Cheap but good 1991 Realistic Clarinette 125 stereo system

[@adamgenard3188]

It never ceases to amaze me when VWestlife demonstrates how the cheapest entry level black plastic crap from 30 or 40 years ago was vastly superior in both performance and reliability to the majority of what's being produced nowadays.

[@ssnoc]

Better than most crap produced today - nice unit I wish Radio Shack was back

[@tourmaline07]

@@ssnoc I was wondering how the sound quality was so good despite there being youtube compression!

[@jC-kc4si]

The manufacturing technology and materials were too primitive to make things super cheaply back then.

[@xaenon]

@@tourmaline07 When these were new and were still playing through the factory-supplied speakers, they honestly did not sound all that fantastic. An upgrade to better speakers does wonders with cheap electronics. Even a Crosley Cruiser can be made to sound respectable. Seriously, I played with one a few years ago; disconnected the internal speakers and wired the amp's output to drive a pair of thrift-store RCA home-theater 'surround' units. Not hi-fi by any stretch but it was a significant improvement. And you'd be surprised at how well a fractional-watt amplifier can drive larger speakers.

[@Moonlightshadow-lq4fr]

Do they actually make decent hi-fi these days? I would like to build a decent amp but worried of getting ripped off using modules off ebay? If anyone knows of a great brand to look for it would be greatly appreciated. Which make is very good for stand alone systems like they used to be in the 80's?

[@thisislilraskal]

Just like when a stray dog follows you home, it was nice of you to give Clarinette a clean, a feed, a place to stay and love it back to life. She'll keep you good company

[@dougfisher1813]

I've got the 1979 version of this unit. One of the tape decks is 8 track with record function, the other being cassette.

[@greenaum]

Not really, the record player is likely to be very poor, relative to others, and even objectively won't sound great. Tapes sound bad, and where would you even buy a cassette these days, and more importantly why would you bother? So it's basically a cheap, low-quality radio. If it had aux inputs you could at least wire it to your computer or phone or something. You could still do that using one of those dummy cassettes with a 3.5mm plug input, meant for use in car tape players back in the day, letting you plug a portable CD player into them. Although again, where you'd even find one. Or you could use one of the little FM broadcaster gadgets meant for doing the same from your MP3 player to your later car, which had CD and not tape. But again it'd be crap quality and for the money, better to just buy some amplified speakers.

[@supermasterPIK]

14:36 surprised face?

[@EgoChip]

When I was younger and got myself out of homelessness, I went to a car boot sale and picked up something very similar to this for £10, complete with speakers. It served me well for over a year.

[@raymondleggs5508]

These little stereos are underrated

[@barrjan]

How'd you get out of homelessness?

[@yandan7010]

I got a flashback of something I have not thought about in decades, as you skipped through the radio stations. Me and my brother used to ask the t.v. random daft questions then change the channel and the first thing we heard was the answer. "What's the meaning of life?" *click "...a lovely bed of chrysanthemums..."

[@wilneal8015]

"42" 😮 Don't Panic❗😇🐥😎🤎

[@stanleycostello9610]

That's sort of zen, if you really think about it.

[@cheeseparis1]

I used to flip channels in the middle of a sentence and hope for a suitable end, sometimes it was fun. Of course this worked with analog channels when flipping was instantaneous. Kids, once upon a time we flipped through 5 channels in a single second.

[@jamesslick4790]

I'm glad to see someone else did this! Hell, I STILL do it sometimes!

[@yandan7010]

Awesome, folks 😆👍🏻

[@GeneSavage]

I forgot that AM radios used to sound... less than FM, but nowhere near as terrible as today. Thanks for this!

[@MrDubbindan]

Ever hear an AM stereo , AM stereo wasnt that bad either

[@111000100101001]

Yes, “tune in” to WION AM Stereo 1430 online or on the actual radio if you’re in their vicinity for an Absolutely amazing sounding station that plays great music!

[@GeneSavage]

@@MrDubbindan It was amazing!!!

[@beverpix]

Thank you from my ❤ The loss of knowledge about formats is a fact, as well analogue as digital. You are part of a precious archive. People know all about distant stars, but lack knowledge about present history. You make a difference, thank you so much!

[@DominatorHDX]

Hey, I got a Sanyo black plastic crap stereo for my birthday when I was a kid in the 80's and it was awesome! As a kid you don't care. It looked cool, sounded good enough, could play radio, casette and records. Served me well into my late teen years. No complaints here. I even did an "upgrade" by adding a CD player I bought from my own pocket money in 1990 or something and connecting it to the aux input. The CD player was branded just as DIGITAL but it did its job also good enough. The CD player I still have somewhere in storage. Never could do it away as one of the first things I bought with my own money.

[@sebastiancabrol2014]

I had a very similar cheap Sanyo (still we were so poor that my grandma financed it) with double cassette and record player. The speakers were huge and sounded loud but obviously had a questionable sound. The problem with it was that the belts failed prematurely, causing a lot of wobble and distortion. We used cheap 90 min ferro tdk cassettes that got stuck if you didn't played it regularly.

[@dhpbear2]

9:39 - "Damping fluid"? This is the FIRST I've ever heard of such an animal!

[@davidbono9359]

And where do you find it?

[@wilneal8015]

@@davidbono9359 👀 Next to the Blinker Fluid 🌊🍄👍🏼⚠️💥🎯💦

[@imark7777777]

@@wilneal8015and so you don't forget, here's some instructions on how to change your blinker fluid. How to Replace Blinker Fluid kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2eqpIued8dkZs0 This was a pure gem to run across one day and there are other instructional videos too....

[@Vgp-rp4iu]

​@@davidbono9359just google it and you will find many places to find it. Some come in a prefilled syringe that will fill about 8 times. Price ranges from like 10 to 15 dollars.

[@Vgp-rp4iu]

​@@wilneal8015why would it be near the blinker fluid? That would imply that dampening fluid isn't a real thing

[@CARLiCON]

I bought a slightly older Realistic STA-785 receiver new in '89. It still works perfectly. Don't underestimate the shack, they sold decent stuff back in the day

[@robertberger3967]

the recievers were made by Hitachi

[@axelfiedel3793]

​@@robertberger3967 I bet that in their Optimus decks were actually made by well known manufacturers so finding yourself an Optimus branded cassette deck might be a Pioneer CT Cassette Deck in disguise.

[@RoaldvdM]

I'm into 80s stereos and boomboxes - always a joy to see such a 'system'. Not everything is junk. This totally suffices in a garage or workshop, even suffering decades of dust and grime - but still playing (the radio at least)

[@8_Bit]

"Listenin' to the radio, drivin' in your car: radio gets results"

[@banjo304]

Get that irritating ad a ton down here in the south. Glad to hear the northeast also has to suffer through it.

[@ericdunn8718]

Actually just heard another version of it from a tape I found that someone recorded all the way back in 1989 in a little town not too far away from me (bought tape in my hometown so no idea how it got here in the meantime but not important), so it must have been common at some point. Also all of the little commercials and that bit of a song from some religious broadcaster I've all heard recently on stations in my area (although I live in Michigan and the religious radio is way at the other end of the dial, other way around from him), so yeah, it's definitely a small world for radio these days.

[@TopSpot123]

Yeah, I naively thought this jingle was from one of my local stations.

[@AG-bp3ll]

I remember lots of people having turntables like this. My first turntable in the 80s had a ceramic cartridge as well. People freak out over Crosley's like that was the first time these plastic turntables were used. Few of us could afford nice Technics and got by with this type of cheap stuff.

[@christo930]

@@ChristopherSobieniak No it wouldn't. This would be an inexpensive bookshelf system for a living room or maybe a college dorm room or bedroom. This was an expensive stereo for what it is. I bought something of similar quality in 1987 for 99.99. That's 4 years earlier.

[@AG-bp3ll]

@@ChristopherSobieniak That was the Fisher Price record player. Those were great. 😂

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

​@@AG-bp3llYeah, fine. I'm just going from experience.

[@31cify]

​@@ChristopherSobieniak Well take your blasted experience and shove it, because it's not welcome here. Ha ha, only joking dude, thanks for your input.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@31cify Thanks. I feel out of it in my 40's as we seem to have moved on to streaming tracks through Bluetooth speakers.

[@kirkmooneyham]

It sounds much better than anyone would guess by just looking at the unit. They got something right back in the day, even at a budget price.

[@jamesslick4790]

With a LOT of vintage analog gear, The "cheap stuff" was wayyyyy better than the cheap stuff now. Hell the lowest end AM/FM receivers of the mid 1970's - Mid 1980's era will smoke many of the "better" ones now as to actual radio reception!

[@traxonwax]

@@jamesslick4790 Back in the day you had to get it right the first time, once it was out in the market, you couldn't just say, look out for the firmware update. That was it. Nowadays we are all beta testers and if we are lucky, you might get a firmware update that may marginally improve the performance at best.

[@danielgbgibson]

I liked it when you suddenly became Techmoan for a couple seconds.

[@blipco5]

Nice story. Sub'd 👍

[@imark7777777]

8:16 in case anybody else is wondering where that is. I looked away at the wrong moment and figured I'd come back to it almost re-watching it later. The funny thing is when I originally saw the thumbnail and click the video I thought it was Techmoan and was scratching my head when it wasn't. and i was thinking we'll it's gonna be good either way.

[@adamjeremycapps]

Old tech will never die. It was just so much fun.

[@Brian-li5up]

$8 for all of that. Amazing! Thanks for the video, this was really insightful

[@niafer9444]

I still love radio - I always have. Such a simple concept and easy to build. But there is something very nostalgic and romantic about radio. Thank you for the video.

[@DK640OBrianYT]

Never underestimate true ceramic cartridges. Firstly, they don't need RIAA-amplification. Due to nature, they deliver quite some voltage and they roll of as the frequency gets higher, almost resembling the RIAA-curve, so I'm all in for them. They play absolutely well and it's HiFi. What are these cartridges though ? Ceramics also ? Or Moving Magnets ? And yes. If you connect some very high quality speakers to systems like this, you're in for a BIG surprise. It's actually amazing and telling. The sound quality would appease most people. Your main priority should be buying very-very good speakers. At least 50% of the budget.

[@rizzlerazzleuno4733]

The Radio Shack (Realistic), Sears, Wards, and other house brands of consumer grade audio equipment that were made in USA, Japan, Korea, Malaysia ,Taiwan, England & Germany in the 60s and 70s were usually quite good (except for the cheapest models) and under the cosmetics were also sold as well-recognized audio brands. The Radio Shack, Wards and Sears catalogs are on line; it is fun to look at what was available. My favorites were the great four-in one compact systems that had AM-FM, a record changer, a cassette player-recorder and an 8-track player-recorder and a set of matching speakers. That combination only lasted about 3 years, when dual cassettes replaced the 8-tracks, record changers were replaced by single play turntables and then CDs replaced the cassettes. Wood grain simulated genuine walnut vinyl finally got replaced by the all black plastic models made in China. Thanks for rescuing this $8 wonder. 👍

[@danieldaniels7571]

JC Pennys house brand MCS was actually really decent quality, comparable to Technics or Kenwood back in the day.

[@stevenmann9769]

Made to a price but clearly well engineered and did not treat the customer like a chump.

[@douglasallen9428]

Other than the lack of an AUX input, this stereo system actually isn’t bad at all, especially for what it is! Thanks again!!!

[@xaenon]

It is fairly easy to add an AUX IN feature to older units like this. Admittedly, it's a bit of a bodge, but not hard to do at all.

[@douglasallen9428]

You can also use a cassette adapter in the playback deck to play and record from a computer, a CD player, an mp3 player or your phone.

[@novelezra]

Make vinyl snobs mad with this one simple trick!

[@andygozzo72]

hehe

[@joonglegamer9898]

I remember when I had a 1000$ technics Cassette Deck with all the fancy stuff, Dolby B,C, DBX, HTX, pro-this-pro-that. I remember buying an expensive metal tape for it, and recording it with Dolby C - and pinning it up against my Hard earned Denon DAT recorder. Me and my friends could NOT hear the difference (and the DAT player were better than CD at that time), so it was absolutely amazing how far you could stretch a cassette player. Sadly today's kids will never experience that.

[@kevinh96]

Absolutely. I have a couple of Dolby S cassette decks, one from Yamaha and the other from Sony, and if you record from a CD or a good digital source such as a FLAC file or my DAT recorder and play it back it's very, very difficult to hear the difference.

[@111000100101001]

Most “kids” today get excited listening to music coming from a tinny speaker the size of a pencil eraser inside their phone :(

[@itogi]

6:04 Arrow actually points from 2 to 1.

[@briangoldberg4439]

correct. The reason it depicts it with 1 on the left is to indicate the physical location of the decks in the unit, not to show which one will play first

[@ivonedev9449]

Good eye!

[@dmcintosh1967]

Yea I noticed that too

[@Kane26510]

You saw that, too, huh?

[@pcallas66]

Great video. Everything sounded better than I expected with it, too. Even 1.2 watts per channel is enough if matched with the correct, efficient speakers. I do think it looks cool.

[@randyab9go188]

The thing I like about your reviews is you do take into consideration the price point of the product. Most people will look at that and go black plastic crap. Don't even bother. You have to take into consideration that this isn't $1,000 stereo receiver. It works well for its place in the market. People that think this is going to perform like $1,000 stereo are quite honestly idiots.

[@notreallydaedalus]

Holy crap, hearing the station ID from one of my regular radio stations in the '90s. Like a quick jab in the gut!

[@TorontoJon]

17:39 VWestlife, I agree with you 100% regarding how the current generation of designers of all-in-one systems by Crosley, Victrola, etc. grew up only knowing Discman CD players, iPods, and streaming and have no idea how good vintage equipment could sound in terms of turntables, cassette decks, reel-to-reel decks, and even a number of 8-track players back in the day. Heck, I was watching KZbin videos recently of a young woman who collects vintage VHS VCR's, but when she played 'Titanic', the VHS tape had all sorts of glitches in the image and aside from it having been demagnetized at some point in its life, she hadn't even adjusted the tracking of her VCR. She probably initially thought that those of us who grew up with Beta and VHS simply tolerated bad playback or that the visual interference from not adjusting the tracking was how viewers normally watched VHS. These new generations have a lot to learn, particularly if they are nostalgic for all things 80's, but didn't live in that era and don't fully understand the technology. :)

[@MrDuncl]

The strange thing about that is that, in my experience, the very cheap VCRS that were wheb VHS was dying out have really good Auto Tracking, presumably because it is in the chipset rather than using discrete components.

[@TorontoJon]

@@MrDuncl, I'm fond of my JVC VHS and Super VHS ET VCR's with their auto calibration (as well as soft touch tracking adjustment buttons), so I don't have to fiddle with a mechanical tracking adjustment dial like with earlier VCR's and top loader VCR's, but I own and enjoy some older top loader units for their vintage charm. :)

[@totallyuselessvideoz]

As soon as I saw the LA 1805 IC I knew that this is a SANYO OEM. BtW it's a FM/AM/MPX functions contained on a single chip. The other one is a LA1186N again manufactured by SANYO. It's FM Front End for Recorder!

[@chrislj2890]

14:28 Shocking, lol. Another success with someone's throw away. You never cease to amaze!

[@ataribowlingcgc4465]

Great video as always! I have a generic Panasonic piece of black plastic garbage in my non-climate controlled shop where the temperature fluctuates between -10 F and 150 F depending on the time of the year that was set up by the previous owner in 1991. To this day, both tape decks work as does the stereo. The record player also works, but I do not use it as I do not want to ruin my records. The same stereo has a pair of Sony speakers from the 70s wired to it. The sound isn't anywhere near my listening station in my house that combines Sansui, Marantz, Technics, Magnavox and Polk Audio, but it is a work horse and gets the job done. There's something to be said for older low end stereo equipment.

[@dmcintosh1967]

I have for some reason always liked cheap old stereo system from the 80s- early 90s as cheap doesn't mean junk. Some places you don't need or want a big HiFi just something that plays music with reasonable quality and is durable.

[@thatwasprettyneat]

I think it's awesome that you've kept up this channel. I don't remember exactly when you started it but it was at least ten years ago, and probably more.

[@MagnusPaul1976]

I have discovered that if you want to shrink rubber belts, that have stretched over the years, you take ice water and put the belts in this for a couple of minutes. Then, you take these out, dry on a paper towel thoroughly and once dry, you spray the belts with tyre gloss or something similar you spray on car tyres to give it that shine. Thoroughly spray the belts and leave it for a few minutes. This immediately revives the tension and elasticity of the belts. This worked for me on one of the many record players and cassette decks, I own and repeated the steps above on these units as well. 👍👌

[@Recordology]

Your closing comments were spot on! 👍

[@Fluteboy]

16:07 - I am sure this will remind Techmoan of those childhood holidays in Morecambe. The hotels with the funny-smelling bedsheets, and the Wurlitzer music playing.

[@glonch]

I got the Clarinette 104 back in 1982... I was on Cloud 9 as I didn't have any 'stereo' at all and I played records and tapes until the unit died about 5 years later. I think I wore out the tape head playing AC/DC all the time...

[@domfjbrown75]

The turntable motor was made a week to the day after my 16th birthday, when I got a Sony midi system with CD :) 1991 was a great year...

[@hansu-nihon]

"He who does not honor the small cheap audio is not worthy of the great high end audio." Being an audiophile I do appreciate the lower price ranges also very much. Many of them sound really good for that price range. And it's nice to have them into the collection too.😊

[@matthewlawrenson3628]

As I've said before, I do the electronics function testing at a charity shop. It's very rare that we get a micro stereo system like this where everything works. The radio is usually fine (no moving parts), but often the drive on the turntable motor has failed or the cassette deck is shot. Even had CD trays fail to open completely. Though last week I did actually do a Sharp CD-MPX880 where everything functioned correctly. That's still stuck in a corner, as nobody can work out the correct price because they have so little experience with them actually working.

[@christo930]

Most radios do have moving parts, unless it is entirely digital. Even many digital radios have moving parts. Generally speaking if there is tuning knob, it has moving parts. OTOH, I have seen many 1930s and 40s radios where all the moving parts are fine. It's a remarkably robust system. Usually just a string wrapped around the tuning dial, the tuning indicator and the tuning capacitor.

[@adamgenard3188]

​@christo930 I think he meant the radio tuner has no moving parts...that usually cease to function after only a decade or 2. While I don't regularly service these all-in-1 units or boomboxes, I've acquired about half a dozen in the past 20 years and ALL of them had a non-functioning component but it has never been the tuner. Incredibly simple & robust indeed.

[@IssanCaliRefugee]

My great-grandma got this when her old console record player finally gave out, and sat it right on top. It was branded Soundesign and came from Kmart. Slightly different appearance, more 80's futuristic fonts, red and green LEDs, four big buttons to change functions instead of the switch. I went over to listen to it a lot. I too was impressed by that tuner, it grabbed a lot of stations my other cheap radios had difficulty with. Thanks for the memories.

[@NickDalzell]

I had that exact Soundesign system. I saved io $100 in allowance to get it at Kmart. It was garbage, but I was proud of it.

[@gwheregwhizz]

In the UK we had Amstrad that made quality looking Hi-Fi (well perhaps from the other side of the room) that used the cheapest components imaginable and sounded bad. I remember Realistic stuff was sold in Tandy and looked cheap and nasty, but always performed well for the money.

[@ianz9916]

That's Alan Sugar for you. He did the same with his computers, bought a load of cheap components, slapped them in a box and sold them cheaply. They were bloody rubbish but people got lured in by the price. What he did do was make other manufacturers bring down the prices of their far superior systems.

[@stepheng8779]

​@@ianz9916Everything Amstrad was garbage. I disagree about it even looking good, not even with your binoculars the wrong way round 😂

[@anonUK]

​@ianz9916 "Viva Hooky Street", the OFAH theme, should be the outro music for the UK Apprentice.

[@michaelturner4457]

Amstrad "Hi-Fi", the mug's eyeful.

[@ianz9916]

@@anonUK The only good thing about the UK Apprentice is it doesn't have Donald Trump in it.

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

As a kid I'd want to put my fit through it. As a middle aged person I appreciate that everything was built to a purpose. Some of these basic systems do work really well. I enjoy hooking up and checking out just about anything. Some components work extra well together.

[@cn4340]

@VWestlife this was an amazing episode, even better than the usual. I wanted to point out that in regards to the continuous play feature the graphic seems to actually show an arrow pointing from 2 to the left, towards 1. I zoomed and enhanced like in Blade Runner just to make sure ;)

[@charbokh]

13:50 I've seen one procedure that a mexican sound engineer repair man makes for all the motors when restoring vintage audio equipment. His name is Christian Tutoriales here in YT. He says that you have to take the motor out and check the voltage. If the voltage is 6 Volts DC you connect it to a 9 volt DC battery with a drop of oil and let it run one day or two depending on how dirty the motor is. The centrifugal force will clean the contacts removing the gunk inside the motor and then you install it. If the motor runs with 12 Volts DC you connect a 12 volt battery and do the same. I might have to try it on my vintage Goldstar Cassette Deck. This is what I liked about Realistic and RadioShack audio equipments. They were cheap but well made. I mean, AC Bias cassette recorder with an electro magnetic erase head for 179.95? Sign me on!

[@peacearchwa5103]

The AM and FM tuning section reflects quite well on its designer, Radio Shack. They weren't cutting corners on the tuner quality even at this price point.

[@dashcamandy2242]

I've owned plenty of "Black Plastic Crap," and some if it was surprisingly-good. More often than not, they were let down by budget speakers, rather than the internals. 4:33 - "It's gonna take a lotta love, to change the way things are..." Discovering some, if not all, of the internals were Sanyo seems to be the key here. Sanyo made a lot of budget-level stuff that was pretty decent.

[@edandrews6424]

More amazed that you have the original Radio Shack catalogue from that year!!😃

[@alanthorne3921]

Had one of these and served me well as long as you didn’t touch the graphics as shown.Volume knob was touchy,had to tap it to get both speakers to work.One tape deck gave up(belts) and the other started to chew tapes.Radio worked well.Turntable hardly used but it was noisy and feedbacked hum.Still it gave something to listen to when I was down n out.

[@ChadQuick270W]

I miss my Radio Shack catalogues. I had them all from 1983-1998. I do go to that cool website that has then which is handy.

[@brenthooton3412]

I had a couple of these types of systems as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. I had it made! I had graduated from a kids' suitcase record player and suddenly I had (1) tone controls (2) DUAL tape decks (3) ability to RECORD direct from LP or radio or another tape (4) actual stereo speakers. It may have been black plastic crap but dammit it was MY black plastic crap and I loved it.

[@SouvenirDin24]

The key is, as you say, the properly matched 'high' impedence amplifier. I like the suitcase record players. Maybe it's nostalgia for me as I remember my M&D had one back in the late 70's. It had valves inside (you could see them glow) Sounded good when I was a kid and I was amazed when the tonearm moved over and knocked the next record onto the turntable. I can guarantee it had a ceramic cartridge in it too. All the cheap turntables these days seem to connect a ceramic cartridge to a low impedence amplifier (doh!) which kills the bass and makes your records sound tinny. I ripped out the internals of my crosley, replaced the speakers, ceramic cartridge and needle (flip over), weighted the tonearm, installed a high impedence preamp and a 10w main amp. It sounds tons better and is ideal for me due to the portability of it :)

[@The_Haze]

I'm amazed by how good the turntable sounds for a budget turntable!

[@EclectikTronik]

I think they actually bothered to equalize the phono input on this one, most of those cruddy stereos did not.

[@duprie37]

Cool, this looks just like the first stereo system I bought outright with my own money earned working at the local supermarket part-time after school when I was 17. I was so stoked to have it! The best thing about it was the EM erase head which were still common even in cheap hifi systems like this then, whereas getting anything but a permanent magnet eraser in an average boombox had become almost impossible. It made such a big difference to me as I recorded almost everything onto cassette back then. Then a few months later my parents endowed me with their far superior Sony hifi system as they upgraded & after that I have no idea what happened to my long saved for piece of crap LoL.

[@ajaugenti1976]

Beautiful classic Realistic stereo system.

[@MVVblog]

It sounds pretty decent!

[@Choralone422]

Nice review. I remember seeing these in the catalog and in the store back then. It's a shame that even the "cheap plastic crap" of years past is in many ways better than new reproduction stuff of today for the reasons you mentioned in the video. Makes me wish I had been able to keep more of my old gear from then.

[@bencross9284]

I love these videos so much !!!!

[@Psychedelicxylophone]

I hate but at the same time, i like it. Although im more of a high end man, there is something quite charming about these kind of things. I suppose its the part of knowing about how things audio work electronically and mechanically. There is also something plesant about the laid back sound, probably to do with the cheap intergrated chips used in the amplifier circuits the same as you'd get in a portable boombox. Its always the speakers that these units come with that lets the sound down the most. I like it, its 1000 times better than a modern crosley.

[@WC0125]

Great information. The LA1186N is Sanyo part number for the FM front end IC. They described it as "Monolithic LInear IC - FM Front End for Radio Cassette Recorder Use". It included the RF amp, Mixer, Oscillator, and AFC Diode.

[@RealEpikCartfrenYT]

I initially thought it was a FM stereo decoder as some cheaper stereos had a separate chip for handling such thing. There would be an IF amplifier, tuner, and FM stereo decoder. But by then single chip designs were already starting to surface.

[@Markimark151]

I had a similar Realistic Clarinette as kid, but it was a bit sleeker and I used it to play tapes and vinyl in my bedroom, I used to listen to lots of children music on that stereo.

[@dathat3204]

It is a great occasion for me every time Mr.Fantastic is brought out from the doldrums of history to be played on this channel!

[@WhatItBeLike123]

Another gem of a video. Thank you!

[@audubon5425]

This was the last "cheap" stereo with a turntable (and the last Clarinette) Radio Shack marketed. There was a more expensive Modulaire model with a CD sold along side this one through 1993. For 1994 they brought out the Optimus System 7xx series and no more turntables. After 1998 RS ditched all the compact stereos (except a few boomboxes.)

[@Kane26510]

Great video, as usual. I worked in Radio Shack in 1992 (up until around May of that year) and I don't think we ever sold one of those sets (Clarinette 125) in the two years I worked in various stores. Today, I have a soft spot for Realistic stuff, but have to be more selective in what I buy at thrift stores. That was a good pick up.

[@JoeOrber]

Wooooow! It has great radio reception, the tape decks work great, even the turntable section! It is definitely a very good find! Just the cassette decks alone are great, and you can manage to record from external sources using the dubbing feature with one of those car cassette adaptors as the source tape 😅… I probably laughed too loud when you aligned the old belts in the shape of a surprised face hahahahaha 😂… fantastic video, keep up the great work! 😊❤

[@tourmaline07]

4:08 - I don't know what you do in terms of the sound mastering of these but I'm really impressed how clear this sounds through my Logitech X220 speakers. This 1991 Clarinette radio tuning sounds very clear compared even to some digital music I've listened to...

[@GrahamGroovyUK]

Loved listening to the radio back then

[@fhwolthuis]

Nice video, Kevin. I had a pretty cheap Philips F1250 music set during my highschool years and I had a lot of fun with it. Bought it new in 1986 😅

[@VinylTV33]

Hey, sorry I got your name wrong in my last video. I pinned a correction to the top of the comments, and I'll mention you in my next video. Love your work! Cheers!

[@clairearendse4877]

14:30 Belts displayed out on the table in the shape of a gasping emoji at the suggestion of being boiled.

[@Weissman111]

The chip is an A1186N - an FM front-end for radio cassette recorders and music centres - made by Sanyo.

[@martinlimon3589]

Its a bit 'budget', but far superior to our own 🇬🇧 Amstrad. Great video 👍😁😁

[@joshm264]

At the end of the video you quite literally took the words of of my mouth (or i suppose my comment), but I'll add that from what I've seen, all most people today care about is the novelty factor of having a record/cassette player and if the device has a bluetooth input or not, so the sound quality is often an afterthought for many consumers as well...

[@83Roboto]

Your average audio enthusiast used the BPC term as well. There truly was a lot of that stuff on the market back then. One brand that comes to mind was Yorx.

[@NickDalzell]

My Yorx is from the 1970s and is higher quality than this...thing

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

It was made on my bday! June 22 1991. too lazy for modified my previous comment lol! i love when you find neat stereo system!

[@turbomustang84]

Radio shack in that same catalog had a mini system model 710 that was also sold by denon as the 700 and I bought it for $399 and it was fantastic

[@cjc363636]

10 years before this was made, I bought with saved money (I was in early high school) the Realistic Clarinette 105. It came with a BSR automatic turntable, AM/FM Stereo, and Cassette deck, wioth plastic/silver front, and sides of fake wood grain on particle board. Served me well as a teenager for 3 or so years, mostly recording hits off of the local FM top 40 station.

[@Mouse2113]

Surprisingly good for what it is. Great vid

[@Ralph-r2i]

I love these old radio shack stereos.. I buy them whenever I see one.

[@sonatahewrote]

whoa franklin mint recording makes a cameo at the end!

[@cjmarsh504]

I remember the black plastic fantastic stereos in the late 80's and 90's we had a replaced the Century radio from the 70's for a Quasar entertainment center. Yep, a quasar all together unit, with an optional CD, or standard Phonograph. Quartz locked. Let's not forget the 19 inch Quasar color TV. That Realistic Clarinette 125 is not bad

[@teletronikoforever]

Wow! I wasn't expecting an electric erase head and full autostop cassette decks! When I first saw it I would have bet it used the typical autostop only in play - permanent magnet erase head Tanashin mechanism you still find today in cheap "come back" cassette decks! Very good surprise for a cheap stereo system, it won't be high fidelity "audiophile approved quality" but it plays and records quite good and at least it won't eat up your tapes.

[@Recordology]

Great video…I wish I could identify all of the circuit board components like you did.

[@Hounddoggy33]

I didn't know about the continuous play option. I fixed my grandmother's old Yorx Grandeur (Black Plastic Crap) and I just looked at it and it has that! I had to replace the belts, for the record player as well as the tape decks. After some DeoxIT she runs great again! Cheers!

[@princemegahit]

There is an arrow between the numbers one and two pointing to the left. It's not very visible, but it's there: Continuous Play 1

[@AmigaA-or2hj]

Thanks for the tip! I didn’t know that boiling the drive belt would revive them. 👍

[@andygozzo72]

i had a couple of 'similar but different' things in the mid to late 80s, here in the UK, one was an Amstrad, cant remember the other one, they worked similar, but gave better results with better speaker than what was supplied,

[@mackjsm7105]

By FAR.. the most amazing piece of modern technology..

[@dhpbear2]

1:47 - Where did you learn about these date-codes? The ODDEST date-codes I've come across are for speaker drivers made in the 1950s/1960s; they allotted ONE digit for the year-of-manufacture!

[@a1white]

I had. Practically the same system, in the UK, branded differently. The cassette decks were numbered 1 and 2 the other way around (or A and I can’t quite remember) so the first tape deck was on the right. RadioShack got their tape deck numbering wrong on this for continuous play

[@paulillingworth1242]

Used to to love Radio Shack stores

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

Yes!! Radio 📻 Shack. One of my favorite 😍 former places to shop. Your friend, Jeff.

[@greenaum]

To be fair the continuous tape play logo does have an arrow from 2 to 1. It's tiny but it's there, so they aren't trying to mislead you, it's supposed to work that way. Double-tape decks were always that way, far as I can remember.

[@RockyP77]

The arrow clearly shows "1

[@devdammit40]

You should do another catalog vid, maybe just for Radio Shack audio items. Do enjoy those! 🤔

[@seanachilleos1438]

Something that most people forget is that when parts of a stereo system's outer consists of wood it is likely to swell over time and perish. And most of the time it's made of press wood which is a no go. It's better then to go for plastic in such a case

[@uxwbill]

An auxiliary input would have been a nice bonus. The mystery IC is an LA1186, also from Sanyo.

[@ConsumerDV]

This is a nice piece of BPC you've got here. An example of cheap but decent. My 1984 cassette corder has a Mitsumi motor - still works.

[@treestandsafety3996]

I changed up the bell wire in my cheap plastic crap-ola, using co-ax cable, and it sounded great in 2002..to my memory! Looking back now, the only thing I really needed was better speakers!