Why Is This Soviet Tape Recorder So Heavy? Comet-225 Review

[@geekyprojects1353]

2:00 Btw. there is a soviet joke: And old vacuum cleaner factory worker gets retired. The factory director asks her: - Svetlana Ivanovna, what would you want to get as a gift from the factory? She answers: - A vacuum cleaner! - Svetlana Ivanovna, have you never stolen any vacuum cleaner parts from the factory and you never assembled it in your apartment? - I did, but every vacuum cleaner I assembled turned out to be a Kalashnikov gun.

[@georgen.8027]

"Motor... just put a washing machine motor in it... should be fine!"

[@fallingwater]

"Advertising... was considered a pointless waste of resources by greedy capitalists trying to drown each other". Turns out communism has some pretty convincing arguments, sometimes.

[@theaccount4841]

I really like the video, but I also really prefer the previous voice-over format, which seemed to have been done by the writer of the actual script rather than a paid voice-actor (I assume?). The previous format allowed for much more humanity. Perhaps the way to grow a channel is to use the standardized American English voice, but I think most of us are here with an interest in Railways, soviet history, and actually love a non-American perspective.

[@TheManFromAustralia]

Truly excellent video. Amazing production quality. All the best from California!

[@zaimkarii1756]

Also Soviet has High End Hifi too. Have you heard about Korvet 038S turntable ? It look so cool

[@joshuanishanthchristian5217]

This was a fascinating look into a topic I hadn't considered!

[@sillysad3198]

in USSR this program had an official name: "Sheer-Pot-Reb" (translated as "consumer goods") it was a communist attemmpt to force the otherwise purely military industry to produce at last something that people could consume.

[@rogerchurch3804]

you gave us so much information i didn't know about this stereo I actually like the comet 225 ! it reminds me so much of a Hitachi trk -9150 I had as a teenager the Vu meters the styling they look alike sometimes u see them on eBay nice stereo !!!

[@Raptor50aus]

This tape boombox reminds of the first front loading VCR my family bought back in the early 80's from Sharp. All solenoid and gears and no belts and still works great !

[@lindavainomae3489]

A great video - entertaining and informative! I really love your channel!

[@grassulo]

Awesome video and I subscribed and now I really want a Kometa 225 or 226, if that was a direct hook up when playing those old Soviet cassettes these are pretty awesome machines, I'd imagine they would sound really good playing back a decent western commercial tape and oh that was a beautiful schematic you showed, I could easily repair one having that with it!

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Thank you! The only direct hookup were voice samples, a few music samples were recorded from the microphone (others were original tracks due to filming errors). It really plays nice through the line-out, just not from the most of the soviet tapes, I'll make some measurements soon. Schematic is here if you want to check it out nemiga.info/radio/kometa-225-1-s.htm

[@grassulo]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 i really want one and I also want a Tonika bass guitar too weird shape and it's freaking awesome guitar! Tape deck with a big flywheel was the original Phillips design for compact cassette!

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

@@grassulo but the original Philips machines were portable, weren't they? This design is claimed to be copied from some later stationary SONY machine, but I haven't found it yet.

[@jayvyawahare4866]

Would love to see more of soviet tech😋😋

[@askme5805]

Well underrated Chanell. Has higher info value than 1mil western youtubers.

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Thank you!

[@gachimuchienjoyer]

Газманова зря вставил, ибо он уж больно любит страйками кидаться

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Спасибо, посмотрим, что будет

[@АлександрАлександров-у1б]

​@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 а почему Вы совсем забросили свой канал? Снимайте хотя бы короткие видео😊

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

@@АлександрАлександров-у1б скажу по секрету: же снимаю :)

[@romanserdyuk9965]

And btw it’s really a techmoan level video! Great job mate I’m really proud of you!

[@miniclip0703]

Wow loved the video and production quality, especially how it was also very informative at the same time. It was interesting to learn about, thank you.

[@sillysad3198]

important note on the labels on the soviet compact cassettes: the side label was printed as a blank placeholder for a good (and not at all soviet) reason: not all records (in the west) were labeled side A/B or 1/2, for many decades alternative side enumeration schemes kept appearing, records with 4, 6, 8, 10 sides... multidisc albums, automatic disc changers, and even cassette STACK players, at least half a dozen of different models with peculiar side ordering.

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

How come then every "imported" blank cassette had side A/B? And I also don't recall neither any Soviet pre-precorded cassettes that had sides 3 and 4 (for example, in a double-cassette GREENPEACE album the second cassette had sides 1 and 2) nor cassette stack players.

[@sillysad3198]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 because these were very new cassettes, and i presume market is quick to bury the dead

[@bletheringfool]

A really great and very polished video. There was a lot of talent in Russia and the Soviet Union back in the day a real pity that the genius was being used for destruction. There are many USSR things still working today and the camera gear too.

[@dawidlijewski5105]

OMG, I've thought that Poland had worst situation in 70-80's b'cos We couldn't afford the western cassetes and hi-fi that were present in stores and markets...

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Novosibirsk-produced Vega turntables based on the Polish Unitra G602 mechanism were actually one of the very few ways to obtain more or less affordable Hi-Fi record player in the late USSR!

[@dawidlijewski5105]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 Very interesting video, I love to compare it to situation in other countries of "socialist camp". Funny because, my aunt traveled from Poland to Hungary and Bulgaria in 80s and bring "official bootleg" vinyls of Michael Jackson, Modern Talking and C.C. Catch. No hassle, no problem, just usual thing that everybody was doing :D I think USSR was very strict and closed on everything. IDK how many things could be bring, but government smell opportunity to save collapsing economy and sold such records and electronics for hard currency in state run "Pewex" shops. Also few selected private companies has been licensed with right to import western electronics and records, movies and sell them freely... Well that companies made millions back then, and ppl who ran this were/are one of the richest in country.

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

@@dawidlijewski5105 oh yes, we had those Bulgarian Balkanton records too! Although I am not sure how bootleg are they, many discogs pages claim they were manufactured under a license. USSR had similar USD-only stores too (Beryozka in Russia, similar tree-themed names in other republics), electronics could be bought there, but the records could not.

[@massimocallegari4898]

Normally soviet made things was made for work a lot of years...I remember the refrigerator of my wife...like the old Bosch of my granny, 50 years of work..

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Soviet Bosch? 😃

[@sillysad3198]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 he said "like" but it dos not make his pseudo-arg valid. there are two variables. if we compare soviet refrigirator to ITS CONTEMPORARY western competitor, guess who would work longer. also claiming high quality of soviet goods is beyond laughable for so many reasons i lost count. say soviet wood screws. USSR was incapable of making woodscrews.

[@massimocallegari4898]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 No...an original german Bosch... But my wife had an old soviet refrigerator...but I don't remember the trade mark..

[@iscander_s]

Что-то вы уж слишком перегнули с антисоветчиной в этом видео, я конечно понимаю что западная аудитория любит клюкву про криворуких коммуняк с ракетами и очередями за хлебом, но надо же быть объективными. А откуда взялись удивительные истории про зеков делающих колонки "в тяжелых условиях и с утра до зари" я вообще теряюсь, спасибо что хоть не в ГУЛАГе.

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Да вообще-то ни для кого не секрет, что деревянные корпуса для советской акустики делали зэки, в т.ч. для НПО «Луч» (где делались колонки для Кометы) и Бердского радиозавода, выпускавшего «Веги», у которого промзона колонии Матвеевка (ныне ИК-3 по Новосибирской области) вообще стала чуть ли не филиалом. Информация от работников обоих этих предприятий.

[@domashnie_lubimtsy]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 ок, а что насчёт низкой оплаты их труда? Не говоря уже о том, что сам по себе труд в вашем контексте звучит как страшное наказание.

[@yisdoge]

Соглашусь, очень сильно перегнуто с антисоветчиной, до такой степени, что так до самого магнитофона речь и не дошла. Смешно) Чего там говорить про встроенный фонокорректор, или то, как хорошо магнитофон пишет звук после обслуживания (либо как он это делал в новом состоянии, ведь спустя годы советские конденсаторы высыхают, что известно любому). У меня есть Комета 225-С2, пишет великолепно, проигрывает прекрасно, кассеты у меня ни разу не повреждал, чего не сказать о Ноте 220 (с того же самого Луча), но то была кассета с криво заправленным ракордом. Короче говоря, автору пожелать лишь здравия, разбирать каждый пёрл в его монологе - нужно делать отдельный кинопроект. Как там было.. на минуту бреда приходится 10 минут объяснений

[@blackkt315b]

Интересное видео.Спасибо.Было бы интересно ещё узнать про Вегу/Томь/Ноту.Удачи

[@SFtheGreat]

The LPs are technically licensed, but then again, we can't be so sure.

[@Killerspieler0815]

@Railways of the World - This USSR recorder has German "DIN" connectors for speaker & in- out- puts (used in both Germanys from 1950s to early 1980s)

[@efxqxtyjzbl]

Get one of these to techmoan!

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

I actually still carry this idea to ask him someday if he wants to review something like this (there is another “made in Siberia” tape deck, component system size, but implemented using the same mechanic)

[@alexandr_chuprov]

Лайк!!! Очень круто!!!

[@romanserdyuk9965]

This video is great and truly reflects reality back in the day. I was born in 1977 and my parents bought the first magnitophon КОМЕТА 225 С-2 in 1988 and it was my first love and a big step into the music world. I used to go to the pirate studio where I was able to select the album of my favorite band or a music compilation from a catalogue to duplicate it on those mentioned in this video terrible soviet cassettes which I did hated so much but what could I do, I didn’t have a choice at all to choose between Japanese or German cassettes because we just didn’t have any at all. And just this one little trauma in my childhood subconsciously forces me to hate everything that reminds me of Soviet Union a country of great lie and false propaganda. We were worse than any civilized country in any aspects except maybe military and it’s a sad truth.

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Thank you! And I am too young and I only read about those music kiosks.

[@romanserdyuk9965]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 thanx once more for the great video that brought me back into my childhood. Keep such videos going mate!

[@MichiganPeatMoss]

Cue the Eduard Khil meme. That was VERY VERY Gooood! :)

[@DM-sm1md]

У меня была модель "Нота 225" предшевственница "Кометы".Хорший аппарат по звучанию и очень бюджетный , цена на время покупки 230 рублей что составляло около 50 долларов по курсу " чëрного рынка" 1$= 4,5 рублей. Хороший стереоэффект, запись музыки с ТВ и других магнитофонов. Первый аппарат у которого крышка открывалась плавно как у японских! Сейчас есть другой на восстаноалении плата спаяны как для танка😊, сразу видно военное производство! По крайней мере советская аппаратура была лучше чем современная китайская к примеру!

[@CrazyTramify]

Увидеть бы ролик про РВЗ-6!

[@joeblow8593]

Fascinating stuff, watching from the U.S.

[@dam2236]

me being from czechoslovakia and having a Tesla B101 reel to reel tape player, or even the Tesla NC470 record player, they all make the clicking sounds and I never realised it was something that other machines don't do!

[@sillysad3198]

i remember these Elton John soviet vinils :) the man changed my understanding of Music. it is sad he died so shamefully.

[@ScumfuckMcDoucheface]

... well, surprise/congrats he's not dead...? haha

[@kodinamsinh1267]

are you being serious about the death thing?

[@gfr2023]

10.48 maybe sell things with diagrams is a better idea today too.... to extend the lifecycle of things and reduce waste

[@ivantashakov1178]

Back in those days stuff like music and alcohol were confiscated upon entering the country so smugglers would take the tape out of the cassette and would hide it inside their shoe to get it in depending on what the music was it was more expensive stuff like Black Sabbath or AC/DC would cost you an arm and a leg

[@natasastanojevic]

Can you list Soviet music you used in this video?

[@simonmikkelsen]

Thanks

[@euleausberlin]

No need for a voice actor (who did a great job), your English is fine imo (I'm German)

[@Brick-Life]

Awesome Soviet tape recorder

[@pippolupin8715]

Gli apparecchi elettronici sovietici erano stupendi e fantastici, paragone con giapponesi, americani, tedeschi&olandesi. Ottimo video complimenti, mi ricordo un registratore (colore silver) a doppia cassetta di Elektronika con display elettronico strano e spartano cui non 3 cifre di 2 display separati per doppia cassetta ma un display di 8 cifre stile calcolatrice (!!!!) in un registratore poi con riduttore del fruscio DNR o DNL più nastro metallo compatibile e prese euro per cuffia e microfono. Voto 10 e lode, magari compro registratore Elektronika usato su eBay.

[@vinragemania9312]

So how rare are these?....can I buy one ....on eBay.....would I ever get it is the better question great video

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

They are super popular in ex-USSR and can be bough easily on local websites, but not on eBay. They'll definitely need a service, and servicing these would be quite a very "interesting" challenge (soviet components named in cyrillic, distinct schematic diagram symbols) 😃I recently saw a guy on KZbin who serviced a different soviet deck to be shipped to USA, that's probably the way if you want one.

[@xtalplanet]

1:10 most epic percussion

[@swarnavamitra6658]

3:17 Hey I know this song!

[@swarnavamitra6658]

5:15 This one too!

[@audioFail06]

What songs are they?

[@bayraktarogluarif6308]

0:40 IS HE STEVE JOBS?

[@sillysad3198]

взоржал

[@sillysad3198]

please! mention K50-6 :)

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Sure thing, also I personally had never had any of these failing due to a bad К50-6 (and IIRC saw very few of them there, mostly it was К50-16 which were way better).

[@Merkuryyyy]

Mk60 tapes sound best on the soviet "washing machine" (since its so massive) the mayak 223, from experience at least. About the copying process people would make machines for it called magnitizdat using mechanisims either bought illegaly or salvaged from something, specifically made to record a bunch of tapes "reliabley". I might try doing that since i have a mechanisim that could work??? We'll see

[@latexbeep]

Does anyone know the songs played on 3:15 & 5:12 ?

[@dietz9001]

1. Комбинация - Бухгалтер (Combination - Accountant) 2. Наташа Королёва - Серые глаза (Natasha Koroleva - Gray eyes)

[@Паша89-и4т]

сам имею три таких магнитофона.как раз детонация минимальная при воспроизведении и записи за счет большого тонвала.не волокут эти иностранцы ни писды еще че то там говорят.ихним аппаратам столько не прожить сколько лет прожили и еще до сих пор играют отлично наши кометы да маяки с радиотехниками.

[@quantumleap359]

Ain't communism grand? Socialism is the first step people..... Beware!

[@scanman975]

Beijing Biden is leading us there.

[@jakekaywell5972]

It is though. I miss living in the HPR.

[@Schlipperschlopper]

Soviet Hifi is the best!

[@toiviovideos8446]

In time 3:21 at this video what is this song?

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpa7lGt3a7KVj7s

[@toiviovideos8446]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 Thank you!

[@НикитаКучер-и2к]

Неужели вы разбили этот магнитофон? Или это другой?

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Разбили магнитофон который был в безнадёжно нерабочем состоянии "на запчасти" после того как восстановили до рабочего состояния все остальные

[@ალექს]

Более половины что ты рассказывал бред

[@audioFail06]

What is the name of the rasputin ussr copy?

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

It’s an early post-USSR advertisement of a convenience store kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6PcgHtvm7aMf8U

[@audioFail06]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 oh lmao, that’s cool. I find it quite catchy

[@abdelkaderelbachir3817]

I was going to say that it has a bomb inside of it but I guess that works too 😐

[@raymondleggs5508]

Sovietsky tape deck

[@stanojevicnatasa2514]

What's the song at 3:23?

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpa7lGt3a7KVj7s

[@stanojevicnatasa2514]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 Spasiba!

[@aleks237aleks]

да хватит рассказывать сказки про это гуано! которое не умело работать!

[@leonell4433]

Ah yes, "self" isolation. Read somthing. Read something other than Harry Potter, for example the Fulton speech and how Western countries were forbidden to sell anything to the Soviet Union.

[@RailwaysoftheWorld1]

Thank you for enlightening me, I had no idea that it were the Western countries who prohibited USSR citizens from leaving the country without a government approval, jammed foreign radio stations, censored books and movies! Guys, I need to make a statement. I made a mistake in this video. Those men at 08:03 were not KGB officers, those were really CIA agents who sneaked into the country to retrieve that stolen Charlie Parker record. All you have ever read about Fartsovka and criminal punishments for that were lies.

[@DeltaStar777]

@@RailwaysoftheWorld1 🤣🤣