Does anyone else miss this sort of Ingenuity and creativity that we just don't seem to get any more ? just a black box with as little as possible ? Nice video
Yes! Is there even any choice any more? Visiting the electronics department of any store, be it John Lewis, Dixons, etc. used to be so exciting with constant change. Sad to see during a recent visit to the B&O website that their offering is entirely Bluetooth or whatever 🥱.
@@KronoGarrett And the companies don't design and make this stuff themselves anymore. They probably just look at the catalogue of a generic Chinese manufacturer, order a few thousand of a model they like, and slap their logo on it.
That’s not the reason why there’s no ingenuity in hifi anymore. Nobody wants it anymore. There’s no money in the market. They literally can’t afford to be flashy and daring.
In my experience they also tend to be of a better quality than comparable devices. I owned a one of their "walkmans" back in the day any since then many AKAI Pro devices, mainly samplers - and must admit I am a bit of a fan.
@@SierraLimaOscar I bought their last hardware rack sampler, and they promised they would be implementing direct from drive sample playback. It never happened.
Recently Akai has become notorious for their Rhythm Wolf drum synth which is apparently hated by many musicians. Oh well, no publicity is bad publicity, right? (Boeing shaking their head, "No" in the back of the room for some reason).
A "budget" offering from the mid-'80s shows more features, care, and thought than most anything made today for four times the cost, adjusted for inflation. The color and font used for the nomenclature are perfect. Really brings home the feel of the time. The Wipeout stuff was done by Designers' Republic BTW. Great video!!
Sorry what? does this have bluetooth allowing you to stream any song in the history of the world instantly? Does it have the loudness that modern DSPs can provide with a small case? Passive radiators for bass? Does it have a rechargeable battery that lasts hours and doesn't require you to be constantly buying AAs? This thing is very cool but don't be ridiculous. Your bog-standard wireless speaker from Sony, JBL, UE etc would blow this thing out of the water for sound quality and features.
“It’s not a big enough box to bring any boom or blast any ghettos.” Gotta love Mat’s sense of humor. It’s part of his charm. Cool system. Love the rotating speakers. Hard to believe this thing is from 1984. Looks much newer.
When I first saw it I assumed it was from the late 80s, surprised by how early it turned out to be. Maybe it's the glossy red finish (would have gone nicely in my trendy red, white and grey childhood bedroom!) and that typeface, that still looks fresh today.
There was one of these in our kitchen when I was a teenager; it was the Sunday-evening end of chart show and afterwards tuner. Parent brought it home from a trip to HK in about 84/85 I was today years old when I found out that the speakers twist.
Wow not until you saw this video that you knew the speakers twisted? Dam. A similar thing happened to me with a portable video game system called the Game Boy Advanced SP where I recently found out that the screen isn't exactly centered and so one side is bigger than the other. I've had that thing since it was new.
You have no idea...how many more Odd and weird Items there are. the amount you have seen so far, is just a small amount... we may be here for a while...
What an interesting little device! And I’m impressed by the quality of its radio too. As a teenager of the 80s who only listened to cassette and radio with no money or room for a decent turntable system. I would have loved having something like this, for listening to music when at home.
Akai was so elite back in the day. That red color and the soft edges scream Akai. I love that you used one of the reel to reel cassettes. Aki always used them in their ads.
It doesn't matter what the thumbnail picture, we will click on anything you post. I've never seen a stereo like that before, but I would have liked to have one. Amazing what you find to show us. Thanks for the video.
So cool, I've never seen so a stereo with so many speaker placement options. Very sci-fi looking. You always find the most interesting tech, great video as usual!
Nice little machine - I want one now..... 😂 I remember having an Akai VHS machine - it was our first recorder; a top loader with on-screen graphics for play/rewind etc. Really flash at the time!
We are at a solar activity peak at the moment, so Short Wave is pretty good at the moment. Akai made some really great kit back in the day - I still have an HXA-3DBX tape deck from around this time which still works :)
The design of that stereo still looks nice today while looking like the 80s and having that japanese sci-fi mecha touch with the font used on the text legends on the buttons, sliders, and speaker body. Makes me think if a similar design with the center component housing a subwoofer instead is possible as a sort of all in one speaker system much like the Kanto Syd you shown last week.
Your video's are never boring, sir. You've shown so many devices for sound and vision that, out here in "The Sticks", they were never seen. That little stereo unit there would've been a fantastic piece to have, especially back in the mid 1980's. I do like those angle changing speakers too! Keep well, keep warm and thanks again. Cheers!
My parents had always thought little of their Akai portable radio from the 70's, with all its fiddlier bits, but I thought it genius, despite its modish design. The PJ-11 has taken that to an all time new level. Brilliant review!
Love these vintage gems you share! This PJ-11 looks like an alien spacecraft with those rotating speakers! Who knew 80s design could be so futuristic and functional? Great video as always!
In 1985 my conservative Grandmother surprised us all by buying a bright Red Philips Cubic Compo D8254. While not as quirky as this Akai, its cassette transport control design was off the scale with a grid of flat, front-facing buttons which I've not seen emulated since. Miss those days of exciting designs, thank you Mat!
amazing piece of kit matt! love that era of akai build from decks to vcrs, there is a level of craftsmanship and whimsical delight that modern consumer electronics lack - some may call it nostalgia but we must preserve and revel in the best engineering. ++ ps digital audio converter called a dbx 700 - absolutely a mad piece of kit hifi, rare, great lore from 1986. dbx 700 my golden goose techmoan vid 😇
Lovely little thing. Really love the design, deffo reminds me of Wipeout like you said. With the speakers down it reminds me of the robots in Silent Running.
Thank you for sharing this ! It's stunningly groovy to see this virtuosic team work of designers and manufacturers :D It's pleasing that someone dare to produce groovy little boombox that is something different that BLACK/GREY/SILVER box
Your true fans don't even need a thumbnail for your videos. I watch them all when they come up in my "Alert" feed. (Mind you, I am about 2 weeks behind on TH-cam at the moment...)
For me, the first thing that comes to mind is not the Nostromo but the droids from Silent Running. Or maybe something else. But _something_ sure comes to mind. That power adapter is one of the best designs I've ever seen. The speaker arrangement is amazing, and yeah, I would have LOVED to have one of these beauties back in the day. Also, the hum from the AC power adapter is almost certainly due to a dead capacitor, since that's how you filter out the 60hz hum from the power line.
I've been saying "Ah-ki". You say "Ak-i"..... I find that simple fascinating. But then again I'm sitting here in solitary confinement on Level 7 in Birmingham. But I digress. Thank you for the video... You've put the boom back in my little box
I had one of the smaller boxes like this that had shortwave bands on it. When I took it out to the country I could hear the larger shortwave stations of the day very clearly and easily. My favourites of the day, like WRNO or Superpower KUSW played the classic rock of the day. Others were equally great like Radio Australia. Had a great time with them.
Very nice and interesting design. I have the model PJ-15 in black. It has a different layout, non-removable speakers and an internal power supply. The tape deck still works good after all these years. A great little stereo!
I remember looking at one of these to take to university with me in 1984. I was tempted but chose the PJ-33 instead, which survived three years of heavy use pretty much unscathed. I loved the twist speakers of the PJ-11, but was swayed by the PJ-33's unusual design with clever rotating handle/stand, Dolby cassette and detachable two-way speakers with passive radiators for extra bass. It sounded amazing back then, and still does really. I will never sell it. It has a full set of inputs on the back so you can use it with any source (even a turntable) if you have the right adapters. I was so happy with my Akai experience that I later bought an Akai GX-52 cassette deck with Dolby C and HX Pro (and a fully motorised cassette door - the height of sophistication) for my proper hi-fi - back in the days when Akai was a great company.
Absolutely love the radio, even I don’t have one but I have a few odd relics in my collection and feel like reviving my old stereo with a mini tv after watching this great video😊 definitely deserves a subscription ❤
I got this as a Christmas present when I was a teen...Loved it, great memories the wires ended up coming out of the speaker connector. just seen a black one for £40.
Great to see Akai featured, they're a favourite brand of mine certainly. Made some great consumer gear, no snobbery and mostly good quality. It's a real shame they went the way they did and disappeared.
I have my Dad's pair of SX-R7 speakers shown in the brochure, and they are near identical to the speakers on the boombox. Cracking sounding little things for what they are! The battery compartments on the R7's are in the black swivel bases.
I saw this 30 minutes after this came out and bought the only listing for this on eBay in Australia. Albeit in black… a steal at 100 bucks postage included, I rationalised I had been meaning to get a radio for emergency situations, and given the epic price and super close proximity to the video release that I get in at the ground level before the techmoan tax is applied. Not sure if the tape mech works, but it will give me a project to fix, which wouldn’t be the first time I’ve bought a bargain and fixed it up after watching a techmoan vid.. Certainly soon retro enthusiasts will be moaning only that Technoan increases prices of cool retro appliances :P Love your work mate.
Well that is a cute little thing. I wouldn't have minded having one back in the day. Don't think I ever encountered one in the wild. Thanks, Matt. Your channel logo is sufficient for my clicks, always.
I’ve always admired Akai for their designs. They might not have been known for the highest quality, but over the years I’ve had Akai equipment that lasted much longer than expected.
Your hum is caused by pick up from the AC into the speaker wires. Unwind them and the hum will disappear. I had it once on a Hitachi unit running Fidelity speakers as externals.
This thing is almost smaller than the cassette. The battery space is bigger and heavier than the rest of the machine. At 2:45 it's a beautiful moment where it looks like a viewport shading or material preview in a 3D program is replaced with a fully rendered image. The sunlight from outside and all the shadows are in contrast with the plain and sharp lighting.
I'm surprised the aux input is a 3.5mm jack. Everything else I've seen from this era uses RCA jacks. The 3.5 mm jack aux input jack didn't become common until the mid-2000s.
I was initially surprised too, but then in the late 1990s I had an all-in-one boombox where the aux input was phono jacks and at the time I thought that was weird. I guess it saved space in this device, and let's face it you weren't going to plug in a full-sized stereo component; this was really just intended for CD walkmans, which were never outfitted with full-size RCA jacks.
From that era, some bigger Japanese devices from makers such as Sharp still seemed to favor DINs... one thing I don't really miss. So many, many fine devices that had a single 5 pin DIN for their AUX/LINE IN/OUT had plenty of undisturbed plastic in that area that could have been populated with RCA's just as well.
Great video, I seem to remember seeing one of these, in a Bank branch I used to work in many years ago, it did look cheap but it gave out respectable sound, and the speakers had been detached, no-one ever connected them up whilst I worked there, it just played the radio most of the time, and then a cassette of Christmas tunes during December. 👍🏻🙂
Not only nowadays you can make adaptations to devices like this, but if you want, using a Bluetooth receiver in that aux-in can expand even the capabilities to modern standards. What I'm saying is that a beautiful device like this one can be totally a daily-main-one in use, if someone would like so.
I used to have an Aiwa portable cassette/radio. It had removable speakers. It was really good quality - which was because while the 2-way speakers looked black plastic like the rest of the unit, they were actually made of wood! It was excellent. I wish I still had it.
I had the PJ-33 back in the day. It was actually silver and red, not white and red. Great little stereo. The big handle could rotate down to prop it up at an angle.
11:19 As shown, the devices runs on 12V. One could easily connect a 12VDC-capable LiPo Power Bank (one of those that can also jump-start a car) to the two metal DC input pods instead of using the battery compartments. This way you'd get a rechargable solution and quite an extended runtime.
Nice idea. You'd want to make VERY sure of the polarity of those unmarked metal posts first, though!!! That said, they look big enough to attach power via small croc clips ...
Does anyone else miss this sort of Ingenuity and creativity that we just don't seem to get any more ? just a black box with as little as possible ? Nice video
Yes! Is there even any choice any more? Visiting the electronics department of any store, be it John Lewis, Dixons, etc. used to be so exciting with constant change.
Sad to see during a recent visit to the B&O website that their offering is entirely Bluetooth or whatever 🥱.
Well, everything's made for shareholders now. And shareholders are adverse to ingenuity and creativity, all they want is a line that goes up forever.
@@KronoGarrett And the companies don't design and make this stuff themselves anymore. They probably just look at the catalogue of a generic Chinese manufacturer, order a few thousand of a model they like, and slap their logo on it.
That’s not the reason why there’s no ingenuity in hifi anymore. Nobody wants it anymore. There’s no money in the market. They literally can’t afford to be flashy and daring.
Same with phones before iPhone and Android came along. Endless creativity in phones.
The styling on this is incredible. Love it! Peak 1984
good year, wud hv been cool to see in WW84 lol
Look at the texture on the switches!
Very reminiscent of Soundblaster from Transformers, I love it
@@mistermatix8241 You mean Blaster. The Sound Blaster is a line of PC sound cards made by Creative Labs starting in 1989.
literally 1984
Definitely peak Akai design. Akai definitely cultivated very distinctive design languages.
In my experience they also tend to be of a better quality than comparable devices. I owned a one of their "walkmans" back in the day any since then many AKAI Pro devices, mainly samplers - and must admit I am a bit of a fan.
Big Akai fan. I owned several devices back in the day. Nice video.👍
@@SierraLimaOscar I bought their last hardware rack sampler, and they promised they would be implementing direct from drive sample playback. It never happened.
On similar way, I liked Sansui
Recently Akai has become notorious for their Rhythm Wolf drum synth which is apparently hated by many musicians. Oh well, no publicity is bad publicity, right? (Boeing shaking their head, "No" in the back of the room for some reason).
A "budget" offering from the mid-'80s shows more features, care, and thought than most anything made today for four times the cost, adjusted for inflation.
The color and font used for the nomenclature are perfect. Really brings home the feel of the time. The Wipeout stuff was done by Designers' Republic BTW. Great video!!
Sorry what? does this have bluetooth allowing you to stream any song in the history of the world instantly? Does it have the loudness that modern DSPs can provide with a small case? Passive radiators for bass? Does it have a rechargeable battery that lasts hours and doesn't require you to be constantly buying AAs? This thing is very cool but don't be ridiculous. Your bog-standard wireless speaker from Sony, JBL, UE etc would blow this thing out of the water for sound quality and features.
@@amac203that is a fair point.
@@amac203that’s fair. Perhaps 40 years from now we’ll find out which was the quality item.
“It’s not a big enough box to bring any boom or blast any ghettos.”
Gotta love Mat’s sense of humor.
It’s part of his charm.
Cool system. Love the rotating speakers. Hard to believe this thing is from 1984. Looks much newer.
nah it looks exactly 1984 imo. it's just in great condition. i collect 80's stuff
I chuckled when he said that. He does have that snarky charm! I swear I watch just for that alone!
When I first saw it I assumed it was from the late 80s, surprised by how early it turned out to be. Maybe it's the glossy red finish (would have gone nicely in my trendy red, white and grey childhood bedroom!) and that typeface, that still looks fresh today.
Big enough to annoy anyone -if you've got some thug rap and turn it up all the way
There was one of these in our kitchen when I was a teenager; it was the Sunday-evening end of chart show and afterwards tuner. Parent brought it home from a trip to HK in about 84/85
I was today years old when I found out that the speakers twist.
Wow not until you saw this video that you knew the speakers twisted? Dam.
A similar thing happened to me with a portable video game system called the Game Boy Advanced SP where I recently found out that the screen isn't exactly centered and so one side is bigger than the other. I've had that thing since it was new.
Oh my goodness I feel like I'm in love with this little thing.
Shared power and audio cable. You can listen to AC/DC using actual AC/DC lines.
Peak reddit comment 😂
Lmao, it probably due to cheap circuit design, or a fault..
Even old SSL recording/mixing desks have channel crosstalk.
It ain't easy, but you can take it on a highway to hell.
It looks like something pulled straight from the 80's cyberpunk anime, I love it!
Not '80s but it would look good in the EVA-02
Akira!!!!!!
Not really, it doesn't have any digital screen. By the 1980s those radios became available, with PLL tuners.
Soundblaster
Just when I think Mat has covered every possible weird piece of obscure A/V equipment in existence… he finds something new.
Well la-de-dah, on a first name basis with Techmoan I see 🤣
Old. He finds something old.
You have no idea...how many more Odd and weird Items there are. the amount you have seen so far, is just a small amount... we may be here for a while...
That's his job, mate 😂
Same! And I'm a sucker for any audio tech from the 80s on back
What an interesting little device! And I’m impressed by the quality of its radio too. As a teenager of the 80s who only listened to cassette and radio with no money or room for a decent turntable system. I would have loved having something like this, for listening to music when at home.
I miss this type of quirky but functional design. Lovely looking unit and really pleased to have had the chance to see it! Thanks :-)
Agreed
Akai was so elite back in the day. That red color and the soft edges scream Akai. I love that you used one of the reel to reel cassettes. Aki always used them in their ads.
Akai means red
It doesn't matter what the thumbnail picture, we will click on anything you post. I've never seen a stereo like that before, but I would have liked to have one. Amazing what you find to show us. Thanks for the video.
I'm a typedesigner and I'm working on a typeface similar to one used by AKAI on these products and this video blew my mind.
Do you know the name of the typeface used on the akai?
Fantastic industrial design. Someone spent a lot of time making all that work.
I would not expect anything less from that era of Akai.
Japanese ingenuity!
Akai and TDK!!! You've taken me back to some of the happiest days of my life!!
Did you own any Akai tech?
Me too! I owned an Akai timer for my Rotel midi system. 1983.
I have this, bought it for uni years ago, spray painted it metallic silver and weathered it with hobby paints. Still works.
That would be neat to see!
Vandalism!!! 😲
Yeah ... we all did things like that in those days. 😀
That font screams, "PJ-11 by Akailand Yutani Corperation: Building Better Worlds...and cheap stereos!"
😅😅😅😅 🛸 👽 📻
Or very expensive stereos.. (3x the price of similar stereos of the time.)
akai even at budget is a very good product
Ya'll this was OBVIOUSLY a cheaper, entry level product. No need to "actually" anyone here.
This sort of compact listening device is very popular and gets exported to the offworld colonies such as Hadley's Hope and Colantha.
Pointing the speakers straight down is perfect for when you live in a flat and your want to annoy the people who live below you!
Such a well designed and great looking little player, I absolutely love it!
The "Imma make an interrsting thumb image" moment is spot-on the reason I clicked that fast so, good job!
So cool, I've never seen so a stereo with so many speaker placement options. Very sci-fi looking. You always find the most interesting tech, great video as usual!
I have a normal stereo with two speakers. I can place those in any location and position I like.
Nice little machine - I want one now..... 😂 I remember having an Akai VHS machine - it was our first recorder; a top loader with on-screen graphics for play/rewind etc. Really flash at the time!
Theres one in red on Carousel, if that isn't the exact one Matt acquired.
We are at a solar activity peak at the moment, so Short Wave is pretty good at the moment.
Akai made some really great kit back in the day - I still have an HXA-3DBX tape deck from around this time which still works :)
The design of that stereo still looks nice today while looking like the 80s and having that japanese sci-fi mecha touch with the font used on the text legends on the buttons, sliders, and speaker body.
Makes me think if a similar design with the center component housing a subwoofer instead is possible as a sort of all in one speaker system much like the Kanto Syd you shown last week.
Your video's are never boring, sir. You've shown so many devices for sound and vision that, out here in "The Sticks", they were never seen. That little stereo unit there would've been a fantastic piece to have, especially back in the mid 1980's. I do like those angle changing speakers too! Keep well, keep warm and thanks again. Cheers!
My parents had always thought little of their Akai portable radio from the 70's, with all its fiddlier bits, but I thought it genius, despite its modish design. The PJ-11 has taken that to an all time new level. Brilliant review!
Love these vintage gems you share! This PJ-11 looks like an alien spacecraft with those rotating speakers! Who knew 80s design could be so futuristic and functional? Great video as always!
In 1985 my conservative Grandmother surprised us all by buying a bright Red Philips Cubic Compo D8254. While not as quirky as this Akai, its cassette transport control design was off the scale with a grid of flat, front-facing buttons which I've not seen emulated since. Miss those days of exciting designs, thank you Mat!
My brother had one. I was always envious. And the myriad of C batteries it plowed through were always a sticky point when he let me use it.
What a nice little unit.
Name a phrase that a man would rather never hear. Survey says lol😄
@@Tat2Dragons 😂
amazing piece of kit matt! love that era of akai build from decks to vcrs, there is a level of craftsmanship and whimsical delight that modern consumer electronics lack - some may call it nostalgia but we must preserve and revel in the best engineering. ++ ps digital audio converter called a dbx 700 - absolutely a mad piece of kit hifi, rare, great lore from 1986. dbx 700 my golden goose techmoan vid 😇
10 seconds in and I love that thing!
2:41 Sweet Talkin' Woman!
Almost all of your videos are watched regardless of the Title and thumbnail. At least for me 🙂
Lovely little thing. Really love the design, deffo reminds me of Wipeout like you said. With the speakers down it reminds me of the robots in Silent Running.
Never ceases to amaze where you get or even hear about these devices ,but all in all quite interesting 🤔😀
I'm amazed at the obscure items you find to review.
Always entertaining!
It was precisely because of such strange devices that I subscribed to the channel so many years ago.😍
Thank you and I wish you a nice weekend.
✌🏻😎
Thank you for sharing this !
It's stunningly groovy to see this virtuosic team work of designers and manufacturers :D
It's pleasing that someone dare to produce groovy little boombox that is something different that BLACK/GREY/SILVER box
Your true fans don't even need a thumbnail for your videos. I watch them all when they come up in my "Alert" feed. (Mind you, I am about 2 weeks behind on TH-cam at the moment...)
That makes a huge difference with the speakers angled! It makes such a difference that it carries over to the video real well.
For me, the first thing that comes to mind is not the Nostromo but the droids from Silent Running. Or maybe something else. But _something_ sure comes to mind.
That power adapter is one of the best designs I've ever seen. The speaker arrangement is amazing, and yeah, I would have LOVED to have one of these beauties back in the day.
Also, the hum from the AC power adapter is almost certainly due to a dead capacitor, since that's how you filter out the 60hz hum from the power line.
For me it was Warhammer 40k Dreadnoughts. But also Wipeout racing ships
Huey, Dewey, and Louie! I think that's a much underrated SF movie of the time.
@@defaultuser1447 yeah, Bruce Dern was greatness. That movie was so amazing to me at ten years old. lol
I've been saying "Ah-ki". You say "Ak-i"..... I find that simple fascinating. But then again I'm sitting here in solitary confinement on Level 7 in Birmingham. But I digress. Thank you for the video... You've put the boom back in my little box
Seeing how the entire power supply sits next to all the electronics with no shielding it probably had the buzz back in the day as well.
3:04 symphony spotted 🐬🐬🐬🌈🌈🌈
I JUST WANNA BE PART OF YOUR SYMPHONY‼️‼️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥
Never seen one of these, the design and versatility that’s gone into this is amazing. I would have loved ones of these.
It has a cheerful aesthetic
I had one of the smaller boxes like this that had shortwave bands on it. When I took it out to the country I could hear the larger shortwave stations of the day very clearly and easily. My favourites of the day, like WRNO or Superpower KUSW played the classic rock of the day. Others were equally great like Radio Australia. Had a great time with them.
Very nice and interesting design. I have the model PJ-15 in black. It has a different layout, non-removable speakers and an internal power supply. The tape deck still works good after all these years. A great little stereo!
They made beautiful slim and interesting personal stereos. I loved mine for many years
I do love seeing the unusual equipment that Mat always manages to find and make entertaining. 👍
I remember looking at one of these to take to university with me in 1984. I was tempted but chose the PJ-33 instead, which survived three years of heavy use pretty much unscathed. I loved the twist speakers of the PJ-11, but was swayed by the PJ-33's unusual design with clever rotating handle/stand, Dolby cassette and detachable two-way speakers with passive radiators for extra bass. It sounded amazing back then, and still does really. I will never sell it. It has a full set of inputs on the back so you can use it with any source (even a turntable) if you have the right adapters. I was so happy with my Akai experience that I later bought an Akai GX-52 cassette deck with Dolby C and HX Pro (and a fully motorised cassette door - the height of sophistication) for my proper hi-fi - back in the days when Akai was a great company.
Absolutely love the radio, even I don’t have one but I have a few odd relics in my collection and feel like reviving my old stereo with a mini tv after watching this great video😊 definitely deserves a subscription ❤
I got this as a Christmas present when I was a teen...Loved it, great memories the wires ended up coming out of the speaker connector. just seen a black one for £40.
Great to see Akai featured, they're a favourite brand of mine certainly. Made some great consumer gear, no snobbery and mostly good quality. It's a real shame they went the way they did and disappeared.
I have my Dad's pair of SX-R7 speakers shown in the brochure, and they are near identical to the speakers on the boombox. Cracking sounding little things for what they are! The battery compartments on the R7's are in the black swivel bases.
For your information, The Nostromo wasn't a dropship. It was a space tug. It was towing 4 ore refineries. Other than that, good video.
Lol, no one cares.
@ladymctavish3299 Well! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning! I'm saying that as an "Alien" fan!
4:35 nobody should be surprised that there are Germans diligently archiving things.
Brilliant, actually! Nice work, Matt and a very good find. You set a high bar, in truth.
Thats one of the coolest stereos ever!
This is Techmoan at its best: funky shadowy formats that no one absolutely had no idea.
What a lovely little device! And in very good condition too. Something for the Techmoan Museum 😉
I saw this 30 minutes after this came out and bought the only listing for this on eBay in Australia.
Albeit in black… a steal at 100 bucks postage included, I rationalised I had been meaning to get a radio for emergency situations, and given the epic price and super close proximity to the video release that I get in at the ground level before the techmoan tax is applied.
Not sure if the tape mech works, but it will give me a project to fix, which wouldn’t be the first time I’ve bought a bargain and fixed it up after watching a techmoan vid..
Certainly soon retro enthusiasts will be moaning only that Technoan increases prices of cool retro appliances :P
Love your work mate.
Thanks for the video. cool little setup. really catching and the hughe cassette window pays respect to your nice reel to reel type cassette.
Wipeout!!! Yeah good call! That font and the coloring looks just like one of the vehicles. Really interesting little stereo. Thanks for sharing!
Very cool device. Can manufacturers today please put interesting design and quality back into their products?
Love the style of this device! I would love to have one. Real '80s SF jewel
Well that is a cute little thing. I wouldn't have minded having one back in the day. Don't think I ever encountered one in the wild. Thanks, Matt. Your channel logo is sufficient for my clicks, always.
Quirky in a good way. It’s nice to see something that's well made.
🙂👍
Akai is mostly forgotten now, but it was one of the best (in a mass market sense) and most innovative audio companies of its time.
I’ve always admired Akai for their designs. They might not have been known for the highest quality, but over the years I’ve had Akai equipment that lasted much longer than expected.
what a neat little device.. I would love to have one of those.. even now. great video! thanks for finding all these amazing stuff..
Really like the red of that unit and that font definitely has that space age 80’s look for sure
Your hum is caused by pick up from the AC into the speaker wires. Unwind them and the hum will disappear. I had it once on a Hitachi unit running Fidelity speakers as externals.
Very cool, love the design, really miss the 80's, reminds me of my little 1984 Sansui boombox👍👍
I had one of these back in the day! Loved the Aux function, used it to play my C64 through the stereo lol
Might be the red, but the lettering and shapes and modularity of it give me Akira vibes. Nice little unit by the looks and sounds.
This thing is almost smaller than the cassette. The battery space is bigger and heavier than the rest of the machine.
At 2:45 it's a beautiful moment where it looks like a viewport shading or material preview in a 3D program is replaced with a fully rendered image. The sunlight from outside and all the shadows are in contrast with the plain and sharp lighting.
I love stereos like this! The bright red, the angle adjustable speakers - it's just good fun but still works well.
Fabulous little music system Mat! Thank you for yet another video looking at the golden era of tech.
I'm surprised the aux input is a 3.5mm jack. Everything else I've seen from this era uses RCA jacks. The 3.5 mm jack aux input jack didn't become common until the mid-2000s.
I was initially surprised too, but then in the late 1990s I had an all-in-one boombox where the aux input was phono jacks and at the time I thought that was weird.
I guess it saved space in this device, and let's face it you weren't going to plug in a full-sized stereo component; this was really just intended for CD walkmans, which were never outfitted with full-size RCA jacks.
For sure, seems everyone had a 3.5mm to dual-RCA adapter to be able to put things through them
From that era, some bigger Japanese devices from makers such as Sharp still seemed to favor DINs... one thing I don't really miss. So many, many fine devices that had a single 5 pin DIN for their AUX/LINE IN/OUT had plenty of undisturbed plastic in that area that could have been populated with RCA's just as well.
Great review and what a lovely little unit it is. Probably still worth quite a bit and a nice addition to anyone's collection.
I love all the options with the speakers. You don’t see creativity with audio devices like that anymore.
Great video, I seem to remember seeing one of these, in a Bank branch I used to work in many years ago, it did look cheap but it gave out respectable sound, and the speakers had been detached, no-one ever connected them up whilst I worked there, it just played the radio most of the time, and then a cassette of Christmas tunes during December. 👍🏻🙂
What a sweet little radio!
The design and the speakers orientation setting are excellent.
Super cool. I love it!
Another cool stereo I won’t be able to afford because of the tech moan effect !
Good morning from the southeast USA, Techmoaners!
This unit needs to come back ASAP, it's beautiful.
Not only nowadays you can make adaptations to devices like this, but if you want, using a Bluetooth receiver in that aux-in can expand even the capabilities to modern standards. What I'm saying is that a beautiful device like this one can be totally a daily-main-one in use, if someone would like so.
I used to have an Aiwa portable cassette/radio. It had removable speakers. It was really good quality - which was because while the 2-way speakers looked black plastic like the rest of the unit, they were actually made of wood!
It was excellent. I wish I still had it.
Thank you for all the hard work and another great educational video.
Impressive radio function, great video as always!
I absolutely LOVE 80's Akai!
I had the PJ-33 back in the day. It was actually silver and red, not white and red. Great little stereo. The big handle could rotate down to prop it up at an angle.
Wow I had a PJ-33 too, paired with a Sound Burger.. was perfect for my 17 year old self….
+1 for actually including the thumbnail in the video somewhere.
11:19 As shown, the devices runs on 12V. One could easily connect a 12VDC-capable LiPo Power Bank (one of those that can also jump-start a car) to the two metal DC input pods instead of using the battery compartments. This way you'd get a rechargable solution and quite an extended runtime.
Nice idea. You'd want to make VERY sure of the polarity of those unmarked metal posts first, though!!! That said, they look big enough to attach power via small croc clips ...
@@caddelworth Indeed. Put in batteries first, that should reveal the polarity. ;-)