The struggle to play Philips' giant cassette

Рет қаралды 681,805

Күн бұрын

I want to show you a type of Philips music cassette you most likely haven’t seen before. I was very fortunate to get one…but it turned out that was the easy part. Getting its 1970s player to work took a lot more effort.
00:00 Backstory
03:14 The player
06:40 Giving it a go
09:29 Inside the cassette
11:30 Inside the machine
12:45 The Repair starts
20:18 A look at the older machine
23:27 Back to the repair
27:15 The result
27:55 Summary
32:23 Groovy credits
UPDATES
1) Turns out that this system was known as Philips 'Functional Music' - What a fun name.
2) The symbol on the back showing a box with an arrow is the sign for ‘Remote’ not ‘Output’.
3) The tape speed is 1 7/8ips
4) If playback of the tape reels is attempted on a R2R machine only two of the tracks like up with the heads on a 1/4 track machine
FAQ
Q) What's that desoldering gun?
A) One of these cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d006...
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More FAQs
Q) Why are there comments from a week ago when this video has just gone live today?
A) Patrons / techmoan usually have early access to videos. I'll show the first version of a video on Patreon and often the feedback I get results in a video going through further revisions to improve it. e.g. Fix audio issues, clarify points, add extra footage or cut extraneous things out. The video that goes live on youtube is the final version.
Special thanks to Mikkel for spotting the machine with the tape for sale in Denmark and going to all the trouble to send it over to me. It's greatly appreciated, thanks old chap.

Пікірлер: 2 400

@sidecarcn 3 жыл бұрын

I just checked with my dad if he remembered these when he worked at Philips. And he did. He said the music/re-creations on them were made at the old Soundpush Studio. The musicians were the session players. He told me they didn't use any of the Philips session players, because it would have cost to much. As for the master tapes. Those are long gone. He said anything recorded for this music format was never kept and they just reused the tapes. My dad added that one of the producers of these was still alive and wanted to know if you would be interested in his email? As he worked with this format for nearly 15 years. Let me know.

@stanalbatross8615 3 жыл бұрын

More people need to like this :)

@FabFunty 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting story, always great to hear from people that actually used such things.

@FabFunty 3 жыл бұрын

@@stanalbatross8615 I did 😃

@leoabcaumo 3 жыл бұрын

Send him an e-mail about it!

@kona702 3 жыл бұрын

So cool. Hope he sees this.

@DankPods 3 жыл бұрын

I would have taken one look inside and noped out immediately. Amazing fix!

@ryanseltzer3355 3 жыл бұрын

Oh... It's you

@juubilo1509 3 жыл бұрын

@@ryanseltzer3355 hi glados

@friedpancakes266 3 жыл бұрын

That's a completely normal reaction. It takes a new level of dedication and insanity to fix something like that

@jamiecullen9075 3 жыл бұрын

Great to see my two favourite content creators, techmoan and Dankpods 🥳

@gage3725 3 жыл бұрын

Lol

@WolfmanDude 3 жыл бұрын

"Functional Music" is the best album name ever

@QPUNeptune 3 жыл бұрын

the second best is "Unknown Album"

@ahobimo732 3 жыл бұрын

The follow up album? _Dysfunctional Music_

@haraldschiner6837 3 жыл бұрын

"Non-Euclidean Music" is my favourite album, containing blasphemous sounds from strange mountains.

@prismstudios001 3 жыл бұрын

Keeping the “funk”in “functional”.

@SausageFingers420 3 жыл бұрын

Surprised Vulfpeck hasn't already released an album by that name.

@pumpernickelherbert 3 жыл бұрын

I've loved seeing your attitude towards older hardware going from "I don't fix things", to "I'm not much of a repairman", to now seeing these repairs through to the end!

@macelius 2 жыл бұрын

Definitely, now i'm curious about the other machine.

@kintustis Жыл бұрын

Hard to deal with 50 year old electronics and NOT need to fix things

@FreshApplePie Жыл бұрын

half the reason I watch the channel now, I remember checking his stuff out years ago but they were mostly just views at things, now I've come back and he's fixing all sorts of things and it's so interesting, not that the videos weren't interesting before, but it's given me a new reason to watch his stuff again

@troy3456789 Жыл бұрын

He's obviously demonstrated his patience, maticulousness, and fortitude. It's admirable indeed. He inspires me.

@NarfBLAST 3 жыл бұрын

The door that prevents your staff from messing with the levels is absolutely the best selling point of this machine.

@xiaoka 3 жыл бұрын

When the music came up, I suddenly got a flashback to shopping at a department store in Belgium in 1968….

@malte2483 3 жыл бұрын

Why Belgium?

@limechip 3 жыл бұрын

@@malte2483 I’d assume it’s because they live there.

@kenr.4526 3 жыл бұрын

@@stevie-ray2020 Same for me but in the U.S. Mid 60s, I was still in grade school. Now I know why there was no radio announcer between songs. Then again, back then I thought all music on the radio was done live ! Ah, childhood !

@SausageFingers420 3 жыл бұрын

Hey, watch your language.

@SuperCityscan 2 ай бұрын

Me too, then I remembered I'm 26 years old

@KarimMaassen 3 жыл бұрын

The ever increasing amount of black goo stuck to his hands while progressing into the video perfectly demonstrates the rabbit hole he went in.

@xamanto 3 жыл бұрын

Good thing he washed up in the middle as to not get cancelled for blackhands.

@magnum0121984 3 жыл бұрын

The black finger appearing made me laugh

@cjc363636 3 жыл бұрын

Looked increasingly like he had been working on a car engine.

@bellutta 3 жыл бұрын

Techmoan, the speaker output of this device is for a high voltage speaker system and is used to be able to drive several speakers using a step up transformer in the amplifier and step-down transformers at each speaker. This is akin to a high-voltage power distribution. Typically the US uses 70V while in Europe 100V are more common. These distribution systems have a much higher impedance than a normal speaker (4-8 ohms) and your adapter likely has an input impedance that is around that figure so it is likely that the low volume you are currently getting is simply due to an impedence mismatch. Here's a wikipedia article describing these systems: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant-voltage_speaker_system

@eddjordan2399 3 жыл бұрын

Spot on

@piketfencecartel 3 жыл бұрын

Came looking for this, I spent a decade working in commercial audio/video with 70v systems. Great explanation.

@eggmane 3 жыл бұрын

@@piketfencecartel I was hoping somebody posted something along these lines as well! I used to work for a distributor of Viking, Valcom, and Bogen equipment and have designed many a system around 70v stuff!

@piketfencecartel 3 жыл бұрын

@@eggmane I mostly worked with Crown, QSC, Soundtube, TOA, etc. Restaurants, Entertainment venues and Health Clubs.

@eggmane 3 жыл бұрын

@@piketfencecartel Most of the things I scoped out and designed were Grocery stores and Warehouses. Heck I still get the Viking catalog in the mail and have not worked with them in a few years.

@ZGryphon 3 жыл бұрын

Giant cassettes are the extinct charismatic megafauna of the electronics world.

@jamesduncan6729 3 жыл бұрын

Well put 😅👍🏻

@peterjf7723 3 жыл бұрын

I love that description.

@jaysmith2151 3 жыл бұрын

I bet I can find some of them the thrift stores and Goodwill and stuff that we have where I live you can find box loads of cassette tapes and eight track tapes tens of thousands of records that are actually vinyl and not plastic reprints you know watching videos like this makes me want to go and buy a whole bunch of that stuff because you only pay between 10 to 25 cents for any of the tapes or records

@michaelbedford8017 3 жыл бұрын

I thought all these cassettes were destroyed by a giant meteorite, back in the day.

@tgi3197 3 жыл бұрын

That, was a delightful description.

@KyleMiko 3 жыл бұрын

I absolutely love the mechanism to hide the buttons

@naevus671 3 жыл бұрын

I suddenly have an incredible urge to push a shopping trolley.

@ZaphodHarkonnen 3 жыл бұрын

I always love how tiny modern caps are when compared to old caps of the same spec. So often we think such basic things have never improved. Yet stuff like that shows how even the basic stuff has improved.

@thenargles 3 жыл бұрын

It must be dead satisfying getting it to work after all that hard work!

@Techmoan 3 жыл бұрын

It's certainly a relief.

@dgpsf 3 жыл бұрын

@@Techmoan The first 2/3 of one of your repair videos seem just like when I take something apart to "fix it," but mine end about half the time with me breaking something else in the process and turning the device into rubbish. Also I'm terrified to really fully disassemble something to the extent I see you do all the time, cuz I'm worried I won't be able to get it back together again :D

@Techmoan 3 жыл бұрын

i’m just as worried as you are - I just edit those bits out.

@Electronics-Rocks 3 жыл бұрын

Well I cannot remember what the cassette was called though I do remember repairing ones like these. Even replacing tape or splice together again back in early eighties. Definitely different to modern electronics work on nowadays as always working under a microscope those where the good old days not requiring even glasses. Nice to see these old formats as now everything is digital still most are 100v line but they are looking at Wi-Fi versions which are so unreliable.

@MeriaDuck 3 жыл бұрын

@@Techmoan I for one wouldn't mind a second channel with some unpolished repair content 😆, wouldn't mind if it contained some unpolished language. 🤣 Probably just too much work though

@tobiastofft5907 3 жыл бұрын

I love the enormous eject “lever”.

@ObsoleteVodka 3 жыл бұрын

'ka-chunk!' It's almost like cocking a machine gun.

@sneasalmaster 3 жыл бұрын

gives the impression of a seriously badass piece of equipment, lol

@davidnabbit 3 жыл бұрын

I just came here to comment on that. Let’s all bask in the awesomeness of the gigantic eject lever.

@endlesswanderer1753 3 жыл бұрын

I've had some oily, messy belt repairs in my life, but holy moly. This was the worst I've ever seen. That belt must have been 99% petroleum.

@markclowe 2 жыл бұрын

It reminded me of that hideous black goo from The X-Files!!!!

@user-it5hg2mq4h 2 жыл бұрын

Grease-removing chemicals actually won't help in cleaning this stuff, as they're usually alkali-based. What you need is strong organic solvents like ethylene chloride or dichloromethane, which are main components of paint removers.

@lastchance8142 2 жыл бұрын

Don't waste your time with so called degreasers or cleaners. Almost every glue or grease imaginable is easily removed with either Acetone or Mineral Spirits.

@WalnutSpice 2 жыл бұрын

You repair any cheapo plastic all in one units from the 80s? That's all of em, tape belts and turntables. Not naming (jvc) names (jvc)

@mjouwbuis 3 жыл бұрын

I've given various fragmented responses on the actual meaning of the type number format (Large Giant Cassette etc.) used for those machines, but it might be more convenient to put it all in one post. The letters are more or less of a coincidence, so Philips never intended any useful meaning for them. Up to the mid 1960's model numbers with EL were used for "ELectro Acoustic equipment" (some survived longer, but new numbers were assigned using the new system by 1967). Starting from 1963, Philips prepared for computerising all of their operations toroughly and assigned 12 digit code numbers to everything and their mother. Internally, such code numbers were also used as SKU's for completed equipment, so replacing normal type numbers. Since such numbers are hard to remember and would probably be bad for sales, even of professional equipment, every division made their own system to map them to useful model numbers. The electro acoustics division used a system starting with an arbitrary L representing "their" first two digits, followed by two letters derived from the numbers using a translation key, then up to 6 digits directly taken from the code number and 3 internal use only which weren't reflected in the normal type number. This was done as follows (according to 1967 information, new numbers were added when necessary): LGB0.../.. through LGG9.../.. = Functional Music LGB0 = original recordings on tape LGB2 = production tapes LGB4 = programs on tape LGB6 = original recordings with splices LGB8 = production tapes with splices LGC1 = programs with splices on tape LGC2 = equipment for functional music LGD0 = Germany Don't ask me what all of this means exactly, as I don't have much specific FuMu/BGM knowledge. Splices might mean "something spliced in between music"? In Dutch it just says "met tussenlassen".

@BustaHymen 3 жыл бұрын

"I opted for the LGBT version, but you do you" kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y5Nhn7ae2dvdhZs.html

@WooShell 3 жыл бұрын

Most likely custom ordered tapes with sale advertisments and such stuff cut in between the music..

@firesurfer 3 жыл бұрын

At this time splices were physical. In order to add or delete something you cut out or added physical pieces of tape.

@paulhaynes8045 Жыл бұрын

@@firesurfer I well remember broadcasting on hospital radio in the early 70s, watching the splices going through the read heads on the tape deck as the jingles played and praying they would hold! No Spotmaster carts for us...

@davidhunt240 3 жыл бұрын

Now I can totally understand why Philips came up with the name "Compact Cassette" 😜

@NOWThatsRichy 3 жыл бұрын

Yes, that large cassette, is a sort of crossover between reel to reel & a compact cassette

@Gerard1971 3 жыл бұрын

Philips

@davidhunt240 3 жыл бұрын

@@Gerard1971 thx

@mattb4721 3 жыл бұрын

@@NOWThatsRichy : have you seen the Techmoan video about the SABAMOBIL or the one about the RCA Victor cartridge? --> kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qLtdnLaFz5jHhI0.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gs9mbJyCy9LaY5s.html

@HappyBeezerStudios 3 жыл бұрын

The engineering on that thing is amazing. So much metal, everything screwed in, user serviceable, truly build to last.

@Bonzulac Жыл бұрын

Except for all the shit that didn't last

@mikkelbreiler8916 Жыл бұрын

That is the first time anyone ever said that about a Philips tape deck. Anything they did since early 1960s was very cheap. The more plastic the worse repair ability along with it.

@user-oh2kt8lf6g 3 жыл бұрын

5:53 The top left connector, the one marked with an arrow-crossed rectangle, is for remote control. Possibly via that, the machine features a full-fledged FF/REW/STOP/PLAY set of commands.

@JacGoudsmit 3 жыл бұрын

I can't get that song from the end of the video out of my head now. It's worse than the "interlude" music from Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Great video! Background music media is one of my favorite subjects.

@noelj62 3 жыл бұрын

Techmoan started my intrest in BGM for me too.

@a1white 3 жыл бұрын

“I’m really into functional music”. Can’t get more obscure than that 😂

@EarlySwerver 3 жыл бұрын

"I was into functional music before it got popular".

@writerpatrick 3 жыл бұрын

There's a whole world of "corporate" music, much of it used for educational videos, elevators, stores and background TV music.

@tortron 3 жыл бұрын

Hmm, people music. I like it!

@andythebritton 3 жыл бұрын

I'm sticking with object-oriented music thank-you very much.

@TranscendentalAirwaves 3 жыл бұрын

He should have just said Muzak really. lol

@Tebbylous 3 жыл бұрын

That summary at the end is a bit sad, really. There are who knows how many thousands upon thousands of hours of dedicated artistic work which will most probably never be heard again, not because of it being lost but rather because it's in essence been locked away for eternity. I mean who knows how much of this sort of stuff has been truly lost already as masters of incredibly obscure esoteric things have swapped hands with rights holders etc etc and what's slipped through the cracks. That said the repair and machine were really interesting. I'm remembering I think a few years ago or whenever watching a video in which Techmoan was saying something about not doing any in-depth repairs... and yet here he is whipping out the soldering iron, disassembling a good portion of the machine, etc. :D

@MrHack4never 3 жыл бұрын

There are also examples of lost master tapes, for example, some of the LEGO Island master tapes were lost in a houseboat accident

@DougWinfield 3 жыл бұрын

As session musicians working on "beautiful music" covers of pop songs for shoppers, I'm sure they felt no attachment to these recordings other than income they provided.

@RobollieG 3 жыл бұрын

Nina Paley went through an amazing amount of hassles (and something like $70K, I think), to use music from the 1920s & '30s (Annette Hanshaw), which was "owned" by Sony -- As far as I know, Sony just had this stuff locked up somewhere with no plans to ever release it, but they still made it very difficult for someone else to use it -- The music probably would just have been mostly unknown if Paley hadn't gone through the effort to put it in her movie (which you can watch for free online).

@noahkrause2835 3 жыл бұрын

@@MrHack4never they found a high res tape of the Lego Island album that they could get red book CD audio from, but thats as high as it can go. also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Universal_Studios_fire

@acidnine 3 жыл бұрын

Think about when music was invented...about all the music that was never recorded.

@SakuraAsranArt 3 жыл бұрын

My Dad was like a modern-day Apple fanatic in terms of brand loyalty. He firmly believed that Philips stereo systems were superior to most anything else in the market. Sadly I didn't come across this channel until after he passed away a couple of years ago because I know he would have loved it! So I watch this content in his memory and it helps me to remember happy times. Hanging out with Dad while he tinkered in his garage/workshop, surrounded by car parts, oscillators, old radios and all sorts of tech, old and new.

@wal 3 жыл бұрын

You and Colin from TDNC are getting really good with the repairs of this vintage electronic equipment. I understand it's out of necessity to create the content and share with us, just wanted to note the time and effort put into these vids.

@pantherplatform 3 жыл бұрын

I repaired a vintage soundstream reference class a amp then traded it for a pair of old school audiobahn 10" subwoofers and I had to repair the foam surround on one when I leaned over it with a screwdriver and poked a hole in it... What a great time to live in.

@pantherplatform 3 жыл бұрын

@@Leha_Lepeha got eem ha ha got eem

@fairyball3929 3 жыл бұрын

@@pantherplatform Huh?

@pantherplatform 3 жыл бұрын

@@fairyball3929 you obviously don't watch big d...

@fairyball3929 3 жыл бұрын

@@pantherplatform I do, I just didn't understand the joke... Oh, "Big D" plays the Deez nuts joke during his videos... 😉

@georgecunningham9175 3 жыл бұрын

This is prime example of when "Patience" becomes "Dedication to the Art" - I appreciate the urge to educate those interested in this genre, but I also realize that it is based on a personal passion for the Form, Function, and (in this case) Fun of the chase....................You, sir, are an artist in the field. A master who is appreciated in many ways, by many parties, with many interests. Thank you!

@cavemanvi 3 жыл бұрын

the music has fallout vibes like crazy. it makes me think all those tapes of "elevator music" are gone

@WalrusSAS 3 жыл бұрын

I love it when I need to take something out, but then it turns out I need to take something else out first, and then I have to actually disassemble the other part first and that's when I know I am going to have a screw left over.

@sjogosPT 3 жыл бұрын

Now i know why philips called “regular cassetes” compact cassetes.

@mauritsvw 3 жыл бұрын

@@RonJohn63 At my company we called the micro-floppies "stiffies".

@fonkbadonk2957 3 жыл бұрын

@@RonJohn63 And 3.5" weren't even floppy anymore! (Well, the discs themselves were. But still.)

@martinfenton1275 3 жыл бұрын

I found one of these in a cupboard at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw when I worked there a few years ago. I asked about it because at first I thought it was a video recorder. As you'd expect, it was used to pipe background music around the building. When I looked for a tape to check whether the machine still worked, I was told that they had all been sent back to Philips. The subscription system gave them fresh tapes every 6 months provided the old ones were returned.

@bardofhighrenown 3 жыл бұрын

I love the build quality of the newer machine. All metal, everything is thought through, like the through-hole for the screwdriver and the flex brackets for the circuit board. And it's made to be disassembled, cleaned and maintained. I wish this was a more common practice.

@iroll 3 жыл бұрын

More of a fan of the older one, myself - love the wood cabinet. Unfortunately, if this thing cost a small fortune in 1970, you can imagine that it would cost a large fortune to completely hand build them in 2021... which is why we have miniaturized, mass produced electronics with surface mount components that the unwashed masses can actually afford :)

@PongoXBongo 3 жыл бұрын

@@iroll You can still buy entirely-IC units shoved into high-end cabinetry. Doesn't make sense to me, personally, but, hey to each their own. I prefer "my phone can now play pretty much anything" instead.

@iroll 3 жыл бұрын

@@PongoXBongo I also meant hand assembling/soldering the components, in a time when real wages for manufacturing were as high or higher than they are now, and let's not forget all those discrete components that would cost 10 to 100x what the comparable components would cost now. Just like it was back then, a unit like this would cost a mint to make now... which is why we prefer our phones :)

@Woogoo336 3 жыл бұрын

I think part of the point OP is making is how it is designed to be repaired. There could have been an equal to that for modern devices where the designers give an easy and definite way to replace components which go out the most often. But instead, companies prefer to pursue maximum profit by designing systems and paying lawyers to ensure that every device we use today gets thrown in a landfill where it poisons our planet for years and force the end user to buy a whole new device whenever anything goes wrong.

@PongoXBongo 3 жыл бұрын

@@Woogoo336 I totally agree with "right to repair" and like to tinker with things myself (can still pay or ditch afterward). . Things that are meant to be servicable remind mr of desktop PCs, versus nonservicable laptop PCs. Great for those that know what they're doing, but also larger and more intimidating for those who don't.

@alloria 3 жыл бұрын

I would love to see some of these devices and obscure formats in person. I really wish that Techmoan would open a museum. Would anybody else visit a Techmoan Museum?

@erichollar5503 3 жыл бұрын

I'd fly from the US to the UK to see it!

@apl175 3 жыл бұрын

Perhaps at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester - which I think...is a city that Techmoan is near.

@alloria 3 жыл бұрын

@@apl175 Good idea, but would they have room for the collection?

@mofi3641 3 жыл бұрын

sure i would do.

@vedde7309 3 жыл бұрын

I feel like Sam battle over at the museum of everything else would love to display this kind of stuff!

@fledglingbodhisatva4821 Жыл бұрын

This channel is like an apprenticeship for skills that are no longer marketable but awesome 😎

@thysonsacclaim 3 жыл бұрын

You put so much effort in to these videos, Matt. I really appreciate it. So many people who complain in your comments don't really know how much work it takes to set these shots up. It's brilliant though and I thank you so much for bringing me along.

@billykaye6308 3 жыл бұрын

Mat is the “Bob Ross” of AV geeks! We’ll just add a happy rubber belt about here… 😁

@nilswegner2881 3 жыл бұрын

I still don't know who this Bob Ross Person is.

@peterjf7723 3 жыл бұрын

@@nilswegner2881Bob Ross was an artist who had a long running show in the US where he did painting tutorials.

@FiXato 3 жыл бұрын

@@nilswegner2881 look up "The Joy of Painting", which is the PBS series where Bob Ross would show off his version of the wet-on-wet oil painting technique. If you want to watch some example episodes, they tend to replay a couple seasons every weekend on www.twitch.tv/bobross with the permission of the current rights holders. This weekend they seem to be rebroadcasting seasons 23-26 of "The Joy of Painting". (Don't take the "it's ruined!" and similar criticism in the chat as genuine remarks; it's mostly meme commentary that has developed in the community that rewatches the episodes just about every weekend.)

@themixgenius1993 3 жыл бұрын

@@FiXato it is also available here on KZfaq, they also uploaded the 1 hour special episode that's NEVER been aired on US TV. I also never been heard about Bob Ross (because I'm in the Philippines, and I was only a year old when the final episode has been aired) until his special episode persistently showing up on my "up next" feed (especially when I watch ASMR videos) here on KZfaq.

@sdrape4964 3 жыл бұрын

@@nilswegner2881 You have not lived! 😁

@seamusoblainn4603 3 жыл бұрын

There's something magical about the numerous phyla, orders, and families of old tech from the whole swathe of the 20th century, as they they emerged, mutated, and (often) went extinct.

@mayshack 3 жыл бұрын

The plural of phylum is phyla.

@seamusoblainn4603 3 жыл бұрын

@@mayshack fixed

@iainb1577 3 жыл бұрын

@@mayshack Modern English now considers it as a loanword which means both plural forms are ok.

@mayshack 3 жыл бұрын

@@iainb1577 Modern English vernacular maybe. It's a bit like using the word literally to mean figuratively. Edit: Using the word peruse to mean quickly scan instead of reading carefully is another popular misuse.

@crp5591 3 жыл бұрын

Great work! I love seeing what old gear was like inside. What is immediately impressive to me is that this old gear was designed to be taken apart and repaired. The circuit board that folds away to gie access to that place, the clips and screws to remove parts, and right down to an allen screw on the belt spindle!! I mean, designers gave consideration to repair! Unheard of nowadays!

@troy3456789 Жыл бұрын

@31:39 "I'm into happy shopping tunes that help encourage people to spend their money". I have immensely enjoyed your exploration and repair of this device.

@TobiasTimpe 3 жыл бұрын

The DIN socket with the ↗️ symbol next to it is for connecting a remote control.

@tookitogo 3 жыл бұрын

You wouldn’t happen to know of any collection of all the DIN audio/video symbols and their meanings?

@robertstredde6798 3 жыл бұрын

That was my thought as well. It’s similar to the symbol for a potentiometer.

@TobiasTimpe 3 жыл бұрын

@@tookitogo I can name some but I don‘t have a list. But it should be pretty obvious just by the pin arrangement. IIRC they are all different.

@tookitogo 3 жыл бұрын

@@TobiasTimpe How would a pin arrangement suggest the function of a connector? o_O

@mstcrow5429 3 жыл бұрын

@@tookitogo Would make sense. Precursor to color coding, I guess. Maybe plugging in the wrong one would short something out.

@MatthewBaggett 3 жыл бұрын

"I just set it really high" > 420°C Nice.

@solarbirdyz 3 жыл бұрын

oh my god xD xD xD

@ElixTwo 3 жыл бұрын

Still not sure if he did that on purpose or not lol.

@christianherenz5072 3 жыл бұрын

🤣

@thecianinator 3 жыл бұрын

@@ElixTwo That's how you know it's a really good joke

@DisgruntledPigumon 3 жыл бұрын

What a sad life.

@tylerk6206 3 жыл бұрын

It's just incredible to think about this device. So much R&D, the salesman taking it to wherever it spent it's working life, just hundreds of people lived with and worked on this device... and not even a century later we aren't even fully aware of what it was named. We wouldn't have known it existed had one of the machines that played it had not been found on ebay.

@NoName-ik2du 3 жыл бұрын

Man, wish I could get a copy of the music on that tape. I love old department store music. Used to have a laptop that would quietly play muzak whenever the lock screen came on from being idle. People would always get confused and look around trying to figure out where the goofy music was suddenly coming from.

@PaulinesPastimes 3 жыл бұрын

That music takes me instantly back to an airy, modern shopping centre in Sydney called Roselands in the late 60s, when we all used to get dressed properly to go shopping and it was slightly glamorous. :-)

@paulholla 3 жыл бұрын

Wow that made me smile. I used to go shopping with my nan when I was a boy just like that!

@CJT3X 3 жыл бұрын

What does the word “modern” mean in this sense? As in it was a contemporarily “modern” design for the time?

@PaulinesPastimes 3 жыл бұрын

@@CJT3X modern in 1965

@paul1153 3 жыл бұрын

@@paulholla So did I during the school holidays.

@PhD63 3 жыл бұрын

Matt, your tear down, troubleshooting and repair skills have really improved over the years. Thanks for another enjoyable video.

@pimbrokken 3 жыл бұрын

What a great documentary. The coolest thing was that finally after all the talking the thing worked and Tech Moan was completely silent. Probably shedding a tear. 10 out of 10 this one.

@TheCgfgrg 3 жыл бұрын

I've seen you progress so far and you are now a great engineer -- you've restored so many things retro and it fills my heart especially knowing that you are here to show the young ones what retro tech is! This was an amazing video and thank you so much!

@mpersad 3 жыл бұрын

That was quite the repair! As ever, I'm astonished by your patience and resolve in getting these pieces of equipment to work again. And the closing music was brilliant!

@terencejay8845 3 жыл бұрын

'It seems all I need to do is take this bit off...' is why I have two cassette decks in pieces in boxes.

@GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou 3 жыл бұрын

I just kept thinking about his _"cheat"_ to getting the tape to play, and then he mentioned it! It's not really about the tape at all.

@MartinPivka 3 жыл бұрын

The low volume level is most probably not caused by components but mismatch with output of the unit and the speakers you connected. It's meant to work with 100V speaker system used in large installations, where you can run many speakers over long distances, e.g. in a shopping mall. This require a transformer in the speaker to match the impedance and levels.

@PeterBellefleur 3 жыл бұрын

Exactly what I came here to say. This isn't just a tape player, it's also a PA amp for a distributed speaker system. Google 70v to 8ohn transformer and you can use that to drive a conventional speaker, and as long as the amp is ok, it should sound fine.

@SierraLimaOscar 3 жыл бұрын

Exactly. Commercial PA installations use 70V or 100V speaker lines. Benefits are: smaller wire gauge, longer distances and more speakers on the same branch. Look at Bose industrial speakers and you will see the 100V option being available to purchase.

@andymouse 3 жыл бұрын

But it had a 10V setting and he used it so its not meant for just 100V speakers, I agree there is a mismatch and a good chance there are some dodgy Caps, shame !

@jonglass 3 жыл бұрын

He had a transformer in the mix. 8:12

@freednighthawk 3 жыл бұрын

@@jonglass Wrong type of transformer, the one he used is to take speaker level outputs and drop them down to line level. What Peter said above is the way to go.

@anthonychallis2472 3 жыл бұрын

Yet again another fantastic video from Techmoan. Just a tip, when taking things apart, take photos on your phone or digital camera, it avoids “it’s upside down” moments😀. Seriously, it’s great to see the Philips electronics of years past, they seemed to have a distinct style. Grundig had the same style to their electronics. Great that you got it working.

@Aspire198 2 жыл бұрын

Another brilliant video taking a look inside an old tape machine. This certainly explains the 'compact" in 'compact cassette"

@3rdalbum 3 жыл бұрын

I always wondered why Philips called it the COMPACT cassette. I guess it was to differentiate it from the LARGE GIANT cassette.

@VintageTechFan 3 жыл бұрын

The compact cassette was earlier (1963). But you are not too far from the truth, there were other cassette systems before, and yes those were mostly larger.

@melonenstrauch1306 3 жыл бұрын

"functional music" sounds like an early 2000's liquid Drum'n'Bass compilation.

@igorszamaszow171 3 жыл бұрын

I don't know, to me it has a certain Eno vibe to it.

@chaos.corner 3 жыл бұрын

I'd have said Kraftwerk

@UnitSe7en 3 жыл бұрын

"Human music"

@bentboybbz 3 жыл бұрын

@@UnitSe7en Mark z says it's his favorite.

@technoir2584 2 жыл бұрын

Watching your videos makes me thankful with how good we have it these days. I did not have many toys as a child. Television was my main source for entertainment along with the original Nintendo Entertainment system. So I guess I had it pretty good back then as well.

@glorfification 3 жыл бұрын

It's time for a "functional music" revival!

@IlBiggo 3 жыл бұрын

For a modern spin on muzak, I'd suggest the Italian duo Montefiori Cocktail. Very funny guys.

@noelj62 3 жыл бұрын

'Philips Functional Music’ was a service by Philips in the ’70’s on 6″ tapes and it is the start of why Philips CD-i is compatible with Background Music CD’s (BGM).

@tomikuusla925 3 жыл бұрын

1:53 Having handled compact cassettes all my childhood, this scene really messes up my head when the incredibly tiny hands enter the picture to grab the regular size c-cassette.

@Gulleization 3 жыл бұрын

I am happy to see the machine from Denmark found it’s way to you Mat. I saw it on sale and would have bought it as I thought of Techmoan right away, but of course it was all ready sold when I got around to bid on it myself. Thanks for great content!

@thomfroi 3 жыл бұрын

I'm always amazed at the close-ups that make you feel like you're the one fixing the crazy gadget of the week yourself. Great!

@alanburns538 3 жыл бұрын

Wow! Didn't fully appreciate the size until you showed the tape next to a videocassette! Many thanks for this Mat. If there's any format oddity that's ever existed, I know you'll track it down eventually!

@FabFunty 3 жыл бұрын

Wow! You still know how large a VHS cassette is 🤣

@LMacNeill 3 жыл бұрын

I've seen the word "large" abbreviated as "lg." before, so perhaps lg in the model number stood for "large" Philips cassette player? To differentiate it from the "compact" Philips cassette player? Just a thought... Good on you getting this thing working. I love stuff like this -- you'll never see it on any other channel on KZfaq, that's for sure. Thanks! :-)

@sh4dowchas3r 3 жыл бұрын

damn I should have scrolled down a bit before commenting I was thinking the same thing.

@koppadasao 3 жыл бұрын

LG is Dutch, not an abbreviation for the English word 'large' Anyway, the B in LGB stands for 'band', Dutch for tape

@mjouwbuis 3 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately not, but good thinking anyways. The L stood for "ELA division" (electro acoustic products in the widest sense of the word, also including video and education). The GC2 stood for the business group and category of equipment and was chosen somewhat arbitrarily (actually every piece of equipment got a hierarchical commercial number, SKU in modern language, which was used to designate the equipment and then the letters were derived from it to form a more human readable model number).

@mjouwbuis 3 жыл бұрын

@@koppadasao no it doesn't. If you're just taking a guess, you shouldn't write it as if it was an authoritive answer. On the other hand, it would have been nice if B was for Band (dutch) and C was for Corder (english) etc. Maybe in an alternate universe.

@koppadasao 3 жыл бұрын

@@mjouwbuis LGB = Electroacoustic business equipment tape?

@phrtao 3 жыл бұрын

What a wonderful sense of achievement , it really cheered me up to hear that machine working after following your repairs

@ubergeeknz 3 жыл бұрын

Your repairs are better than a lot on KZfaq ☺️ You definitely have a knack for it

@kingtom 3 жыл бұрын

There’s nothing more satisfying than when you successfully repair old tech. It made me so happy to hear the music playing after all your hard work.

@jonktankwatch 3 жыл бұрын

This video has a better storyline than many movies I've watched recently. You have moved on so much since doing the dash cam videos. You are restoring the 19*##'s timeline, one device at a time. Your patience is something to be admired in itself. Tech moan onwards and upwards sir.

@muppetpaster 3 жыл бұрын

We used this machine (as it was mostly used in Holland) for "elevator-music".....Also found in Hema and Vroom en Dreesman stores.

@hugobloemers4425 3 жыл бұрын

I could even imagine that Vroom en Dreesman had a say in the design specification.

@tedtimmis8135 Жыл бұрын

The repair was impressive! Well done!

@64jimboy 3 жыл бұрын

That must be the most satisfying eject 'button' I've ever seen. Thanks for the video.

@stepheneyles2198 3 жыл бұрын

Nice that your subscriber counter goes up from 1.14M to 1.15M during the time this video took to make! Long may it continue increasing! PS: Little tip about desoldering anything, especially old stuff like this: Flood the joint with new solder and even use a flux pen to get the old solder really fluid before removing it. Might have even been able to save that PCB pad :-))

@TheFool2cool 3 жыл бұрын

Don't give him soldering tips. He doesn't appreciate it.

@plutoniumshore 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for all your hard work in restoring this piece of history and then sharing with us!

@puttyputty123 3 жыл бұрын

Wow, that amount of time it must have taken to create this video. The technical repairs is just the tip of the iceberg here. Very impressed.

@badreality2 3 жыл бұрын

This is why people should not be able to sue for copyright infringement, unless they have said product on the open market the infringer is living in.

@annother3350 3 жыл бұрын

It should be 50 years max like it used to be

@FireStriker_ 3 жыл бұрын

This tape should be able to be put on archive.org tbh. just because of some silly rights holders the music has to die? Bloddy copyright

@RelativisticVelocity 3 жыл бұрын

@@annother3350 20 years

@annother3350 3 жыл бұрын

@@FireStriker_ He could if he really wanted to

@blacklion79 3 жыл бұрын

It will not help. It is easy to offer any product for, say, $1B :-)

@Gadgetonomy 3 жыл бұрын

The lengths you went to to listen to this tape are commendable. As always, a highly entertaining video!

@johnrose8145 3 жыл бұрын

One of your best repair videos ever! I look forward to the review of the Walkman that plays Phillips LG tapes!

@ARTofTY-TV 3 жыл бұрын

You've been getting quite good at these repairs! Also, thanks for the end song, really a lovely retro tune.

@mariahamilton5305 3 жыл бұрын

The weird thing is that to me it doesn't look THAT "old" but when I was a teenager, something that old would have dated from WWII!

@thisnthat3530 3 жыл бұрын

It seems crazy to me that 1979 is as close to 2000 as this year is... where did all the time go??

@QPUNeptune 3 жыл бұрын

@@thisnthat3530 in the hole

@JamesOKeefe-US 3 жыл бұрын

The number of times I just go "wow, that's a pain" when Mat is going through this is amazing. Thank you for your patience :)

@dhdove 3 жыл бұрын

Just one word Matt, brilliant! Thanks so much for another fascinating journey back in time.

@benmurray7163 3 жыл бұрын

Such impressive perseverance! And it was worth it in the end. I love this channel. It's consistently brilliant

@themaritimegirl 3 жыл бұрын

It's awesome to see you getting more comfortable with repairing stuff like this :) If I may offer a couple of tips: Capacitors can't really be measured accurately when they're in-circuit. Not that it mattered in this case, since they clearly needed replacement since they physically leaked. Also, your de-soldering pump was set WAY too high, like 100 degrees too high, and this is probably why the trace on the PCB lifted. It's all part of the learning process.

@RabbitEarsCh 3 жыл бұрын

Still amazed how as soon as you put some obscure piece of music up on youtube licensors come out of the woodwork. There's this Japanese record that's been out of print for over 20 years and routinely goes for over ¥10000 on yahoo auctions, and yet a video of it up on youtube got content matched almost immediately. You'd think if they cared so much to take this stuff down they'd care enough to distribute the stuff somehow, like Seeburg eventually did.

@GryphLane 3 жыл бұрын

All KZfaq really care about is making money from it in some way. If they can't make money, they won't allow it.

@randomnickify 3 жыл бұрын

I'm amazed people are amazed by that, at this point every label company will have its every piece of music digitised and put in the content match database, everything else is fully automatic, it has nothing to do with whatever they care or not, it's just free money for them.

@donpalmera 3 жыл бұрын

1万 isn't much for something that's been out of print for so long especially if the record actually plays correctly. If you're worried about preservation uploading to youtube isn't the right way to go about things. They don't have people going around taking stuff down just to be mean. It's all automatic.

@GryphLane 3 жыл бұрын

@@donpalmera Yes but someone obviously programmed that algorithm to begin with.

@rambysophistry1220 3 жыл бұрын

@@GryphLane That would be Google, who did it to comply with the DMCA. Tom Scott did a wonderful video on this topic.

@daveh2504 3 жыл бұрын

I love seeing old machines working. Thanks for doing these videos.

@Retroboxmedia 7 ай бұрын

Your giftedness is so aoustanting. Been watching in awe for years!

@CyberKitsune09 3 жыл бұрын

26:25 “I just set it really high” 420 degrees, that’s high all right haha

@bartvariumDT 3 жыл бұрын

I was looking for this comment!

@Papinak2 3 жыл бұрын

yep, no wonder that that paper PCB got damaged, these things don't like high temperatures.

@phantomguard71 3 жыл бұрын

Should be about half that

@blahorgaslisk7763 3 жыл бұрын

@@phantomguard71 Tin melts at about 230 degrees and lead at 300 and something, but most solder alloys will melt at about 190 to 220 degrees. So yea, half would probably do the job, but at the cost of taking longer to melt the solder. I'd probably try about 280 - 300 degrees to get reasonably quick heating of the solder joint and not burn the PCB to quickly.

@lundsweden 3 жыл бұрын

Who is willing to make the first album release in history on the Phillips Functional Music tape, eh?

@SammeLagom 3 жыл бұрын

Love your videos! So relaxing and cool to see this old tech in action!

@Recordology 3 жыл бұрын

Fantastic video! Amazing amount of tenacity and patience!

@kotiachiy 3 жыл бұрын

13:40 That looks like a crime scene body outline , except the line is the actual victim

@s8w5 3 жыл бұрын

Now that you mention it, the shape it forms is rather ... sus!

@themac6356 3 жыл бұрын

@@s8w5 GETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEAD

@shadowtheimpure 3 жыл бұрын

This repair left you looking like an auto mechanic by the end!

@scottsimpkins2200 3 жыл бұрын

Bloody brilliant! I get such a kick watching you work and fix this and other obscure audio equipment! Please don’t stop!

@deeranfoxworthy6069 3 жыл бұрын

That was an awesome repair! The coolest thing I feel is that music hasn't been heard in this format on this equipment in decades. Thanks for bringing it back!

@trey1531 3 жыл бұрын

Techmoan: "I'm really not good at fixing stuff"

@recklessroges 3 жыл бұрын

I think he can consider himself a professional "fixing stuff" expert at this point.

@harrisonjr98 3 жыл бұрын

Never underestimate the abilities of the humble.

@markglover2525 3 жыл бұрын

... **fixes stuff**

@Astro_War 3 жыл бұрын

Just when I thought there was no way Mat would find anything retro new to show us, along comes a video about a giant Phillips cassette.

@MikeNHOC 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for spending time and money on it to get it working so you could share it with us! That is pretty awesome!

@neonian3075 3 жыл бұрын

What a fascinating, thrilling video! Wonderful seeing how much work went into designing and building these machines and how great was it when the music started playing!

@FirstLast-vr7es 3 жыл бұрын

I LOVE episodes like this!!!! That thing is built like a brick schitte house too. Thank you!!

@gamingmusicandjokesandabit1240 3 жыл бұрын

PIcocassette: *Finally our battle will be legendary*

@LastofAvari 3 жыл бұрын

Just like David and Goliath :D

@soldadoryanbr7776 3 жыл бұрын

Picocassetes are cute *-*

@ArtoPekkanen 3 жыл бұрын

Master at his craft :) so inspiring to watch you fixing these curious old contraptions!

@3vi1J 3 жыл бұрын

Amazing finds! It's awesome that you went through the trouble to get it playing again - Bravo.

@buckaroobunnyslippers 3 жыл бұрын

When you discovered the amount of decomposed belt gunk everywhere, I figured you'd grab a marker and just write "Non-" on the cassette. Glad your dedication paid off.

@dgpsf 3 жыл бұрын

33:12 cue every American feeling nervous about using a US power plug as a speaker connector. I'm picturing some kid going "Hm, interesting speaker, must be an amplified bluetooth speaker. Let's plug it in!"

@Coderjo. 3 жыл бұрын

Indeed. I saw that and immediately said "good lord, that's an ungrounded mains plug as a speaker connector!"

@somitomi 3 жыл бұрын

"Wow, it plays some minimalist dubstep song"

@nowster 3 жыл бұрын

On the other hand the common 4mm banana plug often used for speakers fits in EU mains sockets.

@Kuroichi 3 жыл бұрын

@@stephenw2992 That's right. In Soviet era, we had a public wired radio system, similar to what modern PA system are, but with only difference, they have volume control on speaker unit. As for a plug, they are using US style plug, which is logic way to prevent people to plug such speakers directly in the 220V grid.

@tookitogo 3 жыл бұрын

I would think that a speaker intended for a 100V signal probably wouldn’t be damaged by 120V AC. Is it possible that NEMA plugs were (or are?) common on 70V and 100V PA systems?

@project23 2 жыл бұрын

As always I love seeing these more 'industrial' types of equipment. Fantastic that you were able to get the system up and working. I bet it was a fun few hours exploring that tape!