"The graphic equalizer will give you the choice of it either sounding dreadful,...or terrible." That line absolutely cracked me up!! Love your videos, keep it up!!
According to another comment below, it could actually be a recently manufactured piece masquerading as old tech. If you think about it, ever obsolete technology leaves behind tons of factory equipment and plans to make them.. Once you have those, it's dirt cheap just to keep making them and selling them to whoever is willing to get them.
I received a JVC PC-150 for my 16th bday in 1985. It still kickin along today, relegated to dusty garage radio duty. Faithfully delivering it's tired flat sounds, daily. I'm still amazed by its seemingly bullet proof construction, and it's amazing resilience in terms of total life span. Hats off to JVC, because the word "die", doesn't seem to be in this unit's vocabulary. It even has SW1 & SW2. Which seems to be devoid of anyone broadcasting anything these days
I'm really not too sure why so many people have decided to explain to me how continuous play operates....I don't recall saying I didn't understand it....and of course I do (how could anyone not...the description of the function is in the name). On this deck the far left piano key operates the continuous play feature. I didn't demonstrate continuous play in the video because it's just not interesting enough to spend any time on.
+jquest43 If you can not take the time to pick an Avatar how are people going to take your comments seriously? As you just shown you lack the basic reading skills of a nat.
+jquest43 "in rotation ALL night" ....you wish buddy! This deck has of course no auto reverse, so the continuos play function just plays one side of each tape and then stops. Means, you get 90 minutes of music if you put in two 90 tapes...that's a pretty short night I would say.
The crazy sound effects created by playing both tapes together makes that boom box actually worth the price IMO! It just sounds like a lot of fun to mess with…I’d lose hours mixing sounds of tapes together, and creating some crazy messed up tape speed sound effects!
I like your mentioning the whole "the medium is only as good as its playback hardware" phenomenon, because the same thing happened with CDs. Most portable CD players that first came out on the market (or even home receivers for that matter), as I understand it, used things like underspeced digital-to-analog converters to save cost, and it made CDs sound worse than they really were.
I love my silver Sony boombox! Fixed speakers, single cassette deck, no gimmicks! Just awesome sound! Thing is probably older than me. Paid a hundred pounds for it in 2009. Takes eight D cell batteries.
I just subscribed to your channel. Been casting to my tv all evening. So many memories. I used to (try and) repair these in my last years of high school and my college years. For friends that is. Never had one myself. I remember the mainboards of these cheapo's were so badly soldered, some of the (badly) printed connections were re-done (in the factory I suppose) using wires. When you opened it up, you found these wires glued to the inside of the case...: Detaching (I mean simply moving around, not even disconnecting) one to get to the mainboard, often led to irreparable grounding issues (worse than the noise you demonstrate above) because of interference through the wires which weren't supposed to be there in the first place. The king of these cheapo's (lowest tier possible) here in Belgium was a brand from the far East called "Tokyo" (sometimes also called Tsuru, with the same logo). Their logo was a trident. What I mean with "Far East" is that some of their stuff came from Singapore, others from Malaysia, China, Korea....but never from Japan (probably already too expensive back then). However, if I remember correctly (it's more than 30 years ago): At the heart of these boombox devices, whether it be a low-tier Tsuru/Tokyo or a more renowned brand, was very often the same "integrated amplifier IC": STK-something. (something = a number I really don't remember :-) If you come across a Tokyo or a Tsuru, leave it, unless indeed it's just for 'set decorating' :-). I bought my mum an Aiwa in 1997: Still works as a charm: CD, radio, cassette all in good order after 23 years. Aiwa imho was one of the better, let's say 'mid-tier' brands in that era, especially for cassette based stuff, like boomboxes and portable cassette players. Sony bought 'em up and closed them down...for obvious reasons. Keep up the cool work!
seems to be using old sharp wf 939/940 casing with crap electronics inside as there are switches where sticker is and center button was one touch dubbing button that worked. I have original wf 940 and my humble research seems to show most were sold in old eastern block countries and worth good money. Have only heard radio working on mine as tape mechanicals stuck with dried solid grease. restoring now but this video gives me more things to check out
Way late response: Continuous Play is supposed to allow the first tape deck to play all the way thru, then the second plays after the first stops. To make it work, you had to press play on the second deck and CP buttons at the same time, then play on the first deck. It sorta "loaded" the play button on deck two to engage when the first deck auto stopped. I remember seeing many units that had the fake CP buttons though, or for whatever reason they did not work. Just another feature copied from a higher end unit that they could print on the box.
When you play both cassette decks and have such problem is because 1) there is just one motor for the 2 decks - not in this case or 2) there is not enough power for the motors (wrong AC voltage input) i.e: 220V instead of 120V
Maybe an integrated voltage regulator in the power supply becomes overloaded with the two motors on and the over-current protection causes this type of behavior. Excellent example for just at the edge utilizing of the resources.
It was cost cutting. Some dual decks did have 1 motor and a long belt that ran both decks. That cut cost a lot to not have to use 2 motors. When cassette decks went quality like the Pioneer Decks that were all logic controlled and touch buttons, then you had something worthy. The most solid deck I had was one that featured a motorized loading. It was a Crown. When you ejected the tape, it had a door that brought the tape out about 1/2 inch, and then tilted the door. You placed the tape in and it would then close slowly a motor was used to load and unload the tapes. It also like the Pioneer decks, would then auto calibrate the bias and eq bu recording a very short section at the beginning of the tape a test tone. They self adjusted to the tape to get the best possible sound. The most complicated deck I once owned was an Onkyo. Dual recording and dual auto reversing. You could actually record on both decks at the same time, or in sequence. It also would skip past the leader and auto adjust to the tape, pausing on the tape and unpause itself as soon as a signal arrived. It also had both time counter rather than just a tape counter for each deck, and you could search for blank gaps up to 16 songs. Even could cue up the next song on the non playing deck, while listening to the song on the other deck, and switch over to the cued up song. Pretty complicated. I regret having to give it away. Really should have kept it.
there was a model with auto reverse (sharp wf-939) and the continuous play button keeps the tape playing forever, and the holes covered by the logo between the tape compartments were switches for directions for sides A and B, and a reverse mode to stop the tape at end of side or to make it autoreverse
+Urko2005 Stuff that's going on vinyl or tape needs to be mastered taking into account the characteristics of the media. The early stuff that was (re-)released on CD was not remastered CD's so would never sound right. I'm curious if you can put 35mins a side of bass heavy music that retains some of the highs and mids on a LP the way that's commonly done on CD's nowadays without it skipping? CD is just uncompressed 44.1khz audio, something that's a lot better than the compressed mp3 etc or Dab most people are happy to listen to nowadays. I think that fact that most people couldn't afford expensive hi-end analogue audio gear needs to be taken into account when considering the merits of the different formats etc.
Throughout my high school years, I had both the JVC RCM-70-JW and later the RCM-90. These things rocked! Me and my friend used to go to these tunnels (storm drain from a golf course to the lake) powering it with a car battery because the 10 "D" cells never lasted long at the volumes we used to play it at. While I don't have those ghetto blasters any more, I still have a JVC Kaboom that was made in 1998, and it not only rocks, but it works perfectly.
Thank you for the in depth review. Like you said, back in the day audio equipment like this boombox was the gateway that lead us into being audio enthusiasts today. Not many audiophiles will admit that now though so I salute you realizing and telling the truth about how you got into the audio hobby - good job! (I wish that more audiophiles today would admit their humble beginnings into their passion for audio equipment. It would bring their feet back down to earth with us commoners.) For those that don't know, this International IT-939 is a copy of the Sharp WF-939. The Sharp is pretty highly regarded amongst boombox collectors. You can easily tell the difference because the WF-939 has a bright green LED spectrum analyzer on the front.
+Techmoan I appreciate you doing a review moan even if it's a shitty boombox good looking out on the ll cool j pics I was hoping it was the one on the album cover or similar see what you mean by disappointing all good though thanks
@@MichaelOKeefe2009 those RED COMMUNISTS are manufacturing the circuit boards I need to pass my uni course. And they got the last lot to me before the local board manufacturer even got back to me with a quote...which was 4x the price...even after I redesigned to pass the more stringent requirements. If communism means empowering the little guy like that then sign me up comrade...
Those are actually reproductions of the SHARP WF939 Labeled as New Old Stock, claiming they were supposed to go to different stores Like Radioshack Dixon etc. There new, and garbage. There a 100s of these type of boomboxes on eBay
+Kermit the Snitch And I'm sure the original Sharp would be a massively better unit & would have much better sound, better internals, speakers and everything.
Haha man the memories! My cousin had THIS EXACT THING but I remember it to sound mighty fantastic since I was very jealous. The same FD letters and flat looking speakers and all. He used to blast Chris De Burgh's Missing You on a loop for hours. Good old 80s.
After some digging (on web and in memory), it was definitely a Sharp, probably WF-939z or similar (www.shizaudio.ru/audio/data/media/17/SHARP_WF-939.jpg). Your thing is a direct copy. There was a brand called National who made similar things but International was definitely a fake brand who made terrible things. No wonder it was good sounding since it was a Sharp that my friend had. :)
My daughter binge watched Stranger Things over the summer and now wants an 80s themed birthday party. I found a Boombox very like this in a car boot but unfortunately the cassette players don't function, motors don't turn on when the buttons are pressed and i can't see anything obviously broken inside. I say "unfortunately" but as you said, they probably didn't sound great even when new. I can still pipe sound through the phono ports if i have my phone output very quiet and the radio still works so at the very least her and her friends can bop along to the oldies.
Not gonna lie, somehow the song at 4:16 sounds better with all that hiss and retro warble. Also, I remember when cheap stereo equipment had like a book written on the front.
The 80s were fun for this sort of thing. The boxy systems were far more interesting than the splodges that came in the 90s. Saisho and Matsui were Dixon's own brands and not much cop but Phillips/Pye, Sharp, Sony, Hitachi etc made some good things. I had a single tape deck Super Woofer.
On the authentic SHARP WF939Z version looks like the center piano key is a working "Dubbing Start" button, and the covered center holes held switches for tape direction and reverse mode. It also has a fancy "Spectrum Analyzer" in place of the Sound Level Meter.
hey I had one of those machines. it accompanied me and a girlfriend on a road trip from Dayton Ohio, to San Francisco. It was very good for hiding weed in the large battery compartment.
Techmoan is fantastic , who in their right mind would watch a 10 min video of an obsolete , utterly useless pile of retro junk. ME! hell its Cheaper than Therapy. Teachmoan continues to rock solid.
This boombox is an imitation of the Sharp WF-939Z! While looking through a few vids, I came across the Sharp WF-939Z and I thought... why does this system look so familiar? Not too long after, I remembered this video, and I must say, this is indeed some cheap imitation of Sharp....
Looks like a VERY cheap and nasty Sharp clone. I think they're still on Ebay now, but definately not built for the UK market. The 220 Volt sticker gave it away. Had it been intended for here, it'd be 240 Volt, and it'd have had the BEAB "Kitemark" thingy on it ! Hope you're doing okay, I was once AG3304....and yes, I'm still tinkering.
Hey man, what's up?!! I unsubscribed and resubscribed to your channel. Now, I see you're still tinkering around with some old electronics from your school days and such... I don't comment as such, but I am subscribed to your channel, and I do watch your videos whenever I have the time. Thanks for replying! Formerly 'TheJaHa5'.
Yep it's just a knockoff of the Sharp. I was never a fan of that particular Sharp anyway, as I prefer knobs instead of sliders. But it does look flashy!
I have real Sharp WF-939 but it is US version 110V so I need to use transofrmer. Thoes knock off clones are making fun of this device, cause it has fantastic sound. It's sad becuse in most videos people has clones but they talk about this particular device or smimilar model.
Me and my brother both had the £40 Dixons ones for Xmas in 1984. I think he had a saisho and I had a matsui so we could tell them apart. I really wanted the Philip's D8304 that my mate got but such is life.
My father still ones and uses one. It is the coolest shit on earth! He has it in his workshop and he is always there in the late evenings. So it's dark, those big wing doors are open, the light in shining outside and the 90s music can be heared all over our yard
The actual drivers in the speakers look as if they could sound pretty nice in a set of designed enclosures. Real cone tweeter & a fair sized magnet for a 8 watt speaker! Would probably do very well in a 100v line speaker setup. :)
+wildbilltexas Those retro 'looks like a gramophone/phonograph but has a cd player and radio as well' (and these days an ipod dock) are often made of what looks like reject pallet wood, held together with hot glue, with undersized 1980s style electronics floating around inside on woefully undersized wiring. With hot glue. Lots of it. Some of it even holds bits together.
+TheChipmunk2008 I've seen plenty of them. They are sold under the Crosley brand in the USA. They are all made in China and they are all cheap crap. Sadly it seems like most budget electronics are all made in China now.
Yeah I ermember all those cheezy brand names. While the Lasonic ones looked cool, they performed way worse than they looked. In old radio days, the speakers were huge to make up for the lack of power. So back then a 5 watt speaker could fill a room with sound, because the speaker was 10 inch or 15 inch. I recall I had a set of Jensen 15 inch 15 watt speakers I managed to save from Grandmas attic. Those were impressive, having full throw, red cones, and would blast out well with just 10 watts from Tube amplifiers.
It isnt about watts, its about quality. I measured the input power of my monitor speakers and they draw 24 watts total when the loudness levels begin to hurt. 9 watts at normal production levels. Average customers are mislead into thinking more watts = better sound.
+drkastenbrot Doubly so because few know about speaker acoustic efficiency, and companies don't tend to mention it. Most consumer speakers are very inefficient, ie. very little of the electrical power is being kicked out as acoustic energy. It's all down to the speaker design, especially the magnets. I've been to a few concerts over the years, perhaps the loudest being Yngwie Malmsteem, for which I was in the 6th row. However, by far the loudest speaker I've ever heard was a hand-made 5 foot high horn-type cinema speaker, driven by a hand-built valve amp, which uses the walls as the final cone. It belongs to my step-Dad, now retired; much of his job was speaker design for Kodak. The unit is a spare that was never used. IIRC he said the mono amp he built was 5W. What was amazing was how clear it sounded even when very loud, though he didn't have the volume contol turned up much, as he worried that doing so might damage the house. :D
While you are correct in the watts are not all that matters the more watts you have the louder you can go. My jbl xtreme with 40watts goes a lot louder than my 16watt flip 3
My Panasonic 5 CD shelf mini system, has a nice sound. They put in 2 stereo amps, and 4 wires per speaker. The woofer is only 4 inches yet they fill the room nicely with deep bass, and then they used separate wires for tweeter/mid range to make them sound much better.
Hello Mr.Techmoan i have real Sharp WF-939 from 86-90th. It has fantastic sound. Middle button on real thing actually works its a dubbing button, was very useful back in a day. Also real WF-939 has 8 ohms speakers . And overall build quality is realy good. One day you should revisit boombox video and compare fake on - knockoff in the video with real Sharp WF-939 i guarante you will be suprised!
For those who may NOT know : Continuous Play was a feature that allowed the two decks to play consecutively without manual intervention. So, you could begin playing Deck A, meanwhile having Deck B queued up somehow ; typically in playback mode with the pause button activated. Once Deck A finished playing the tape (with or without the Auto Reverse initiated, to play one or both sides) and enters Stop mode, the stopped Deck A triggers a release of the pause button on Deck B allowing it to play. Some decks may even automatically replay each deck, one or both sides of each tape, alternately and indefinitely, depending on the mechanism and circuitry. Sequence could be modified from : "Deck-A Side-A >> Deck-A Side-B >> Deck-B Side-A >> Deck-B Side-B", to : "Deck-A Side-A >> Deck-B Side-A >> Deck-A Side-B >> Deck-B Side-B", and other sequences (if any). It was an okay feature for those instances where you might want anywhere from 30 minutes (one side of a C-60) to 240 minutes (both sides of a C-120 in both decks) of continuous music without the interruption of stopping whatever you might be doing to flip tapes over and press buttons. Otherwise, it was one of those "features" whose significance, relevance, and importance was over-emphasized. Any units I had which boasted this feature, often had poorer sound from the "reverse play" position, and/or sometimes even one deck sounded worse than the other. So I had to favor one particular deck playing in a particular direction if I wanted to hear it best output quality. As for that peculiar mechanism you pointed out when pressing the Rec/Play buttons on the one deck, that is very likely the trigger mechanism for some kind of "Synchro Dubbing" action ; one motion to activate both decks in "perfect" unison. Judging by the sloppy quality of this model, my guess would be, it's to have the playback-only deck queued up in play-pause mode, and once you initiate the recording mode of the recording deck, that mechanism releases the pause button on the other deck and begins playing, to be dubbed to the recording deck ; now both tapes are in "synch"... Apparently, being a half-second ahead or behind was a "big problem" in the tape-to-tape dubbing process?
I don't think I said anything about any stickers. What are you talking about? And try some goddamned punctuation - I'm sure you're educated beyond the 2nd grade to know what that is and how to use it? I don't know if you're making a statement or asking a question? Next time, copy & paste what I said (maybe I said something in another comment somewhere that isn't showing right now? At any rate, I'm not seeing it). But even if I said anything about the decals on these old blasters, positive or negative, who cares? How does it affect your little world?
Your videos are awesome. always great for some insight into some less known tech. Also the part about the toy car going 100 miles an hour had me cracking up. Keep these awesome vids coming.
this one its a 100% chinese knockoff, i remember the internals of genuine one totally different from what i saw on this vid (especially the PCB's). genuine one was built on Mitsubishi/Sharp IC's and the power amp was built on two separated IC's instead of one.
I loved my boombox, you crushed my nostalgia bro 😂, guy in 2020 trolling 1990 tech. Anyways great look inside and out of a retro boombox. 👍 you should check out 70s tvs with vac tube and oak wood panels.
I remember I used to actively search for broken, discarded Boomboxes back in the '80's and repairing them. I had some of the best out there. I wish I still had a few cause their selling today for (an authentic retro) $1000-$5000. I'm 50years old now and still on the lookout for discarded, broken things like PC's. Great Video!
You have the ability to fix broken PCs? I don't mean just by replacing the components but actual repairs. I've got a GTX1080 I would love to have repaired, it's worth it's weight in gold right now.
I had two boomboxes when I was a kid. My first one was an Aimor ST-804FS2. It had a single cassette deck, obviously an AM/FM tuner with some other kind of scale but I don't remember what it was, a couple LED meters, a tape counter, and that was about it. My folks got it for me around '83 it '84 for Christmas, and it was huge and heavy. I remember it having very good sound quality and it was fairly loud too. At least that's the 13 or 14 year old me thought anyway, but it did sound reasonably good. The tape control buttons had a goofy design, almost like they were intentionally designed to snap, because that's what happened to two of them after about a year and a ½ or so. The buttons were more or less rockers, and they tapered toward the end as they reached the actual mechanism. When you pushed a button down, it strained the very top where it went into the mechanism, and were unrepairable. So, my Dad, being the problem solver that he was, fashioned an entire set. Out of wood. Two broke buttons meant replacing the rest of them, presumably because he didn't want to have to tear into it again s few months down the line. I don't know what kind of wood, but they were crazy strong, and lasted for the rest of the unit's life. Don't get me wrong, he didn't just carve out a lump of something and jam it into the player and that was that. No, he completely manufactured, finished them so they were all exactly alike and symmetrical, and stained or varnished or shellacked or whatever to complete them. They even looked better than the original set of silver buttons that was common on every piece of equipment at the time. I bought the second one, which was considerably smaller. I bought mainly for dubbing tapes. It was precisely identical to the one in your Dixons advertisement circular at 1:10 in the video. The model on the left page, at the very top. But it wasn't a Saisho, whoever that is. Mine was a Sanyo. Maybe Sanyo contracted out to manufacture some items as a budget or a store brand label, and this was one of them? Actually, I did have a third boombox. It was a Sony, and I would have bought it around '93. It has considerably deeper than a typical boombox, 2× to 2½× as deep, not quite as tall, fairly close in width, had removable speakers, the CD player was at the top, then an analog tuner, and dual cassette decks at the bottom. Even though it was much deeper, I still qualify it as a boombox because it was portable in that not only was it similar in design, but like all boomboxes, it had the option to run on batteries; I don't remember for sure, but for some reason I think it took 6 C-cells, but I could be wrong. Oddly, I don't have any idea what ever be and of any of them. That one you showcased toward the end isn't anything I would have even given a second look. All kinds of unnecessary text all over just screams of being pure garbage. I love that big thing near the top right that yelled out in big red diagonal letters "FM STEREO". Then there was that other one, "Stereo Sound" and finally, "INTERNATIONAL". Gotta love it lol. Two features that were plastered on the front were continuous playback and hi-speed dubbing. What do you want to bet that it did neither, and that if it even had auto stop, you'd be doing good! One thing you did in this video, that somehow I never even thought of doing, was trying to play both decks at the same time! What should happen if you tried that?
I think (but I'm not too sure) that "Continuous Play", meant that you could press play on both tapes, but only one would play, then when it finished, the other tape would play.
Daniel H ..so had I. ..It was made by proline from a connect store in belfast. ..A hundred and fifty quid down the toilet. ..I had to collect scrap metal to fund a hitachi 3d superwoofer. ..It still works. ..
I scored a few heavy hitter boomboxes on ebay years ago - glad I did! Most are working with just a few small faults here and there gradually being addressed.
My "boom box" was a Hitachi Super Woofer purchased circa 1990/91 and I still have it and it still works. Granted it doesn't offer the quality sound of a proper hifi but back then I thought it sounded brilliant!
+Oscar Scheepstra HAAAAAAAAAAHAAHAAHAHAHA FANTASTIC! you make me laugh so much with that hahaha, potencia maxima para otarios!!! I'm gonna take note of that one!!! dude you just made my day!
The Shadow Man да, конечно. "Судить об аудиокассетах по дешёвым кассетам и декам все равно, что говорить, что все машины плохие, когда можешь позволить себе позволить только это (фото шестерки)
The Shadow Man ну а что, товарищи, такова жизнь. Японцы и немцы делали современную качественную технику, консьюмеристы-американцы поддерживали их долларами, а наши разбирали и делали также, но сами и на своей электронике. И как бы не хаяли, но производили все сами. А сейчас все с китайским кремнием ходим. Вот так вот. Привет тебе, товарищ капиталист, который решил гугл-переводчиком понять таинственную русскую душу. В России, приятный день имеет тебя
It's a well known fact that they were built more solid than the fiat they were based on. Better engine, stronger suspension and brakes to handle hard roads
THE DAD TEST. I remember my dad explaining that to me, in Dixons in Fareham Shopping Centre once in the 1980's. made me crack up when you reminded me!!!
I had one of these back in early 90's, but it was little bit diffrent model and sounded not bad. In fact mine was built good enough so it lasted for decades. I think it still works.
I have a Sony Cfd 5 boombox that is in perfect cosmetic shape it has a very complicated Auto reverse cassette deck that someday I hope to put new belts on it also has a CD player it is the first Boombox to have a CD player and it has Sony's Square woofers
I had the sharp one, was quite good, still in use today at my place of work, donated it to the warehouse 10 years ago, and shes on from 7am till 5pm 6 days a week, still going strong
a minor correction: it did fly after almost 30 (?) years in the box. Belts OK. Pinch rollers OK. Knobs and capacitors OK. Amazing. My Technics CH770 deck's rubber did not last any longer than 3 years in a storage, the rollers fell in pieces and so did the belts.
Fake buttons? I once bought one of those cheap generic android tablets on black friday and it had a fake camera in it, plus neither the microphone nor bluetooth worked.
The button is real on the real and actual model and it's for dubbing tapes and totally works but Techmoan has a fake boom box - Sharp imitation. I have real one great sound, speakers are 8 ohms, the middle button is for tape dubbing and it works, it has great sound, also equalizer works great.
werkis2 nope. It is a real one. It is branded as international, not sharp. It's just cheap and crap. This was pretty clear in the video. How are people getting confused??
@@colinjohnston8519 we are talking about a knockoff not a fake boom box. A fake boom box would look like a working unit on the outside but never actually work. People confuse to the word fake with knockoff all the time.
It seems obvious this item suffers some kind of electrical failure. There is no volume power. I tried to look if the equalizer knobs were in the lowest position then it lacks volume too. For these kind of machines there would have been great to have a switch "bypass the bad equalizer"
I just found your videos. I'm a pro audio engineer and enjoyed seeing all the gear that got me interested in the business. My first recorder was a Sony Pro DC-6. I can't tell you hard I laugh when I hear you say "God awful" in the classic British accent! Thanks for doing these!
For the millionth time, the wattage rating on a speaker isnt what it PUTS OUT, it's the rating of how many watts it can take IN. (supposedly) You dont add the wattage rating up of each component and then say that speaker system is putting out that amount of watts. Speakers dont produce watts.
Watts means power, speaker motion is power (soundwave pressure). So your comment is incorrect. If speakers would not "produce watts" you would not hear anything.
@@Kenny-bw2cz I suppose you are correct. But I still think that the figure of "watts" nearly all speaker manufacturer's post on their speakers is not what they produce, but the amount of watts from the power source , that they can safely handle.
That was a very interesting video. Back in 2013 Vwestlife took a look at an all-in-one stereo unit with the same brand name. It performed slightly better than he expected, which is not saying much. The only thing he didn't do with it was take it apart to show the insides.
What a delightful piece of junk, haha. Loved seeing all the cheap trickery inside.
+Lazy Game Reviews Hi Clint
+Lazy Game Reviews It's great to know that you're here as well :D
Why am I still surprised to see you on a channel dedicated to old/obscure cool tech, d'oh.
+Lazy Game Reviews Awesome to see you here! Somehow I'm not surprised lol.
How's Ralph doing? He must be at peace after the lack of new content from the sims team :P
"The graphic equalizer will give you the choice of it either sounding dreadful,...or terrible." That line absolutely cracked me up!! Love your videos, keep it up!!
True as well😂
That poor, poor thing. It waited 20 years in the darkness, then as soon it was taken out it was butchered for our entertainment.
Mercy killing ...
According to another comment below, it could actually be a recently manufactured piece masquerading as old tech. If you think about it, ever obsolete technology leaves behind tons of factory equipment and plans to make them.. Once you have those, it's dirt cheap just to keep making them and selling them to whoever is willing to get them.
Even Jason Voorhees hates it XD I swear that is the exact same model he kicks in that movie th-cam.com/video/Obtc9U6hEYM/w-d-xo.html
@@Fireglo There should read "No Sharp WF-939 boomboxes was harmed during the filming"
I felt even worse for that poor kiddie car being chucked over a cliff! *(Funny as hell, tho...)*
I want a round of applause, this is the first cheap boombox with an actual tweeter!!
MrTruth111 Yeah that's literally the ONLY thing this piece of crap has in its favor lol
And a super tweeter! (Not actually super).
I received a JVC PC-150 for my 16th bday in 1985. It still kickin along today, relegated to dusty garage radio duty. Faithfully delivering it's tired flat sounds, daily.
I'm still amazed by its seemingly bullet proof construction, and it's amazing resilience in terms of total life span. Hats off to JVC, because the word "die", doesn't seem to be in this unit's vocabulary. It even has SW1 & SW2. Which seems to be devoid of anyone broadcasting anything these days
I'm really not too sure why so many people have decided to explain to me how continuous play operates....I don't recall saying I didn't understand it....and of course I do (how could anyone not...the description of the function is in the name). On this deck the far left piano key operates the continuous play feature. I didn't demonstrate continuous play in the video because it's just not interesting enough to spend any time on.
Its there so u can play 1 and 2 cassettes in rotation ALL night.geeze!!
+jquest43 If you can not take the time to pick an Avatar how are people going to take your comments seriously? As you just shown you lack the basic reading skills of a nat.
+Techmoan yea i always thought continuous play on a cassette deck was a pedestrian feature.
+jquest43
"in rotation ALL night" ....you wish buddy! This deck has of course no auto reverse, so the continuos play function just plays one side of each tape and then stops. Means, you get 90 minutes of music if you put in two 90 tapes...that's a pretty short night I would say.
It's a knockoff brand of boombox, that's why there's a fake button in the middle. Those fakers love to deceive the buying public!
I used to have the best boombox EVER. The lubricant on the doors had gunked up so the doors took OVER A MINUTE to open up!
Hahahaha XD
That would DEFINITELY pass the test for "how slow does the door open" Haha!
oh yea, well mine got jammed and never opened!
@metallitron9000 ALPHA AFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!
that’s so dubstep!
There's something so nostalgic about cheap tape being played on an even cheaper tape player. Takes me right back to childhood.
Text everywhere, lots of buttons, lights all over the front, big, and low quality sound. Perfect
The crazy sound effects created by playing both tapes together makes that boom box actually worth the price IMO! It just sounds like a lot of fun to mess with…I’d lose hours mixing sounds of tapes together, and creating some crazy messed up tape speed sound effects!
I like your mentioning the whole "the medium is only as good as its playback hardware" phenomenon, because the same thing happened with CDs. Most portable CD players that first came out on the market (or even home receivers for that matter), as I understand it, used things like underspeced digital-to-analog converters to save cost, and it made CDs sound worse than they really were.
PMPO is "Purely Mythical Power Output"
Purely mythical power output, LOL nice.
For home usage you don't really need more than 20-30W RMS, especially if system is decent, unlike that one.
Labeled 200W P.M.P.O. equals to 2 to 3 Watt RMS in real. This "Thing" is more like a Doom-Box than a Boom-Box.
Peak music power output
This bloger showing fake one
Original one is NATIONAL
made in Japan all mechanism is
Power wheel control
@@faidularcs r/engrish
This is why people think Marketing is about lying to consumer.
Nice video, mate.
Bought an Aiwa CA25 back in 1987.
Went until 1991 when the belt failed.
Got a replacement recently and it goes like new and used in the kitchen.
"if you throw it off a cliff"... that had me laughing out loud... just discovered your channel... great videos!
That cliff might be the best place for that jambox!
@@bettyschnauber8238 never to be seen again!
I would have still used that for a party-basement where stuff could get damaged.
And after the 3rd or 4th beer you don't mind the quality anymore. ;)
LOL, nice!
Eh, that's what we've got AmazonBasics Bluetooth speakers for, these days.
I love my silver Sony boombox! Fixed speakers, single cassette deck, no gimmicks! Just awesome sound! Thing is probably older than me. Paid a hundred pounds for it in 2009. Takes eight D cell batteries.
I just subscribed to your channel. Been casting to my tv all evening. So many memories.
I used to (try and) repair these in my last years of high school and my college years. For friends that is. Never had one myself.
I remember the mainboards of these cheapo's were so badly soldered, some of the (badly) printed connections were re-done (in the factory I suppose) using wires. When you opened it up, you found these wires glued to the inside of the case...: Detaching (I mean simply moving around, not even disconnecting) one to get to the mainboard, often led to irreparable grounding issues (worse than the noise you demonstrate above) because of interference through the wires which weren't supposed to be there in the first place.
The king of these cheapo's (lowest tier possible) here in Belgium was a brand from the far East called "Tokyo" (sometimes also called Tsuru, with the same logo). Their logo was a trident.
What I mean with "Far East" is that some of their stuff came from Singapore, others from Malaysia, China, Korea....but never from Japan (probably already too expensive back then).
However, if I remember correctly (it's more than 30 years ago): At the heart of these boombox devices, whether it be a low-tier Tsuru/Tokyo or a more renowned brand, was very often the same "integrated amplifier IC": STK-something. (something = a number I really don't remember :-)
If you come across a Tokyo or a Tsuru, leave it, unless indeed it's just for 'set decorating' :-).
I bought my mum an Aiwa in 1997: Still works as a charm: CD, radio, cassette all in good order after 23 years.
Aiwa imho was one of the better, let's say 'mid-tier' brands in that era, especially for cassette based stuff, like boomboxes and portable cassette players. Sony bought 'em up and closed them down...for obvious reasons.
Keep up the cool work!
seems to be using old sharp wf 939/940 casing with crap electronics inside as there are switches where sticker is and center button was one touch dubbing button that worked. I have original wf 940 and my humble research seems to show most were sold in old eastern block countries and worth good money. Have only heard radio working on mine as tape mechanicals stuck with dried solid grease. restoring now but this video gives me more things to check out
Way late response: Continuous Play is supposed to allow the first tape deck to play all the way thru, then the second plays after the first stops. To make it work, you had to press play on the second deck and CP buttons at the same time, then play on the first deck. It sorta "loaded" the play button on deck two to engage when the first deck auto stopped. I remember seeing many units that had the fake CP buttons though, or for whatever reason they did not work. Just another feature copied from a higher end unit that they could print on the box.
National: Just Slightly Ahead of Our Time
International: Just Slightly Behind of Our Time
I lost it when you play both simultaneously.
When you play both cassette decks and have such problem is because 1) there is just one motor for the 2 decks - not in this case or 2) there is not enough power for the motors (wrong AC voltage input) i.e: 220V instead of 120V
CubanoMX possibly a poor power distribution?
Maybe an integrated voltage regulator in the power supply becomes overloaded with the two motors on and the over-current protection causes this type of behavior. Excellent example for just at the edge utilizing of the resources.
It was cost cutting. Some dual decks did have 1 motor and a long belt that ran both decks. That cut cost a lot to not have to use 2 motors. When cassette decks went quality like the Pioneer Decks that were all logic controlled and touch buttons, then you had something worthy. The most solid deck I had was one that featured a motorized loading. It was a Crown. When you ejected the tape, it had a door that brought the tape out about 1/2 inch, and then tilted the door. You placed the tape in and it would then close slowly a motor was used to load and unload the tapes. It also like the Pioneer decks, would then auto calibrate the bias and eq bu recording a very short section at the beginning of the tape a test tone. They self adjusted to the tape to get the best possible sound. The most complicated deck I once owned was an Onkyo. Dual recording and dual auto reversing. You could actually record on both decks at the same time, or in sequence. It also would skip past the leader and auto adjust to the tape, pausing on the tape and unpause itself as soon as a signal arrived. It also had both time counter rather than just a tape counter for each deck, and you could search for blank gaps up to 16 songs. Even could cue up the next song on the non playing deck, while listening to the song on the other deck, and switch over to the cued up song. Pretty complicated. I regret having to give it away. Really should have kept it.
High speed dubbing many have been turned on
8 Watts and a fake button, you could not ask for more. :-D
i had this exact model and used it for my computer speakers for a ling time. Brings me back.
there was a model with auto reverse (sharp wf-939) and the continuous play button keeps the tape playing forever, and the holes covered by the logo between the tape compartments were switches for directions for sides A and B, and a reverse mode to stop the tape at end of side or to make it autoreverse
"the best thing we can do with this machine is take it apart" LMAO
EEVBlog enters the room
In Arizona we'd use this kind of shite as targets.
Mark Stach 😂😂😂
*TRACK NAMES*
A lot of people have asked for the names of the music tracks. These are now in the *Video Description Text Box*
+Techmoan Thank you so much. Shazam can't find this.
cool thanks
+Techmoan - you the man! Thank you! Even if it's just TH-cam music....DAT BASS LINE!! :D
+Kyle Pittman Its like a lot of 70s stuff on CD , just doesnt sound the same as an actual vinyl copy.
+Urko2005 Stuff that's going on vinyl or tape needs to be mastered taking into account the characteristics of the media. The early stuff that was (re-)released on CD was not remastered CD's so would never sound right. I'm curious if you can put 35mins a side of bass heavy music that retains some of the highs and mids on a LP the way that's commonly done on CD's nowadays without it skipping? CD is just uncompressed 44.1khz audio, something that's a lot better than the compressed mp3 etc or Dab most people are happy to listen to nowadays. I think that fact that most people couldn't afford expensive hi-end analogue audio gear needs to be taken into account when considering the merits of the different formats etc.
Lol... the reel-to-reel cassette tape he use in this video probably cost more than the whole unit...
woah, didn't expect to see you here
@@thestargazer679 lol... I love Techmoan... I see you do too!
@@override7486 e OK omm..
Wow it's baremetalHW! That's so cool, it's always awesome to see my interests intersect like this!
used*
Throughout my high school years, I had both the JVC RCM-70-JW and later the RCM-90. These things rocked! Me and my friend used to go to these tunnels (storm drain from a golf course to the lake) powering it with a car battery because the 10 "D" cells never lasted long at the volumes we used to play it at. While I don't have those ghetto blasters any more, I still have a JVC Kaboom that was made in 1998, and it not only rocks, but it works perfectly.
Thank you for the in depth review. Like you said, back in the day audio equipment like this boombox was the gateway that lead us into being audio enthusiasts today. Not many audiophiles will admit that now though so I salute you realizing and telling the truth about how you got into the audio hobby - good job! (I wish that more audiophiles today would admit their humble beginnings into their passion for audio equipment. It would bring their feet back down to earth with us commoners.)
For those that don't know, this International IT-939 is a copy of the Sharp WF-939. The Sharp is pretty highly regarded amongst boombox collectors. You can easily tell the difference because the WF-939 has a bright green LED spectrum analyzer on the front.
My favourite piece of superfluous text has got to be "INTERNATIONAL" on the cassette deck.
What is it supposed to even be referring to?
+Dan Xepha That's the make.
Brilliant!
+Techmoan I appreciate you doing a review moan even if it's a shitty boombox good looking out on the ll cool j pics I was hoping it was the one on the album cover or similar see what you mean by disappointing all good though thanks
+Gary Parton what.
+matthew bryant who knows
Its a fake/copy of Sharp WF939.I seen the guts of the original.Its nothing like this.
th-cam.com/video/CGV4pq0u8Lg/w-d-xo.html
You're right! Damn.. what a bad copy
@Bob Smith "HAVE SEEN the guts" :-)
@@TheDutchShepherd Created by fucking copycat bootleg RED COMMUNIST FUCKERS of China.
@@MichaelOKeefe2009 those RED COMMUNISTS are manufacturing the circuit boards I need to pass my uni course. And they got the last lot to me before the local board manufacturer even got back to me with a quote...which was 4x the price...even after I redesigned to pass the more stringent requirements.
If communism means empowering the little guy like that then sign me up comrade...
Those are actually reproductions of the SHARP WF939 Labeled as New Old Stock, claiming they were supposed to go to different stores Like Radioshack Dixon etc. There new, and garbage. There a 100s of these type of boomboxes on eBay
+Kermit the Snitch And I'm sure the original Sharp would be a massively better unit & would have much better sound, better internals, speakers and everything.
You are correct
+Kermit the Snitch Wait, So these are made to fool people into thinking they are new? That's actually a thing?
Yes, its called marketing skills
Real Sharp WF-939 has fantastic sound and middle button on real thing works its a dubbing button!
I actually remember this junky stereo. What a “blast from the past”. Wow.
5:52 Nice feature. It lets you know when to start recording the backup for a show.
sometimes I'd spend hours going through the Argos catalogue just dreaming of things i wanted to buy.
I believed I was the only one who thought that way. Wishful thinking. 😀
I still do
Haha man the memories! My cousin had THIS EXACT THING but I remember it to sound mighty fantastic since I was very jealous. The same FD letters and flat looking speakers and all. He used to blast Chris De Burgh's Missing You on a loop for hours. Good old 80s.
After some digging (on web and in memory), it was definitely a Sharp, probably WF-939z or similar (www.shizaudio.ru/audio/data/media/17/SHARP_WF-939.jpg). Your thing is a direct copy. There was a brand called National who made similar things but International was definitely a fake brand who made terrible things. No wonder it was good sounding since it was a Sharp that my friend had. :)
I have Sharp WF-939 in working order (rec tape is jammed and damaged) but it has relay relay good sound
Sam Borgman wish i grew up in the 89s or 90s. Your lucky. Todays music is sucky.
@@jeanbonnefoy1377 whoa so national was pretty high quality
ha! thats what i did to. chris deburgh was great only i blasted the "into the light" tape
Me and my friends all had one of these... and yep, they did sound terrible! BUT... it's all we could afford, so we loved them!
My daughter binge watched Stranger Things over the summer and now wants an 80s themed birthday party.
I found a Boombox very like this in a car boot but unfortunately the cassette players don't function, motors don't turn on when the buttons are pressed and i can't see anything obviously broken inside. I say "unfortunately" but as you said, they probably didn't sound great even when new. I can still pipe sound through the phono ports if i have my phone output very quiet and the radio still works so at the very least her and her friends can bop along to the oldies.
Not gonna lie, somehow the song at 4:16 sounds better with all that hiss and retro warble. Also, I remember when cheap stereo equipment had like a book written on the front.
the door on the deck 2 came out fast because it was "hi-speed".. haha!
ok, that was lame. I'm gonna shut up right now.
I live for shite 80s electronics like this.... Check out all that Hot snot on the circuit boards. That crazy aussie bloke would have a field day.
Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!
Hahahahahahahaha
This guy predicted DankPods
@@SzymonSaysStuff didnt even realize that comment was 5years old, i immediatelly thought that he was talking about DankPods
@Austin Payton Instablaster =)
The 80s were fun for this sort of thing. The boxy systems were far more interesting than the splodges that came in the 90s. Saisho and Matsui were Dixon's own brands and not much cop but Phillips/Pye, Sharp, Sony, Hitachi etc made some good things. I had a single tape deck Super Woofer.
On the authentic SHARP WF939Z version looks like the center piano key is a working "Dubbing Start" button, and the covered center holes held switches for tape direction and reverse mode. It also has a fancy "Spectrum Analyzer" in place of the Sound Level Meter.
hey I had one of those machines. it accompanied me and a girlfriend on a road trip from Dayton Ohio, to San Francisco. It was very good for hiding weed in the large battery compartment.
You should get a P.O. Box so we can send you stuff to review. lol
Techmoan is fantastic , who in their right mind would watch a 10 min video of an obsolete , utterly useless pile of retro junk. ME! hell its Cheaper than Therapy. Teachmoan continues to rock solid.
+max doe Hahaha, its about as effective as therapy too.
Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho!!!!!!!
This boombox is an imitation of the Sharp WF-939Z! While looking through a few vids, I came across the Sharp WF-939Z and I thought... why does this system look so familiar? Not too long after, I remembered this video, and I must say, this is indeed some cheap imitation of Sharp....
Looks like a VERY cheap and nasty Sharp clone. I think they're still on Ebay now, but definately not built for the UK market. The 220 Volt sticker gave it away. Had it been intended for here, it'd be 240 Volt, and it'd have had the BEAB "Kitemark" thingy on it ! Hope you're doing okay, I was once AG3304....and yes, I'm still tinkering.
Hey man, what's up?!! I unsubscribed and resubscribed to your channel. Now, I see you're still tinkering around with some old electronics from your school days and such... I don't comment as such, but I am subscribed to your channel, and I do watch your videos whenever I have the time.
Thanks for replying!
Formerly 'TheJaHa5'.
Yep it's just a knockoff of the Sharp. I was never a fan of that particular Sharp anyway, as I prefer knobs instead of sliders. But it does look flashy!
I have a maxim version of this exact stereo, maybe smaller brands tried imitating the sharp.
I have real Sharp WF-939 but it is US version 110V so I need to use transofrmer. Thoes knock off clones are making fun of this device, cause it has fantastic sound. It's sad becuse in most videos people has clones but they talk about this particular device or smimilar model.
Me and my brother both had the £40 Dixons ones for Xmas in 1984. I think he had a saisho and I had a matsui so we could tell them apart. I really wanted the Philip's D8304 that my mate got but such is life.
My father still ones and uses one.
It is the coolest shit on earth!
He has it in his workshop and he is always there in the late evenings.
So it's dark, those big wing doors are open, the light in shining outside and the 90s music can be heared all over our yard
The actual drivers in the speakers look as if they could sound pretty nice in a set of designed enclosures. Real cone tweeter & a fair sized magnet for a 8 watt speaker! Would probably do very well in a 100v line speaker setup. :)
You could describe a tin of paint and I would find it interesting and I would watch
Send it to the guy who runs the "Hydraulic Press Channel".
+tremorist Or to "Demolition Ranch" ;-)
That Russian Hydraulic Guy particularly
He's from Finland.
Russian.... LOL
Finnish
OMG @0:31"transform you from being wack to being fresh". Dead.
This model is the generic version of Sharp WF-939. Almost exact replica. It was flooded on ebay once.
The double deck weird glitch was actually something that made me want it 😊
+d vibe (swe) haha me too
Yeah it sounds boss lol
I laughed when the cassette door just exploded its way to open
This video made me laugh more than most comedies.
"Dad Test"
Brilliant.
I kept thinking he said "Down test"
I thought I had dynamic speakers all this time.
You've changed my life.
classic LADA was great... I've got one in those olegoodtimes)))
thing is...if one looks around around there is still modern versions of this sort of "junk" being sold nowadays; especially around/on "Black Friday"
+Vincent de Guard I have heard the IPOD/Iphone boomboxes like the Lasonic retro models are very cheaply made.
+wildbilltexas Those retro 'looks like a gramophone/phonograph but has a cd player and radio as well' (and these days an ipod dock) are often made of what looks like reject pallet wood, held together with hot glue, with undersized 1980s style electronics floating around inside on woefully undersized wiring. With hot glue. Lots of it. Some of it even holds bits together.
+TheChipmunk2008 I've seen plenty of them. They are sold under the Crosley brand in the USA. They are all made in China and they are all cheap crap. Sadly it seems like most budget electronics are all made in China now.
my dad owned a Lasonic huge boom box with two tape decks, 10 inch subs on each side.... it was awesome.
I own one, and can confirm that they are awesome.
Lasonic is a piece of crap, If you know boombox history.
Yo Ho!
Yeah I ermember all those cheezy brand names. While the Lasonic ones looked cool, they performed way worse than they looked. In old radio days, the speakers were huge to make up for the lack of power. So back then a 5 watt speaker could fill a room with sound, because the speaker was 10 inch or 15 inch. I recall I had a set of Jensen 15 inch 15 watt speakers I managed to save from Grandmas attic. Those were impressive, having full throw, red cones, and would blast out well with just 10 watts from Tube amplifiers.
There were the things you wanted, and then there were the things your parents bought you.
Thank you for the trip of nostalgia. I miss these days sometimes!
Brilliant review. I love techmoan's objectivity! Clear and informative.
It isnt about watts, its about quality. I measured the input power of my monitor speakers and they draw 24 watts total when the loudness levels begin to hurt. 9 watts at normal production levels.
Average customers are mislead into thinking more watts = better sound.
+drkastenbrot Doubly so because few know about speaker acoustic efficiency, and companies don't tend to mention it. Most consumer speakers are very inefficient, ie. very little of the electrical power is being kicked out as acoustic energy. It's all down to the speaker design, especially the magnets.
I've been to a few concerts over the years, perhaps the loudest being Yngwie Malmsteem, for which I was in the 6th row. However, by far the loudest speaker I've ever heard was a hand-made 5 foot high horn-type cinema speaker, driven by a hand-built valve amp, which uses the walls as the final cone. It belongs to my step-Dad, now retired; much of his job was speaker design for Kodak. The unit is a spare that was never used. IIRC he said the mono amp he built was 5W. What was amazing was how clear it sounded even when very loud, though he didn't have the volume contol turned up much, as he worried that doing so might damage the house. :D
While you are correct in the watts are not all that matters the more watts you have the louder you can go. My jbl xtreme with 40watts goes a lot louder than my 16watt flip 3
My Panasonic 5 CD shelf mini system, has a nice sound. They put in 2 stereo amps, and 4 wires per speaker. The woofer is only 4 inches yet they fill the room nicely with deep bass, and then they used separate wires for tweeter/mid range to make them sound much better.
You don't understand 1980s teenagers. 😀
That's pretty much the first thing my dad taught me about audio equipment.
I lost it with the toy car over the cliff comment.
Hello Mr.Techmoan i have real Sharp WF-939 from 86-90th. It has fantastic sound. Middle button on real thing actually works its a dubbing button, was very useful back in a day. Also real WF-939 has 8 ohms speakers . And overall build quality is realy good. One day you should revisit boombox video and compare fake on - knockoff in the video with real Sharp WF-939 i guarante you will be suprised!
For those who may NOT know :
Continuous Play was a feature that allowed the two decks to play consecutively without manual intervention. So, you could begin playing Deck A, meanwhile having Deck B queued up somehow ; typically in playback mode with the pause button activated.
Once Deck A finished playing the tape (with or without the Auto Reverse initiated, to play one or both sides) and enters Stop mode, the stopped Deck A triggers a release of the pause button on Deck B allowing it to play.
Some decks may even automatically replay each deck, one or both sides of each tape, alternately and indefinitely, depending on the mechanism and circuitry. Sequence could be modified from :
"Deck-A Side-A >> Deck-A Side-B >> Deck-B Side-A >> Deck-B Side-B", to :
"Deck-A Side-A >> Deck-B Side-A >> Deck-A Side-B >> Deck-B Side-B", and other sequences (if any).
It was an okay feature for those instances where you might want anywhere from 30 minutes (one side of a C-60) to 240 minutes (both sides of a C-120 in both decks) of continuous music without the interruption of stopping whatever you might be doing to flip tapes over and press buttons. Otherwise, it was one of those "features" whose significance, relevance, and importance was over-emphasized.
Any units I had which boasted this feature, often had poorer sound from the "reverse play" position, and/or sometimes even one deck sounded worse than the other. So I had to favor one particular deck playing in a particular direction if I wanted to hear it best output quality.
As for that peculiar mechanism you pointed out when pressing the Rec/Play buttons on the one deck, that is very likely the trigger mechanism for some kind of "Synchro Dubbing" action ; one motion to activate both decks in "perfect" unison. Judging by the sloppy quality of this model, my guess would be, it's to have the playback-only deck queued up in play-pause mode, and once you initiate the recording mode of the recording deck, that mechanism releases the pause button on the other deck and begins playing, to be dubbed to the recording deck ; now both tapes are in "synch"... Apparently, being a half-second ahead or behind was a "big problem" in the tape-to-tape dubbing process?
I don't think I said anything about any stickers. What are you talking about? And try some goddamned punctuation - I'm sure you're educated beyond the 2nd grade to know what that is and how to use it? I don't know if you're making a statement or asking a question?
Next time, copy & paste what I said (maybe I said something in another comment somewhere that isn't showing right now? At any rate, I'm not seeing it).
But even if I said anything about the decals on these old blasters, positive or negative, who cares? How does it affect your little world?
Your videos are awesome. always great for some insight into some less known tech.
Also the part about the toy car going 100 miles an hour had me cracking up. Keep these awesome vids coming.
still using the Panasonic RX-C45. and still sounds good. but i did need to recap it.
this one its a 100% chinese knockoff, i remember the internals of genuine one totally different from what i saw on this vid (especially the PCB's). genuine one was built on Mitsubishi/Sharp IC's and the power amp was built on two separated IC's instead of one.
I loved my boombox, you crushed my nostalgia bro 😂, guy in 2020 trolling 1990 tech. Anyways great look inside and out of a retro boombox. 👍 you should check out 70s tvs with vac tube and oak wood panels.
I remember I used to actively search for broken, discarded Boomboxes back in the '80's and repairing them. I had some of the best out there. I wish I still had a few cause their selling today for (an authentic retro) $1000-$5000.
I'm 50years old now and still on the lookout for discarded, broken things like PC's.
Great Video!
You have the ability to fix broken PCs? I don't mean just by replacing the components but actual repairs. I've got a GTX1080 I would love to have repaired, it's worth it's weight in gold right now.
I had two boomboxes when I was a kid. My first one was an Aimor ST-804FS2. It had a single cassette deck, obviously an AM/FM tuner with some other kind of scale but I don't remember what it was, a couple LED meters, a tape counter, and that was about it. My folks got it for me around '83 it '84 for Christmas, and it was huge and heavy. I remember it having very good sound quality and it was fairly loud too. At least that's the 13 or 14 year old me thought anyway, but it did sound reasonably good. The tape control buttons had a goofy design, almost like they were intentionally designed to snap, because that's what happened to two of them after about a year and a ½ or so. The buttons were more or less rockers, and they tapered toward the end as they reached the actual mechanism. When you pushed a button down, it strained the very top where it went into the mechanism, and were unrepairable. So, my Dad, being the problem solver that he was, fashioned an entire set. Out of wood. Two broke buttons meant replacing the rest of them, presumably because he didn't want to have to tear into it again s few months down the line. I don't know what kind of wood, but they were crazy strong, and lasted for the rest of the unit's life. Don't get me wrong, he didn't just carve out a lump of something and jam it into the player and that was that. No, he completely manufactured, finished them so they were all exactly alike and symmetrical, and stained or varnished or shellacked or whatever to complete them. They even looked better than the original set of silver buttons that was common on every piece of equipment at the time.
I bought the second one, which was considerably smaller. I bought mainly for dubbing tapes. It was precisely identical to the one in your Dixons advertisement circular at 1:10 in the video. The model on the left page, at the very top. But it wasn't a Saisho, whoever that is. Mine was a Sanyo. Maybe Sanyo contracted out to manufacture some items as a budget or a store brand label, and this was one of them?
Actually, I did have a third boombox. It was a Sony, and I would have bought it around '93. It has considerably deeper than a typical boombox, 2× to 2½× as deep, not quite as tall, fairly close in width, had removable speakers, the CD player was at the top, then an analog tuner, and dual cassette decks at the bottom. Even though it was much deeper, I still qualify it as a boombox because it was portable in that not only was it similar in design, but like all boomboxes, it had the option to run on batteries; I don't remember for sure, but for some reason I think it took 6 C-cells, but I could be wrong. Oddly, I don't have any idea what ever be and of any of them.
That one you showcased toward the end isn't anything I would have even given a second look. All kinds of unnecessary text all over just screams of being pure garbage. I love that big thing near the top right that yelled out in big red diagonal letters "FM STEREO". Then there was that other one, "Stereo Sound" and finally, "INTERNATIONAL". Gotta love it lol. Two features that were plastered on the front were continuous playback and hi-speed dubbing. What do you want to bet that it did neither, and that if it even had auto stop, you'd be doing good! One thing you did in this video, that somehow I never even thought of doing, was trying to play both decks at the same time! What should happen if you tried that?
I think (but I'm not too sure) that "Continuous Play", meant that you could press play on both tapes, but only one would play, then when it finished, the other tape would play.
+Mandolinic Yes, I had one with that feature.
At least the EQ sliders are separate. I had a cheapo box with an "8 band" equalizer that was actually 4 band.
8 band meant 4 left and 4 right. How to make it claim that, was misleading.
Daniel H ..so had I. ..It was made by proline from a connect store in belfast. ..A hundred and fifty quid down the toilet. ..I had to collect scrap metal to fund a hitachi 3d superwoofer. ..It still works. ..
3:24 Aaaahhh... that was really hilarious :) "too keen to open"
I scored a few heavy hitter boomboxes on ebay years ago - glad I did! Most are working with just a few small faults here and there gradually being addressed.
My "boom box" was a Hitachi Super Woofer purchased circa 1990/91 and I still have it and it still works. Granted it doesn't offer the quality sound of a proper hifi but back then I thought it sounded brilliant!
In Brazil we call PMPO "Potência máxima para otários": peak power output for suckers.
+Oscar Scheepstra HAAAAAAAAAAHAAHAAHAHAHA FANTASTIC! you make me laugh so much with that hahaha, potencia maxima para otarios!!! I'm gonna take note of that one!!! dude you just made my day!
valeu! heauhea :D
Legal, não sou o unico br aqui.
This car goes at 100mph
*IF YOU THROW IT OFF A CLIFF!!*
yeet
That was hilarious
What's wrong with VAZ 2106?
This boy can pack a lot of fun.
The Shadow Man да, конечно. "Судить об аудиокассетах по дешёвым кассетам и декам все равно, что говорить, что все машины плохие, когда можешь позволить себе позволить только это (фото шестерки)
The Shadow Man ну а что, товарищи, такова жизнь. Японцы и немцы делали современную качественную технику, консьюмеристы-американцы поддерживали их долларами, а наши разбирали и делали также, но сами и на своей электронике. И как бы не хаяли, но производили все сами.
А сейчас все с китайским кремнием ходим. Вот так вот.
Привет тебе, товарищ капиталист, который решил гугл-переводчиком понять таинственную русскую душу.
В России, приятный день имеет тебя
It's a well known fact that they were built more solid than the fiat they were based on. Better engine, stronger suspension and brakes to handle hard roads
swap a vr6 in it and boom you got a beast of a sleeper
I've only just discovered this channel and it's my new addiction... right up my street!
THE DAD TEST. I remember my dad explaining that to me, in Dixons in Fareham Shopping Centre once in the 1980's. made me crack up when you reminded me!!!
Original one is NATIONAL
'INTERNATIONAL ' is duplicate
In America we call it BPC! Black plastic crap. Anything in black plastic from around 1988 and up.
Most of my BPC was actually silver :-/
1990's: BPC
2000's: SPC
They invented it in Japan, knocked it off in China, and you bought it in Whatley.
He need to get schooled so he can know what is a continent and a nation
Alex Snow did you learn that from Radiotvphononut? I did!
7:43
No I doubt that car would even reach 100 when thrown off a cliff. Perhaps if you melted into a sphere and shot it out of a cannon.
I had one of these back in early 90's, but it was little bit diffrent model and sounded not bad. In fact mine was built good enough so it lasted for decades. I think it still works.
I have a Sony Cfd 5 boombox that is in perfect cosmetic shape it has a very complicated Auto reverse cassette deck that someday I hope to put new belts on it also has a CD player it is the first Boombox to have a CD player and it has Sony's Square woofers
Seeing all of the Chinese-made components and the overall poor quality, it seems that you picked up a Chinese knockoff of the original model.
areasevenpro what?? It's a no name brand piece of cheap crap. Why would they knock that off??
It's a clone of a SHARP WF939
I had the sharp one, was quite good, still in use today at my place of work, donated it to the warehouse 10 years ago, and shes on from 7am till 5pm 6 days a week, still going strong
a minor correction: it did fly after almost 30 (?) years in the box. Belts OK. Pinch rollers OK. Knobs and capacitors OK. Amazing. My Technics CH770 deck's rubber did not last any longer than 3 years in a storage, the rollers fell in pieces and so did the belts.
Fake buttons? I once bought one of those cheap generic android tablets on black friday and it had a fake camera in it, plus neither the microphone nor bluetooth worked.
The button is real on the real and actual model and it's for dubbing tapes and totally works but Techmoan has a fake boom box - Sharp imitation. I have real one great sound, speakers are 8 ohms, the middle button is for tape dubbing and it works, it has great sound, also equalizer works great.
werkis2 nope. It is a real one. It is branded as international, not sharp. It's just cheap and crap. This was pretty clear in the video. How are people getting confused??
Buying cheap crap in hope that it's good? That's the yankee spirit!
@@colinjohnston8519 we are talking about a knockoff not a fake boom box. A fake boom box would look like a working unit on the outside but never actually work. People confuse to the word fake with knockoff all the time.
Gotta wonder if this thing is suffering from its capacitors drying out.
It seems obvious this item suffers some kind of electrical failure. There is no volume power. I tried to look if the equalizer knobs were in the lowest position then it lacks volume too. For these kind of machines there would have been great to have a switch "bypass the bad equalizer"
I just found your videos. I'm a pro audio engineer and enjoyed seeing all the gear that got me interested in the business. My first recorder was a Sony Pro DC-6. I can't tell you hard I laugh when I hear you say "God awful" in the classic British accent! Thanks for doing these!
My parents had this stereo back in the 80s. I vividly remember playing with the buttons as a toddler :)
It definitely sounded better than this though!
Actually, theirs was a different model because it had a turntable on top.
Boombox??? No, it's a GHETTO BLASTER, kids!
Incorrect it’s a portable stereo
made a back pack of a similar one in 89' running on batteries . was LMAO at myself on 04:28 "absolutely terrible. great video.
For the millionth time, the wattage rating on a speaker isnt what it PUTS OUT, it's the rating of how many watts it can take IN. (supposedly) You dont add the wattage rating up of each component and then say that speaker system is putting out that amount of watts. Speakers dont produce watts.
Watts means power, speaker motion is power (soundwave pressure). So your comment is incorrect. If speakers would not "produce watts" you would not hear anything.
@@Kenny-bw2cz I suppose you are correct. But I still think that the figure of "watts" nearly all speaker manufacturer's post on their speakers is not what they produce, but the amount of watts from the power source , that they can safely handle.
I cannot believe they have gone up in value like this. My God!!
That was a very interesting video. Back in 2013 Vwestlife took a look at an all-in-one stereo unit with the same brand name. It performed slightly better than he expected, which is not saying much. The only thing he didn't do with it was take it apart to show the insides.