power consumption. Techmoan can desolder it after oct 31st. This shows what Brexit is good for: Aldi can then sell crappy boom boxes for 29.95 instead of 30.00, because they can omit the switch.

[@MrFairhill]

And those 5p gives the whole aldi exec an extra week of vacation saved.

[@heinzk023]

@@MrFairhill Imagine he'd made this box stereo, his girl friend would have to use last year's yacht again!

[@MrFairhill]

@@heinzk023 Yeah, what a loss to have to use an old yacht!

[@heinzk023]

@@MrFairhill In fact, until they died in 2010 and 2014, there were two brothers, Theo and Karl Albrecht, who owned Aldi and they were the richest people in Germany. In 1961, they decided to split the company into two, one serving the north of Germany (Aldi Nord), and one the south (Aldi Süd). So against popular belief, Germany wasn't split into east and west, but into north and south 😉. If two Germans meet, and one of them lives somewhere in the middle of Germany, one of the first questions is whether his home town is in Aldi-Nord land or Aldi-Süd land. If they come from different Aldi principalities, they start discussing which of both Aldis is the better one. The whole world is divided between the two Aldis, and UK "belongs to" Ali Süd.

[@8bitwiz_]

I thought manufacturers stopped using those big chunky mains transformers 20+ years ago because the cost of copper made it cheaper to use a switching power supply. Apparently someone found a good deal on an old stock lot of 6.3v valve filament mains transformers.

[@OttosTheName]

14:34 Ah yes, the soundtrack of every single Indian DIY electronics channel on KZbin

[@750kv8]

Probably trolling them too. :P

[@Mrjrainey]

Thank you for doing these videos. They are a wonderful distraction and often a trip down memory lane.

[@Helladamnleet]

"Play by you ass bee dwive" Totally worth it just for that

[@Mr72Dolphins]

Great, he mixed the batteries. Now, we have no sunrise in North America! Never mix the batteries!

[@freggo6604]

At least he did not put them in in reverse making the Sun rise in the west...

[@adamkatt]

its like crossing the streams!

[@pouncytaur]

Oh gosh, your battery insertion just killed me in laughter. You're awesome. :)

[@303nitzubishi4]

You said insertion

[@Darkassassin09]

Yeah, definitely a bunch of off-the-shelf bits slapped together in a quick case. Nice vid, interesting to learn a bit about current tape mechanisms.

[@harukakigani106]

End up as crispy bacon hopefully the switch trips in time!

[@AUTISTICLYCAN]

I have a number of very good friends in the UK and this guy sound like so many of them. Before you get mad I AM NOT making fun of this man. I love this channel and what he does sharing technology with us. What I enjoy is the way he phases what he says. He said something along the lines of Yes you can play MP3's via USB drive but it does not really make any difference since it all sounds like utter rubbish anyway. When he says something is terrible it just makes me laugh because, he is ever so polite BUT, when he says something is bad his words are so hard, biting and direct yet so gentle in a way. I subscribe to this channel because; this guy is great and knows his electronics. This guy is honest. Yes sir I've brought a few vintage items just because I saw them here first. That said the reason I love this channel beyond the technology is because; this guy savages today's cheap electronics. The funny thing is the polite lovely tone of his voice and his choice of words almost kills a bad device with kindness which just makes me scream with laughter. I agree with him this mono cassette player \ recorder boom box is total and utter rubbish no matter what you try to do with it. I'm not joking when I say I am happiest when this chap evaluates modern tech because; he will buy cheap devices for 30 pounds sterling and put them through their paces. This is one of the best channels on You Tube! Thank you sir. You remind me of my friends from the UK who can say the most mundane things and make them sound so funny and so very direct. Offered with DEEPEST Respect from: WOLF - THE AUTISTIC WEREWOLF!

[@SteveFrenchWoodNStuff]

@20:04 The black dot you see on the rare of the motor is for adjusting the motor speed. Not all motors that use that housing actually include the internal trimmer pot (the cheaper versions, of course, do not). The only way to know is to stick a small insulated flat head screwdriver in there and see if you find a trimmer pot. If so, tweak it either direction to find tune the speed. If not, there may be a reostat somewhere on the board that adjusts the motor speed.

[@ApolloVIIIYouAreGoForTLI]

Sweet...Techmoans Annual Aldi Boombox review is out!

[@somecoder3054]

I remember getting a full deck from the 90s with noise cancelling and actual apss and three head reader for 40 quid and just looking at what's coming out to the market these days breaks my heart. And the problem is, there's no one around to develop a new tape mechanism either.

[@thisisnev]

On top of which, Dolby B, C, S and HX chips are out of production now.

[@NandR]

This is the content that keeps me around. That peel. Mmmmmmm. The British passive disrespect is rich here.

[@acemobile9806]

your reaction to Aldi's is priceless! 🤣🤣🤣 I felt the same way first time I ever set foot in 1 here across the pond. They've come up quite a bit from cardboard boxes & pallets for shelving.

[@spiff2268]

Okay, first off thank you for showing me after all these years what wizardry they were using to distinguish how tape players knew the difference between which tapes that could be recorded over and which couldn’t. I’m sure they all used a similar trick. Second, making a 25 minute video about a shitty tape player very interesting just proves you are one of the most talented people ever!

[@breaky73]

Great video again! X-Bass is by the way also a term taken from Sharp boombox devices.

[@bukwok]

X-BASS ,X dictionary say an unknown number; unknown element or uncertainty.

[@robshorts]

Just goes to show how newer isn't always better. Even the budget boom box I bought for my workshop back in 1990 did at least have a stereo FM tuner and cassette player.

[@thehowlingterror]

That was from the congealed tears of whoever assembled it.

[@DumahBrazorf]

Well. If I have to assembly that crap everyday i'd rather spit in every one, not cry...

[@vivanecrosis]

I have an Aiwa tape recorder that doesn't work. After seeing a few of these videos I'm inspired to fix it (rather than throw it away). I bet the problem is gunk and a perished drive belt. GREAT videos :D

[@lincoln3x7]

Thumbs up for mixed batteries... AND fun videos that inform us about low quality tape mechs.

[@AdamJRichardson]

Pulls out wow and flutter meter (doesn't everyone have one of these lying around?) - Flutter goes to 11 on this one

[@Bishka100]

Like a Spinal Tap amp.

[@Not-Great-at-Gaming]

Wow... That's a lot of Flutter!

[@nerdful1]

I have a micom 8300 with Ampex badge from Ampex qc from decades ago. Still works great.

[@joelirl6764]

Wow!

[@Clay3613]

It Buried The Needle!

[@paulo8001]

Awful device that even back in the day would've been an embarrassing thing to have to own up to buying. £30 is, well, £30 too much.

[@wich1]

More like £50 too much...

[@paulo8001]

@@wich1 Hah, yes. You'd have to pay me more than £20 to take it off your hands!

[@asherael]

ESPECIALLY back in the day. There USED to be quality products with cassette decks on the market.

[@paulo8001]

@@asherael Funny you should say that, I just spent a couple of hours looking on eBay at the old portable stereo cassette players from the 80s and 90s. They were so much better and more powerful. 40 Watts output was about right, but it wasn't surprising to see 100 Watts output and 4 or 6 speakers pumping out with decent bass. They're fetching quite a bit too, I saw a great big thing priced up at £800 ish! Most are around 50 - 60 though... got me thinking about getting one if I'm honest too.

[@harukakigani106]

I had a Saisho from Dixons in the 80s didn't sound great but in the nearly ten yrs I had it never chewed a single tape, then changed over to a Sanyo cassette player with cd, cd worked well but the cassette would not wound the tape on the second side, and just stopped, got rid got another Sanyo was much better and solid build as well sometimes you just get unlucky with stuff, but my TEAC blew them all out of the water

[@christhesnaildriver]

Haha the battery segment had me in stitches ;-) Looking at the state of these machines being pumped out today makes me so glad I have kept most of my 80's and 90's boomboxes and walkmans etc. To be honest, I never really stopped using them!

[@stighenningjohansen]

Its a bit fantastic, bought my firste stereo cassette radio recorder in -78. It wasn't close to this. The mechanism is rock solid, and it is unbeleivably loud and cleear, Taking size into consideration of course, but the rec/playback is very solid ! Its nice to behold companies makes this in 2022

[@DisgruntledPigumon]

Instant thumbs up for the best plastic protector sticker removal intermission. 9:34

[@Guerilla_G]

The X-Bass thing is also nicked off Sharp, it meant that the Sharp Boomboxes had an extra EQ control for sub bass frequencies

[@verastaki]

Actually there's another mechanism similar to the one. Except instead of using a plastic white lever to stop the motor when the tape reaches end, it uses a slightly different technique where not only the play/rec button pops up, but ff/rewind buttons as well. That mechanism in my opinion is somewhat better than the one you just showed.

[@skyrimpro117]

holy shit battery bit had me crying, so subtle. I love it. This is why I'm a subscriber.

[@izwanshaari9854]

I was thinking of buying one of these to make mixtapes. Thank you for saving my money. I am disappointed that it is only a mono device.

[@ericjcherry]

When installing batteries it's important to never use the same brand otherwise you create a battery monopoly.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

Three year warranty. On a chunk of cheap chinesium unloaded at a discount grocer. I wonder just who you contact to have that warranty fulfilled.

[@bobbailey8246]

@ The Garden of Eatin. In my personal experience both Lidl and Aldi honour their 3 year guarantee without quibble. Return to branch with receipt and get full refund (or replacement if available) with no questions asked. Eg, I purchased a pond pump from Lidl (I always keep the boxes with the receipt in) which worked really well for about 18 months, then stopped working. I returned it and was sent a replacement, 6 years later, it is still going strong! I am not affilliated in any way to either supermarket chains. I have had bad aftersales service from more reputable high street chains, in which case I simply stop giving them my custom.

[@TheTurnipKing]

That looks a LOT like the one in the Sinclair Spectrum +2 datacorder... Which makes sense. Amstrad would have been patient zero for cheaper mechanisms, especially in things like this.

[@jamesbennettmusic]

Yep. CPC464 too

[@bigyin2586]

I had a Sharp radio cassette back in the day. High quality device.

[@Don27041970]

Hi Matt. I really enjoy watching watching your videos. Wantentd to mention, some years ag I bought (from Ebay) a fully functional WM-d6c than you somtimes refer to. Cracking piece of kit. It does everything but brew tea. Keep them coming. Donald, Edinburgh

[@naami2004]

Man, When I was a kid I used to disassemble these mechanisms and re-assemble them .... WOW !

[@SaberusTerras]

Laughed at the "Play by Ooh Ess Bee Dwive."

[@ethanpschwartz]

If you could create a channel of just peeling protective stickers to Magic Mike music, I'd Patreon the crap out of that.

[@jamesbennettmusic]

It's a (terrible) copy of the classic Sharp QT27! Can't believe they kept the APSS logo... The Maxtek one is a Sanyo copy.

[@BertGrink]

There seems to have been (at least) two separate production runs of the Sharp QT27; a quick google image search revealed that some models did have the APSS logo while others didn't.

[@peter_roth_8812]

"Oh look, we got a nice sticker we could peel off here." How I love these subtle innuendos! Gives the whole crap a fake touch of exclusivity. Fantastic video in many ways!

[@spikester]

Wow, I remember having some very intricate comments regarding this cheap mechanism that has seemingly been around forever, and refuses to die. Thank you for this video it was very enlightening and a throwback to my childhood when I must have scrapped about 100 various garbage tape decks. IT GAVE CASSETTES A VERY BAD RAP. /endof.

[@spikester]

The biggest issue with these decks is they have no mass whatsoever in the capstan wheel, wow and flutter is all over the damn place, and the electronic speed control of the motors was based on a crappy feedback loop that was only within the motor. A good deck will be monitoring the actual capstan speed via some hall-effect or optical encoder wheel and adjusting the motor speed by a phase lock loop.

[@RicheBright]

I guess the reasoning behind selling this thing was expecting some shoppers going "Oh crap it's Father's Day and I didn't get anything for Dad. Hey, look at this-- He grew up in the 1980's..."

[@previousslayer]

*Techmoan Introductory Phrase Roulette* 1) A couple years ago I bought 2) A couple years ago I did a video about 3) Recently, I bought 4) Recently, I reviewed ... P.S. here before 250K, wow 😜 P.P.S. if you're reading this Mat, I've always wondered, where do you get your blanks from? They look like they came from Tapeline

[@souta95]

I couldn't help but notice they put the AM antenna on the bottom as well... Thanks for the review, I didn't expect a quality product, but I didn't expect it to be quite that bad!

[@Xs2...]

Never knew how that record notch was/is working, thanks for that

[@thespacecatjenkins8539]

help i cant stop watching techmoan vids

[@ivertranes2516]

There is no cure for it. You're probably still watching them now.😂😂😂😂

[@rarbiart]

21:45 that's the goo out of the damper for the cassette ejection tray. in the workshop we used to call that bottle "ape sp*rm"

[@scuderianorreno]

That smooth long finger to the battery facsists deserved a thumbs up in itself.

[@brycevo]

This is really interesting to hear about the Tanashin

[@SteveFrenchWoodNStuff]

@ 10:50 They saved more than just the cost of a mono vs. stereo head. Stereo systems have two separate preamp/amp channels (and stereo decoding tuner circuitry, dual ganged bass/treble/volume pots, etc...). And often some of the mechanical switches have to be 2-pole (vs. single pole). But still, mono vs. stereo in a low power unit like that results in negilible savings. But savings none the less.

[@BigEpinstriping]

I just got a Ion Boombox Deluxe for christmas; It has a Tanashin Tape mechanism, but believe it or not, it's actually a stereo tapehead on it! There is hope! It's a really nice unit, you should check it out; Fairly inexpensive too!

[@jeremym9011]

It just goes to show people that Japan back in the day made the better electronics.

[@Skozios]

If I buy one of these can I sit there every Sunday and record the top 40 charts from the radio hoping that the DJ doesn't talk over the start and end of the hits that I need this week?

[@espurious]

Dammit, Bruno Brookes, quit yer yapping!

[@ryanmalin]

Yes you can

[@xaenon]

Don't ALL deejays talk over half of EVERY song they play? Here in the US, some of them are known to yammer over the entire song!

[@absalomdraconis]

@@xaenon : Depends on the station, the ones I listen to aren't pop, so they aren't prone to doing that.

[@StopChangingUsernamesYouTube]

There are layers to this thing. Firstly, there's no way this'd be good even in '85 at that price. It'd be something like $10 back then. You might get a decently mediocre standalone speaker to put in a box. If anything, it's a kinda odd show of just how powerful economies of scale are when it comes to electronic "mechanisms", since they aren't nearly as prone to bad production runs or one-off failures as their mechanical counterparts, once fabrication's perfect enough. The MP3 playback in particular would've bumped the price by $200-400 back in 2000, and that's practically free now. Also, does anyone know what alloy those speakers are made of? I've seen it in all sorts of components from housings to the tops of transformers, particularly in older audio equipment, but I've never been able to find a satisfying answer. You can see it at 20:30.

[@MrNerdHair]

It's regular steel, but galvanized and with a chromate conversion coating. The zinc layer prevents the steel from rusting when exposed to air and moisture, and the chromate coating prevents the zinc from forming "white rust" (a mixture of zinc oxides, hydroxides, and carbonates) when exposed to moisture in an air-restricted environment. Chromating is typically done by dipping (not electroplating, just regular dipping) in a solution of hexavalent (quite dangerous) or trivalent (less dangerous) chromium, and the dual-layer "chromated zinc" is not to be confused with zinc chromate, a compound used as a primer for painting metal. The "chromate" layer's distinctive iridescent yellow is in fact a variety of salts and chromate ion complexes formed during the drying process, and is not a uniform layer of a single compound. Chromating is a very cost-effective process, but the RoHS directive phased out the use of hexavalent chromium. Trivalent chromium can be used to get the same look, though it's a bit more expensive and there are alternative coatings. (My suspicion is that there's a reason most of the zinc-chromated parts I've seen are internal components manufactured in areas without a reputation for having strict worker safety regulation.)

[@handlesarefeckinstupid]

Steel. Passivate coating.

[@StopChangingUsernamesYouTube]

Huge thanks to both of you! It made me think of temper colors every time I came across it, but anything that I thought to put into a search string always came up empty.

[@RobertKeenanComp-U-Right]

I've never gave so many "thumbs up" to comments of one video! True comedic gems down here..

[@domtron8873]

As a German, I was thrilled to find an Aldi in my new neighborhood in Texas.

[@effyleven]

I once got a job photographing a special waterproof boombox made of yellow plastic, meant for use in bathrooms. It was Japanese, as so much of that stuff was, and its label read *WATERPLOOF* --- not "WATERPROOF." No kidding! We had to get the transparency retouched to correct it. This was pre-Photoshop days. Physically retouching photographs, especially transparencies, was extremely skilful work, and cost a fortune to be done, even when you found somebody to do it. We thought it would have been much cheaper just to grind off the label, make a new one, and reshoot it!

[@jacobtothe2112]

Since they are all parts bin jobs, I wonder whether someone with the right know-how could upgrade one of those with better bits inside?

[@KuraIthys]

Most likely. If you have the right kind of parts. Though to be honest I'd say the only thing about this that's difficult to get parts for is the tape mechanism itself. Bluetooth, mp3 playback, SD card reading and so on is simply a function of digital electronics and there's about a million different ways of doing that, and then you just need a decent audio output path and DAC at the end of it. A radio... Well, you can buy radio chips easily enough, and building a radio used to be a common hobby project because you can make basic ones with extremely simple components. Analogue audio amplifiers, speaker drivers and so on are also really quite trivial. (don't get me wrong, high quality analogue audio processing is not that trivial, but the basic stuff is still extremely easy to implement.) So really the only challenge here is the tape mechanism here and the parts it involves - though even here, an electric motor would be simple to replace... The actual read/write heads are the only real complication... On the assumption you'd have to keep the tape mechanism mostly intact, even with that limitation you could build a VASTLY better audio system around it...

[@TheRealColBosch]

Here's the thing: why bother? I mean, it might be cute for a KZbin video, but the practical application is near-nil.

[@mrfoameruk]

when it said "cassette mech" in the title I thought it was about transformers soundwave cassettes that popped out and transformed into different mini mechs.

[@thanthanasiszamp4707]

You wish it would be.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@Round Tuit >>> It PROBABLY MEANS you *need* a CASSETTE MECHANIC to get the thing working properly...😁

[@duffman18]

Wasn't there a transformer that transformed INTO a cassette?

[@afriend9428]

duffman18 it has a small transformer to power the unit! 😎

[@mrfoameruk]

@@afriend9428 Good one

[@donmoore7785]

Man, you are familiar with ALL the cool stuff. A three cassette player - I never would have guessed. Awesome work, as always. Edit - it is very sad to see how cheesy the remaining cassette mechanisms are. Total garbage. It's hard to believe someone would use one of these more than 3 days let alone 3 years. This POS is worth about $3, keeping with the 3 theme.

[@johnmh1000]

This guy makes peeling off a protective film interesting! 😎

[@lawdelpus]

I would have left the wire off put the back back on and got my £30 back also the non existing APSS and fake X-bass would probably class this as a fail under uk consumer protection

[@Jamato-sUn]

This is the hardware lo fi remix machine! Brilliant!

[@solojinglesradio1]

I'd prefer to buy a second hand boombox from 80s instead of this for sure

[@mrfoameruk]

I looked on ebay for a propper boombox and some are hundreds of pounds. www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=SHARP+GF&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Sharp+GF-777&_sacat=0 5 to10 x the price when they were new.

[@Havanacuba1985]

Yes 2nd hand ones are really gone up in price, a few years ago I bought a pananic one in red and I was surprised how poor it was for £60. I have the little 2018 reka and enjoy playing all my 80s hair metal on it. I have a toshiba amp and jvc linear track turntable for proper listening ,but the little reka is fun to take out in the sun

[@solojinglesradio1]

@@mrfoameruk In Spain prices are between 50 to 100 euros, but they are thrift shops with lots of them

[@solojinglesradio1]

@@Havanacuba1985 I ve got a sanyo m9935k, telefunken pcr 22 and they are very useful nowadays

[@tubical71]

@@mrfoameruk of course, don´t buy from Ebay....they are more or less faulty....usually they need belts and have other flaws and the seller demands a fortune as he didn´t sell it on flearmarkets. It takes more time, but if you keep an eye out for these boxes you will spot them on flearmarkets for 5 to 70 bucks, depending on type and size....i got my Hitachi TRK8180E for 20 bucks, needed new belts (of course) and a good cleaning and here she goes still nice and strong again :)

[@erinfreize]

Bought a $20 set of wired headphones from ALDI's five years ago. All the pleather wore off and the aux cable is now shot, but they sound way better than my $60 Bluetooth headphones and way better than any earbuds of equal value.

[@pubbiehive]

seeing the insides of that thing gave me such a flashback to how cheap sound systems in the 90s looked like inside when you took them apart lol

[@bookshelffury]

This is what i watch at 4am before getting ready for work lol

[@bookshelffury]

@@syxepop ya man, only day we're closed is christmas day. the customers today were rough ugh.

[@johnstone7697]

And this is why the "cassette revival" is pretty much a myth. Legacy machines, at least those that are still around, are so much better than this junk. And there's no real path to recreating the "higher end" machines. Companies like Sony or Panasonic are not interested. Dolby has long abandoned the noise reduction business, and all the chips are obsolete. Don't know what tape is like these days, but I doubt it's as good as what was being made by the likes of TDK and Maxell back in the good old days. At its best, cassette was a format that worked pretty well. But it took precision transports with heavy flywheels, exotic heads, and perfect alignment to make it happen. And, it took noise reduction systems. Nobody is going to recreate this today because the demand is simply not there.

[@spikester]

Good metal tape is still being made but primarily for data storage anymore, you'll be hard pressed to find that in cassette width, which ferric oxide tape is all that is common nowadays, nevermind finding a good deck that still works that can record the higher BIAS properly. There is no revival. lol

[@spikester]

Panasonic actually had a decent deck from the 90's with a flip head, it wasn't overly expensive but it had all the necessary pieces for full electronic control and automatic bias recording settings when metal tapes were used. Any revival would need a run of those decks. An example is the tape decks from either of the original Panasonic SC-AK20 or AK40 mini systems. These decks were pretty good and the most modern mass produced one that was from the late 90's that I would consider decent for any cassette resurgence.

[@spikester]

Yes I honestly believe if someone remade these decks along with a run of good portable decks and metal tapes were readily available, people might just want to go back to something simple again. This was essentially CD quality cassettes when done correctly.

[@sevcaczech5961]

RTM Fox ferro cassette made since 2018 is very decent.

[@ruikazane5123]

That is why we are here, right? Even if we cannot revive the thing, atleast we can keep it alive!