An unusual player for a forgotten ‘70s music format

Part 2 - here • Hipac - Fixes, fails a...
This was mistakenly advertised as a Karaoke machine. It isn’t a Karaoke machine. Nevertheless I took a punt on buying it as I had the feeling that I owned the unusual cartridges it plays. In this video you can see if my hunch paid off and learn more about a rare format through an even rarer player.
My earlier video about this format • Hipac - The lost tape...
UPDATES:
I) The machine appears to date from approx 1976. A helpful person on Patron spotted a date code on the speaker.
II) Crown? Weren’t they a US/U.K. brand? (delete as applicable) - not this Crown commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ca...)
00:00 Start
00:40 The machine
02:16 HiPac?
07:37 What did it do?
10:31 How did it work?
12:48 The 50/60Hz issue
15:44 A look inside
22:20 Cart player mech
26:22 Blather
28:20 A load of carts
30:10 Inside a cart
31:51 Internal speaker
32:45 Blank carts & recording
37:03 Summary
38:43 Patreon credits
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Over Time - Vibe Tracks • Over Time - Vibe Track...
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Regularly asked question
Q) Why are there comments from days ago when this video has just gone live today?
A) Patrons / techmoan usually have early access to videos. I'll show the first version of a video on Patreon and often the feedback I get results in a video going through further revisions to improve it. e.g. Fix audio issues, clarify points, add extra footage or cut extraneous things out. The video that goes live on youtube is the final version.

[@Techmoan]

Part 2 - here kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXi6pomDpJyNe9U

[@corneliusantonius3108]

Sony TC-S1

[@rodericklopez9850]

_No Jacket Required_ 🤣

[@measl]

*I briefly worked at a radio station in the early to mid seventies, and this looks like the "Cart Machine" that was used for commercials. In fact, every station in my market (New York City), used the cart formats for commercials. Are you sure this isn't the same device?*

[@jordancambridge4106]

Wow um just wow. Your a straight up liar. The cassette did not make it to Europe until the early 1990s. The High Pack was released in LA in the 1970s and then released in Japan in 1960s. The cassette was released in America in the mid 1970s but not in Europe at all until around 1992 to 1993. Europe was using a slightly different record than the rest of the world to control music because contrary to absolute Europe likes to control what its population listens to. Hell the Beetles were actually illegal to listen to in many parts of Europe because the Beetles went against European governments so the Beetles came to America to be allowed to actually play their music. Now in Europe you may never have gotten the High Pack but that is not abnormal for Europe to block or refuse technology. By the time cassettes actually started regular cds were starting to be a big thing in the rest of the world so Europe actually used cassettes until around 2004 when cds became cheap enough for regular people to listen to them well that and laws got a bit laxed to allow cds into your lives. Europe really needs to stop lying their asses off about creating technology and really stop laying about how other countries lives especially England your country is seriously stupid.

[@CaptainPeterRMiller]

Oh dear Matt. 09:19 "CM most likely stands for Commerical." FANTASTIC. I worked in commercial television for abour 97 years, and as a joke, I used to call my edited products, "COMMERICALS." I will now have to charge you for using my mangled language. Get the Missus to proof-read your supers.

[@yawnberg]

This one hits almost all the tech moan bingo spots. I got "forgotten format", 70s aesthetic, Japanese media, and trade magazine all in the first few minutes. Could have covered my card if only that belt had been melted!

[@joshmaresch811]

Should make it into a drinking game!

[@hunterdavis3003]

Lol, great point

[@joeblankenship377]

I think he said "nice piece of kit" in this one too.

[@broadsword6650]

Sadly, no mention of isopropyl alcohol…

[@Stupafyinglogic]

This deserves a pin

[@NiGHTSaturn]

I’ll just take this Jacket off, because it’s not Required. 😂😂😂😂 Great job Mat.

[@TwilightJOfficial]

I was thinking the same 😂😂😂

[@AndreasKoepkeAU]

I laughed and then wondered how many people would have even registered the joke

[@kuidan]

This is why I love this guy.

[@TheErador]

Tek your jacket off, else you'll not feel t'benefit

[@Colaholiker]

Since I own this album on CD, I saw the photo on the front of the cartridge and though "Wait.. isn't that..." and then he turned it around and I couldn't stop laughing. (And that is despite me being German and therefore not having any sense of humour.)

[@ahman324]

Whoever designed this machine must have been so proud of themselves. So many clever things. It's good that you showed it all for rest of the world to admire.

[@kg4boj]

It's a textbook example of typical Japanese crap of the era. After the war japan was very poor and they were making knock offs of everything, basicly what china does today.

[@_-_Michael_-_]

This is such a wholesome comment! Cheers!

[@MrGardenofeden]

@@kg4boj Why would you call it crap?

[@LOLHICRONO]

@@kg4boj except, you know, the quality

[@andrewagner2035]

@@kg4boj Nonsense. This was early 1970”s, a quarter century after the war, and Japan had developed a reputation for quality by then.

[@alistairmcelwee7467]

I love how modular it is. A device you could easily repair if anything broke. Wish such a design ethos was still prevalent.

[@alkestos]

Going for nowadays small form factor in everything, something had to give. Unfortunately it ended up being repairability, and it only makes sense if you look at it from the perspective of a manufacturer. More units sold instead of repaired, more money. 🙄

[@ledumpsterfire6474]

@@alkestos It's worse than that. They're intentionally making them harder to repair yourself too. For example, the FCC ruled in 2012 that companies couldn't just slap a "warranty void if removed" sticker on anymore. They had to prove someone caused relevant damage from tampering in order to not honor the warranty. If you sent something in for a screen repair, they had to prove you damaged the screen by tampering. Even if your battery actually was damaged by tampering, if you only sent it in for the screen repair which you hadn't damaged, they had to honor warranty at least on that screen repair. Those companies responded by making it incredibly difficult to repair yourself without damaging it. A great example is Apple phones. Their entry points are packed and sometimes even attached to delicate vital cables that will break under the slightest pull. Boom, now they don't have to honor your warranty. Right to repair is dying a much more intentional death than many people realize. Form factor added difficulty to be sure, but it goes a lot deeper than that.

[@Stettafire]

Old computers are all like that too for the most part. I remember when we first got WiFi, we just took out the old card and replaced it with a new one. We even replaced it agian so we got better range on the WiFi signal.

[@MrBirdnose]

It was a common design for professional equipment designed for easy repair -- JVC professional grade VCRs were built this way, as were Tektronics oscilloscopes.

[@squidlybytes]

@@Stettafire To be fair, all but the lowest end or absolute smallest PC's are still like this; I did a CPU swap just yesterday; 15 minutes total, including getting it all set back up.

[@RetroJack]

"I'll just take this jacket off as it's not required" - shows Phil Collins album "No Jacket Required" Never ever change, Mat - you're a bloody legend! 🤣

[@threeparots1]

I missed that joke despite seeing the album cover…very clever 😸😸

[@TheRip72]

I laughed at that, but I also wondered why a 1985 album was available in a format which died 10 years earlier.

[@roberthindle5146]

@@TheRip72 A large installed base of players in cars until the mid 80s meant that many labels still produced stuff for the format.

[@lunakoala5053]

@@TheRip72 Well same thing with MCs, wasn't it? It first was replaced by CDs in Hifis, then Walkmen were replaced by MP3-players... and yet MCs were still around for the Car folks.

[@dashcamandy2242]

Mat's humor always turns me "Inside Out." "I Don't Want To Know" what "One More Night" of Phil Collins puns will do to me.

[@HaralHeisto]

The "very serious" music is a genre known as Enka, and it is indeed a modernised form of a traditional style. Was incredibly popular in Japan from the late 60s through the whole 70s, so not a huge surprise that it's all you can find in a short-lived format from the 70s.

[@danielgstohl9993]

And it's still around. Some of these people still perform at the NHK Kohaku nowadays.

[@Kalvinjj]

I can definitely imagine it being the most popular stuff with adults in the 70s in Japan, given it's not some portable unit for the youth rather started on cars and then something meant to be playing inoffensive music that blends in the background, the choice seems obvious indeed.

[@Nadia1989]

I was going to say Trot, but that's the Korean cousin

[@stefanfrankel8157]

I recall seeing an African-American guy on KZbin singing Enka in Japan.

[@eliasross4576]

@@stefanfrankel8157 if he’s Jero then he’s half Japanese. Dresses like a hip hop artist but sings Enka.

[@snoopyjc]

A big hint that this is a background music player is the 70v output - that’s used for commercial speaker distribution with a small transformer installed at each speaker - to avoid the loss in long lines

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

I Immediately thought this was a PA music player. It just looks like one. And the cartridges pretty much ensure the music is original and bought.

[@Fetherko]

I remember contemplating a loudspeaker with a transformer riveted to it. I was about age 11. I already knew transformers were for AC power. What was this doing here?

[@rjlchristie]

@@Fetherko Those are audio output transformers that allowed impedance matching of valve (tube) output ccts (high impedance) to speakers (low impedance) to obtain maximum power transfer. Early radio sets often had the transformer attached to the speaker rather than on the radio's chassis.

[@terryhayward7905]

@@Fetherko The reason for transformer matching is the same reason that long power lines run at a much higher voltage than your house. Higher voltage , lower current, less losses in the cable run. It is know as a 70 volt line system, or 100 volt line system in the larger units.

[@snoopyjc]

@@Fetherko They would step up the output to a higher impedance/voltage to support longer runs of wires, like they send the power to your house on High Tension wires, then the transformer brings it back down to the normal 8 ohms

[@MrTubeamps]

Hipac players were sold briefly in the US. I got one as a gift when I was a child. I believe the unit was called a "Playmate". It resembled a portable battery powered cassette player. The tapes were never easy to find and could only hold about a half an album's worth of music.

[@NC5B]

I had one called a "PlayTape" that had a similar looking tape. I got it for Christmas when I was about 10 in 1968 or so. Looking at a picture the cartridge looks a bit different, but I do remember it had a 2 track player running 1/8 inch tape at 1 and 7/8 ips.

[@WhoniverseReview]

"I'll just take this jacket off, because it's not required" is the best one-liner in the history of Techmoan.

[@organfairy]

I liked "you are left fiddling with your knob in the dark" better.

[@befoerderungsfall]

I saw this coming, when he showed the Phil Collins Tape... ;-)

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

I wondered if anyone else caught that that is once I saw the album name

[@firesurfer]

How droll. Very British.

[@spuds6423]

I am surprised that when that album came out, people were still releasing music in that format.

[@l0lLorenzol0l]

I would like to imagine somewhere in Japan one of these is still being used to play the background music on some small mom and pop shop

[@Zulf85]

I'm imagining it as the most stereotypical konbini on earth, or maybe a cluttered used goods shop with stock dating back many years (sometimes even as old as the tapes)

[@MrBlueBurd0451]

@@Zulf85 And at least one incandescent lightbulb manufactured pre- or immediately post-war.

[@LincolnRon]

Seems more likely that all the machines were leased from a background music service. Or services since it could be the machine was made for more than one service provider.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

or in the mall in some small town that never came around to upgrade. Just the idea that someone in the middle of nowhere between the mountains of Honshu is a mall that right now at this moment plays africa.

[@tokyoarrow]

As someone who lives in Japan, I think this is very likely lol

[@parkerackley133]

I recognize the motor from when I used to do repair on Realistic (Radio Shack) equipment. It is a synchronous motor and you can change the speed by changing the capacitance. Be sure to use an AC-rated capacitor, NOT an electrolytic capacitor or common film-type capacitors.

[@WPPCProductions]

Yes .Those were common back in the day of players and recorders of any kind..

[@spvillano]

You can jump in a pair of 2 uf polarized electrolytic caps negative to negative, giving 1uf non-polarized. Back then, NP caps internally were back to back electrolytic, as you weren't getting a mike value in anything else in those days. Old TV guy here, did everything from tube, hybrid, VLSI, etc over the years, picked up VCR's and CD/DVD, then everything went disposable in price, so went into IT. Modern TV's, clueless, I'd have to pick up the docs on the formats and current processing techniques, but those are pretty much disposable too.

[@Keepskatin]

@@spvillano You missed out on Plasma tv technology. Which is still superior to tv motion and colors of today.

[@sarahmanalapan8443]

bump love to see him change the capacitor ang get the speed right.

[@paulmccredie3106]

I don't know if you have actually tried to change the speed of a synchronous motor by varying the value of the capacitor, but it is unlikely to have worked. By its very nature the speed of a synchronous motor it directly related to the number of poles it has and the supply frequency. This is a 2 phase synchronous motor. It will consist of a permanent magnet rotor and a stator that has 2 sets of windings (poles). One set of poles will be connected directly to the supply whilst the other set will be connected to the supply in series with the capacitor. If there were just 2 sets of poles then they would be arranged 90 degrees apart round the rotor. The greater the number of poles then the slower the synchronous speed of the motor in relation to the supply frequency. In order to change the speed of the mechanism being driven by the motor a different pulley size will need to be installed. The purpose of the capacitor is to produce a shift in the phase of the current in one set of windings relative to the current in the other set. The ideal difference in phase of the current between the 2 windings is 90 degrees. This will mean that the alternating magnetic field in the 2 sets of windings will be out of phase by 90 degrees relative to each other resulting in a rotating magnetic field round the stator which the permanent magnet in the rotor will follow at synchronous speed. The reason that the capacitance value is recommended to be different depending on the frequency is that the correct phase difference between the poles and the correct current within the shifted poles is dependant of the reactive impedance of the capacitor which changes with frequency. The reactance of any given value of capacitor goes up as frequency goes down. Using a capacitor whose value is meant for 60Hz on a 50Hz supply will mean that the current flowing in the phase shifted windings will be lower than designed and the phase shift will be less that ideal. The motor may (and in this case does) still run at the lower speed, but will not be as efficient as it would given the correct capacitor value for 50Hz. In order to get the machine in this video to run at the correct speed efficiently requires the capacitor and pulley size to be changed.

[@erwinvigilia6303]

Very interesting! The "70V" switch on the back was an "aha!" moment for me, as that voltage was typically used in PA systems way back when.

[@glennquagmire744]

When I saw the "CM" my first thought was commercial as in advertisement. However, I thought it might be for a radio station such that the RS could be almost DJ-less. But when I saw the output's, i.e., no stereo, then I thought, possibly for retail store applications. A cool piece of technology.

[@claudecascioli1570]

70 volt is still in use today

[@murasaki848]

Same here. Haven't worked on store PAs in 20 years, so it took a moment... :D

[@brianbauer3148]

Installed a new 70v speaker for a PA last month. Still very common in retail and pa.

[@reneartois616]

CM is one of those sort of English abbreviations used in Japanese - stands for Commercial message ( コマーシャル メッセージ ) and is used to mean advert, like in a TV ad break/commercials.

[@walrusgumboot]

Was going to comment the same thing. Yes it’s still in regular use, I work in marketing for a Japanese company and this word is used all the time.

[@RAMChYLD]

Came to post that too, but yes, CM means “commercials”, aka advertisements.

[@walrusgumboot]

@@kitsuneneko2567 definitely, and in many cases used for a very different meaning than the word originally borrowed. My fav is baikingu (バイキング) from the word Viking and used to mean buffet style food

[@markmooch]

It’s like how brits use French words

[@mel816]

There's also AV, which doesn't stand for Audio/Video😉

[@IntyMichael]

I'm now trained by Techmoan...as soon as the first image of the machine appeared I thought to my self that's some kind of announcement/background music player, probably for stores.

[@BertGrink]

Ditto here.

[@bouwmr]

That wasn't my thought at first. My guess was it is a duplication device for the cartridges where in my mind "CM" stands for "Cartridge Master". Clearly I have to watch more Techmoan video's :-)

[@Mrcaffinebean]

I didn't know it instantly but as he said it was mono I knew!

[@morrisonAV]

@@bouwmr My thoughts exactly so don't feel alone. I was sure it was a tape duplication machine.

[@philipkern6774]

Exactly what I thought too!

[@kevinjokipii4260]

Aww... I was hoping your recorded announcement would be "Ground floor perfumery, stationery and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery kitchenware and food...going up"

[@indiana2096]

Is this "Are you being served" ???

[@kevinjokipii4260]

exactly @@indiana2096

[@RabbitEarsCh]

I'm really impressed by the forward thinking of having every major part in the device be easily serviceable. The belt is really easy to access, the heads are all interchangeable boards, every piece of electronics that could possibly wear you just slide it out. A much easier repair compared to a whole lot of the machines you've shown over the years, really goes to show how much care and effort these Crown engineers put into their system.

[@This_is_my_real_name]

Remember that this was a commercial device, where uptime was money, downtime was loss, and a speedy repair was an all-around win (not only did the customer get back in gear with minimal lost service, but, the company got good rep points for a repair that took minutes versus hours, days, or weeks).

[@michaelparks3106]

Also, I'm sure the reason the head has the ability to read both track is for reliability. On the car unit, the head had to physically move, which means more mechanism to wear out or malfunction when played 12 hours a day. By fixing the head in place and selecting the required track electronically, the unit is far more reliable and simple to manufacture. Very impressive little piece.

[@MrCarGuy]

Something HP was frequently doing in their early computers

[@Redmenace96]

The marketing dept was livid!

[@Kythyria]

@@Redmenace96 Depends on business model. If they *sold* the machines to end users, sure. If they *rented* the machines, not so much--in such a model, highly reliable products are desirable, in order to spend less on field techs. Especially when quick repairs are a selling point.

[@RazorBeamz]

"It looks like this was kept in a very humid place" Yeah, Japan. 😂

[@finnmcool2]

That was my thought too. Japan is just a place to keep coastline.

[@beez1717]

Japan is humid as all heck. It's all coastline or mountains.

[@nickwallette6201]

Haha, that’s what I thought too. “Somewhere humid..” .... like an island?

[@straightpipediesel]

The prevailing winds make it worse. In the winter, cool dry air comes from Siberia, picks up moisture over the warm Sea of Japan, then dumps it on the island. In the summer, the prevailing winds change to the opposite direction, from the tropics, and that blows hot moist air onto Japan.

[@julosx]

@@straightpipediesel Resistance is futile !

[@nictamer]

Just connect a 400 nF capacitor in parallel with the 600 nF one, that will produce the desired capacitance for 50 Hz. You don't even need to solder to test it.

[@Fuzzytubby]

Is the correct answer.

[@pavg]

Good thinking 👍🏻

[@user-jn9dl9px6r]

400 nf / 0.4uf

[@hunterdavis3003]

Username checks out?!?

[@d2factotum]

I think you mean 400nF and 600nF, a 400mF capacitor would be massive!

[@snoopyjc]

18:00 you can take a 0.4 uf capacitor and a pair of clip leads and parallel the existing capacitor to test if you can just change the capacitor. Capacitors in parallel add in value. Make sure the one you put on has a voltage rating equal or higher than the existing one.

[@atk05003]

I was thinking the same thing at that part. "Well, if you have an appropriate 0.4 uF capacitor, you could just hotwire it in for a quick test." Since the device was designed to take both capacitor sizes, adding a little capacitance shouldn't damage anything, even if something else controls the speed.

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

wouldn't parallelly connecting capacitors decrease their combined voltage rating? Or am I confused that with other aspects of capacitors?

[@bcfuerst]

@@FlameRat_YehLon If you connect them in parallel it should just increase the capacitance.

[@jeffhenderson7462]

That’s correct.

[@murasaki848]

@@FlameRat_YehLon First off, forget voltage. Voltage is just the "pressure" electricity is under forcing it to move, and in our example here, it doesn't matter because we don't change the voltage the part is under. What we're talking about here is electric charge storage (capacitors). in simplest terms, capacitors are two metal plates held so closely together that charges attract each other and build up on each side without jumping across the gap. The bigger the plates, the larger the charge that can be built up, so higher capacitance. Also, the closer the plates, the stronger the attraction, so again higher charge meaning higher capacitance. Putting two capacitors in parallel "looks" like one capacitor with bigger plates, so higher charge thus more capacitance. Putting capacitors in series makes for a "thicker" gap instead, so plates aren't as close, so charges don't attract each other as hard, so the capacitance is lowered. It's a bit more complicated than that, but basically that's a good way to picture it. You were probably thinking of resistors, which combine in parallel to be a lower resistance. Resistors are like thin pipes which restrict, or "resist", the flow of electricity. Increase the number of parallel pipes, you lower resistance to the flow of electric current. Put resistors in series, you make your pipe longer, so it increases resistance to the flow of current. You may also have been thinking of a capacitor's "working voltage". Remember the part about attracting charges without jumping across? More voltage applied to the capacitor would mean more charge is forced onto the plates, but at a certain point the charge will jump across the gap, which is usually bad. That's the "working voltage" limit. Hopefully, Techmoan will pay attention to the working voltage of the capacitor that is there and match it with something as good or better, otherwise Bad Things can happen... :D

[@Hairball786]

I've never heard of HiPac until now. I was born in 1971 and remember sitting in a parking lot, waiting for my Mom to come out of the Doctor's office. My Dad and I sitting in a 1969 Chrysler Newport, listening to a Freddy Fender 8-track. It was blue. The 8-track, not the car. Car was gold. That's the day Pops taught me how to play Gin Rummy.

[@frankholzapfel9656]

In terms of sound quality and rumtime, how does this perform in comparison to 8-Track and MC?

[@johnstone7697]

Another giveaway that this is a background music system is the fact that it has a 70.7 volt speaker output. This was the standard used in PA amps for driving multiple speakers over long distances. As for the speed adjust, you would need to change both the capacitor, and the motor pulley.

[@Azlehria]

"Was"? It still is - I've installed brand-new systems as recently as 2017 (when I left the industry)!

[@rolfedrengen]

@@Azlehria What is the benefit of this standard? Compability? Scalability?

[@richodude2679]

@@rolfedrengen Scalability, you can have many speakers, long speaker runs , and individual speakers have transformer taps to balance the levels at each speaker to compensate for losses in long speaker runs. Here in Australia because we don’t have the, voltages 100v and over has to be in conduit rule , we can use 100v line speaker systems, which give better performance than 70v.

[@mjouwbuis]

@@Azlehria in Europe, the standard is actually 100V. 70V and 50V outputs are used to drive more speakers at a lower power.

[@Azlehria]

@@rolfedrengen Scalability, yes, but also resilience. An "8 ohm" system - actual nominal -resistance- _impedance_ varies - requires increasingly complex series-parallel configurations to create the appropriate total impedance as speaker count increases, and one speaker failure will take out the "downstream" speakers in series. This changes the system impedance and can damage the amplifier. Meanwhile constant voltage systems are, regardless of wiring topology, _electrically_ always parallel circuits. Since each speaker has its own transformer _tapped_ off an electrically-continuous wire, the amplifier sees a drop in load _but not impedance_ when a speaker fails. The higher voltages typically used also allow thinner wire - I typically installed 18 AWG even for runs upwards of a mile on 70V RMS systems. The biggest system I ever worked on used about 130k feet of cable and about 400 speakers ranging from 1/2W-tap ceiling units to 40W horns, powered by a bizarre assortment of 1/2U to 4U amps with 19 sources in 12 tiered zones. All 18 AWG.

[@624radicalham]

The way you throw in historical tidbits, like the decision from 1896 shown at 12:48, has become a staple of your channel. Truly educational

[@elvinhaak]

1986 ... some different years. Actually, the year we all received a lot higher dose of radiation ;-(

[@TheDeadfast]

That's not the only thing fascinating about the Japanese power grid either. Not only do they have two separate frequencies, they also use the "American" NEMA plug but only the unearthed two-pronged version. If an appliance requires an earth, you just get a loose earth wire that you're then supposed to connect yourself.

[@goishikaiganmademou]

@@TheDeadfast USA has three separate grids, East, West and Texas. Japan has three separate grids as well, East, West and Hokkaido.

[@enemdisk6628]

Yes

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@goishikaiganmademou but the Eastern and Western interconnects in the USA don’t use different frequencies!

[@technophant]

This man is the hoarder/collector I want to be and I can enjoy his finds vicariously.

[@johnnycarson67]

Yes, without the mess, tools, and money outlay.

[@tonerotonero1375]

In Japan, CM is usually associated to "commercials" . Perhaps your device was a sort of ambiance background music unit for a shop. I love your toys and reviews, another great one.

[@JeremyNasmith]

My Japanese wife instantly recognized 4 of the artists featured on your hi-pak collection. The genre is called "Enka", a sort of Japanese folk pop, popular since at least the '20s. Still many artists today record Enka although the genre is not as popular as it once was.

[@IsaacKuo]

Yeah, my parents and aunts/uncles are/were all into Enka.

[@rubemedivaldoii5941]

I've recognized Shinichi Mori straight away lol. I was looking for a comment of someone who recognized any of the singers.

[@MonkeyPunchZPoker]

It would be tragic but hilarious if he got a copyright strike for what he played.

[@ZZ_Szabo]

My firstthought too when insane the. Had to be Enka which we generally simplified to Japanese Blues. Kinda old hat but still a fair number f people out there like it. That younger artists like Jero and Chris Hart are out there says there are people listening

[@DavidFell]

“I’ll just take this jacket off because it’s not required.” 😂😀🤣

[@syncsummit]

I'm not sure if anyone answered the questions about what this advice is for in detail, but it is a machine that would be used for, as you said, a store or perhaps a radio station. CM stands for "Commercial Message". It's a pretty innovative machine for its time and I am surprised that it wasn't used in the USA. But I am sure it is still used in Japan by some small shops that bought them many years ago. I say all this as someone that's worked in Japan for a long time. First time I am seeing one of these though. Fascinating.

[@MagicalFlower]

It was used for shopping center or clubs in 80s. CM means "Commercial Message". It also mean "Advertisement", the staff can record announcement or ads and play to the customer in the center. The MUSIC as it said, just a background music for around the place.

[@indiana2096]

Like a predecessor to the "Muzak" system.

[@JapanPop]

Those Enka albums are a time capsule! This kind of music made for good nostalgia and appealed greatly to the postwar generation. It existed alongside rock and jazz, and still has a following!

[@jakublulek3261]

It is traditional music, and that has always following in the country of origin. Nothing unusual, and rock and jazz were many times seen as alien or even bad after the war. Not counting "imperialist" moniker it got in Eastern Bloc.

[@enricoself2256]

The capacitor is very likely used to provide the phase shift needed to drive the synchronous motor that drives the capstan: those motors needs two inputs with a proper phase shift so that it always rotate in the correct direction. Capacitance must be sized according to line frequency and the coils impedance; you will need to replace the cap if the line frequency is changed, but that alone will not change the rotation speed of the motor.

[@berni8k]

Yep, i agree with this. The value is probably not all that critical as it might just give the motor slightly less toqrue if its the wrong one.

[@MichaelKukat]

I just had a look at some service manuals. The Tandberg TCD-330 uses a similar design around the motor - a capacitor for the second phase, which depends on the frequency, but furthermore, the pulley needs to be replaced for the different frequency. Maybe in that Crown A-800 the pulley can be just flipped over (like in the Philips EL3555), or a different pully is required - an option might be a 3D printed part. Maybe not optimal for productive use but for a test before putting the unit into the private museum, maybe powering it up from time to time good enough. I already 3D printed gears to repair things from RC cars up to Betacam SP camcorders, that can work pretty good. Maybe you have someone around who can help you with this? A makerspace or so?

[@drazenradosevic7467]

me too :-) besides, capacitors are notorious for low precision, and also tend to change capacitance with time (depending on the capacitor type), so it would be next to impossible to set the proper speed based on the capacitance alone.

[@jrevillug]

Yup, totally agree.

[@alancordwell9759]

Yes agreed about the role of the capacitor. You probably need a different pulley, but it should be possible to work out how much bigger it needs to be and find someone who can machine one up.

[@RealGestumblindi]

"An unusual player for a forgotten ‘70s music format" - such a typical Techmoan title, I had to smile just reading that title, and I hope there will be many more of these :-)

[@nankinink]

A lot of those cartridges are from famous enka's singer that still sings! One of them is Itsuki Hiroshi, the one you hold in 28:29. The cartridge on the top right is Kitajima Saburou Top 10 songs. They are very traditional indeed and makes more success among the elderly, although there's still a lot of appreciation among the teens and adults.

[@FowlerAskew]

I feel like this is similar to the selection of records I find in thrift stores: mostly easy listening, big band, and religious music

[@kingfunk9336]

If you find a Bok Choy let me know

[@MrLurchsThings]

The Phil Collins joke was pure gold.

[@izimsi]

I didn't even know the album, but after he turned it around the joke became obvious. Nice one.

[@asteroidrules]

That internal layout was wild, the way the case is put together and the board arrangement just screams 70s electronics. The last time I saw a device laid out like that was an old Altair computer.

[@thesunexpress]

Modular design is always a good idea. Except that the accountancy department won't like it.... Honestly though, there is no better way for a manufacturer to say they appreciate their customers & are committed to the products they design when: A) Product is repairable B) Modular design. How often do we throw out modern electronics just because some 0.01 Cent, or whatever lowest denomination you go by in local currency, resistor has fried? (Except the Venezuelan Bolivar & its permutations, that stuff's not even worth wiping your rear-end with for toilet paper)

[@A.Dude.]

@@thesunexpress The devices not worth repairing these days are repairable as before, the thing is that one hour of a specialist costs more than the device itself. Back in the day, if your coffee grinder would fry, you would take it to a shop and have the motor rewound (or replaced) for a few bucks, today such grinder sells for $20 and the technician will ask for $30/h at a minimum and then we have parts and such...

[@jimmididr]

I learned something new today! I have a HIPAC format cartridge I've kept from my old Univox echo machine, labeled "Univox TC-1". It looks to be in excellent condition too. Always wondered what type of format it was, now I know! Of course, I have no use for it now, other than nostagia.

[@MrTomDangerous]

You could, erm, sell it. To me, if you'd like.

[@t3h51d3w1nd3r]

lol "I'll just take this jacket off because it's not required" *shows Phil Collins song No Jacket Required* I love seeing and learning about these obscure formats. Yes changing the capacitor should speed it up.

I was like "Ohhhhh, I see what you did there" when he said that. Those are my kind of jokes

[@joshmaresch811]

I've been a subscriber of yours for many years. For some reason, out of all of the channels I'm subscribed to, I look forward to watching yours the most. Thankyou so much for doing what you do.. every time you publish a video it makes my day a lot brighter, and I'm sure it's the same for a lot of others also. Cheers!

[@christophermcmichael880]

From the U.S. here. Every Saturday morning I look to see if Matt posted a new Video about something interesting and unheard of. I get kind of bummed out when I don't see anything. Thinking maybe nothing new has com up yet. At least I get to see what he has in store on Sundays now.

[@morrisonAV]

I hoping that the puppets make another appearance, too!

[@ScumfuckMcDoucheface]

@@morrisonAV yes! thhhhiiiisssssss. =)

[@soulfreshdays]

@@christophermcmichael880 I really can relate to that. I also look up to the videos of him and try watch them as soon as they come out. But he also got me into buying myself into MiniDisc and LaserDisc, so I guess his videos work to keep old technology alive ;-) Greetings from Germany.

[@christophermcmichael880]

@@soulfreshdays Hi. I can't afford to get into much that he shows but it is very interesting to learn about the different things that I never new existed.

[@bwagner23]

I feel very accomplished for figuring out that it was a background music player before the reveal. I'm afraid all that means is I've watched A LOT of Techmoan.

[@JohnOverstreet]

As soon as I isaw the 70 volt speaker output, I knew it was for background music...

[@lokiva8540]

A DC powered servo motor wouldn't need a line frequency switch. A PSC or synchronous dual 50/60 Hz motor needs a capacitor value change, but also reflects line frequency and so needs a pulley change or dual diameter motor pulley for the flywheel belt. When run on the wrong frequency without changing the motor cap, it'd heat more due to inefficiency, but rotate based on the number of magnetic poles and line frequency, and with no RPM shift based on that capacitor. FWIW I'm an engineer, and have mostly USA based broadcast experience dating back to the 1970's.

[@shaunmerica]

I do pro AV and I know a bit about the connections and the mono nature of the unit. If you notice the outputs that say 70v. That's for Distributed audio. That is a series speakers that have line matching transformers and are wired in parallel. The idea being that the higher voltage allows for lots of speakers that can be far from the amp at a constant volume across the system. You give up some frequency response, but for pa or background music. The installation benefits outweigh the negative. The reason its mono is so that you always here the same thing no matter where you are in relationship to the speaker. You wouldn't want someone only hearing the left channel, or the right channel depending on where they are standing.

[@D00MTR33]

Learning about a forgotten electronic device and getting a history lesson on Japan's power grid is why I love this channel. And the "no jackets required" joke is a pure bonus. Thank you Mat.

[@squelchedotter]

"An unusual player for a forgotten '70s music format" Isn't that just every techmoan video :)

[@948320z]

"Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?"

[@djackmanson]

Nah, some of them are 50s and 60s forgotten formats 😂

[@grahampaulkendrick7845]

What about the mug warmer and potato peeler?

[@asteroidrules]

@@djackmanson There was also that format from the early 2000s that committed suicide on him.

[@usmale49]

What a very interesting and informative video. I've never seen a playback device like this! Thank you for uploading and sharing!

[@marcswanson7066]

Thanks. Tinkering with old tape decks and players found at garage sales and auctions has provided me a never ending source of entertainment. I have great respect for the people who designed them and the companies that produced them. They should be considered unique works of art.

[@okbridges]

The capacitor for the motor is the phase shifting capacitor. This is what gives the motor starting and running torque. Motor speed is fixed by the number of poles in the motor and the power line frequency. RPM = line frequency(2/number of poles). A larger motor pully is needed for 50hz operation. Some equipment instead of a 2-step pulley had separate 60hz and 50hz pulleys, and this is likely the case with your machine.

[@rolandweaver7983]

Full agreement… exactly what I was thinking. But, just maybe a slim chance of something. Since it has removable cards and one appeared to be a power supply (PS) card, the motor might (just might) run on DC. If that were the case, there might be a ‘wired’ movable connection somewhere on that card. Now, if that were to be the situation, that big cap would-a, could-a be a DC smoothing (or ripple) filter cap for the resulting DC that follows the (a) rectifier in the PS. Well, for what it’s worth, that’s a reach… and no way without a peak at the schematic or an in-person look see. Good luck with it.

[@AndrewLohmannKent]

The capacitor determines direction of rotation rather than the direction be random. But changing the capacitor no doubt ensures that the motor has maximum torque within power rating and 90' phase shift for the mains frequency. But there must be a gear change such as a different pulley or motor with a different number of poles?

[@okbridges]

@@AndrewLohmannKent Direction of rotation is determined not by capacitor value, but by reversing the polarity of the auxiliary winding with respect to the main winding in a split-phase style motor such as this. Capstan motors on reverse play R2R deck do this with dpdt relay contacts. The motor in the machine Techmoan is reviewing is likely permanently wired for unidirectional operation.

[@colloidalsilverwater15ppm88]

Just put in capacitor required for 50 Hz, and try. On 50 Hz net, with capacitor value which is clearly stated on machine, nothing can go wrong. What has to be respected, is voltage of capacitor. Put the same, or above, not less value. That's it.

[@This_is_my_real_name]

I have seen small DC motors that had an electromechanical (centrifugal) governor. If it is so equipped, it may be possible to adjust it to run at the proper speed. However, there is a much simpler, more elegant solution, which will resolve _all_ of his 60 Hz issues. I will post it in a separate comment once I've submitted this one.

[@AgentOrange96]

Having a tone on the 2nd channel for commercials rather than a metal splice would make sense if you have several commercials recorded on one tape. That way it'd be able to play one at a time. So I think that's a very plausible theory.

[@Armunn01]

Was going to say the same thing. They would probably have a series of announcements on one tape with the 2nd track having a tone to determine the start and end point of each announcement. If it was only one announcement, it would get a bit repetitive during the day even for casual shoppers.

[@mjrippe]

@techmoan - Have you played that tape in one of the lower decks and listened to track two? Was it erased when you recorded your announcement?

[@AgentOrange96]

@@mjrippe It seemed like he didn't have an original announcement tape to begin with unfortunately. The one he wrote over was some regular music tape that was very worn. If he found one though this would be a good way to tell!

[@mjrippe]

@@AgentOrange96 Right, but if the top deck erased the second track of the music tape that would tell us something ;)

[@AgentOrange96]

@@mjrippe True!

[@neunoak3545]

I live in Japan. As you can guess,This is the "Muzak" like system. Until the 1980s, it was often used in shopping malls and street, department stores. However, these are generally distributed in 4.8cm/s Fidelipac and Learjet style cartridges by radio broadcast company. I've never seen anything using Hipac, but this may have been the selling point for this product. In Japan, Learjet and Hipac car stereo wasn't succeed in the end. The CROWN is former venture radio maker, went out of business early. I think that there is no connection with audio manufacturers(amcron etc) in the US. Please enjoy Japanese classical soul music :)

[@JohnJohn-ju4gw]

@Techmoan: it appears that your Japanese Hipack collection has quite bit of a music genre called "Enka". It's very stylized and has been around for a long time. When I first came to Japan many years ago, Japanese I met told me that Enka was "Japanese blues". Themes are often about broken or lost love affairs, love of family, reveries about the past albeit with references to natural beauty and/or weather associated with memories and sad or joyous recollection. The genre is full of iconic songs and stars. Although not popular with youth, youthful performers are appearing on the variety TV programs and. keeping Enka alive.

[@ciprianpopa1503]

It becomes even more stylized when played at a different speed. :D

[@Punki001]

That thing is great. Looks like a microwave combined with a multi slot toaster that plays music. I love it. Would like to have one for my kitchen.

[@chillstar]

What announcements would you have?

[@Quirriff]

Yep it looks like a Microwave Toaster.

[@MetalTrabant]

@@chillstar "Your toast is ready sir!", or "Your toast has just been turned to coal, sir"

[@Young0maker]

This thing is incredibly well engineered. Someone spent a lot of time on this

[@Redmenace96]

Just when I think TM Guy is going off on a tangent... reaching for that FF button... he pulls it out with an observational gem! Love this guy! He is eloquent and patient. Missing from the world, today.

[@joblistings5869]

In the 70's we only had AM radio stations in mono format. Car owners would install tape decks and upgrade their radio to play stereo.

[@mfbfreak]

That capacitor says MP = Metalized Paper and should be replaced, regardless of its function, if it's connected to a mains powered motor. It probably does not change motor speed, but it does change the current through the auxiliary winding of the motor. If the cap is for 60hz, then at 50hz there will be a too low current through the winding, which reduces motor power a bit (and potentially make it run slower because of magnetic slip)

[@freddyzdead1]

@LimaVictor You're the first one I've seen who got the purpose of the capacitor right.

[@lujho]

The spinny thing on the changer mechanism is so fast, it goes from one position to another in a single frame, not even any motion blur. Looks exactly like a jump cut.

[@joylox]

That's really cool! I never understood how stores had stuff like music and announcements work before digital audio and computers.

[@ehlerhog]

This guy is great. I like how he makes everything interesting. I generally learn something every time I come across one of his uploads!!

[@Nurpus]

It amazes me every time how much creative engineering went into these background music machines that no one would ever see.

[@espurious]

After watching this, it's obvious that my non-existent Japanese easy listening collection is sorely lacking

[@worldcomicsreview354]

The "poppified traditional" genre is called Enka. Enka and Jpop both grew out of a genre called Ryukoka, which was a kind of "theatrical" or "variety performance" music, sometimes with spoken word, or comedy crosstalk, segments in the middle of songs. Enka on vinyl tends to be cheap, on CD it's crazily expensive (even common second-hand ones don't dip below ￥1000, has-been Jpop rarely goes above ￥100, unless it's very famous or old), but Enka's true home is on casette. Almost every casette you see in second-hand shops is Enka, and you can even buy new ones!

[@LordJazzly]

@@worldcomicsreview354 Oh! _That's_ what Enka is? I'd heard the name before, and separately the music, but I didn't know that the one referred to the other. I think... I think I first heard of Enka music back when I was studying music at school, and given what I _thought_ the word meant, I have to assume the examples I found of it weren't particularly stellar in quality.

[@MurrayMints]

Thanks Mat, another video that you have answered questions I asked as a small child. Love your videos. Keep them coming please. 👏🏻👍🏻👌🏻

[@RetroCabeza]

I always find this kind of videos kinda comforting, and totally interesting. Thanks ❤

[@CCCW]

I subscribed to patreon finally cause yours has been my saturday morning programme for the past months, so worth it!

[@vladcampos]

I love that you look for and show us the mechanical solutions companies had to come out with to do things in a pre-chip era. I'm always intrigued with the creativity.

[@ericpode6095]

Takes me back to the old days of electro mechanical telephone exchanges. They were phasing them out when I joined the phone company but the still trained us on them.

[@TheRealColBosch]

@@ericpode6095 You two should check out Technology Connections' videos on his pre-IC Wurlitzer jukebox. That thing is WILD inside.

[@ericpode6095]

@@TheRealColBosch I follow his channel but missed that one. I'll have to look it up, thanks. 👍

[@samuelcolvin4994]

Engineers had to be a lot cleverer in the pre-silicon days..... They had to be fxxxing WIZARDS in the pre-electrical days

[@davidmcgill1000]

@@TheRealColBosch Which also used a rotary encoder. It's a rather clever way to "write a program".

[@kevinamundsen7646]

If your manual includes schematics, it may include a clue for stopping the CM (commercial message?) cartridge. As an example, a 400Hz tone could be added to Track 2 of the CM tape by holding down the Start button for a couple seconds before speaking. At the end of the voice announcement, the CM tape would continue to run until a tone detector stopped it by pushing back the pinch roller on the CM cartridge. The next time it started, the announcement would play normally. There are several ways they could have set it up. If the schematics could be found, it may be possible to discover how they did it. Wondering if the 5-10-20 selector is the number of minutes between announcements? Thanks for a great video!

[@ChuckRenner]

Yes, there is likely some trick to set a tone, but it is odd that no button is so-labeled. In the world of broadcasting, the tape cartridges had multiple tones available. If this device has such controls, one could record multiple announcements. The first would play, then stop. At the next interval, the next announcement would play, and so on. After the last announcement, the tape would advance to the start and be ready to play the first announcement again.

[@shawnjenkins8707]

I have been simply watching your very informative videos for year's!! I appreciate it!!

[@RobertNES816]

I always thought the 1980's was a time when audio electronics were very interesting. But it seems the 60's and 70's were all about trying new things and being really innovative. The 80's seemed more like it was about evolution and perfecting audio quality and equipment.

[@julosx]

Among all those wobbly tapes quite a few of them must sound like My Bloody Valentine but well before the band ever started.

[@guitarcheology]

The 80's was all about streamlining production. Miniaturization. Reducing the amount of human labor. Prior to the 80's, even items using printed circuit boards were most often hand soldered/assembled.

[@RobertNES816]

@Steven Attanasso fixed it thanks 😳

[@dougbrowning82]

@@guitarcheology I grew up with a 1956 Admiral TV that had 75% of its electronics on 3 PC boards. The advertising for that TV proudly announced that it was built by "robots". So, some manufacturers had automated their factories long before the 80s.

[@VoidDWG]

"Just had to order it", 1 either confident or fucking mad mate. 2 might be why I like this guy.

[@mskima001]

Mate ....... you definitely are one most interesting and absolutely one of the best tech reviewer. Sometimes really sneaky but always enthusiastic about the subject and also all the effort put on researching is much appreciated. This is a big FAN from N.E. India, Aizawl City - Capital of the State of Mizoram.

[@patlawler5532]

I just came across your channel, and this was the third video I watched. The whole thing, nonstop! This reminds me why I became an engineer. 👍

[@geekehUK]

Don't know for sure if it'll have the desired effect but to test it you don't need to replace the capacitor already in there, just with some alligator clips or something add a 0.4uF capacitor in parallel with it.

[@LasseGreiner]

I thought so as well. ("Everything has been said but not by everyone.")

[@finthegeek]

CM is still routinely used in Japanese to describe ad breaks on television - it's コマーシャル メッセージ or komāsharu messēji - it means just what it sounds like - commerical message

[@mik4k6]

It's interesting that you and Techmoan made the same spelling error -- "commerical." 🤔

[@chillstar]

How does CM sound like commercial message if you don't already know what it stands for?

[@finthegeek]

@@chillstar sorry, punctuation/grammar fail. komāsharu messēji is a borrowed word - I was trying to say that it sounded like commercial message not CM. :)

[@finthegeek]

​@@mik4k6 well spotted, a genuine typo that i often make, I pronounce it more like "commer-shall" so brain fart often occurs, not that ical sounds like shall but yeah....

[@chillstar]

@@finthegeek ah, no I missed that. Your original comment makes perfect sense now that I've reread.

[@hwrdmltn]

So my guess is this, based on my knowledge of broadcast radio: I suspect that a cue tone is being laid down on track two when the start button is operated. The cue tone is used to position the tape to the beginning of the audio track - the idea is that it will "cue up" the next advert to the beginning of the audio after the previous one is finished. So, when recording, you press the record button, press the start button for 5 seconds which lays down the cue tone, then release it, and as you release the start button you begin speaking your "copy" into the microphone. When your "copy" is completed, you press the record button again to shut off the record electronics only, but the transport will continue to move the tape on that cart until the cue tone eventually comes around, and when the playback senses the cue tone, it will stop that cart, ready to play the message when triggered by the timer based on where the timer knob is set to. If you never lay down a cue tone (broadcast lingo for recording a cue tone), the cart will never stop and continuously play as it did in your video (or it is possible that the cue tone sensor is defective). Broadcast used a 1000Hz tone on track two when used in a cart machine, a very popular medium for commercial production in the broadcast industry during the 50's to the 90's. When FM became more prominent, it was customary for cart machines to use three tracks because now you needed a track for the left channel and another for the right, and a third for the cue tone. Some companies chose a 25Hz tone embedded into the left channel (specifically Schafer radio program automation of the 70s and 80s) because they wanted stations to be able to use existing equipment that most stations had at that time without having to purchase new, and the 25Hz was filtered before it reached the audio amps in the station to prevent it from being broadcast. So this particular machine that you have functions based on the broadcast industry customs of the time of manufacture. The idea behind the "monitor" is to be able to listen to your newly recorded commercial before "airing" it as it were. I might also suggest that you "bulk" erase the tape before you "record" because I did not see an erase coil on the play/rec head so it probably does not coerce the tape effectively when recording and you might hear your old recording over the new one, a phenomenon that plagued broadcasters who "forgot" to bulk erase before beginning production on a cart. While this comment is long and probably won't make it to your channel, I loved your presentation. 73's de W1ARQ

[@conicEllipse]

I always thoroughly enjoy your videos. Thank you!

[@ExperimentIV]

phil actually named that album “no jacket required” because he went to a restaurant called “the pump room” in chicago without a jacket and wasn’t allowed in. so, you definitely never need a jacket of any sort to listen to his album. later on, the management of the pump club sent him a letter with the gift of a sports coat that apologised to phil and told him he could show up in anything he wanted.

[@BlankBrain]

Some up-scale restaurants had jackets and ties to lend to customers who showed up dressed improperly.

[@kwaddamage8286]

this reminds me of another story where Tom Petty was angry that MCA was going to sell his album Hard Promises for 9.98 against the norm of 8.98, so he threatened to name his album 8.98

[@johnballantyne3458]

“There’s a discount today on corduroy flairs.” But of course.

[@stephenbrough8132]

I feel silly now - I've been spelling it "cordroy". No wonder my Ebay searches turned up nothing. I'm eager to know about this discount though. I've not been able to leave the house since the 70's for lack of corduroy flairs.

[@JerryEricsson]

It was in 1970 when I was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood Mo. I was in training to be a field wireman, climbing poles, running field wire, hooking up field phones to switchboards and such. We were living in the old WWII Wooden open bay barracks with double stacked bunks and it was late summer. The heat in the forests was horrid but we would spend a week in the field, then a week in the training buildings learning electronics and such. I was young and was near our first anniversary my wife and I. She took a bus down from North Dakota to Rolla Mo and when we got a weekend off, my buddy and I would catch a bus and join our wives at a motel, where they shared a room over the week and then rented and extra so we could be alone. Our son was conceived over that time of our lives, and once finished with training, I got 2 weeks leave, then it was off to Vietnam. At any rate, getting to the point one of my other buddies had a small portable tape player that took what appeared to be the same size cartridges but in a portable player. It was a bit larger then a portable radio and was mono but sounded good, I traded him one of my pipes and some smoking Prince Albert for the device and several tapes. I left it with my wife when I left for Vietnam, she gave it to her brother and that was the last I ever saw of it. I do believe that it was some early form of player. I know it was smaller then a 4 track player as I sold both 4 and 8 track players to truckers at a truck plaza before I joined the Army.

[@gregd6022]

The "tell tail" sign is the "70V" speaker output, that is only for multi-speaker public address systems (long wires so use high voltage instead of current).

[@rockoyouthman]

Lol. I saw that “no jacket required” line coming! Nice. Thanks for the smile today.

[@lincolncwynar1547]

Loved the “no jacket required” joke.

[@arcadesunday4592]

A fascinating review of this background music device! It's really innovative!

[@davidanderson3185]

My wife is Japanese and grew up in Japan in 60s and 70s. She recognized most of the artists on the tapes. Many were very popular and we still see them on Japanese music shows today. She's sad that they won't be enjoyed like they should.

[@PeterBellefleur]

I would try recording a sine wave sweep and see if triggers the CM to stop. Also I think those fixed heads on the playback units just grab the middle of the tape, so it has the right channel of program one and the left channel of program 2. Using a standard head would have kept the costs down. I doubt they were worried about hard panned stereo tracks being an issue.

[@edifyguy]

I don't think you're correct on that. Looking at the heads on those I feel confident it would reproduce a proper mono downmix of a stereo track pair. The read zones are the correct width to do this. The downside of that is an increase in bias noise from the blank space between the tracks which it is also reading. However, BGMs weren't made to play commercial tapesm but pre-recorded background music properly licensed to be used as such. Tapes recorded specifically for this BGM would have doubtless been recorded in mono with 2 wider tracks utilizing the space which would be blank between the stereo tracks to gain a better signal to noise ratio. This is a really brilliant design. Someone put a lot of thought into this, and it's a pity it never gained any traction.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

@@edifyguy yes - a hard panned stereo could yield a weird mix of a modern stereo recording, modern meaning anything whose technology was beyond, say, Beatles.

[@compzac]

@@edifyguy I think your correct sir, Hipac is a stereo 2 program format, just like how its bigger american cousin is a stereo 4 program format, so just like how 8-track is called that because it has 8 Mono programs, Hipac has 4 mono programs, and the heads in this machine have two pickups, so its just using the 4 tracks as 2 double wide programs, but that leads to an odd setup, this machine basically does everything the same as a standard Hipac in terms of speed and all that, the difference being mono. 4 tapes two programs each the weird thing is that it essentially means that these 4 little tapes would have the same amount of playback time as a single 8 track recorded in mono. but that's where they missed a tick, BG music is usually played quite low over meh speakers in a shop its not meant to sound excellent and hipac already sounds passable in its standard, why use double wide tracks why not just keep using the 4 tracks as individual mono tracks. signal to noise makes a little less sense when the whole point is to play some cover version of a contemporary song in a background level in a sears, and total play time makes more sense, think of the Seeburg BMG system it used 16 and something IPM records not LP discs, the tape based 3M contata used 1 7/8 IPM reel to reel which when i play that on my machine it sounds horrible in terms of signal to noise, so it does seem like an odd oversight to lose half of the tape, granted maybe its because they wanted to just use off the shelf bits and a standard compact cassette head was able to fit the bill, which if thats what happened makes sense, especially with the modular design and easy changeability of the cartridge mechanism, dont reinvent the wheel just use a part that already exists and we already have.

[@KallePihlajasaari]

@@compzac A 4 track head that small would have been a LOT more expensive in the day. The coils have to be interleaved, alternate sided or as narrow as a single stereo track. This is most likely the same reason the mechanical stepping system was used on a 8 track player so they did not need 8 sets of magnetics which would have made the mechanics MUCH simpler like on this unit, using tracks 1 and 5 also allowed the head to have a simple construction. The spacing on this head is probably the standard stereo spacing on a 1/4" deck in a smaller head housing. It would have been important economically to use as much standard production capacity when making niche market devices.

[@edifyguy]

@@compzac I think they missed that trick deliberately. 5 HiPac carts holds enough music to run all day if you use long ones, and by using the mono heads they did, the component was inexpensive compared to a stereo one, and yet they maintained compatibility with consumer HiPac carts, whereas if they used a stereo head one track at a time, yes, they could double the time on a tape, but they would break compatibility with all carts not specifically made for that machine. That wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker in a BGM system, but I think maintaining compatibility was smart.

[@Kellanium]

Me at the beginning: That looks like a background music machine Mat: It's a background music machine Me: :OOOOOO

[@nigelhall6714]

Matt...What an interesting video. Love how you approach your videos and shoot them. Well done and keep up the excellent work.

[@azmax623]

I just talked to a coworker about our 1990's music on hold system: Snippets of 40 light rock songs, 20 recordings of our sales people with info on our products. It ran off a p75 with a SB16, using Winamp in shuffle mode. Very similar in concept to this system.

[@finnmcool2]

First: Kudos on the Phil Collins album pun. Second: I love the idea of a sumo rivalry in the electric grid in Japan.

[@freeculture]

Its one of the backwards things of Japan that makes me wonder. After all these years, they never switched to a single frequency, and in addition its the only country in the world using 100V. In 2011 this hit them hard as they were unable to share power easily from the west into the east after that earthquake shutdown Fukushima, etc... 50 vs 60 means 20% more copper inside a transformer, and 100v vs 240v means wires need to be thicker to push the same watts safely. Which is why Tesla wanted 240V@60HZ which America sort of uses and Guyana is the only country in the world that actually does (no middle tapping transformers, yay!).

[@mel816]

@@freeculture Japan should have standardized during the rebuilding after WW2 where they would most likely have used the US 120v/60hz standard as they were occupied by the US at that time. Also, a few other countries like Peru, The Philippines and South Korea use 220-240v/60hz as well.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

Took me a dang while until you explain what the CM slot is for, when it clicked to me. To this day, CM is still their broadcasting lingo for commercials in general.

[@robertsneddon731]

CM stands for "Commercial Message" as in, "And now for a message from our sponsors". TV ads, radio ads etc. are all CMs.

[@dworkin7110]

8 track was pretty common in car stereos in the UK in the 70s despite (from memory) normal cassette tapes being around generally.

[@EzeeLinux]

This reminds me of the ITC 3D NAB cart machine... One capstan for three deck that slide in the same way. Very interesting tech! :)

[@cjc363636]

Back in my DJ days in the late 80s, the station had the 3 deck. Green and Red button per slot. Not a bad trick in the analog days.

[@fmphotooffice5513]

Crown was and still is for the most part jobber grade equipment. Board swapping design is very common in broadcast equipment. In the 70s they sometimes made it pretty as well.

[@romulusnr]

That was my first though but Techmoan has covered those before too

[@killmimes]

Exactly what I thought.

[@TheBaldr]

Even at the radio station I worked at in 2000-2001 the music and line up was all digital and run by computer, but the EAS was a cart machine.

[@manonthedollar]

This was an EXCELLENT episode, Mat! Thanks for all your hard work.

[@mattwatson3407]

I live in Japan. I brought an alarm clock with me from the US. It always ran slow. But it was so gradual, I didn’t notice until after about a week. I was waking up later and later each day and was almost late to work one day. I looked at the clock and it seemed that the timing mechanism wasn’t being controlled by a quartz crystal, but it was using the HZ from the wall outlet.

[@h3lladvocate]

It's amazing how modular this machine is for the time period. Very well designed

[@riseuplight]

I watch these every weekend, I love taking a step back in time with your lively narration. 10/10

[@noscwoh1]

I wonder...if the guts of a bluetooth-to-cassette car adapter could be made to fit in a 3D printed Hipac case, all those lonely orphaned Hipac car stereos could be given a new lease on life. I really dig the format.

[@edifyguy]

It definitely could. There's lots of room and the heads are the same. Whether it would be worth the trouble is up to you to decide. :)

[@asteroidrules]

Probably, could borrow some of the form factor from the 8-track adapters.

[@KallePihlajasaari]

A very worthy goal. You could pull the head and guts from a cassette adapter and it should work fine.

[@edifyguy]

@@KallePihlajasaari It would work.

[@PRIMUSALDA]

Imagine walking through the mall and hearing his exact rambling announcement in a loop "if got a 1 minute announcement, well not deliberately, i wanted it to be shorter ... "

[@RobertHallIV]

Reminds me of the cart machines we used for promos and station IDs back in the 80s at a 5,000W AM station!

[@iandeare1]

First thing I thought of, and certain stations would run minimum staff, and play auto music (I met a pen and ink artist in St Andrew's, Scotland, who made tapes for this, in the 1980's but I'm sure he used standard cassettes (also had the biggest record collections I've ever seen!))

[@matthewferro4449]

This is the most interesting machine you have featured, and that is sayings a lot. Great show!

[@daveubermensch]

A million thank yous for sharing this. I always love learning about equipment I've not seen before. You always provide a great look inside the use and inner workings.

[@craigpennington1251]

Never heard of this until now. Very cool actually & ingenious. Thanks for showing what could've been if only known about.

[@yardwolves2773]

the Jacket not Required joke got my immediate thumbs up. Well played.