*Correction:* As several viewers pointed out, the circuitry does switch between different equalizations for 8-track and cassette playback. And the idler wheel and smaller flywheel do change the speed for playing cassettes, but not the direction of rotation; instead, that's accomplished by the 8-track and cassette capstans being on opposite sides of the tape. (Also, upon closer inspection I found a 1980 date code on the speakers.)
@BilisNegra
Жыл бұрын
As I was watching the video I thought "Same eq stage for both? It's not going to do the best job for either". I was going to comment upon that, too. I'm glad you found that out.
@epicwildstar1918
Жыл бұрын
@@BilisNegraTHANK YOU SIR MASTER ENGINEER SIR! maybe next time you can make the video instead!
@ka2rwp
Жыл бұрын
What you had to do then you had to have a separate cassette player to record your 8 tracks from the 8 track stereo to the cassette recorder player.
@epicwildstar1918
Жыл бұрын
@@ka2rwp I’ve killed for less then this offensive remark. Pray no one tracks you down by your IP address. Always pray towards Mecca.
@KenanTurkiye
Жыл бұрын
13:00 spot on
@azjames8789
Жыл бұрын
A 47-year-old Japanese device it still works! Who would have thought! I appreciate all the work that went into making this video so that we could enjoy it! Thank you!
@AcornElectron
Жыл бұрын
To be fair my PlayStation 2 AND 3 were both replaced multiple times under warranty and again out of the 1 year warranty…. They’re Japanese products. Quality is time subjective it seems.
@t0nito
Жыл бұрын
What do you mean Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
@azjames8789
Жыл бұрын
@@AcornElectron I wasn't implying that Japanese products are necessarily better (although generally they are). I was just simply marveling at the fact that the 8 track /cassette player still works after 47 years and giving VWestlife a compliment for the hard work he put in to making this video. And while any device from any country could fail the fact is I still have 3 Sony carousel CD players and one Sony CD player /recorder, 5 mini disc decks and over 40 portable Sony mini disc players and recorders that still function just fine. Some of these are more than 30 years old. Not to mention several portable CD players well as as my Sony TC-WE-305 cassette deck. All still working fantastic. I hate to keep editing this comment and harping on this subject but I forgot to mention that I also have a working PlayStation 2 in my garage. And last but not least let's not forget my wife's Toyota Camry with 273,000 mi on it!
@OldSonyMan
Жыл бұрын
That is 'Exactly' why it love 8-tracks. It's because they 'should' have stopped working 'decades' ago !
@RJDA.Dakota
Жыл бұрын
@@AcornElectronhis looks like a Matsushita Electric product. Most of my Panasonic stuff is still working. Soundesign is a product that had OEMs. So that Soundesign might be built by a different manufacturer and outsourced.
@bluesfoxgrey6883
Жыл бұрын
What a wonderful machine. Basically, it's a full-fledged stereo system! Cassette and 8-track player, two band radio and an amplifier in one case! Intricate mechanism too. Too bad it didn't take off in big production numbers.
@aperson6955
Жыл бұрын
you can even hook up your *_MP3 DVD_* player to it 😂
@bluesfoxgrey6883
Жыл бұрын
@@aperson6955 Or a turntable with a built in pre-amp. Or with external pre-amp. Basically, you can connect anything, that outputs signal around 250 mV. It's a wonderful thing, when you want your system to take less space.
@okaro6595
Жыл бұрын
I think this does not record. At least the write protection holes are visible.
@Jeffmorgan83
Жыл бұрын
I had a similar Soundesign system in my bedroom when I was a kid that my Dad bought from a yard sale. The one I had also had a turn table at the top. I had it for several years and I knew it played 8-Tracks, but you can imagine my surprise when I was messing around with it one day and discovered that it could play cassettes! I was shocked!
@matiasomar1888
9 ай бұрын
Security you believed about magic. Saludos from Argentina
@ItsJustAlk
Жыл бұрын
This mechanism is the definition of over engineering, especially the Fast-Forward part of it, and I can't help but be amazed to know that such thing once made its way to a budget device. Thanks for the video
@andygozzo72
Жыл бұрын
latching fast forward like that was common on many 'cheap' car radio cassette players and the cassette players in those 'fake' 'vintage' radios, in those it also doubled as eject, if you pushed it fully in hard
@LapisandHamtarolover
Жыл бұрын
@andygozzo72 and cheap Cassette Walkmans too; member Dixons.
@andygozzo72
Жыл бұрын
@@LapisandHamtarolover nope, never seen that type mechanism in them, the ff/eject lever would stick out too much on a walkman type thing once tape is inserted, they usually have a separate ff button, if one at all
@stragulus
Жыл бұрын
That is amazing! Such a cool and well built mechanism. End of the 70s was peak build quality home audio equipment, but still impressive that even Soundesign churned out something lasting. How different from just a few years later where most of these mechanisms turned into plastic rubbish. To be fair, this Soundesign must have been stored properly to still have the rubber parts work as well as they do.
@draxoronxztgs1212
Жыл бұрын
Many manufacturers got the rubber parts from different dealers back then that some made parts that would decay faster than others, and those who made rubber parts that was literally immune to age. I've had equipments from the 60's where the rubber parts had turned into tar before that equipment was 25 years old (repairing it in the 90's), whereas the speakers for my stereo I still use today, made in the same era have rubber surrounds for the cone that is still intact and flexible despite after its 55 years, believe it or not.
@stragulus
Жыл бұрын
@@draxoronxztgs1212 Yeah I've witnessed that too with new rubber belts that you just don't know to what standards they are made. Some barely last another 5 years.
@noelj62
Жыл бұрын
Side note: Player equalization for cassette and 8-track changes using the same switch that controls the heads. On the schematic diagram south-west of the pre-amp IC the switch changes a network of resistors and capacitors which controls equalization in the feedback loop. Great video as usual thanks.
@janosnagyj.9540
Жыл бұрын
At 12:16 his pencil is just pointing at the separate EQ networks while he's saying there is no other switchover but just the heads. Upppsy 🤭
@therealbluedragon
Жыл бұрын
I’ll always lament the loss of big throw-style switches on consumer electronics. To me, nothing feels quite like the feel of a big mechanical switch. *Ka-thunk!*
@manoflego123
Жыл бұрын
Holy crap, I JUST saw one of these exact units at my local thrift store yesterday! If I'd known you would talk about it I absolutely would have grabbed it!
@manoflego123
Жыл бұрын
Also, I passed it by because it definitely just looked like a normal 8-Track player... despite it still having the original stickers on the front saying it plays cassettes and 8-Tracks!
@GurtTarctor
Жыл бұрын
I love the frequency graph on the front of those speakers, I'd like to see that more often these days tbh.
@Markimark151
Жыл бұрын
The engineering marvel in the 1970s of making a hybrid cassette and 8 track player is amazing! That would be like making a VCR that plays either a VHS and Betamax tape, that would’ve kind of changed the video format war, both formats would’ve coexisted!
@nickwallette6201
Жыл бұрын
It didn't work for HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Cross-format players existed. Anyway, I'm not impressed until I see a combo CD / record player. ;-) (and yes I know there were CD changer / turntable combos)
@Markimark151
Жыл бұрын
@@nickwallette6201 I think there was a rare cross format HD DVD and Blu Ray player came out at the end of the format war, but it was the same physical disc size which made it easier to engineer compared to two different analog tape formats! The CD and vinyl record are completely different technologies, digital and analog respectively!
@nickwallette6201
Жыл бұрын
@@Markimark151 Yes, I'm aware. The CD/vinyl bit was tongue-in-cheek, obviously. The real point being, the technical ability or lack thereof to play two formats has never been the concern. It's a logistics and licensing problem. Nobody is satisfied with VHS *and* Beta being simultaneously available. JVC and Sony want their market dominance, the product OEMs want lower licensing costs (and therefore, not having to pay two license holders for the right to design/use mechanisms to play their formats), and the content producers don't want to deal with double inventory. So alliances get made, everyone backs their horse, and eventually somebody loses. That's just the natural order of things. Very rarely do two competing standards get to survive, side-by-side. DVD+R and DVD-R being the one example I can readily think of, and a big part of that was how it was never a distribution format, just a recordable one.
@Markimark151
Жыл бұрын
@@nickwallette6201 Technology connection did a review on a hybrid CD/Vinyl turntable! That’s a cool system! But it would be neat if they made a hybrid VHS and Beta VCR, because there were lots of tape recordings during the height of the format war, and certain movies and shows were on different formats! The DVD-R and DVD+R was mostly for disc recording, and weren’t much different, it was just issues with standard video formatting. Both formats settled in just few years!
@stevethepocket
Жыл бұрын
@@nickwallette6201 Is the Fisher DAC-145 (as seen on Technology Connections) close enough? It uses the same platter as the CD changer and turntable.
Жыл бұрын
Hola: in Argentina 8-tracks only existed in a few expensive local cars as an extra. I have never seen an 8-track outside a car, here cassetes were the norm. The video and mechanism are amazing. Gracias.
@Allan_aka_RocKITEman
Жыл бұрын
FWIW: My first stereo, a birthday present from my parents in the latter 1970s, had a turntable, AM/FM radio, and 8-track player. There were also portable 8-track players around. I never owned one, but saw them being sold quite a bit.
Жыл бұрын
@@Allan_aka_RocKITEman wonderful. My first stereo was a tube very late 50's and were most expensive in my land.
@xaverlustig3581
Жыл бұрын
I have never seen an 8track. In Europe, from the early 70s compact cassettes were the consumer recording format of choice and gradually increased in popularity , even though in the beginning the quality wasn't so great and most machines were mono. I've only learnt about 8track on the internet, according to which there were some devices in cars here in Europe.
@MrDuncl
Жыл бұрын
@@xaverlustig3581 8 tracks were common in the U.K. but really started going out of fashion by the mid 1970s. All the late 1960s coaches I went to school on had Radiomobile 8 track players.
@richardhalliday6469
Жыл бұрын
What fascinating content, who knew? I certainly didn't , great video - between you and Techmoan , the pair of you always manage to pull the rare, extraordinary and fascinating consumer electronic products from somewhere, brilliant.
@garp32
Жыл бұрын
Exactly. These guys find the coolest stuff we've never heard of. I don't know how they do it. Lol. Love it!
@charger959
Жыл бұрын
I got a version of this stereo from goodwill when I was a teen about 25 years ago. Mine had the turntable built into the top. I had it for a couple years before I realized it could play cassettes! If they'd just put a plus instead of a dash, they probably would've sold a ton of these! I still have mine because that feature is so cool and unique. Unfortunately it's been in a storage unit for so long it probably doesn't work anymore.
@the_rubbish_bin
Жыл бұрын
Soundesign was/is so under-rated IMO
@rogerknapman1260
Жыл бұрын
Yeah I had some nice 70s headphones from Soundesign. Volume controls on each ear cup and they sounded quite good.
@ImmortalThanos
Жыл бұрын
This was the stereo I had in my room as a child growing up. It was my mom and dad's old unit that they passed along to me. I never knew it could play cassettes, though. I thought it only played 8-tracks. Who would have guessed?!
@BilisNegra
Жыл бұрын
Even owning it you did not guess? I know, you were a child, still, Kevin is so right about why this flopped. What a shame.
@jean-pierrem34
Жыл бұрын
Well... It's kinda written on it... User guide?
@MacXpert74
Жыл бұрын
It was fun that with the radio examples the music was actually contemporary to the device. 🙂
@samuelfellows6923
Жыл бұрын
I assume vwestlife has his own transmitter and set it to the frequencies he tuned the radio to ✅
@applegal3058
Жыл бұрын
I have little knowledge in electronics circuitry, but i found this interesting and made sense. It's amazing that this player works so well! Thanks for sharing.
@DavidHembrow
Жыл бұрын
Eight tracks were very much an American thing. I don't think i ever saw one in the 1970s or 80s, growing up Europe and Australasia. Until this day I've only seen a handful of 8 track cartridges, these days they're something that collectors seen to like. That's a cleverly design device.
@LejendaryLoozer
Жыл бұрын
I think my favorite part of these types of videos you do is all of the offbeat music you use to demonstrate things. Thanks for everything you do, you’ve been consistently awesome for years.
@chrislj2890
Жыл бұрын
Very cool, you come up with the darnedest contraptions to review. Personally I had less trouble with 8-track than I did with cassettes back in the '70s, at least in cars. Then again we were usually loaded so there's that.
@bobblum5973
Жыл бұрын
Oh, wow, I remember this model! I'd totally forgotten about it. Now all I need to do is remember if I saw it in person in a stereo store (or similar), or in a catalog. Thanks!
@TonyBanks21
Жыл бұрын
Wow-never seen a machine like that before !! I learn a new thing everyday-thank you so much for featuring it on your channel !!
@kwd-kwd
Жыл бұрын
I must admit, I'm impressed. Never saw anything like that before.
@mimo5968
Жыл бұрын
What a cool piece of engineering 😊
@toasTr0n
Жыл бұрын
Wow, just when I thought I'd seen it all! This is incredible. Thank you for all the effort you put into showing it to us!
@huhwhatumean
Жыл бұрын
Reminds of going to the thrift store as a child and just seeing heaps of 8-tracks in bins for pennies on the dollar. Only people I saw buy them were old ladies and they loved the country 8-tracks. So much Conway Twitty my god.
@formerx
Жыл бұрын
I am impressed with that design! That AM sounds very good. I had a similar Soundesign in '78 (with 8-track recorder, no cassette deck) and it was a workhorse. The linear volume and tone controls got 'scratchy' from build-up but a little RadioShack tuner cleaner fixed them.
@ahman324
Жыл бұрын
Wow, awesome machine! And great presentation! I apprecieate you took it apart and did close-up shots of that mechanism
@buckfiden6227
Жыл бұрын
WOW! A friend of my mom’s had this stereo in the early 80’s. Never saw one like it before or since. Glad to see a video on it!
@Allan_aka_RocKITEman
Жыл бұрын
Sometime from 1980 to 1982, I purchased a tape player for my car at a _garage sale._ I was attending a school of the time, so I had limited $$$. That player took BOTH _Cassettes_ AND _8-Tracks_ in the same slot. It eventually quit working and I later threw it away. I *WISH* I had kept it, for the novelty if nothing else. I do not remember what brand it was.
@deanosaur808
9 ай бұрын
I wonder if it used the same mechanism 🤔
@stuartdavis9853
Жыл бұрын
Absolutely brilliant! Complex and yet as simple as can be.
@anidnmeno
Жыл бұрын
we had that exact same player!
@jean-pierrem34
Жыл бұрын
Did you know that your machine could play both?
@anidnmeno
Жыл бұрын
@@jean-pierrem34 I did! I didn't know that other 8 track players COULDN'T do both lol
@jean-pierrem34
Жыл бұрын
@@anidnmeno :)))
@F40PH-2CAT
Жыл бұрын
My first compact stereo system had both 8 track and cassette decks. Even in 1984 8 tracks were everywhere. Congrats on finding something that I did not know existed or COULD exist.
@rudog5305
Жыл бұрын
My parents still have that same unit! Still works! This vid brings back some childhood memories!
@vhfgamer
Жыл бұрын
I like it. They didn't over complicate the mechanism (which is especially evident in that there was no repair required). It just works. Someone was wearing their thinking cap at Sound Design.
@retrograveyard
Жыл бұрын
Very interesting to see how this works. Also I would never have guessed something like this even existed. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
@Kylefassbinderful
Жыл бұрын
My parents (born in 1962/1943) hated the 8-track even when they were relevant. They warped and loss a lot of their audio quality relatively quick but the main problem they had was that songs would often get, *_CLICK,_* split up and rearranged so that they could fit on a cart. A song you like would be split over two programs and the track order could be different.
@TheGreatAtario
Жыл бұрын
And to add insult to injury, they'd often fade the song out in preparation for the program change, then fade back in once it had been accomplished. Even as a kid I thought that was the lamest thing ever
@stereophonicstuff
Жыл бұрын
For a Soundesign, I’m really surprised. Not just by the combo 8 track and cassette tape abilities, but as you pointed out, the build quality seems unusually decent. I’ve never been too interested in 8-tracks, but this would be great for someone who enjoys both formats but wants just one device to play them both.
@AmazedStoner
Жыл бұрын
I’ve never seen anything like this before. A mechanism like that would have been right at home in one of those dual cassette decks with this mechanism used for the playback side.
@Vuusteri
Жыл бұрын
Genius! Shame this mechanism wasn't more popular.
@Narayan_1996
Жыл бұрын
Such a neat device, certainly ahead of its time, and also with a very good sound and built quality. Awesome video, one more time I'm delighted with it ♥
@RXSVN_2
Жыл бұрын
Wow. I've never seen a system that plays cassette tapes and 8 track tapes in the same exact slot.
@stathissim
Жыл бұрын
My favorite most underrated channel, which reminds me to start rewatching your old videos again
@michaeldickson9876
Жыл бұрын
Very cool, truly a unique audio sound quality. Sounds as good as the boom boxes of the 80s.
@POLO9999
Жыл бұрын
Staar S.A., Once was one of the many Belgian Radio and Hi-Fi equipment before it's been dismantled in the 50's after the deceasing of the founder. Théo Staar then keep the legacy of a succesful company and concentrated in Audio Equipment, especially in Audio-Tape Technologies where they made especially the ones for the Automotive sector (Almost all auto-radios have their own technologies) and the company existed until 2006 where the company went extinct anonymously. Really few infos are left of their Auto-Tape studies and mechanism, they runned mostly in a closed system (family business)
@imansfield
Жыл бұрын
I have a Sanyo boombox from 1985 which has that same “made under licence from Staar” printed on the back.
@ReasonablySane
Жыл бұрын
I got my driver's license when I turned 16 at the beginning of 1970. I got my first car about six months later. All my friends had 8-track decks in their cars, but I hated 8-track and ended up with an auto-reverse Sony TC-30. And I recorded all my tapes at a friend's house with his Radio Shack, and then Advent cassette deck.
@geraldmartin7703
Жыл бұрын
Soundesign was the king of cheap consumer electronics in the 1960s and '70s, and were featured prominently in department and discount stores. I had several of their products and reveled in their tackiness. Wikipedia laughingly refers to the brand as having comprised of "high-end audio components". But they got the job done super cheap and that was all that really mattered-- especially if you were in junior or senior high school.
@vibingwithvinyl
Жыл бұрын
This is actually quite interesting.
@rockrollhi-figuy6824
11 ай бұрын
I have owned hundreds of stereo systems over the years some really cheap ones, and some really expensive ones, and dozens of soundesigns when i was younger, and never found anything like this. Way cool!!
@garp32
Жыл бұрын
Wow.. and they said it couldn't be done eh? Props to Soundesign. Not a company I would have expected to do something like that. Basically the 70's and 80's version of Crosley in my opinion. Thanks for these videos! You're always finding this weird stuff. I love it! Oh, btw.. I'm one of the guys who helped on the AM C- QUAM video posted on Shango's channel. That was an extremely fun project. If that radio was to end up anywhere, it landed in the perfect place as our engineer (Greg from Motorola) actually knew they guy who prototyped it. He was absolutely honored to get an opportunity to delve into that and explain some broadcast engineering knowledge to the masses. I hope to see some followup on that one of a kind radio. It sure has gotten a LOT of miles on it during the last year. Lol.
@nickwallette6201
Жыл бұрын
Those old Soundesign speakers are the most early-80s faux Hi-Fi thing ever, and I am _here for it!_ :-D
@Ralphs-House
Жыл бұрын
Remarkable. Not seen anything as over-engineered as that since Techmoan showed us the bizarre rollercoaster cassette loading mechanism a few years ago. These engineers should have been at NASA!
@5argetech56
Жыл бұрын
More amazing obscure consumer audio products. This is the only channel on KZitem that has such items. This would have been something my mom would have loved to have. She was an 8 Track user because of the player in her car. She also had one in the house connected to the console stereo. But later when cassettes became more popular, a unit like this would have be very useful! Thanks again for showing what was possible.
@datassetteuser356
Жыл бұрын
I had no idea such a device existed. Amazing stuff! Thanks for this detailed video and for your continously great content! Cheers!
@JAM7689mov
Жыл бұрын
Now that is something amazing! Thank you for posting this!
@jamesdye4603
Жыл бұрын
Looks like a well built machine, and it sounds good to. I've certainly never seen anything like it, so thank you for showing it to us.
@AMDRADEONRUBY
Жыл бұрын
Very interesting Kevin never heard about that player even if I know a lot about vintage equipment. Very nice video mate.
@alexkay1874
Жыл бұрын
Cool as Hell > you have uncovered Quite A Gem
@androo4519
Жыл бұрын
Very interesting device. I never knew these existed. I think you just one-upped Techmoan!
@83Roboto
Жыл бұрын
That's a cool system. Even for Soundesign. Never knew that type of mechanism existed. Glad you shared it. Back in the day, I do remember cassette to 8 track adapters being made. So with that you could play cassettes in a standard 8 track player. I believed that a lot of people bought them to play cassettes in their 8 track car head units of the day.
@Musicradio77Network
Жыл бұрын
Too bad, there was never a similar model of this stereo and multi formatted 8-track/cassette combo with the “Record” feature where you can record 8-track tapes and record cassette tapes.
@zorka4098
Жыл бұрын
My formative years were from the mid-sixties through the 1970s. I always had a cassette deck during the seventies though we thought them inferior to reel to reel which I also had. Admittedly, I used the deck for mostly recording, so your point that the combined SoundDesign could not record was probably the case. I rarely bought pre-recorded tapes mostly because LPs were the thing to have then and I lived in an apartment next to a midwest regional early country-rock band who wanted to use my Sony reel deck which had sound on sound to test their songs which gave us the ability to overdub, etc. 8 track in my area were mostly found in automobiles by the early 70s. Interesting piece - thanks.
@PrankZabba
Жыл бұрын
OMG, i never thought i would ever see one of these again. Been looking online for decades for this system. Which is coming from a 45 year old memory. I have only seen 1 of these in my life. One of my dad's best friends had one of these stereos. And i was just fascinated by it. Guessing i mustve been 2 or 3 when i first saw it. And the fact that it could play both was what really got me interested in mechanics, i guess. It sounds kinda strange, but this must've felt like it came from the future to me or something. And i can't believe I'm watching a video on it now. I dont know how rare this is, but to me it seems like a White Whale to me. Just because it takes me back to seeing it as a kid. Thank you very much.
@austinorth5549
Жыл бұрын
I’m always amazed with whatcha find. What a neat mechanism, I think this would’ve been a hit with every manufacturer.
@Rightsomehandsome
Жыл бұрын
I use a Yorx 8 track recorder/amplifier/receiver as my main radio. 8 track still works. Thanks for sharing the machine.
@jhonwask
Жыл бұрын
That is a really neat device. I'm so glad you shared it with us.
@dzaga7123
Жыл бұрын
What an incredible machine! Thanks for presenting one!
@fmphotooffice5513
Жыл бұрын
Excellent presentation, remarkable BOM and assembly. "When Soundesign didn't suck."
@TedSeeber
Жыл бұрын
I had a Realistic stereo I inherited from my grandmother that had all five- cassette, 8 track, AM/FM and Record Player.
@markanderson350
Жыл бұрын
Radio shack sold a car player unit that also took 8 tracks and cassettes in the same slot. Its pretty cool i must say. The cassette player would lift into place.
@rizzlerazzleuno4733
Жыл бұрын
You find the neatest, niftiest stuff.👍👍 In reading the comments there are folks that also have one of these or grew up with one in their house. I've been using audio tech for 70 years and never knew such a player existed. Thanks for showing how it works. My favorite systems from this era are the 4-in-1 compact systems: AM-FM, record changer, cassette recorder and 8-track recorder. Realistic, Zenith, Sanyo, Emerson, SoundDesign, Magnavox and others all had 4-in-1 models. If you have one it would be great to see a demo.
@Petertronic
Жыл бұрын
That 8-track Ampex disco tape was recorded on my 8th birthday! Nice overview of this interesting machine, can't be many around in such good condition.
@wilkes85
Жыл бұрын
What a cool mechanism! I've never seen something like that before. I'm sure some people wouldn't have wanted a cassette player that looks like an 8 track player though, but it's pretty cool.
@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777
Жыл бұрын
Wow factor for a Soundesign !!! Thanks for sharing - the Tape deck itself ends up being very robust and probably error free in general when everything is clean and working properly. Looks solid with that invention they came up with in Belgium.
@hughjanus6975
Жыл бұрын
Glad you posted, recent wicked depression lifted for 15 minutes. Thanks.
@stacy3
Жыл бұрын
Hello there Hugh, I hope you’re doing well.
@trr5291
6 ай бұрын
I never used 8-track. I still use cassettes in 2024 though. New and old. I have a Dolly Parton cassette from 1975. It still works excellent. Cassettes don't seem to ever die.
@scottls
Жыл бұрын
That is a real priceless treasure there. I didn't have many 8-tracks when I was younger, but I sure would've loved this unit to play both 8-tracks and cassettes back when neither were as popular with me than the industry would've liked.
@cyndicorinne
Жыл бұрын
This is an amazing piece of electronics. Seems like a workable design with quality. My dad had an old realistic changer turntable/FM stereo in the living room, that I pretty much listened to all the time from childhood to somewhere in my teens. Sadly no tape players of any kind. I was buying 45s and LPs until most music only was sold in my area on cassette later in the mid 80s when I got a huge Panasonic boombox with a neat LED bar graph, huge tuning dial, and auto seek cassette (not auto reverse). Even had a tape counter. I think it was 79.99 at Wilson’s (sorta like service merchandise) back in the day. Loved that.
@xaenon
Жыл бұрын
I saw something like this many years ago. People told me I was nuts. I accepted that I had imagined it. I can't believe it really exists.
@thepirategamerboy12
Жыл бұрын
lol, Steely Dan - Dirty Work on AM. Should have played the edited AM version of FM with a transmitter.
@MacXpert74
Жыл бұрын
😂👍 "FMMMMM, no static at all!"
@dimitrioskalfakis
Жыл бұрын
beautiful machine. great memorabilia. i grew up with 8-track tapes - the 'standard' in car music.
@marktubeie07
Жыл бұрын
02:32 ...and at this point I was thinking here comes a sponsorship, but thankfully NO. I applaud you...!
@FunzieOne
Жыл бұрын
Always excited for a new vid from you
@raymondmartin6737
Жыл бұрын
I was using cassettes by the early 1970's, and said cassettes would replace 8-Track and I was correct.
@dathat3204
Жыл бұрын
Electromechanical stuff from 50s to 70s is so fascinating, lots of genius designs in all kinds of products.
@nikolayt9350
Жыл бұрын
Very interesting piece of design and history. Thank you for covering it! 👍
@Pizuri1
3 ай бұрын
Holy crap I have that exact player and I always thought it was calling the 8 tracks 8 track cassettes that’s so cool!
@TRONMAGNUM2099
Жыл бұрын
Pretty cool. We used to have a Realistic adapter that allowed tapes to be played in an 8 track. Worked great and saved us from having to get a new stereo.
@timf-tinkering
Жыл бұрын
What a fascinating device! Seems really well made and well engineered for a budget brand. 8-track was never really popular here in the UK so we'd never have seen innovations like this. Thanks so much for sharing!
@mcramp20
Жыл бұрын
Wow no cassette adapter needed 😊
@SirKenchalot
Жыл бұрын
Amazing! They sure built their tech well back in 1976; not a single broken belt, cog or brittle plastic. There were DV/VHS players of course and DVD/LaserDisc players too and the latter shared a common drawer mechanism. Where's my DCC/Minidisc player though? I suspect a Beta/VHS machine would need 3-4 head drums and a couple pairs of audio/tracking heads as well as the mechanism to play at varying speeds, probably 5-6 different speeds by the mid 80s; that's a heck of a player.
@aleixmercaderp
Жыл бұрын
Nice video and device! Not only the heads are switched, Sb3 and Sb4 in the schematic ( 12:23 ) show a change in the feedback network between cassette and 8-track.
@andygozzo72
Жыл бұрын
yep, it'd need to alter the equalising and maybe gain
@SchardtCinematic
Жыл бұрын
I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s with a stereo that had both in our living room. You could even record on blank 8 track tapes with it or also record to cassette.
@error52
Жыл бұрын
What a fascinating device! Thank you for demonstrating it. Speaking of weird devices, I've always wondered if there was a tape-to-AM-radio converter. I've seen FM converters, mounted under the dash in old cars, that plug in the AM radio's antenna socket, and allow you to listen to FM on a spot on the AM dial. Has anyone ever seen a tape version of the same idea?
@LakeNipissing
Жыл бұрын
10:20 was the music this needed to play !! This dual-format player is groooovy !
@nazcaplain
Жыл бұрын
My earliest stereo as an impoverished kid was 8-track and I look back on its crapitude with less than fond memories. Never the less, after watching this I'm intrigued and may very well acquire one to ironically sit next to my Revox and Nakamichi units just for the feels. Thx, a great vid!
@rubeusvombatus
Жыл бұрын
Love the volume slider on this, looks really nice
@Vintage-Tech
Жыл бұрын
Interestingly this machine does share a few quirks with the Akai X-2000SD which plays both cassette and 8 track as well as open reels, in that machine the cassette player loads in the same orientation but when you close the cover on the slot, the cassette drops down into that mechanism but also offers rewind to the cassette, the reel to reel and 8 track share the same capstan with the cassette using a very long belt off the main capstan to the one on the cassette player so there are also 2 capstans but using only one motor. I have taken the Akai X-2000SD apart and had to rebuild it extensively! The cassette mechanism on that is very reminiscent of the one your machine.. not much the same of course but the closest thing ive seen to it thus far! Thanks for sharing
@jean-pierrem34
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for sharing too! Knew about the dual reel to reel / 8 track players. Did not regarding reel to reel + 8 track + cassette!
@BokBarber
Жыл бұрын
Just when I thought I'd seen everything, vwestlife digs up another treasure.
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