A video about a connector.

First view of this video as I neglected to see it at the proper time. Despite it being about a simple connector it blew my mind because I remember the laborious task of track mixing onto tape. I am sure someone else commented about this previously, but I wonder if tape-to-tape recording with a AMS or TPS cassette track selector could achieve something similar. I am probably stretching the bounds of reality here. 😀

To add context- not that I need to- you a guy 53 years ish young, or old, whichever you prefer. From Wigan way, or at least live wigan way- we probably made eye contact at one point. I used to go your way often. For a nightmare, then it became a good excuse. Japs made karate. Chinese copied them. It is not boring your content- it's how you communicate it. Some are great public speakers- some are not. Way we deliver. You are of a higher power AA calls it- I call said supreme being God. You do God's will boy. I am your junior 11 years so what the fuck do I know. Keep doing you- your best videos you made when you were getting sunshine. You remember venturing out? I do. Sun brings out the best in you- so 50/50 with the other half. My man, no. That's what you got told, with bad reason. I have good reason.

That was actually one of your best, Mat. Loved it. It's the odd, unusual and rare things that make your content stand out above others. By the way, due to the lack of this regular feed from Patreon, I investigated and found that my payment method to you had expired. Nobody warned me! I have corrected the situation. Sorry if you missed my fiver. :-) SB

Its always the videos that look plain and boring that do the best ie: Unpacking minidisc players.

Great video! You definitely go above and beyond in your search to bring us cool gadgets and interesting electronics! Thanks for doing what you do so well!

If your ideas board is ever running low for podcast 'content' (ugh - sorry!), it would be fascinating to hear some of the design choices and compromises you made for your new studio space. We know you were limited on footprint/location and you've got a load of sockets, but there's clearly a lot of thought that went into the transition from bedroom to shedroom(!?). For instance, the clarity and effortlessness of your audio quality - together with the appearance of some of the wall coverings - suggest you've got some acoustic treatment going on. And wall lighting (as opposed to downlights) and window numbers/locations don't look like they were randomly chosen. It's always good to hear a seasoned campaigner's philosophies and choices in relation to their work and environment. I realise the subject is a bit niche and maybe a bit dry for the main channel but it's the sort of technical stuff we like, right?. No expectations, pressure or similar though - it's clear you already get enough of that from the YT comments . . .

I had a Sony LBTD 505 system, with the tape length auto adjusting program, very convenient. When the tape deck died, I wanted to reuse the "tape" input to connect another audio device but I couldn't, the tape deck was connected to the amp through a proprierary cable. Opened up the deck and retroengineered where were the left, right and ground (easy) and made my own Cinch cable. Now I own a Marantz 5005 and still use the original Sony tuner.

Speaking of discontinued Sony products, it appears that you can add the entire Handycam range to the list. All of the models listed on their U.S. web site are either "out of stock" or no longer available, just in time for the 40th anniversary of the first Handycam in 1985.

Amazing! Amazing! True Techmoan! I do remember reading about this as a teenager in the 90’s, CD-MD Toslink capabilities. I am however not surprised some earlier equivalent existed in the 80’s, Sony was (might still be, I don’t know) really a major player in the pro AV editing industry, U-matic and such, we worked with the 80’s stuff in the 90’s at school. Seems they adapted some control functions from the Pro equipment. Sony was such a cool brand!!

My favorite video of yours of all time, back on top form, very glad to see that and first watch from me in the foreground twice in one day, today, my only video of yours I wanted to watch again soon after first view. I think of all races Japanese are my favorite only because of 3 reasons- The Last Samurai movie- secondly fact Government there is basically mafia- so apologized to their people for pushing jabs etc and from stories I heard firsthand from my uncle- they generally nowadays are most decent for most part when it comes to ethics- which sprouts from The Last Samurai kind of roots, at least that story telling- I was told by my history teacher that Japan were 'bad guys' aligning with Germany- I call bull on that from my learning. And thirdly I heard from a documentary that Japanese children were incredibly smart- too smart- so the Government at the time had to step in and essentially dumb down their race, so as Greatest of all time tier lists go for engineering in sound and vision, 80s and 90s was their peak I believe from what learned in this world and I find your take most satisfying. Maybe they shouldn't have dumbed them down. I look forward to your next patreon because behind the scenes is where the magic really lies- and the happier you are the better your sarcasm. God bless Matthew.

In the 80s my brother a Sansui D-W9 twin cassette deck which when paired with a Sansui turntable like the P-L50 had similar functionality to the Sony set-up in the video, it was called Compu-Edit. Apart from the cable there was no intermediate unit required.

Going on a tagent here: My pedantic mind refuses to call ripping a CD to a MD a digital COPY. When I bought my first and only portable MD player/recorder I was actually ignorant of the fact that MDs used an lossy audio codec not unlike MP3 to store the audio data. Since this was in 2000 I assumed MDs were simply storing data more efficiently with higher density like DVDs. So an ATRAC encoded MiniDisc track has fairly good fidelity but it's not an exact copy as one would expect from a digital copy. Don't get me wrong, I happily copied plenty of napstered MP3s to MD via Toslink from my PC and never noticed any audio quality issues. As always, thanks for reading!

These kind of videos are the reason I'm a Patreon.

Great video as always, it must have been cool to have back then

Lovely video. It's great to document this technology for posterity while the equipment that supports it still (just about) works. As you said, the uptake was likely infinitesimal at the time so there are probably few people (if any) left alive who remember it.

Absolute brilliant. While I do buy mostly CDs, I sometimes get vinyls when they are way cheaper (hahaha) or when I cannot find it on cd. Nowadays I copy it to a MD (because I am afraid to do it live to a cd) but the fumbling.... I want to try to get it directly to my computer, but there is some shifting and stairs involved.

"Home taping is killing music" or it would have done if anyone else could have put together the requisite devices and cables. Now Techmoan has shown us how, the industry is doomed. :)

Loved this, it’s exactly the type of content that makes me keep being Patreon.

80’s hi-fi rabbit hole achieved! Many an audiophile video has been wasted on ‘wires’; this isn’t one of them. It nice to re-appreciate in microcosm how good Sony were.

Because this is classic TechMoan I’ve watched this three times now. Next video cassette deck repair? I know Mat is a bit reluctant on these but I’m sure he’ll record it and hopefully put it out! This remote control system also makes me think of Control A1/II that was on CD and MD decks around 1999-2001. Another Sony ‘cable’ that was frustratingly around for a short time and not on as many machines as it should have been. Maybe Mat would do a ‘cable review’ of what Control-A1 offered at some point? Here’s hoping!

Thanks for diving into this rabbit hole so I didn't have to! I think that sums up many of the videos you make. It's a nice device, now all we need is someone to adapt it to work between a phone and a tape deck so someone can make a Spotify mixtape in a very convoluted way.

I didn’t hear you mention the importance of that silence gap on the cassette, in that if played in a deck that has track skipping, it looks for that exact silence to know where tracks begin and stop on the tape.

If there's anyone who can make an engaging video about a wire, it's Mat! (And VWestlife🙂).

That was a really entertaining well done video. I never had an idea they had such advanced ways to make mixed tapes - for me it was just sitting there hitting play / stop manually, didn’t know there was any other way of doing things.

Ideas like this were where Sony really shined back then. I remember having a Sony MHC mini system in 1993 (CD player, radio, twin logic tape). It had some really clever tech for the time that I don't remember seeing on other mid range hi-fis back then. It could automatically insert a four second gap between tracks when taping from a CD after you'd programmed the tracks you wanted (the four second gap was great for my Alpine cassette car stereo which had track search, presumably why the tech in your video had that feature). In addition, if you were taping from a CD and the tape ran out mid-song, the cassette would rewind that song and record it again, and fade the track out at the end of the tape - it this all automatically without you having to select a mode or press a function button. It was a great piece of kit, with a well thought out remote control (that controlled everything, even the electronic graphic equaliser) - I loved it.

My 1980 Sony Betamax C7 machine (bought 2019-ish) also has an infra-red remote, taking a whopping four AA batteries, so again, an early Sony device to use one. Note the sliding bar to prevent you sitting on it and pressing the buttons by accident! https://ibb.co/Jj640GNn

So many times have I seen an obscure socket on the back of a device and thought "I wonder what that's for?". A sterling effort to document one such instance and awake some circuitry from 40+ years of slumber.

Top form video, Mat! Incredibly niche technology is why I pay you the big (incredibly reasonable) bucks!

Number five will make you eat your pet and spit it at the wall.

I had no idea they had this kind of tech at the consumer level. Of course just seeing a record player that you could program tracks into would have seemed like science fiction to me then. My set up was a little less impressive!

"Vinylly Working Together!"?

You, sir, are selling this motion picture short. Yes, there is a connector. Have you forgotten about the contributions made by the wire? The silver box? Sure, the mounting bracket scenes didn't make the final cut, but it did what it could. A triumph.

Great video Mat. As you said Mat, Sony were really ahead of there time. A great way to record all your favourites. I have a Sony TC-FX320 from 1985 the left channel was not working. But tonight got it out off storage. Turned it on and it worked 🤣. Sounded great too. Thanks for video Mat.

okay this one ruled, as you were sliding the box with the cassette player over i was pumping my fist and saying YES YES YES YES out loud. thanks for this perfect little thing

Thank you this is just what I enjoy.

Great video! Very interesting.

Thanking you in advance (have to watch it still)!

Great video! Love it when you said "Why would anyone be mad enough to buy a tape deck..." Only you! And it was great! More like this please

Best video about a wire ever!

Brilliant!

Love it!!! Thanks.

Onkyo with their RI cables say hello :)

That was really cool! Seeing the devices work together like that was really satisfying. My favorite bit is the 4-second record mute at the end of every track before it pauses.

I really enjoyed watching this. Sony really were the kings of making futuristic tech.

Love the title. It dares me to watch the video 😛

Ooh the TC-FXs are cheap on YJA, including the TC-FX6C which is the same as the FX6 but with Dolby Type C as an option (moving the MPX Filter control to the back). I might actually pick one up because of that remote control wire; if we could hook it up to a computer... (Unless there's a reason not to get this line for preservation/archival purposes?)

Your closing monologue about how ridiculous this video is gets at the heart of your channel for me: many of us, myself included, would be fascinated to try recording a record-to-cassette compilation automatically like this, but wouldn't find the time or money to purchase all the bits of kit to do it. But you would, so that the rest of us can satisfy our curiosity. You're doing God's work, Mat! 😄

I consciously misread the title as "Proudly made without AI", which is a sign of quality these days. Other than that, I really enjoyed the video. Quirky, offbeat pieces of technology. That's what I'm here for.

This kind of advanced old technology is the reason I'm a patreon here 😃. Even in my youth in the 1980s and still in the early 1990s this kind of stuff was so cool! Such a record player is still on my want-list... And my hands are itching to repair that cassette deck, but fortunately, the owner of a little café here around the corner collects old hifi equipment for decoration, and he asked me to repair some stuff 😃.

I'm curious about this kind of thing too, so I'm pleased that I'm helping to contribute to these experiments. I never get tired of seeing how innovative Sony were.

Was interesting to see what those sockets that you often knew were there, but ignored on the back of old units, actually did.

Have we enjoyed it? You bet we have. Back to classic TechMoan and some decent hifi kit. CD, MD, vinyl and cassette - something for everyone. Love ya!

The thing about those AI “Craptube” abominations that are deluging YT is they’re so easy to spot. They all sound so “clever,” but all sound the same. I’ll admit, I’ve been lured into a few of them, but as soon as I realize it’s “AI Craptube,” I thumbs-down the sucker, and find me some Techmoan.

Hahaha I love the video and it made me laugh. Thanks again Mat

The stuck meter on the cassette deck is very likely due to dirty contacts on the internal record/playback switch. Spraying some Deoxit into the switch on the circuit board inside should fix it, but sometimes even just repeatedly triggering the record button will scrape away enough of the oxidation to make it work properly again.

"Junky plastic record player and a cheap cassette deck"?! More desirable than anything I own.

You mean you're giving it a title that simply states what the video is about?! You've gone mad, sir!

Now to see if this actually works to your benefit and makes you even more rant-y in the future Oddcast 😂❤️

Yes but will the connector win me a free iPhone? 😂