The micro deck sounded way better than I expected.

I used to have a Sony Walkman that had a Metal setting. I thought it was just a special preset for Heavy Metal music.

@bryede

8 жыл бұрын

+GeoKaching Johnny New tape formulations mostly came about due to the needs of slower moving tape and narrower tracks. Traditional type-1 tape became somewhat low-fi when used in cassettes. As this video demonstrates, there are limits to what even metal tape can compensate for.

@AidanTheLoverBoyOhDwyer

8 жыл бұрын

+GeoKaching Johnny Long Lost Evil Twin.

@svenjansen2134

8 жыл бұрын

+GeoKaching Johnny What if it had a Chrome setting? Glamrock?

@Lachlant1984

8 жыл бұрын

+KJER ERRT Ah, I wouldn't say all, I had a Sony Walkman in 1998 that my mother bought me from the US, it was actually made of clear transparent plastic so you could see what was inside it. I don't believe it could play metal formulation tapes though. Certainly some if not many Sony Walkman products had a tape formulation switch, but not every single one did.

@Lachlant1984

8 жыл бұрын

Really?

That recording actually sounded really good despite the hiss.

I have a time machine too. I go into it, pull the covers up, and I awake 8 hours in the future feeling surprisingly refreshed!

@andrewgwilliam4831

4 жыл бұрын

I could do with one of those!

@subtledemisefox

4 жыл бұрын

Mine sadly only goes 5-6 hours in the future and suddenly I have to go to work in an hour and all my energy is drained before I've even started. Considering not using it anymore.

The amount of money, time and effort Mat puts into these videos is insane!! Thanks for another brilliant look into our tech past

@Techmoan

9 жыл бұрын

Felix Gardner Thanks - these videos have a habit of spiralling out of control on both budget and time - I find it difficult to cut any corners once I've got started.

'KZread audio library 2' is one my favourite albums of all time Way better than the original!

@Ropetupa

6 жыл бұрын

Jack1138 They really went downhill after 3 though...

@MonoChorMe

4 жыл бұрын

Are you kidding me?! I don't even prefer the KZread library (in general)... one of the lamest vile of sounds Ive heard (absolutely not my genre)... Especially stringy instruments played in a folk-motive (like the Water Lily song) makes me gag >__

@josephbennett4236

3 жыл бұрын

@@KairuHakubi Well done. Unfortunately, the 'whoosh' will probably go 'whoosh' too.

I originally thought the Metal option was playing Metal music. LOL

@psrjbr

8 жыл бұрын

+WebVMan lol

@jijzer4581

7 жыл бұрын

So the chrome tapes where for softrock

@jijzer4581

7 жыл бұрын

So the chrome tapes where for softrock :-)

@BenTheTechGuy

7 жыл бұрын

same when I was about 8 I thought that the metal option on my cassette deck meant it would replace my recording with heavy metal music.

@doctorx0079

7 жыл бұрын

Chrome would be for jazz! With saxophones trumpets etc.

Did either TEAC or Sanyo ever consider releasing a microcassette with removable reels? That surely would have been the pinnacle of useless tape media ;)

@ColtonBlumhagen

9 жыл бұрын

custardo Yes for sure. lol

@josh9point0

7 жыл бұрын

custardo i'd like to design & 3d print a set that is JUST that

Holy crap I never knew about walkman headphones, those are ridiculously cool!

@andrewgwilliam4831

4 жыл бұрын

I can remember wanting them (not that I ever saw any in the flesh), but they were way out of my financial league as a kid. They seemed so futuristic!

Your audio/HiFi videos are my absolute favourite out of all the videos you do. In fact, it was your HiFi videos that made me discover you in the first place. I love your style, your tech videos are the only ones on KZread that leave me feeling like I've learnt something, especially the audio ones, as I have a deep fascination for HiFi! Thanks again. :)

@Techmoan

9 жыл бұрын

Kazzy TalkTalk Thanks old chap - always good to find out why someone ended up here and what kind of things they prefer to watch.

LOL! I gasped just a bit when you removed the cover and I saw that big power transformer. I was very much a consumer of Japanese audio gear back then, and did my share of repairing, and popping the cover off all kinds of gear, but I can tell I've really grown accustomed to today's high-frequency switching power supplies. That transformer (and I imagine the correspondingly big electrolytic capacitors in the power supply) really took me back to another place and time!

Superb, little unusual thing. Bonus points for the Clockwork Orange stuff.

Just wanted to say I really enjoy your videos. The calmness and professionalism in the way you make these is something I find very soothing :) Just a really nice, relaxed moment in my day. And learning something as well. Keep this up.

Hi Techmoan, I just came across your videos and wanted to let you know that I really appreciate all the research, time and effort you have spent assembling these very informative videos. Your presentations are clear, instructive, and the subjects well delivered. I have learned a lot about the history of "Hi-Fi" that I did not know about (sadly enough for a Baby Boomer Hi-Fi nut). Thank you so much, Ciao, L

I'm glad there's at least one other person besides me who doesn't treat old technology with disrespect like trash!

Just when I think you've covered every obscure audio format ever produced you come up with yet another one. Well done.

Love that ive just found this channel in the last month and theres years of quality to watch

The hiss just adds charm. Like a 1960's studio recording. The acoustic guitar piece sounded quite good.

I lived in Japan in the early 80's I remember seeing Pre recorded micro cassettes at the record stores. I wanted to get a player but they were too expensive.

Old tech is fascinating, and that's why I love this channel

As a kid (I'm 37) I always thought the "metal" button was for equalizer preset. I was always wishing that one day they would have a "rap" button next to it. Lmao it makes sense now.

I love the 80s! So lucky to have grown up in that marvelous decade

Just adorable - I thought I've known every possible hi-fi component and there I find… a microcassette deck on KZread! Splendid presentation - THANK YOU!!!

MANY moons ago when I worked on the railway one of our nicer commuters who had a ridiculously high-flying job in the City gave me a tiny boombox. It was made by AIWA and had an AM/FM stereo radio, and a stereo Microcassette deck, even had METAL tape setting. It didn't sound bad through decent headphones. Ran on 4 HP7 batteries, AAs today. Eventually the belts went in the tape part, but I did, somehow, manage to replace them ! Still have it kicking around somewhere. Picked up a deck like this Sanyo too, at a car boot of all places.

Thanks: your old-gear videos are my favourites.

Great! When I was a student, I wanted this deck. However, it was so expensive that I couldn't afford it.

Another great video. Reminds me of a small jam-box I had. Stereo micro-cassette, AM/FM radio, and a 3" TV in the same portable case. 4" full range speakers, and small condenser mics mounted over the speakers. I still have the mics, but the rest is trashed. WOW, I just found it on E-Bay. a Sharp Tri-Mate 3000!

Hi, I just wanted to say that I absolutely love your channel, I recently found it on youtube and I'm watching every single one of your videos. So I couldnt wait any longer to give you my best wishes. My father recently passed away and left me with some vintage audio/video equiptment that now I adore and treasure. I remember my 80s 90s childhood just watching my father use these kind of equipment which for the time seemed like something out of a james bond movie to me. I'm from Mexico BTW and I never knew where my father gathered all these stuff because I grew up in a little city far away from the capital or big cities (we've got cable TV until the late 90s). Love your work man.

Somehow I missed this FIVE years ago... But KZread, in their algorithmic wisdom, knew to suggest this to me today! Nice discussion of the attempt to turn a dictation format into a hifi format.

That solenoid makes the rest of the mechanism seem out of scale! Always good to see a solenoid in any deck of that form factor in my general opinion. That looks like a very well built deck and the sound was surprisingly stable for microcassette. Heavy fly wheels are good!

I never seen one of these! I have had (check that,still have) microcassette recorders and have contemplated a stereo deck. I didn't realize someone had ACTUALLY built them! Would fit in perfectly with the 8mm VCRs they used to make!

that actually sounds quite good! the little tape that could

The push for smaller micro sized media eventually resulted in Mp3 and wav etc. etc. you can’t get any smaller than that. So now it amazes me when I see the “resurgence” of vinyl, cassette, etc.

@failedstateupdate

2 ай бұрын

We solved the miniaturisation issue with mp3s and later streaming. The issue we have now is people who want something for home listening, display and ownership. So hence formats that lend themselves to that - Vinyl, Cassette, etc. It's kind of amazing how we seem to have swapped problems.

Thanks for this interesting review. The 80's were indeed a fascinating time with it's miniaturizing obsession. Completely off the topic, but this reminds me of my old Pentax Auto 110 SLR camera that could be bought in kit form, complete with extra lenses that i can swap just like it's full-size 35mm cousins. It was a fully functional SLR, albeit in fully auto mode only - no aperture, shutter priority or fully manual mode. With it i took better composed and exposed pictures than possible with regular candybar, simple 110 cameras available at the time. It's major limitation was the media itself - 110 film was/is far to small a format to produce quality images with. Regular prints often showed far too much grain, especially in low-light situations and when developed, photo labs would often misalign the negatives in the enlarger, cropping out my careful compositions via the prism/fresnel SLR viewfinder. Still, despite these shortcomings, it was as intriguing as this micro cassette deck.

Great video, many thanks. In the age of Spotify instant availability I think we miss the thrill of using this type of technology. What we lost in sound quality we made up for from soft touch switches, bouncing LEDs and smooth turning dials.

@andriealinsangao613

5 жыл бұрын

I agree with that!

Just discovering your wonderful channel. A bit older than you, I remember all these things coming (and going!) Thanks for another excellent video! The Clockwork Orange catch is a nice reference as is the distinction between mini and micro cassette. I have a General Electric portable boom box if you will, that has a removable, docking stereo micro cassette Walkman that pops out. The other parts are a stereo FM and AM radio and a small CRT NTSC color TV and stereo speakers of course. Like you, I love these forgotten corners of consumer electronics.

I have a tiny little boombox that I picked up in a thrift store that has a microcassette player built in, right next to a tiny B/W television screen. I would link a photo of it but Photobucket seems determined to hold my old pictures hostage until I pay a license fee (for a service I only utilize three or four times a year, and block me from downloading my photo library). The thing is, the microcassette player didn't work. I've always put the idea of attempting to repair it on the back burner since this kind of thing usually doesn't work out well for me. After watching this video, I realize I'll never be able to get it working. It goes into the storage shed next to the other impossible repair projects languishing out there in the Texas heat.

I used micro tapes to record my music to back in the 1980s. it was a mono handheld player but I didn't care what others thought.

I would love that machine. Always fascinated with micro cassette.

I got my little brother a handheld micro cassette recorder back in the early 80's, lol. He fancied himself a ten year old secret agent.

I don't remember if I ever heard of a deck, but I saw a stereo m.c. AM/FM radio in a Panasonic catalog years ago. Thanks for the video!!

the music in the demonstration tape sounds good as it's smooth and jazzy stuff of that time. I like it!

Freaking awesome! I had one, completely forgot about those things!

Fantastic! Please keep posting! Thank you for great job!

i really like the look of old hfi units nice video too

Compact cassette tapes are king's ! Low cost 's , high quality 's in voice's songs music 's ! Playing.... With sweet 's replays, playback..... Happy, back to life's!( 1985 years

Hey man you already know this , but your videos are just the best!!! Thank you for educating and entertaining us!!!

My grandmother had a Fisher (I think that was the brand in Canada too) system in that same style... full-size cassettes, mind you (and I'm pretty sure a turntable too), but seeing a similar product brings back memories.

Man I loved my gear in the 80's and I defo can't remember this one! Loved your video here.

excellent video. You made an interesting piece of history available for a larger audience.

@Techmoan

9 жыл бұрын

Max Koschuh Thanks - that's the idea, I'm trying to make a video museum (whilst having a bit of fun).

@blade1994111able

9 жыл бұрын

Techmoan Use a ground loop Isolator. The unit gets installed inline and are relatively inexpensive. That should take the hiss away.

@MaxKoschuh

9 жыл бұрын

I have experienced such a hiss with a vintage TEAC A-500 tapedeck. It was an issue with the recording preamplifier. A record volume more than 60% caused a feedback in the rec amp circuitry.

@Solitaire001

9 жыл бұрын

Max Koschuh I agree that it was an excellent video. I'd never heard of the MicroCassette being used for music and wouldn't have thought that it would have been considered since the speed of the Compact Cassette (1 7/8 inches per second) was barely adequate for sound. A surprise was the size of the machine, which looked like a normal-sized device...until you tried to put the standard compact cassette in. There was one possibility for music though: the music single. At 3 3/4 inches per second (4 times its original speed) each side of a 46 minute tape would hold about 5.75 minutes of music, comparable to the 45 RPM record. However, it probably would have been difficult to introduce a new, limited use, format.

Always enjoy your work.

Wow, that's interesting. Thanks Techmoan for putting this together. I never knew about this deck but it was a couple years before I really got into audio anyway. It was like the DAT of it's time - speaking of things to come. Seems like it would have sounded better if they would have given it a double tape speed mode. The downside of course would be short recording time, but to have a decent recording in that small of a package in 1981 would have been very cool. I wonder if they could have tried this format again using digital technology? I bet that could have worked fairly well until recordable CD's, MP3, and Solid State came along.

Love the vintage equipment reviews.

Not to worry, the hiss was barely noticeable. Thanks for the continued effort to bring forgotten tech back to the fore.

I love your vintage audio videos. So cool! big thumbs up!

Who knew watching videos on dead-end old technology could be so much fun, cheers mate. I hope you do one on the tape DAT format one of these days.

I had a stereo Walkman with micro cassettes from Sony with record function and I enjoyed it very much. Even recorded concerts/live performances with it. It had no metal switch but I did manage to put new tape in a cassette one time because it's the same width as compact cassette, so you could fill it with metal tape yourself. I would have liked to known at that time that a deck existed. It's true that the quality is not so good, and it has quite some wow and flutter, but when you want to listen to your favorite music when you're far away from home, you accept any quality. This was before the internet eara.

I was surprised how well the piano noted were reproduced. They would be the first to suffer from the slow speed, so apparently the manufacturer did a great job in stabilizing tape movement even if the music sounds flat in generallys

In your next video can you explain how you built your time machine? :D

@Evan420

7 жыл бұрын

ThatBulgarian he didn't make it, he bought it in the future

@RobRidleyLive

4 жыл бұрын

@@Ndlanding and that was before the election

@glipk

3 жыл бұрын

A Time Traveller gave it to him

@vwlssnvwls3262

3 жыл бұрын

Seeing his time machine setup, I can only think one thing... how does it get up to 88 miles per hour?!

What an education! Thanks for putting such an informative video!

Microcassette deck arrived , didn't work out of the box but had the same issue as yours . there is a tiny white idler that runs both reel spindles and the lubricating grease appears to have dried out and gone sticky . I didn't try to take it apart as your "assembled by a jeweller" comment was bang on ! I just applies wd40 with a pin to both sides of the spindle and worked ffwd and rew and its fine now .The recorded quality with normal tapes is adequate for normal listening but as you say this is a novelty item and fun to use . Keep the videos coming . Gordon.

I hope one day, someone will give you a kind of award for these videos.

Love your videos, man. I always watch one while evacuating.

I love your videos. This one I found to be very interesting. Thank you for sharing.

Estou fascinado. Sou apaixonado por equipamentos vintage. Um grande abraço

Excellent! very clear sound.

I don't know why, but I want one of these! Its just cute-as-a-button!

I know longer find it all that shocking that sci-fi ideas become reality, because I have seen it all too often now. I still recall watching a futuristic show in the eighties, where a doctor was holding a little pad in their hand, and it was giving them all kinds of visual information... kind of like an iPad.

Wow I really miss that sound of old tapes. I never had a quality player but the warmth of the format has disappeared. At least I get to hear it on 7 inch vinyl, played from a juke box in our band room. Crackle, hiss, fuzz and warmth :)

I wish I had one of those, because I use microcassettes to make podcasts at home now. The recorder I used sounds like a AM radio.

I came to your channel for the dash cams, stayed for the obscure audio equipment. I burst out laughing when you tried to shove the full size cassette into the deck -- love how your videos often have those goofy bits! Perhaps the market for this device was little people? I wonder if the Little People Big World family has one in their stereo system.

Great video! Really interesting to watch.. I came here from your home cinema setup a few year ago :-)

Thanks for the info, always wondered what those devices were in Alex' room

Whilst the tape stock on both standard and micro cassettes are of the same width (1/8 inch) and Metal standard cassettes still being relatively easy to get hold of, you could splice some Metal tape from a standard cassette into a microcassette replacing the original even without dismantling it.

Ah, the 60's and 70's. Never running out of ways to put tape in different cartridges. 8-Track, Elcaset, Micro Cassette, and of course the Company Cassette. Oh and let's not forget VHS vs Betamax.

I had no idea this existed. Another great video!

Sounded a lot better than I expected

Great stuff, thanks for the tefifon and this one, they were really enjoyable :)

@Techmoan

9 жыл бұрын

***** You're welcome - always happy when anyone enjoys anything I make.

i remember seeing pre recorded micro cassette tapes in a movie, a clockwork orange, might have been a prop

When I started the video first thing I thought of was "clockwork Orange".

it's funny how the most futuristic thing they could imagine in Clockwork Orange was a micro casette hahah

interesting subject as ever,although not something I'd get for myself. What did stand out for me was the editing of it. Really well done.

@Techmoan

9 жыл бұрын

slicedpage Thanks - the editing on this one took quite a lot longer than I anticipated, so I'm glad it showed.

2:27 I remember "mini-cassettes" at Radio Shack always wondered the difference.

god do i love your hifi videos

Damn, that was the deck I had reserved for me before you beamed it away!! Never did get one😁

+1 for the Pioneer CT-F1250 and SX-3600 - and that gorgeous RT-909. I have an SX-3800, CT-F1250, CT-F950, SA-9800, the list goes on... Fluoroscan gear kicks ass.

I also bought one of these about two years ago, NOS. the idler is duff in it, so I've got it in bits :-/ but what I heard of it was astonishing. I also have a couple of aiwa microcassette boomboxes (CS-M1) & a fisher/sanyo boombox with the microcassette 'walkman' removable.

Haha.... I just commented on your other video about the cool BTTF Poster. I should've known. I'm sure that setup will fit in a Delorean and it then the vehicle will have a great sound system. Double Bonus.

The thing is, this was an ideal format for portable music. Back in the day, I had an Olympus SW-77 (still got it in the cupboard somewhere... It doesn't work now though.) Even with the bulk of it's dictaphone style mono speaker, it was still a bit smaller than a personal stereo, and I could have more cassettes in my jacket pockets too... But why anyone thought it would make a passable home system, and charge that much for it is anyone's guess...

Just when I think I've watched ever techmoan video....I discover another 😂 youtube it's great a hiding videos until you watch a similar video

I have been listening to a Radio Netherlands Media Network programme online about the future of the cassette with somebody from BASF that was broadcast in the 1990's and maybe the metal tape cassette could've survived if regular Compact Cassette decks had a half speed control which would have taken advantage of the denser metal particle / metal alloy packed formulae of IEC Type 4 Metal Bias Cassettes, i.e. you really start to notice the benefits of metal tape at reduced half speed.

I have a microcassette stereo boombox. It was by National if I remember right. I think I have some brand new metal microcassette tapes, too, lol.

Wonderful machine. Thanks.

Damn very clean sound even while listening on my phone speakers!

I just re-watched this video & closed my eyes during the comparison clips. apart from it been slightly tinny & sharp, I thought the sound reproduction was pretty good. Worth the hassle .... maybe not but _as always_ , an interesting video.

Your commentary reminds me of Ringo Starr. This is fantastic haha.

I saw only one of these back in 1986 at a surplus and salvage store. It was actually a portable black and what television that had the stereo micro-cassette built into the unit. The micro-cassette was actually a walkman and was detachable. I remember it being smoke damaged, as some of their merchandise came from warehouses that caught fire. When I asked how much, they told me they would not sell it to me because of the damage and took it off the floor.

Again: nice video. Thanks for uploading. Real fun stuff and a walk through memory lane. I do have an issue with any kind of audio tape noise reduction though. No matter which system (including professional Dolby A and SR for large format tapes): over time the signal on the tape will change: print-through, especially with thin tape, de-magnetization = neighboring magnetized particles tend to neutralize each other over time (the signal becomes softer and duller) and of course the head alignment issues of any kind of Cassette tape - not to mention drop outs, chemical and mechanical de-composition and "sticky tape syndrome". So the noise reduction can't interpret the original encoded signal correctly, leading to all kinds of unwanted artifacts. I apologize if I talk about well known stuff :-) Thanks again for uploading.

@psrjbr

8 жыл бұрын

+Christian Schonberger You're right, head alignment was a big problem. I mean interchangeability between devices. If it's was not ok, the treble was gone! But it was ok! Today we see people listening to music from a cell phone, I mean without the headphones, just from the small speaker and they think it's ok!

Yes you really build your studio around these things.

LOL...I laughed like crazy when you first tried to put the cassette in...I assumed it was normal size. Well done.

@Techmoan

9 жыл бұрын

McRocket Glad I caught someone out - I was concerned the video description would give the game away.

@McRocket

9 жыл бұрын

Techmoan Well, maybe I am just thicker then most people at this. But whatever it was - you got me. Well done.