Cheap but good 1991 Realistic Clarinette 125 stereo system
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ค. 2024
- Listen to Yacht Rock on a dinghy budget with Radio Shack's cheapest stereo system from the early 1990s.
Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
2:06 Radio tuner
4:33 Cassette playback
8:05 Turntable
10:49 Teardown
13:23 Repair
15:33 Vinyl playback
17:11 Conclusion
#RetroTech #cassette #vinyl - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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.
Better than most crap produced today - nice unit I wish Radio Shack was back
@@ssnoc I was wondering how the sound quality was so good despite there being youtube compression!
The manufacturing technology and materials were too primitive to make things super cheaply back then.
@@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.
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?
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
I've got the 1979 version of this unit. One of the tape decks is 8 track with record function, the other being cassette.
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.
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.
These little stereos are underrated
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..."
"42" 😮 Don't Panic❗😇🐥😎🤎
That's sort of zen, if you really think about it.
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.
I'm glad to see someone else did this! Hell, I STILL do it sometimes!
Awesome, folks 😆👍🏻
That's why I love this channel, you find "junk" h-ifi and bring it home and try to find some redeeming features to it.
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
"Listenin' to the radio, drivin' in your car: radio gets results"
Get that irritating ad a ton down here in the south. Glad to hear the northeast also has to suffer through it.
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.
Yeah, I naively thought this jingle was from one of my local stations.
I forgot that AM radios used to sound... less than FM, but nowhere near as terrible as today. Thanks for this!
Ever hear an AM stereo , AM stereo wasnt that bad either
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!
@@MrDubbindan It was amazing!!!
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.
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.
9:39 - "Damping fluid"? This is the FIRST I've ever heard of such an animal!
And where do you find it?
@@davidbono9359 👀 Next to the
Blinker Fluid 🌊🍄👍🏼⚠️💥🎯💦
@@wilneal8015and so you don't forget, here's some instructions on how to change your blinker fluid.
How to Replace Blinker Fluid
th-cam.com/video/E6GsXhBb10k/w-d-xo.html
This was a pure gem to run across one day and there are other instructional videos too....
@@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.
@@wilneal8015why would it be near the blinker fluid? That would imply that dampening fluid isn't a real thing
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.
@@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.
@@ChristopherSobieniak That was the Fisher Price record player. Those were great. 😂
@@AG-bp3llYeah, fine. I'm just going from experience.
@@ChristopherSobieniak Well take your blasted experience and shove it, because it's not welcome here. Ha ha, only joking dude, thanks for your input.
@@31cify Thanks. I feel out of it in my 40's as we seem to have moved on to streaming tracks through Bluetooth speakers.
I liked it when you suddenly became Techmoan for a couple seconds.
Nice story. Sub'd 👍
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.
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.
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!
@@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.
Made to a price but clearly well engineered and did not treat the customer like a chump.
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.
Make vinyl snobs mad with this one simple trick!
hehe
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)
6:04 Arrow actually points from 2 to 1.
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
Good eye!
Yea I noticed that too
You saw that, too, huh?
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.
It just shows how great cassettes can sound on metal and a very good deck. Impressive.
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.
Most “kids” today get excited listening to music coming from a tinny speaker the size of a pencil eraser inside their phone :(
Old tech will never die. It was just so much fun.
I love that you actually serviced this even though it was still working for the most part. You made some great observations and were giving an honest appraisal of this considering the era it was made in. Thanks, Kevin, once again.
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. 👍
JC Pennys house brand MCS was actually really decent quality, comparable to Technics or Kenwood back in the day.
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!
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.
I grew up using systems like this. Even as a kid, nothing close to an audiophile, I knew these systems sounded like absolute garbage, especially the record players. I think that’s why vinyl fell out of favor so quickly after cds were introduced - because so many people just assumed records and tapes were subpar since most people only heard them through cheap equipment.
Now that I’m grown and can afford good hifi components, I have really come to appreciate vinyl and to a lesser degree cassettes. The fidelity is amazing and the physical aesthetic is quite satisfying.
A great number of vintage stereo systems and components are cheaper second hand today than this thing cost when new. Better late than never
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.
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.
@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.
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.
Considering the price and the intention of casual listening in the living room, garage, or bedroom this is fine. It never was made for audiophiles but it is fine considered on its own for someone who had/has a few records and a nice collection of tapes to listen to and is on a budget. Even the radio seemed pretty good.
It's garbage
@@dancooper6002 uh huh.. 🤷♂️😎
It's good. Just basic.
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.
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!
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.
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.
@@ianz9916Everything Amstrad was garbage. I disagree about it even looking good, not even with your binoculars the wrong way round 😂
@ianz9916
"Viva Hooky Street", the OFAH theme, should be the outro music for the UK Apprentice.
Amstrad "Hi-Fi", the mug's eyeful.
@@anonUK The only good thing about the UK Apprentice is it doesn't have Donald Trump in it.
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!
Other than the lack of an AUX input, this stereo system actually isn’t bad at all, especially for what it is! Thanks again!!!
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.
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.
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 TH-cam 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. :)
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.
@@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. :)
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.
"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.😊
$8 for all of that. Amazing! Thanks for the video, this was really insightful
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.
14:28 Shocking, lol.
Another success with someone's throw away. You never cease to amaze!
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...
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.
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.)
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.
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. 👍👌
I'm amazed by how good the turntable sounds for a budget turntable!
I think they actually bothered to equalize the phono input on this one, most of those cruddy stereos did not.
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.
14:30 Belts displayed out on the table in the shape of a gasping emoji at the suggestion of being boiled.
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.
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.
Beautiful classic Realistic stereo system.
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
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.
I love the fact that you referred to pressboard as "wood-like material" 😂
The chip is an A1186N - an FM front-end for radio cassette recorders and music centres - made by Sanyo.
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.
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.
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.
To add, the Jersey music radio scene is so much better than NYC.
And Connecticut. 🙂 I find myself listening to WELJ quite a bit (out of Montauk).
I love these videos so much !!!!
Great video…I wish I could identify all of the circuit board components like you did.
Another gem of a video. Thank you!
Your closing comments were spot on! 👍
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 😅
I love how you make your videos keep up the good work
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.
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...
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
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...
Very detailed review, thanks!
Loved listening to the radio back then
How you didn't get content matched on this one, I'm amazed! :D
oooo tuned into a few seconds of marketplace there! great video :)
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,
Really enjoy your topics and style. Was just looking around on the Sony site and would like to see you review the ICF-506
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! 😊❤
Thanks for the tip! I didn’t know that boiling the drive belt would revive them. 👍
I love these old radio shack stereos.. I buy them whenever I see one.
whoa franklin mint recording makes a cameo at the end!
A couple weeks ago I found an antique mall and one of the booths was all old electronics. It was great lol I was just passing through on the way to the classic car display but I’m going back it’s calling my name 😆 I want to take my kids back and get them some junk to take apart for fun. My oldest has gotten into wired headphones and I got her an old Walkman and some tapes. I’m even more impressed by the ‘92 radio shack catalog. I’d watch a whole asmr flip through of that thing, no comments (similar to the way Revzilla sometimes uploads asmr rebuilds of vintage motorcycles, it’s great).
Those speakers are awesome af lmao what great memories!
that 'A11861' chip is likely a LA 1186 fm tuner chip, the LA1805 is an all in one AM/FM IF and stereo decoder, LA coded chips are made by Sanyo 😉 BA chips are by Rohm, the output amp chip 'may' be a LA4183 as i have one of those and uses/needs a heatsink like that and looks same package
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!
The nanoscopic type does show the arrow pointing 1
Another great video 👍🏻😉🏴
I always am amazed when the cheap stereos fully work and some high end components do not.
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.
14:55 forbidden pasta
The arrow clearly shows "1
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 :)
More amazed that you have the original Radio Shack catalogue from that year!!😃
I got one of these in 1992 when I was 11. back then $179.99 was an ungodly amount of money so to me this was "high end" I used it for years and recorded a lot of mix tapes off records with it.
😮love the surprised looking belts!!! 😂 enjoyed this video.
this is great keep it going
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.
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.
Takes me back to being a teenager in the 90's and all I wanted was a quality mid range stereo for Christmas 🎄 but no.......... This here is what my parents gave me. 😂
I love how he is taking his time just scrolling with the tune wheel 😆
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!
Nice find! I absolutely would have picked this up if it was $8. Seems perfect for a home office or den, but I agree on not playing high value records on it. I'd get some of those circular rubber feet to put on the bottom to help the issue of sliding around.
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...
Yes!! Radio 📻 Shack. One of my favorite 😍 former places to shop. Your friend, Jeff.
@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 ;)
That cassette deck sounds good !