Gotta love that “counter”. It’s like the people who designed this didn’t know why one would want a counter on a tapedeck and just thought people liked watching a number go up while listening to music.
Awesome thorough review. I'm shocked they wanted £250 for that thing! Even at £100, that feels like too much. I really felt like you were more positive about the GPO Brooklyn than it actually deserved! I would have been much more harsh :-)
@@Agri458 Patreon. Go to the site and search for Techmoan. Then you can sign up to support his channel with a monthly fee, you then get early access to videos etc.
"Who wants to play cassette tapes anymore?" I recently came across several tapes that were stashed away in my deceased father's possessions. Many of them contained the Christmas music I heard around the house as child, and it was great to hear those tapes again.
We found some old tapes that had recordings of my grandfather interacting with us back in the 1980s. We converted the tapes to digital to preserve them. But, we sometimes play the tapes as we feel closer to him because we were listening to HIS tapes.
13:28 you know it's been 1,166,832,000 seconds in my life and I finally find a CD player that tracks time like I do, just had to wait 808 seconds into this 2,039 second long youtube video,.
lol, yes, even the domestic reel to reel tape recorders counter often only related to the amount of times the take up reel turned and not actual time. Very accurate counters are only really needed for editing or for professional use. But my oh my if you try to sell a recorder with a dodgy belt expect all hell to be let loose :)
One million subscribers can't be wrong. You, Techmoan, are the TH-cam king of technology! We are so grateful for your kindness in choosing our new album, Second Sight, to demonstrate the compact disc and cassette recording features of the GPO Brooklyn Boombox. Although this device misses the mark in build quality, it does seem to hit the bullseye for being a cool-looking new retro portable paperweight. Thank you, Mat, for another informative and thorough product review video. Signing off with massive love, respect, and appreciation. Sincerely, Candy Apple Blue
Let's face it Matt you were so diplomatic reviewing this you should work for the U.N. So I will say it for you " this is a pile of plasticly crappy overpriced trash"
So many of these Alibaba, generic Chinese audio devices out there. Too bad quality is a thing of the past for these devices. The retro styling is interesting and the included speakers are almost impressive (big magnets). As usual, very thorough review...great job!
@@WesTheHunter that's a bit harsh. Shit piece of audio kit is shit, i think you may be overly sensitive to go from that to 'that's why I hate life', unless of course Life is the name of a product that represents all you loathe about shit audio stuff. Perhaps Life have a reputation for making things which have hardly at all useful features that ostensibly appear like a different probably more useful thing. Like cars that appear to offer a handy display which tells the user how much fuel they have remaining, yet the display is actually a pollen count meter.
We need Japan and Korea to start assemble stuff again, not just design them. They've made the quality things back in the past with rigorous quality control.
And then a butler comes in to inform you you're wanted on the telephone because a talking steam locomotive you own got into an argument with a bobby over not having a cowcatcher.
The 80's boy in me is sad... in those days we really worked and saved for our JVC/Victor/AIWA whatever, adjusted for today's dollars they were really quite expensive. A sad shadow of what we had... or still have. My RC-M70 and -60 are still near-mint and fully serviced and functional, and still worth every penny I've put into 'em. Thanks again as always.
@SteelRodent Yes, my Panasonic RX-FS430, which was a lower quality beginners boombox with only a radio and one non-dolby cassette deck, still works great (after maintenance). The sound quality of the speakers and the mechanism was ok'ish back in the day and still outperforms all the boomboxes of today in terms of sound quality I think. With a bluetooth cassette adapter I can connect it to my phone and get some nice retro "bluetooth speakers". The FS430 definitly was on the low end of Panasonic's catalog at around 1990-1992, but that makes it to me even stranger that today's machines sound so bad...
@SteelRodent nah, there was low end stuff back then. Brands like Yorx and Sharp and such sold low cost, fairly trashy copies of whatever Sony and Technics were making. As much as we may choose not to remember it, there is always a sub-market for lowvend crap.
@SteelRodent Oh, I don’t know. We had Amstrad, Saisho etc, available in your local Dixons (which I actually did my work experience in, in the late 80s). That was bad gear. My brother was a hi-fi nut, so even then I knew it was crap and actually advised a few customers not to buy it. Needless to say, I didn’t get a ‘salesman of the month” award. 😀
@@andreasklindt7144 Some of those RX Panasonic’s were good. I had an RXC41-L and loved it. You can pick a tidy one of those up for about 70 quid now, probably only needing a bit of ‘Techmoan style’ maintenance. No CD player, but had an AUX in for an external one. Either way, it would beat this pile of nonsense hands down.
@@benholroyd5221 You should be grateful, though. The places I’ve worked it’s usually Capital or Kiss FM. You’d be begging for the sweet relief of boring Radio 4 after a few minutes of that, let alone all day, I can assure you.
Normally I hate ads with a passion, but I’ll watch them and click the advertiser for you. I feel you are one of the few channels who deserves it - keep up the great work. Your videos comfort me!
If a Chinese product lasts a couple years it was over engineered. It should last only long enough to make it out of the packaging before being thrown in the trash. What do you know. Communism produces trash.
@@SlocketSeven I doubt the system of Government in PRC is in any way communism - private enterprise seems pretty rampant. If there wasn't a market for crap like this, then it wouldn't be produced - I don't in any way blame the manufacturer, it's been made to spec, with the cheapest components to maximise profit - that's pure undiluted Capitalism. Also, lots of really good quality stuff is made in China, like your iPhone for example.
@@the_failed_states in China the government still effectively owns and controls all the companies, but they are quite light handed when it comes to interfering, but companies in China are expected to share any product designs they create, which is why you see so many slightly different clones of the same product. Individuals can run companies and reap the rewards, but the government has the final say and total access to anything that happens. Not capitalist, but definitely not communist either.
I think a boombox that actually does what this one says it does would sell quite well. I'm getting nostalgic for original 80's/90's electronics, but it's hard to find one in good condition
That "tape counter" is hilarious. It's like the designer had seen something incrementing numbers on an old deck at his gran's house, so decided to implement it without understanding what it was/how it works.
The other problem for the 'designer' is that there is no existing tape deck mechanism on the market with a tape counter option built in. It seems all the Tanashin tape transport mechanisms are the same, and none have a counter. Its too bad all the tooling for any decent kind of tape transport is probably long gone, thrown in the dumpster along with any designs and drawings locked up in some vault as intellectual property with a price tag too high for anyone to consider. I wonder if Nakamichi still owns and has any of it's designs or if they were bought off and are now locked up somewhere with some random company that specializes in intellectual property.
@@marcusdamberger There are several different mechanisms actually. In fact, there is a solenoid driven logic controlled version of this particular mechanism that TEAC/TASCAM currently uses in their TEAC W-1200 and TASCAM 202mkVII respectively, with a proper tape counter. Yeah, it's not a proper mid/high end mech, but it's not the trash tanashin (or more often clones of it) that we all know. And, since we have the Philips patent with the specifications for the compact cassette, there is no problem designing a proper high end mechanism these days, in fact, I am working on designing one. Probably it's not going anywhere, it's just a hobby project, but still. With today's 3D printing tech, we can build some good mechanisms if we want.
It looks like the whole boombox was done by someone who doesn't understand what boomboxes do... Like the distorting sound input. The designed didn't understand that the output is supposed to play the same music that goes into it, not some kind of distorted copy.
@@truesoundchris Making an analog counter would be more difficult nowadays, but it wouldn't be THAT difficult to add a piece of foil on take up wheel and a simple light sensor.
Love watching your videos, they're absolutely brilliant. Can't wait for your next upload. Keep up all the great content, all the best from Vancouver Canada 🇨🇦
There are people you ask to draw a clock face and they draw only the right half or all the numbers show 1 or they are backwards or in a straight line... Hemispatial neglect and other brain problems... Seems like this was designed by one of them.
the Yertub channel named Forgotten Weapons showed a few Chinese pistol copies from decades ago that were just like that. 'It's like somebody saw one of these automatics and didn't know what any of the buttons on it did, then invented uses for them when they copied the design.'
That "tape counter" cracks me up. I couldn't stop laughing when you showed that. This clearly proves this device isn't for anyone that actually used a real tape player or boombox back in the day. This is for a younger audience that just wants to have something that looks boombox like and has never really used or seen a real one.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make such a detailed review. I spotted the Brooklyn in BigW today (Australia) for $199 (about £99) and this review was perfect. I may still consider the Brooklyn as my usage is to have some 80's poor quality sounding playback (yes I want it to sound poor lol) but also as a backup cassette player to load 80's computer games from. So what interests me is the wave form test and drift and warble, which actually seemed fine. There are cheaper players but most suffer from irregular speed which kills game loading. If I can get hold of that Panasonic here though, that may be the better option. Thanks again. Great info and channel. Subbed.
For the amount of technology that resides within it I would say it's pretty cheap. The public has got way to used to getting complex electronics for peanuts.
@@jonathaneastwood2927 At the volumes these things are churned out at it probably cost £5 in electronics and £10 for the rest tops. £250 for something that costs under £20 to make and doesn't even work properly is the definition of a rip-off.
Back in the 80's and 90's, 'cheap' still had to sound decent to non-audiophiles, since that was who was buying it. These days, audiophiles are off being scammed with digital devices with lots of gold on them for no actual reason. (As I like to point out, digital either works or it doesn't. The 6$ HDMI cable works precisely as well as the 150$ one. It might be more prone to failing on repeated disconnection and reconnection, but then, a gold-plated one might actually fair worse there because softer metal will wear faster. Yes, you can plate it with a harder gold alloy, but actual quality isn't what's being gone for in the audiophool market.)
I've got a Sony boombox one speaker radio with 4D batteries in it and I bet even in the condition it's in now it can run rings around the GPO something or other on this video. When the tape deck actually worked it would have one hands down.
@@evensgrey thank god somebody else shares the opinion that the audiophile market is bollocks I got into an argument with one about how tapes only sounded as good as they were recorded. And there would be no point recapping an almost brand new product for a "clearer" sound.
@@couldntmixapotnoodle but it IS worth renovating classic era analog audio gear for warm, rich sound. Go ahead and pump digital media through it if you like, it will still sound better. Wider range, deeper lows and higher highs. And you'll still save a bindle over the new high-end stuff.
"bruh shut up you built like a M̶̡̡̡̡͈͈̠̪̼̖̱̠̼̬̺̈̈́̈́̓̅̋̚͝͝ͅṀ̷̨̛̜̤͇̰͚̳͛̿̀͝M̶̧̨͇̰̮̙͙̰̖͍̮͖̲̻̤͇͓͓͔̓̊́̂̿̌̑͛̊͜͠M̵̢̛͍͔͔̲͕̪͇͍̾͂̑̄̿̊̈́̄̏̕̚̕͠͝͠ͅM̸̱̠̩͇͖̳̚͠Ḿ̴̢̧̢̛̲̻̻̺͓̤̠͓̜̌̒̅̉̄̍́̐̾͋̀͛̾̂͌̀̈́̚Ḿ̷̱͓͈̫͓͍̘͊̌̈́̀̓̈́̎̒͝M̴̛̰̠̰͚̜̯͖̮̱̥̜̥͔̤̥͛̄͛̈́̓̉̄̒͐͋͛̈́̄̀̔̿̽̎͜͝ͅM̵̢̨̢̦̞̗̣̗͈̜͂͋̔̑́̐̆͝M̸̯̜͙̫͐̍̋̑̓͆͋͂̔́̂͋̚͘̚ B̴̩͖͎̠̘͓̄̀ͅE̸̜͠͝E̶̠̥̔̿͛̅̃͋͝P̴̨͇̻̑̿̄ ̷̜̻̇͑̄̂͑̄B̷͖͔̂̃͗̂̅̎̿Ę̵͖̞͖͇̜͒ͅE̴͓̺̮̥̠̩̝̤͌͊̔̀͑̌P̷͓̱̪̣̪̝̐̃̍̂̈͗͜ͅ ̷̛̖̳̥̞͙̑̒̔̿B̷͔̈́͆̐̓͋̄͊Ë̶͇͙̅͗̿͜͝E̴̛͖̫͔͖̣̥͖͂̾̇̌͌̅P̵̧̣͓͎̑̎͒̑͠ ̴̢̺̭̟̀̾̀̊̔̓͊B̷̟͙̑͊͊̎̑̚͝Ȩ̵̹̭̤́̌͆̈̅Ẽ̷̖͛͝P̶̨͇̗̆̌̐̀̔̍̚
"It's got to be rubbish- isn't it. Rubbish!" Love it Mate! Greetings from someone who loves your videos, in the U.S.A. All well done sir, thank you for the work! UK & U.S.A. friends forever!
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but the distortion you saw when plugging the recorder into the input is likely a clipping problem - reduce the volume on the source to see if it goes away. When you clip a digital input, you get square wave distortion, resulting in peaks at each harmonic - just like what you saw. While I expect a lot of loss in the recording, it didn't fail the test as hard as it seems =)
I have seen another review of this crap on youtube and sorry to say, the reviewer loved it. My last great radio/cassette recorder was an Aiwa TPR990 and it was a beauty.
Well. The people in the UK sent the logo across as an email attachment, requested it be placed on the front and back optional locations, thought up the model number and provided the address for the label on the back... That qualifies as "designed". Doesn't it? It doesn't?? Ooh you're so picky!
it might've actually been designed in uk. Its not uncommon for factory to immediately start selling design contracted by brand "on the side", unbranded by cheaper if they like it - or simply "leak" all design docs to another factory which starts unbranded production. because of this one of long known rules to follow was - never contract single factory to do whole thing.
Matt the capacitor you mentioned in the video is to block low frequencies from the tweeters found in lots of two way setups. The value of the capacitor determines the crossover point and likely contributed to the harshness metallic sound you hear when they use the tweeter to play some of the midrange.
Makes you wonder about the disparity in prosecution. Lots of large companies including amazon churning out unsafe and possibly illegal products with no visible consequences. I guess someone is turning a blind eye... Yet if you had a little shop in your local town and did the same they'd probably lock you up!
@Marc Carran Yeah I suppose someone in the UK decided what logo files and box art to send to the Chinese mfg on alibaba and you could argue that was "designing" the boombox 😞
The Imperial Typewriter Company brand must be available, if anyone's looking to market - oh I don't know - a new fridge that _looks_ a bit like a good one from the 1950s, only with a video streaming twist.
I have an old Sony CD8 boom box that works a treat. I had to replace the belts in the tape player and while I was in there I scabbed in a Bluetooth reciever and a switch to swap the input from the tape to the module so it's been modernized to a point. I love and use it every day!
I dont own any cassette tapes, only own a handful of CDs, never owned a boombox during their heyday, have no intention of buying one... yet here I am. Great video. Well presented.
There was a lot of crappy "fantastic plastic" back then too though. I remember my mother having a stereo console made by Soundesign and it was *horrible*. The big name stuff, Kenwood, Pioneer, Sony, Denon, Onkyo....were all usually good quality...with the exception of Sonys CD optic laser systems.
Thank you for a very useful and informative video. Despite the great looks, it seems that one has to avoid this piece of equipment. But there is one issue that was addressed and with which I respectfully disagree, namely that practically all boomboxes from the 80-s are not worth considering anymore. Indeed, if not serviced these will definitely malfunction. But if they are technically maintained in good condition - belts replaced, mechanics oiled, caps replaced if appear defective, etc. - these machines will last until the generation that admires them expires itself. The sound and built quality of this machines being far superior to what is on the market now, the effort of maintenance is worth the result. JVC RC-M70, National RX-7000, Sanyo MR-X920, JVC RC-838, Sharp GF-96969, to mention a few that I keep, all work fine. And belts and other parts are easily available on Ebay and not difficult to replace, service manuals and guidance being available on the Internet. As for me, I do not regret my choice, but of course it is all a matter of taste.
"As a CD player it performs the function it was designed for" I just love this characterization 🤣 Absolutely underwhelming but technically true. Great video as always! Happy Saturday!
The problem with the DAB reception is that only one part of the dipole antenna is connected. Looking at 24:25 in the video, you can see three connections to the DAB module but only one is wired, the other (either side but probably the RH one) needs to have a connection usually to some form of Ground Plane, a large metal plate, or wire which goes round the inside of the cabinet. I've fixed a few DAB radios, Roberts, Pure and Sony and they all have a large inside metal plane for this, it looks like shielding but is the other half of the dipole.
I don't know how they managed to achieve this, but the product photo at 00:30 on the packaging already screams "NOPE!". Let's see if they can improve upon the first impression. Edit: Good Heavens, they couldn't...
It would be OK as a radio for the workshop at, say a fifth what they're asking for it, which looks like it would still make them a profit. But at the price they want...
@@Jehty_ Perhaps I should say "CD player" rather than "Radio," but a receiver may be just not god enough for the particular circumstances. IIRC, Techmoan's home isn't in a great spot for analog radio reception, and the room he normally shoots in is particularly filled with electronic noise (to the extent he had to go elsewhere in his home to do the reception recording test).
@@evensgrey he had to go into another room because of his router. Every house has a router in it. Most commercial buildings have much worse things than routers. And on top of that most factories/workshop are steel frame/sided buildings. If you can't get a reception in a stone building you won't get any in a steel one.
Maybe just my interest grew on cassette players but I also believe that in this uncertain world simple things like having the music in a physical format (Lp or cassette) simply gives us a false sentiment of certainty. I mean, I have two decks, planning to buy the third one, three walkmans and one great record player and 95% of the time I am still listening flac's or YT music. But those 5 percent are extremely important to me. Just sitting in front of the shelf and choosing the album to be played makes all the sense in the world
@@mycosys I am no audiophile for sure. I have a jvc td472 and an onkyo integra with a pioneer on the way. Not Nakamichi but for sure not Ion tape to usb. Both of them are fully cleaned, libbed, checked and calibrated. Truth being spoken only ferric and chrome tapes on them, no metal ones. I have a hearing well over medium being capable to hear 23000 hz as per the doctor two months ago (this is the reason why at work inside the office the noise is killing me). Because of this I enjoy listening more the tapes because I do not feel the ears going fatigued. But this is due to the lack of highs. True, the sound is warmer due to this, I like it because is not like cutting the highs from pc, the pioneer amp is superb, the woofer adds a little pinch of warmth but the reality is that at least these two types of tapes are not as close to reality as a CD or FLAC. I enjoy them more? Yeah. Are over the bluetooth music streamed by youtube? Yes...but we also should be honest with ourselves. It is something we like more, not something better. And it is fine just like that
The frequency sweep showed second and third harmonic distortion. This is likely, at least in part, from clipping the signal at some point in the chain. That might be someplace where you can do something about it, like turning down the output of the recorder playing into the thing. Or it might be internal, and possibly deliberate to get the "loudness" up on the device. It could perhaps be worth trying again and turning down the output level of the recorder to see if it cleared up the extra harmonics, but from the raspy sound it has on everything, I have my doubts about that.
The huge magnets on the back are probably there for "magnetic shielding" - they used to have to glue a magnet to the armature in the opposite polarity to stop the magnetic field spreading outside the speakers too much and distorting the image on old CRT monitors.
I recently bought this boom-box (brand new - black) for almost $500 + postage. _"Bringing the 80s boombox bang up to date, the GPO Brooklyn gives you sound and style in equal measure. Fully portable with two 40 watt speakers but many disappointments are also included..."_
That counter reminded me of the story of the kid who saw a 3.5" floppy disk and asked "Why do you have a model of the save icon?". Apparently that kid now designs retro consumer electronics.
When I was growing up in the 80s, I thought, "We have such cool music gear, and with companies like Sony, etc., imagine what cool stuff we'll have a few decades into the future!" 3 decades into the future:
I had a proper boom box AM/FM/cassette/AUX. with actual functional switch for tone, stereo/mono, casette type, Dolby, etc. with 6” woofers, 1” tweeters, actual analog tuning. It could easily serve as the primary house stereo. It took 6 ‘D’ size batteries. The main thing is, it was heavy, and it sounded full and wonderful. Nothing felt cheap.
@@RCAvhstape Damn, I'm trying to think back to when I last saw a radio with short wave capability. I think it was in high school, back in the 1980's. I haven't gone LOOKING for one, but the internet has largely done for short wave services these days. It's so much cheaper for a broadcaster to just offer their foreign service as a stream.
As a sexagenarian who's always been interested in HiFi and stuff, I would say that even in the 80s the general quality of audio gear had begun declining slightly, compared to the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Most of the brands that existed back then, and are still around now, are a travesty in my opinion.
So glad you decided to keep the beard. Hope the missus enjoys it like the viewers. But, as in my case, if my wife didn’t like it, I’d have had to shave it by now.
I used to have the JVC DC-7 boombox when I was 14 years old in 1984. When loaded down with all the D batteries, it weighed around 50 lbs. Or 22.68 kilograms. It was a beast to carry around. It was best just keep it plugged in because the batteries only lasted about 2 - 3 hours and were very expensive. I thought it sounded fantastic! You would think things would improve over the years, it certainly has not! I can hear the wow & flutter with the tape during the playback at 16:56 . At least TH-cam is still using standard Play Back Timing. Wow and flutter is going to be off the chart! This thing really is garbage compared to what I grew up with. It's a shame because, there is so much potential if they would just integrate today's technology with yesterday's technology!
I had a non-portable boombox when I first joined the USAF in 1980. It was, erm, "luggable". It did indeed have a handle, so it met the _industry_ definition of "portable". It was also a complete, separatable, bookshelf component system if you took off the handle and some other bits. Made by JBL, ran on line voltage or several kilos of D cells. I will have to search whether you've reviewed it...
Was curious about the actual speaker specification so i searched "sw-918 sunwin" as Matt found on the speakers, and found out that Sunwin technology are the original manufacturer and that sw-918 is the model number for this model.
It would be interesting to see a review of the Teac w-1200 cassette deck, given that it looks fairly decent and claims to have some form of noise reduction.
I've been disappointed by a plate of mussels once too often to bother again. Once you've faffed around getting all the mussels out of the shells and binned all the shells off - you get the equivalent of a small handful of edible food. It's a small snack that blags like it's a meal. But hey don't let me put anyone off - we can't all like the same things - if we did there would be no need for a menu at restaurants.
@@Techmoan See, over here the come in giant pots and they definitely do make up a proper meal! With some truly delicious sauce they've been cooked in. Truly a shame if shops over there, or tourist traps here short you on the edible biomass! Quite frankly a crime!
The Sony PCM recorder *might* have a line output level selector somewhere in the menus. Pro audio gear often uses a +4dBu level standard whereas consumer gear uses -10dBu, so if you play one into the other you'll either get massive distortion or a very low signal.
Hi, Love your reviews! Here from the USA. I bought this about a year ago from Amazon for a whopping $260. I do enjoy it for sound. Tweeters are Real and the sound is amazing! I have disconnected the battery and only use it on the go. The tape counter isn't one. So wrong choice. I just used black tape over the counter! New generation does NOT know the 80's-90's and how to build a Boombox! I have tested the micro SD recording from Cassette and use it on the go in my car and sounds great recording. Not bad only it could have Really been better GPO! The graphics I turn OFF as it's not an audio visual graph. Low sounds shows full RED. Crazy design. N-Joy it! Not bad CD player too! Oh and I almost forgot... when a tape ends and it engages the Auto Stop it so SOOO Loud it will wake anyone up from a Coma! LOL - I added some cushions on the top of the piano keys and it does help! I do like the key guard bar to protect the keys! It's about the best retro boombox that is NEW with NEW belts and motors out there that I've researched for months before I bought it. Too bad new companies didn't research some of the old boomboxes features into new ones today. Oh well. Gotta enjoy what you have!
No surprise that the Panasonic RX comes out as your recommendation. I used to have a Panasonic RX (can’t remember the exact model no) back in the 80’s. It had detachable speakers, a level indicator and auto reverse cassette. I loved that thing.
Panasonic stuff is awesome. I've recently picked up a couple of old Viera plasma tellies for under £50 each and they're built like tanks. Still working perfectly after 15+ years. Not smart but that's just another form of planned obsolescence anyway.
The sad thing is that young people will probably never know what quality items like this are really like, they are only seeing cheap rubbish. These days seem to have only top quality or junk, not a lot in the middle, the 80's and 90's had a huge variety of good quality mid-range products.
I can see some truth in this as a young person myself. Most consumer electronics are built like shit, even expensive ones are a gamble as to whether they cared or just inflated the price tag. Tools are particularly bad. The model now seems to be to manufacture something that breaks quickly, but is cheap enough people don’t grumble too much about buying another one. The they fleece you on the batteries. Older tools might not be battery powered, but they were far far better built. You can still find good quality tools, but it’s not as simple. Everything seems to be value engineered to last just long enough, and the amount of rubbish this kind of practice ends up producing is and should be criminal. Companies ought to be held responsible for basically selling rubbish.
@@genekwagmyrsingh9433 Of course it still exists. The real question is if any current manufacture is providing quality products. If Techmoan's videos are anything to go by then the answer is no.
I was thinking along these lines, but really the issue is that these are dead/dying formats, and as such the companies that are interested in quality and perfrmance aren't making them. You can get amazing headphones, digital audio players, and speakers that totally surpass the sound quality of good 70s-80s gear, But you won't find a tape deck that will do so. Only when they become profitable enough for the boutique hi-fi companies will you see an expensive, well made tape deck that rivals good modern boutique turntables.
@@andrewgwilliam4831 But then, unlike an actual stopwatch, *this one* will display nothing (instead of freezing on the time that you stopped it on), correct?
I’ve been waiting to see a review on this if only to confirm how dire I expected it to be. One of those items you keep the packaging as it may come in useful and bin the contents!
This device reminds me of that "Mr Mann" character from Little Britain who's always going into the shop asking for the most obscure items you can think of: "I'm looking for a 1980s style boombox that has a red light display that constantly counts seconds upwards for no apparent reason." "Margaret!! Margaret!!.. Do we have a 1980s style boombox.... etc"
The guy at my local landfill pulls audio/electronics for me and I go down once a month and toss him a few bucks. I've gotten some absolute treasures over the years.
@@MartinOmander A brand new in the box Philco tape recorder from the mid 60s, never even opened. A crate of JBL tweeters for a concert hall, they're huge, like 20 lbs a piece.
I found 2 Audiomaster monoblocks with preamps sitting on the side of the road. EL34 valves with Partridge output tranformers. Changed grid coupling capacitors and now the monoblocks work and sound great. Someone threw out Grandpa's old stereo.
Great, avuncular manner about him, that guy, could listen to him all day, haha! :) Just this afternoon, I returned a GPO Brooklyn boombox to the retailer for a refund. A number of problems. I tried the radio first, and when I pulled on the left-hand antenna to extend it, the endmost section came away in my hand! Broken through. Wow. Great start. The cassette deck struggled to play [several different] tapes at a satisfactory speed. Then after a short period of playback, the STOP/EJECT button wouldn't fully depress, thus I couldn't stop the tape. I pressed down on the PLAY button momentarily, then STOP worked, but that shouldn't be necessary, should it? Also, on the model I received, there was no cue/review function, which ticked me off, 'cos the seller's feature list and photos boasted such. Then, insult to injury, after 24hrs or so, the LED clock display went bonkers and quit on me. In short; the GPO Brooklyn looks cute, but it's cheapo Chinese rubbish. Although not cheap ENOUGH! I'm surprised the features list on the box doesn't begin with: 'Magnificent and Noble in Shape!' Now, I still love the IDEA of this thing. If, say, JVC were to make a similar-looking product - with all the integrated components of far higher quality and better functionality - then I for one would be all over it, albeit no doubt at greater expense. The tweeter casing should be rectangular for a truly retro look, but I'm just geeking, haha! Was fun to try it out, but not a keeper.
Gotta love that “counter”. It’s like the people who designed this didn’t know why one would want a counter on a tapedeck and just thought people liked watching a number go up while listening to music.
Or while the music is paused, or rewinding ...
It's like aliens designed this thing. It has all the features you'd expect but they're just _off_ somehow.
What do you expect from China. They think their customers are idiots, so they spec products to those expectations unless you demand otherwise.
@@80s_Boombox_Collector well, SOMEONE is buying them, not sure who or why. Do you have any idea where they all end up?
@@MrTaxiRob If I had to guess, I'd say probably 50% Americans, 40% Brits, 10% EU
Awesome thorough review. I'm shocked they wanted £250 for that thing! Even at £100, that feels like too much. I really felt like you were more positive about the GPO Brooklyn than it actually deserved! I would have been much more harsh :-)
How is yours from 4 days ago? And if it is patron please tell me what it is.
@@Agri458 Patreon. Go to the site and search for Techmoan. Then you can sign up to support his channel with a monthly fee, you then get early access to videos etc.
50€ maximum not a cent more
You can buy some of the best Bluetooth speakers available for that price. What a joke.
@@6581punk oh ok thanks that helped! Might go sign up now!
"Who wants to play cassette tapes anymore?" I recently came across several tapes that were stashed away in my deceased father's possessions. Many of them contained the Christmas music I heard around the house as child, and it was great to hear those tapes again.
Digitize those when you have a chance
I listen to tapes all the time.
We found some old tapes that had recordings of my grandfather interacting with us back in the 1980s. We converted the tapes to digital to preserve them. But, we sometimes play the tapes as we feel closer to him because we were listening to HIS tapes.
Still use them daily in my 1995 Camry
I've got thousands of cassettes, almost as many as I have records. I know I have a problem but I don't care, lol.
13:28 you know it's been 1,166,832,000 seconds in my life and I finally find a CD player that tracks time like I do, just had to wait 808 seconds into this 2,039 second long youtube video,.
lol, yes, even the domestic reel to reel tape recorders counter often only related to the amount of times the take up reel turned and not actual time. Very accurate counters are only really needed for editing or for professional use. But my oh my if you try to sell a recorder with a dodgy belt expect all hell to be let loose :)
They got their quote for next box:
“It’s not quality, but at least it’s stereo” -Techmoan
Lmao
Oh, they'll do what every other shameless company does: "... quality... it's stereo" --Techmoan
@@puckcat22679 or shorten it more to ‘Quality Stereo’
"The tweeters are real and they are connected."
Been looking for a premium stopwatch. Might give this a go.
Only premium stop watches work.
lol thats funny
😂 you’re right there. I do love a premium stopwatch or a premium bum box^ as a previous video indicates.
^see Philips boom box review also by Mat.
Unlike most other so-called "premium" stopwatches, you can read this one from across the room.
One million subscribers can't be wrong. You, Techmoan, are the TH-cam king of technology! We are so grateful for your kindness in choosing our new album, Second Sight, to demonstrate the compact disc and cassette recording features of the GPO Brooklyn Boombox. Although this device misses the mark in build quality, it does seem to hit the bullseye for being a cool-looking new retro portable paperweight. Thank you, Mat, for another informative and thorough product review video. Signing off with massive love, respect, and appreciation. Sincerely, Candy Apple Blue
Your jams on the best tech reviewer and the worst boombox at the same time! 😂🤘💙
@@Cre80s oh, yeah, the Brooklyn Boombox is a portable paperweight. Who knew? Goes to show that beauty is only skip deep. It does look nice. 🙃
Let's face it Matt you were so diplomatic reviewing this you should work for the U.N. So I will say it for you " this is a pile of plasticly crappy overpriced trash"
Made out of coal to add more landfill for the environment
He makes content out of this trash
So many of these Alibaba, generic Chinese audio devices out there. Too bad quality is a thing of the past for these devices. The retro styling is interesting and the included speakers are almost impressive (big magnets). As usual, very thorough review...great job!
@@WesTheHunter that's a bit harsh. Shit piece of audio kit is shit, i think you may be overly sensitive to go from that to 'that's why I hate life', unless of course Life is the name of a product that represents all you loathe about shit audio stuff. Perhaps Life have a reputation for making things which have hardly at all useful features that ostensibly appear like a different probably more useful thing. Like cars that appear to offer a handy display which tells the user how much fuel they have remaining, yet the display is actually a pollen count meter.
We need Japan and Korea to start assemble stuff again, not just design them. They've made the quality things back in the past with rigorous quality control.
@williston audio labs Big D Wiz in the house!!
@@MetalTrabant, Chinese can make quality stuff too, it just won't cost 100 dollars.
Love to hate China. So many issues to pick from.
3:12 I love the "add to trolley" instead of "add to cart." It makes me feel like my order comes with hot buttered toast with Marmite.
And then a butler comes in to inform you you're wanted on the telephone because a talking steam locomotive you own got into an argument with a bobby over not having a cowcatcher.
I love how serious and thorough of a review this is for an item we all knew was utter trash just from looking at the thumbnail. Love this channel lmao
Just burn your money
The 80's boy in me is sad... in those days we really worked and saved for our JVC/Victor/AIWA whatever, adjusted for today's dollars they were really quite expensive.
A sad shadow of what we had... or still have. My RC-M70 and -60 are still near-mint and fully serviced and functional, and still worth every penny I've put into 'em.
Thanks again as always.
@SteelRodent Yes, my Panasonic RX-FS430, which was a lower quality beginners boombox with only a radio and one non-dolby cassette deck, still works great (after maintenance). The sound quality of the speakers and the mechanism was ok'ish back in the day and still outperforms all the boomboxes of today in terms of sound quality I think. With a bluetooth cassette adapter I can connect it to my phone and get some nice retro "bluetooth speakers". The FS430 definitly was on the low end of Panasonic's catalog at around 1990-1992, but that makes it to me even stranger that today's machines sound so bad...
@SteelRodent nah, there was low end stuff back then. Brands like Yorx and Sharp and such sold low cost, fairly trashy copies of whatever Sony and Technics were making.
As much as we may choose not to remember it, there is always a sub-market for lowvend crap.
@SteelRodent Oh, I don’t know. We had Amstrad, Saisho etc, available in your local Dixons (which I actually did my work experience in, in the late 80s). That was bad gear. My brother was a hi-fi nut, so even then I knew it was crap and actually advised a few customers not to buy it. Needless to say, I didn’t get a ‘salesman of the month” award. 😀
@@andreasklindt7144 Some of those RX Panasonic’s were good. I had an RXC41-L and loved it. You can pick a tidy one of those up for about 70 quid now, probably only needing a bit of ‘Techmoan style’ maintenance. No CD player, but had an AUX in for an external one. Either way, it would beat this pile of nonsense hands down.
@@vooveks Yes. Bought an RX-F4L about 40 years ago for around £100 and has been used daily since then. Great quality bit of kit.
8:40 "Why do the Belgians have a greater love of mussels than the British"
Absolutely riveting.
There's one job I worked, where R4 was the default. It is simultaneously extremely relaxing and the world's longest running troll.
Jean Claude Van Damme : The Mussels From Brussels
@@benholroyd5221 You should be grateful, though. The places I’ve worked it’s usually Capital or Kiss FM. You’d be begging for the sweet relief of boring Radio 4 after a few minutes of that, let alone all day, I can assure you.
@@vooveks especially as they rotate the same 5 or 6 songs all day.
@@matsamuel5655 Is he 6'4"?
This is why thrift stores are better for tape decks. I found an old Technics tape deck that had never been used. The tape counter actually works too.
Normally I hate ads with a passion, but I’ll watch them and click the advertiser for you. I feel you are one of the few channels who deserves it - keep up the great work. Your videos comfort me!
Oh, you didn't even buy the 1000 Dollar Yves Saint Laurent special edition. (I am not kidding, there is a mega expensive YSL version of this.)
Flippin eck.
Good grief I thought you were joking. The only apparent difference is the colour of plastic used. What a horrendous money spinner
WTF! 🤯
Made of 90% stainless steel and 10% calfskin leather, apparently.
We actually think they only specialise in making junk, We’re very mistaken
Container loads of this sort of crap is shipped around the world. It lasts a couple of years - if that, then ends up on landfill.
At least the battery is user replaceable, so slightly less "landfill attraction" than most modern smartphones :)
If a Chinese product lasts a couple years it was over engineered.
It should last only long enough to make it out of the packaging before being thrown in the trash.
What do you know. Communism produces trash.
What do you know. Capitalism buys trash.
@@SlocketSeven I doubt the system of Government in PRC is in any way communism - private enterprise seems pretty rampant. If there wasn't a market for crap like this, then it wouldn't be produced - I don't in any way blame the manufacturer, it's been made to spec, with the cheapest components to maximise profit - that's pure undiluted Capitalism. Also, lots of really good quality stuff is made in China, like your iPhone for example.
@@the_failed_states in China the government still effectively owns and controls all the companies, but they are quite light handed when it comes to interfering, but companies in China are expected to share any product designs they create, which is why you see so many slightly different clones of the same product. Individuals can run companies and reap the rewards, but the government has the final say and total access to anything that happens. Not capitalist, but definitely not communist either.
Techmoan going into the history of the general post office is the most british thing I'll experience today.
You mean English! I'm not sure our other regions would feel it's particularly Welsh, Irish or Scottish - but perhaps I'm wrong...
@@Blitterbug The GPO served all of Britain - you're 100% wrong
I was quite disappointed that "GPO Brooklyn" wasn't a Massachusetts based spin off the General Post Office.
lol It is but I think Techmoan is Welsh so i would be careful ;-)
@@Casey-Jones Haha! You spotted my anglo-centric bias, but missed the slight sarcasm. N'mind...
I think a boombox that actually does what this one says it does would sell quite well. I'm getting nostalgic for original 80's/90's electronics, but it's hard to find one in good condition
The best thing about the GPO Brooklyn Boombox is Techmoan's video 😄.
Nothing better to soothe a Saturday hangover than watching 30+ minutes of Techmoan.
That "tape counter" is hilarious. It's like the designer had seen something incrementing numbers on an old deck at his gran's house, so decided to implement it without understanding what it was/how it works.
The other problem for the 'designer' is that there is no existing tape deck mechanism on the market with a tape counter option built in. It seems all the Tanashin tape transport mechanisms are the same, and none have a counter. Its too bad all the tooling for any decent kind of tape transport is probably long gone, thrown in the dumpster along with any designs and drawings locked up in some vault as intellectual property with a price tag too high for anyone to consider. I wonder if Nakamichi still owns and has any of it's designs or if they were bought off and are now locked up somewhere with some random company that specializes in intellectual property.
@@marcusdamberger There are several different mechanisms actually. In fact, there is a solenoid driven logic controlled version of this particular mechanism that TEAC/TASCAM currently uses in their TEAC W-1200 and TASCAM 202mkVII respectively, with a proper tape counter. Yeah, it's not a proper mid/high end mech, but it's not the trash tanashin (or more often clones of it) that we all know. And, since we have the Philips patent with the specifications for the compact cassette, there is no problem designing a proper high end mechanism these days, in fact, I am working on designing one. Probably it's not going anywhere, it's just a hobby project, but still. With today's 3D printing tech, we can build some good mechanisms if we want.
It looks like the whole boombox was done by someone who doesn't understand what boomboxes do... Like the distorting sound input. The designed didn't understand that the output is supposed to play the same music that goes into it, not some kind of distorted copy.
@@truesoundchris Making an analog counter would be more difficult nowadays, but it wouldn't be THAT difficult to add a piece of foil on take up wheel and a simple light sensor.
Ying tong crap!
lol, the audio quality difference between the Sony radio and the "Boombox" even via a mic is astounding. Muffled and wooly indeed!
7:54 "The Bee Gees and Massachussetts". If this radio can tune into the late 1960s, I'll buy one, regardless of whether it has maximum balance or not.
Love watching your videos, they're absolutely brilliant. Can't wait for your next upload. Keep up all the great content, all the best from Vancouver Canada 🇨🇦
“Sounded muffled and wooly” ... proper description
👌
Like screaming into a sheep.
@@rolfs2165 😂😂😂 the last time I did that I thought "this sounds just like a cheap cassette player" 🐏🐏🐏
It sounds like a fisher-price tape player.
This is like someone described a boom box to someone who's never seen or used one took no notes and went on to make one based on what they remembered
‘Write that down....write that down...’
Nah, more like someone wanted to make a decent looking boom box for as cheap as possible.
Reminds me a bit of the "tree swing cartoon" (Google images will know what this means).
There are people you ask to draw a clock face and they draw only the right half or all the numbers show 1 or they are backwards or in a straight line... Hemispatial neglect and other brain problems... Seems like this was designed by one of them.
the Yertub channel named Forgotten Weapons showed a few Chinese pistol copies from decades ago that were just like that. 'It's like somebody saw one of these automatics and didn't know what any of the buttons on it did, then invented uses for them when they copied the design.'
That "tape counter" cracks me up. I couldn't stop laughing when you showed that. This clearly proves this device isn't for anyone that actually used a real tape player or boombox back in the day. This is for a younger audience that just wants to have something that looks boombox like and has never really used or seen a real one.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make such a detailed review. I spotted the Brooklyn in BigW today (Australia) for $199 (about £99) and this review was perfect. I may still consider the Brooklyn as my usage is to have some 80's poor quality sounding playback (yes I want it to sound poor lol) but also as a backup cassette player to load 80's computer games from. So what interests me is the wave form test and drift and warble, which actually seemed fine. There are cheaper players but most suffer from irregular speed which kills game loading. If I can get hold of that Panasonic here though, that may be the better option.
Thanks again. Great info and channel. Subbed.
I bought the Panasonic after watching your review... I'm very happy with it... Thank you and greetings from Spain!! 😉✌️
The price tag is outrageous for that boombox. Thanks for the review Matt!
For the amount of technology that resides within it I would say it's pretty cheap. The public has got way to used to getting complex electronics for peanuts.
@@Android-ng1wn I disregard your predictable and rude comment.
@@jonathaneastwood2927 At the volumes these things are churned out at it probably cost £5 in electronics and £10 for the rest tops. £250 for something that costs under £20 to make and doesn't even work properly is the definition of a rip-off.
First thought on clicking on this video is that those kids on the box front have no clue what the thing is that they're posing with.
Sad part is, those kids are probably posing with something else, and this 'thing' was just photoshopped over it!! :-D
The people who designed it clearly didn’t know what the tape counter is for.
@@CantankerousDave i bet the kids could work an original one better than the people who made that thing
All of the cheap brands of the 80s and 90s became luxurious quality components overnight when they come out with this one
Back in the 80's and 90's, 'cheap' still had to sound decent to non-audiophiles, since that was who was buying it. These days, audiophiles are off being scammed with digital devices with lots of gold on them for no actual reason. (As I like to point out, digital either works or it doesn't. The 6$ HDMI cable works precisely as well as the 150$ one. It might be more prone to failing on repeated disconnection and reconnection, but then, a gold-plated one might actually fair worse there because softer metal will wear faster. Yes, you can plate it with a harder gold alloy, but actual quality isn't what's being gone for in the audiophool market.)
I've got a Sony boombox one speaker radio with 4D batteries in it and I bet even in the condition it's in now it can run rings around the GPO something or other on this video. When the tape deck actually worked it would have one hands down.
@@evensgrey thank god somebody else shares the opinion that the audiophile market is bollocks I got into an argument with one about how tapes only sounded as good as they were recorded. And there would be no point recapping an almost brand new product for a "clearer" sound.
@@couldntmixapotnoodle but it IS worth renovating classic era analog audio gear for warm, rich sound. Go ahead and pump digital media through it if you like, it will still sound better. Wider range, deeper lows and higher highs. And you'll still save a bindle over the new high-end stuff.
Even makes Matsui look good!
8:08 I'm old enough that it's still neat that it can display the channel name.
Don't you just love it when your audio equipment is built like an easy bake oven?
Easy Bake oven was a way better product.
"bruh shut up you built like a M̶̡̡̡̡͈͈̠̪̼̖̱̠̼̬̺̈̈́̈́̓̅̋̚͝͝ͅṀ̷̨̛̜̤͇̰͚̳͛̿̀͝M̶̧̨͇̰̮̙͙̰̖͍̮͖̲̻̤͇͓͓͔̓̊́̂̿̌̑͛̊͜͠M̵̢̛͍͔͔̲͕̪͇͍̾͂̑̄̿̊̈́̄̏̕̚̕͠͝͠ͅM̸̱̠̩͇͖̳̚͠Ḿ̴̢̧̢̛̲̻̻̺͓̤̠͓̜̌̒̅̉̄̍́̐̾͋̀͛̾̂͌̀̈́̚Ḿ̷̱͓͈̫͓͍̘͊̌̈́̀̓̈́̎̒͝M̴̛̰̠̰͚̜̯͖̮̱̥̜̥͔̤̥͛̄͛̈́̓̉̄̒͐͋͛̈́̄̀̔̿̽̎͜͝ͅM̵̢̨̢̦̞̗̣̗͈̜͂͋̔̑́̐̆͝M̸̯̜͙̫͐̍̋̑̓͆͋͂̔́̂͋̚͘̚ B̴̩͖͎̠̘͓̄̀ͅE̸̜͠͝E̶̠̥̔̿͛̅̃͋͝P̴̨͇̻̑̿̄ ̷̜̻̇͑̄̂͑̄B̷͖͔̂̃͗̂̅̎̿Ę̵͖̞͖͇̜͒ͅE̴͓̺̮̥̠̩̝̤͌͊̔̀͑̌P̷͓̱̪̣̪̝̐̃̍̂̈͗͜ͅ ̷̛̖̳̥̞͙̑̒̔̿B̷͔̈́͆̐̓͋̄͊Ë̶͇͙̅͗̿͜͝E̴̛͖̫͔͖̣̥͖͂̾̇̌͌̅P̵̧̣͓͎̑̎͒̑͠ ̴̢̺̭̟̀̾̀̊̔̓͊B̷̟͙̑͊͊̎̑̚͝Ȩ̵̹̭̤́̌͆̈̅Ẽ̷̖͛͝P̶̨͇̗̆̌̐̀̔̍̚
That Sony Dab radio you used for comparison sounds nice, lovely clear sound
Yes it’s a lovely little thing - it was in Lidl one day...a really good price too.
I bought a mis priced dab radio in tescos years ago £6 could have sold 10 s over at work still going strong.
@@Techmoan Hello Techmoan! Take care and stay healthy 🌈
@@Techmoan you guys have Lidl in England?
@@valentingartner3793yes
"I want maximum balance. Yeah, that sounds all right."
Maximum balance should dead centre, yes?
Only if it goes to eleven.
LOL! :)
Setting it to minimum Left a lot to be desired!
Perfectly balanced. As all things should be.
I really enjoy this channel and can see why it is so highly regarded!
Great stuff!
It truly is!
"It's got to be rubbish- isn't it. Rubbish!"
Love it Mate! Greetings from someone who loves your videos, in the U.S.A.
All well done sir, thank you for the work! UK & U.S.A. friends forever!
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but the distortion you saw when plugging the recorder into the input is likely a clipping problem - reduce the volume on the source to see if it goes away. When you clip a digital input, you get square wave distortion, resulting in peaks at each harmonic - just like what you saw. While I expect a lot of loss in the recording, it didn't fail the test as hard as it seems =)
Techmoan: “i have spoken long enough”
Us: “You don’t know us really well, do you?”
I hated that he became self conscious about how lengthy his videos are because some knob said he talks to much. It's why we're here of course.
Techmoan should have a talkshow 5 hrs every morning
@@madwax4771 I'd listen to it over R4 any day.
@@livardo Right!
We all know it's not going to be good... Just want to watch Mr techmoan roasting it
That scathing British disappointment.
I have seen another review of this crap on youtube and sorry to say, the reviewer loved it. My last great radio/cassette recorder was an Aiwa TPR990 and it was a beauty.
"Designed in UK."
It might be time to update those consumer laws.
Well. The people in the UK sent the logo across as an email attachment, requested it be placed on the front and back optional locations, thought up the model number and provided the address for the label on the back... That qualifies as "designed". Doesn't it? It doesn't?? Ooh you're so picky!
Note that it doesn’t say “engineered.”
Time to teach uk consumers not to be dingbats.
The shell of the radio probably was designed in the Uk but built in China with cheap components
Maybe they meant United Kong ?
“The thing can’t even hear properly” at 21:45 really cracked me up
"What's wrong with the GPO Brooklyn Boombox?" [Gary Oldman:] EVERYTHING!
That delay when switching between inputs was probably the most hilarious thing.
"There's no belt going up to a counter mech " made me chuckle...cheers
it might've actually been designed in uk. Its not uncommon for factory to immediately start selling design contracted by brand "on the side", unbranded by cheaper if they like it - or simply "leak" all design docs to another factory which starts unbranded production. because of this one of long known rules to follow was - never contract single factory to do whole thing.
"Designing" something simply means creating a drawing and then getting bids from China.
Matt the capacitor you mentioned in the video is to block low frequencies from the tweeters found in lots of two way setups. The value of the capacitor determines the crossover point and likely contributed to the harshness metallic sound you hear when they use the tweeter to play some of the midrange.
I love these reviews, ...the subdued voice of the reviewer says it all here :)))
It looks like a ‘parts bin’ special. Surprised there’s not a Compact Flash card reader on there!
That "Designed in the UK" bit really made me wonder about the effectiveness of false advertising laws in the UK.
Makes you wonder about the disparity in prosecution. Lots of large companies including amazon churning out unsafe and possibly illegal products with no visible consequences. I guess someone is turning a blind eye... Yet if you had a little shop in your local town and did the same they'd probably lock you up!
@Marc Carran Maybe they sent some chinese "engineers" over to the UK for a couple of weeks to draw up this piece of garbage?
@Marc Carran Yeah I suppose someone in the UK decided what logo files and box art to send to the Chinese mfg on alibaba and you could argue that was "designing" the boombox 😞
Seems if it’s not advertised in magazines, TV air radio they can get away with anything
The Imperial Typewriter Company brand must be available, if anyone's looking to market - oh I don't know - a new fridge that _looks_ a bit like a good one from the 1950s, only with a video streaming twist.
BMC available ??
I have an old Sony CD8 boom box that works a treat. I had to replace the belts in the tape player and while I was in there I scabbed in a Bluetooth reciever and a switch to swap the input from the tape to the module so it's been modernized to a point. I love and use it every day!
I dont own any cassette tapes, only own a handful of CDs, never owned a boombox during their heyday, have no intention of buying one... yet here I am.
Great video. Well presented.
God i mis the 80's and early 90's when everything was still being made in japan and quality was miles ahead.
Seriously, Japan would have taken the time to both capitalize the "I" and spell the word "miss" right 😅
There was a lot of crappy "fantastic plastic" back then too though. I remember my mother having a stereo console made by Soundesign and it was *horrible*. The big name stuff, Kenwood, Pioneer, Sony, Denon, Onkyo....were all usually good quality...with the exception of Sonys CD optic laser systems.
@@xp7575 ,nice try Mr. GRAMMAR!
Indeed. I own 5 MSX computers, 4 of them from Sony, all of them made in Japan. Great quality, still working.
@@Aaron48219 thats exactly right. Good stuff is made today also. Just wait 30 years and see what survives
Ah, it has all my favourite output levels, on and off
"All fur coat and no knickers" as my dear old mum would have said.
Most british insult I've read today.
I don't know; depending who's in that fur coat, that might not be a bad thing…
In Texas it'd be "all hat and no cattle."
Australia: "All sizzle and no sausage".
Germany: "All foam and no beer."
Glad I watched your review - saved me making a purchase that I now know I would end up being very disappointed with - thank you Techmoan
Thank you for a very useful and informative video. Despite the great looks, it seems that one has to avoid this piece of equipment. But there is one issue that was addressed and with which I respectfully disagree, namely that practically all boomboxes from the 80-s are not worth considering anymore. Indeed, if not serviced these will definitely malfunction. But if they are technically maintained in good condition - belts replaced, mechanics oiled, caps replaced if appear defective, etc. - these machines will last until the generation that admires them expires itself. The sound and built quality of this machines being far superior to what is on the market now, the effort of maintenance is worth the result. JVC RC-M70, National RX-7000, Sanyo MR-X920, JVC RC-838, Sharp GF-96969, to mention a few that I keep, all work fine. And belts and other parts are easily available on Ebay and not difficult to replace, service manuals and guidance being available on the Internet. As for me, I do not regret my choice, but of course it is all a matter of taste.
Good points, and good on ya for keeping those and keeping them in good condition 👍🏻
What a great way to start a Saturday morning. Having my breakfast and watching fresh Techmoan content.
It’s 3 in the morning and there is a tornado watch. This isn’t how I anticipated my night but the video should make it better.
At least you don't have to pour a tiny little cup of water in the top to get steamed hipster toast out of it.
That's the name of my newest song steamed hipster toast.
Available on iTunes and Starbucks
"As a CD player it performs the function it was designed for" I just love this characterization 🤣 Absolutely underwhelming but technically true. Great video as always! Happy Saturday!
I love this thing. It's like a very clever _simulation_ of a boombox.
The problem with the DAB reception is that only one part of the dipole antenna is connected. Looking at 24:25 in the video, you can see three connections to the DAB module but only one is wired, the other (either side but probably the RH one) needs to have a connection usually to some form of Ground Plane, a large metal plate, or wire which goes round the inside of the cabinet. I've fixed a few DAB radios, Roberts, Pure and Sony and they all have a large inside metal plane for this, it looks like shielding but is the other half of the dipole.
I don't know how they managed to achieve this, but the product photo at 00:30 on the packaging already screams "NOPE!". Let's see if they can improve upon the first impression.
Edit: Good Heavens, they couldn't...
It would be OK as a radio for the workshop at, say a fifth what they're asking for it, which looks like it would still make them a profit. But at the price they want...
@@evensgrey a radio that doesn't have good reception?
@@Jehty_ Perhaps I should say "CD player" rather than "Radio," but a receiver may be just not god enough for the particular circumstances. IIRC, Techmoan's home isn't in a great spot for analog radio reception, and the room he normally shoots in is particularly filled with electronic noise (to the extent he had to go elsewhere in his home to do the reception recording test).
@@evensgrey he had to go into another room because of his router.
Every house has a router in it. Most commercial buildings have much worse things than routers.
And on top of that most factories/workshop are steel frame/sided buildings. If you can't get a reception in a stone building you won't get any in a steel one.
Ahhh, another nice relaxed Techmoan video to watch during breakfast. What a nice start to my weekend.
Maybe just my interest grew on cassette players but I also believe that in this uncertain world simple things like having the music in a physical format (Lp or cassette) simply gives us a false sentiment of certainty. I mean, I have two decks, planning to buy the third one, three walkmans and one great record player and 95% of the time I am still listening flac's or YT music. But those 5 percent are extremely important to me. Just sitting in front of the shelf and choosing the album to be played makes all the sense in the world
So true.
@@mycosys I am no audiophile for sure. I have a jvc td472 and an onkyo integra with a pioneer on the way. Not Nakamichi but for sure not Ion tape to usb. Both of them are fully cleaned, libbed, checked and calibrated. Truth being spoken only ferric and chrome tapes on them, no metal ones. I have a hearing well over medium being capable to hear 23000 hz as per the doctor two months ago (this is the reason why at work inside the office the noise is killing me). Because of this I enjoy listening more the tapes because I do not feel the ears going fatigued. But this is due to the lack of highs. True, the sound is warmer due to this, I like it because is not like cutting the highs from pc, the pioneer amp is superb, the woofer adds a little pinch of warmth but the reality is that at least these two types of tapes are not as close to reality as a CD or FLAC. I enjoy them more? Yeah. Are over the bluetooth music streamed by youtube? Yes...but we also should be honest with ourselves. It is something we like more, not something better. And it is fine just like that
The frequency sweep showed second and third harmonic distortion. This is likely, at least in part, from clipping the signal at some point in the chain. That might be someplace where you can do something about it, like turning down the output of the recorder playing into the thing. Or it might be internal, and possibly deliberate to get the "loudness" up on the device.
It could perhaps be worth trying again and turning down the output level of the recorder to see if it cleared up the extra harmonics, but from the raspy sound it has on everything, I have my doubts about that.
“What does the thing do?” “ Look interesting ...What do you want, functionality?“
Best part about this video is you showing the higher quality alternatives for folks who wouldn’t know. ♥️
Or at least ones that are far less crap for far less buck.
Meanwhile over his shoulder lurks the JVC RC M90 🤫
The huge magnets on the back are probably there for "magnetic shielding" - they used to have to glue a magnet to the armature in the opposite polarity to stop the magnetic field spreading outside the speakers too much and distorting the image on old CRT monitors.
I just like that wow and flutter meter, it looks so classy.
Relaxing vid as always....you sir are the Bob Ross of electronics !
I recently bought this boom-box (brand new - black) for almost $500 + postage.
_"Bringing the 80s boombox bang up to date, the GPO Brooklyn gives you sound and style in equal measure. Fully portable with two 40 watt speakers but many disappointments are also included..."_
As always, thanks for providing some Saturday morning entertainment!
I had seen this a few years ago and i was WAITING for someone to do this. Thanks a lot man.
Among the best channels on youtube. Fantastic content as usuall.
That counter reminded me of the story of the kid who saw a 3.5" floppy disk and asked "Why do you have a model of the save icon?".
Apparently that kid now designs retro consumer electronics.
That tape Counter is the best!! I totally have to order one of these immediately!!!
When I was growing up in the 80s, I thought, "We have such cool music gear, and with companies like Sony, etc., imagine what cool stuff we'll have a few decades into the future!"
3 decades into the future:
I had a proper boom box AM/FM/cassette/AUX. with actual functional switch for tone, stereo/mono, casette type, Dolby, etc. with 6” woofers, 1” tweeters, actual analog tuning. It could easily serve as the primary house stereo. It took 6 ‘D’ size batteries. The main thing is, it was heavy, and it sounded full and wonderful. Nothing felt cheap.
@@GreenAppelPie I had an Aimor boombox that was really high quality, even had shortwave radio bands. Long gone.
@@RCAvhstape Damn, I'm trying to think back to when I last saw a radio with short wave capability. I think it was in high school, back in the 1980's. I haven't gone LOOKING for one, but the internet has largely done for short wave services these days. It's so much cheaper for a broadcaster to just offer their foreign service as a stream.
As a sexagenarian who's always been interested in HiFi and stuff, I would say that even in the 80s the general quality of audio gear had begun declining slightly, compared to the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Most of the brands that existed back then, and are still around now, are a travesty in my opinion.
@@GreenAppelPie They go for crazy money now, in good condition. But they were really well made and sounded amazing. Which one did you have?
So glad you decided to keep the beard. Hope the missus enjoys it like the viewers. But, as in my case, if my wife didn’t like it, I’d have had to shave it by now.
I used to have the JVC DC-7 boombox when I was 14 years old in 1984. When loaded down with all the D batteries, it weighed around 50 lbs. Or 22.68 kilograms. It was a beast to carry around. It was best just keep it plugged in because the batteries only lasted about 2 - 3 hours and were very expensive.
I thought it sounded fantastic!
You would think things would improve over the years, it certainly has not!
I can hear the wow & flutter with the tape during the playback at 16:56 . At least TH-cam is still using standard Play Back Timing.
Wow and flutter is going to be off the chart!
This thing really is garbage compared to what I grew up with.
It's a shame because, there is so much potential if they would just integrate today's technology with yesterday's technology!
I had a non-portable boombox when I first joined the USAF in 1980. It was, erm, "luggable". It did indeed have a handle, so it met the _industry_ definition of "portable". It was also a complete, separatable, bookshelf component system if you took off the handle and some other bits. Made by JBL, ran on line voltage or several kilos of D cells. I will have to search whether you've reviewed it...
OH MAN! That old red boom box you have. My friend had one when I was a kid and I remember listening to tapes on it thinking we where cool.
Was curious about the actual speaker specification so i searched "sw-918 sunwin" as Matt found on the speakers, and found out that Sunwin technology are the original manufacturer and that sw-918 is the model number for this model.
It would be interesting to see a review of the Teac w-1200 cassette deck, given that it looks fairly decent and claims to have some form of noise reduction.
Vwestlife has just recently put one out.
Vwestlife's video is th-cam.com/video/qtAdZl7PXLA/w-d-xo.html The tape noise reduction system is for playback only.
@@cdl0 th-cam.com/video/0zTexDhUq1A/w-d-xo.html Unboxing and Audio test and review. And you can hear the noise reduction on the shoot out video.
Bahahaha.
I am Belgian, can confirm we love mussels! Moules frites, mussels with fries, is one of our national dishes!
I've been disappointed by a plate of mussels once too often to bother again. Once you've faffed around getting all the mussels out of the shells and binned all the shells off - you get the equivalent of a small handful of edible food. It's a small snack that blags like it's a meal. But hey don't let me put anyone off - we can't all like the same things - if we did there would be no need for a menu at restaurants.
@@Techmoan hey techmoan I thought you couldn’t taste!?!
@@Techmoan See, over here the come in giant pots and they definitely do make up a proper meal! With some truly delicious sauce they've been cooked in.
Truly a shame if shops over there, or tourist traps here short you on the edible biomass! Quite frankly a crime!
@Hunter Davis I still need sustenance.
Thank you, *Frodo TheHobo,* I love Belgian Waffles. (Assuming they're actually Belgian, of course! 😊)
The Sony PCM recorder *might* have a line output level selector somewhere in the menus. Pro audio gear often uses a +4dBu level standard whereas consumer gear uses -10dBu, so if you play one into the other you'll either get massive distortion or a very low signal.
Hi, Love your reviews! Here from the USA. I bought this about a year ago from Amazon for a whopping $260. I do enjoy it for sound. Tweeters are Real and the sound is amazing! I have disconnected the battery and only use it on the go. The tape counter isn't one. So wrong choice. I just used black tape over the counter! New generation does NOT know the 80's-90's and how to build a Boombox! I have tested the micro SD recording from Cassette and use it on the go in my car and sounds great recording. Not bad only it could have Really been better GPO! The graphics I turn OFF as it's not an audio visual graph. Low sounds shows full RED. Crazy design. N-Joy it! Not bad CD player too! Oh and I almost forgot... when a tape ends and it engages the Auto Stop it so SOOO Loud it will wake anyone up from a Coma! LOL - I added some cushions on the top of the piano keys and it does help! I do like the key guard bar to protect the keys! It's about the best retro boombox that is NEW with NEW belts and motors out there that I've researched for months before I bought it. Too bad new companies didn't research some of the old boomboxes features into new ones today. Oh well. Gotta enjoy what you have!
No surprise that the Panasonic RX comes out as your recommendation. I used to have a Panasonic RX (can’t remember the exact model no) back in the 80’s. It had detachable speakers, a level indicator and auto reverse cassette. I loved that thing.
Panasonic stuff is awesome. I've recently picked up a couple of old Viera plasma tellies for under £50 each and they're built like tanks. Still working perfectly after 15+ years. Not smart but that's just another form of planned obsolescence anyway.
The sad thing is that young people will probably never know what quality items like this are really like, they are only seeing cheap rubbish. These days seem to have only top quality or junk, not a lot in the middle, the 80's and 90's had a huge variety of good quality mid-range products.
Its worse then you think it is, seeing as you have to pay top dollar for junk too.
I can see some truth in this as a young person myself. Most consumer electronics are built like shit, even expensive ones are a gamble as to whether they cared or just inflated the price tag. Tools are particularly bad. The model now seems to be to manufacture something that breaks quickly, but is cheap enough people don’t grumble too much about buying another one. The they fleece you on the batteries. Older tools might not be battery powered, but they were far far better built. You can still find good quality tools, but it’s not as simple. Everything seems to be value engineered to last just long enough, and the amount of rubbish this kind of practice ends up producing is and should be criminal. Companies ought to be held responsible for basically selling rubbish.
It's just harder to find that stuff, I think. It still exists.
@@genekwagmyrsingh9433 Of course it still exists. The real question is if any current manufacture is providing quality products. If Techmoan's videos are anything to go by then the answer is no.
I was thinking along these lines, but really the issue is that these are dead/dying formats, and as such the companies that are interested in quality and perfrmance aren't making them. You can get amazing headphones, digital audio players, and speakers that totally surpass the sound quality of good 70s-80s gear, But you won't find a tape deck that will do so. Only when they become profitable enough for the boutique hi-fi companies will you see an expensive, well made tape deck that rivals good modern boutique turntables.
"babe you still haven't made coffee?!?"
"hun they put a friggin stopwatch on this thing!! A STOPWATCH!"
Can we even call it a stopwatch, when you can't even *stop* it?
@@mattgies its a startwatch :D
@@Themunit1 Haha, perfect!
@@mattgies Sure you can. You switch it over from tape mode to CD mode.
@@andrewgwilliam4831 But then, unlike an actual stopwatch, *this one* will display nothing (instead of freezing on the time that you stopped it on), correct?
8:53 That Sony DAB Radio is an excellent receiver for both FM and DAB based on my use of it.
I’ve been waiting to see a review on this if only to confirm how dire I expected it to be. One of those items you keep the packaging as it may come in useful and bin the contents!
oh man, i was seriusly considering getting one of those, thank you so much
Same here. When they were over £300.
OMG chopsticks font. I'd not last a day in the GPO office without getting a restraining order to keep me from strangling their entire art department.
Kanal Frump, that's gives a whole new level too going postal.
Yeah... they are trying way too hard to appeal to their target demographic.
Could have been worse could have been Comic Sans!
A disposable box of a disposable boombox... isn't worth a criminal record, or is it?
General post office office?
This device reminds me of that "Mr Mann" character from Little Britain who's always going into the shop asking for the most obscure items you can think of: "I'm looking for a 1980s style boombox that has a red light display that constantly counts seconds upwards for no apparent reason."
"Margaret!! Margaret!!.. Do we have a 1980s style boombox.... etc"
"This is a local shop for local people"
Oops
Wrong show
The guy at my local landfill pulls audio/electronics for me and I go down once a month and toss him a few bucks. I've gotten some absolute treasures over the years.
What are some of the cool things you've found this way?
@@MartinOmander A brand new in the box Philco tape recorder from the mid 60s, never even opened. A crate of JBL tweeters for a concert hall, they're huge, like 20 lbs a piece.
@@jimmartin7881 Wow, those are some great finds. Congratulations!
I found 2 Audiomaster monoblocks with preamps sitting on the side of the road.
EL34 valves with Partridge output tranformers. Changed grid coupling capacitors and now the monoblocks work and sound great.
Someone threw out Grandpa's old stereo.
Great, avuncular manner about him, that guy, could listen to him all day, haha! :)
Just this afternoon, I returned a GPO Brooklyn boombox to the retailer for a refund.
A number of problems. I tried the radio first, and when I pulled on the left-hand antenna to extend it, the endmost section came away in my hand! Broken through. Wow. Great start.
The cassette deck struggled to play [several different] tapes at a satisfactory speed. Then after a short period of playback, the STOP/EJECT button wouldn't fully depress, thus I couldn't stop the tape. I pressed down on the PLAY button momentarily, then STOP worked, but that shouldn't be necessary, should it?
Also, on the model I received, there was no cue/review function, which ticked me off, 'cos the seller's feature list and photos boasted such.
Then, insult to injury, after 24hrs or so, the LED clock display went bonkers and quit on me.
In short; the GPO Brooklyn looks cute, but it's cheapo Chinese rubbish. Although not cheap ENOUGH! I'm surprised the features list on the box doesn't begin with: 'Magnificent and Noble in Shape!'
Now, I still love the IDEA of this thing. If, say, JVC were to make a similar-looking product - with all the integrated components of far higher quality and better functionality - then I for one would be all over it, albeit no doubt at greater expense.
The tweeter casing should be rectangular for a truly retro look, but I'm just geeking, haha!
Was fun to try it out, but not a keeper.