Sony’s New Cassette Boombox
When I found out that Sony had launched a new cassette player in Japan, I felt it was my duty to try it out. So in this video, that’s exactly what you’ll see, in addition to a comparison against the most recent model Sony sells in the UK. I hope you enjoy it.
Comments (36)
Just so you know, my other half lost a mouthful of tea over your drug taking admission, and is now a big fan. Keep up the impromptu comedy moments :)
I often forget to include the ludicrous/surreal/nonsensical stuff amongst all the tech business. I’ll try my best to remember this in future, thanks.
Pretty much the best Muppet segment ever... Can't wait for that/those episodes.
<a href="https://goo.gl/images/yoAHY1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://goo.gl/images/yoAHY1</a>
Hi ... do you want a SONY COMPACT DISC + MINIDISC DECK model MXD-D40?
Unfortunately I wouldn't get any use out of it because it duplicates components I already have, but thanks for the offer.
Amstrad CPC forever! (I'll just get me coat...)
The Japanese one looks perfect for playing Peter Gabriel above my head like John Cusack in 'Say Anything'. 😀
Very nice thumbnail for this one. How long did you have to hold that pose?
Some people had pointed out that my video thumbnails often don't inspire viewing, and when I saw the picture I'd taken of two pretty much featureless black plastic boxes that I was planning to use I'd have to agree. I thought I should hold them up for scale, put one on s shoulder to hint at the retro nature of the device and stick a tape in the top pocket as a pocket square. The photo was taken with a 5 second delay timer and this was started by a remote control you can just about see in my right hand. I just took two pictures, the first one was a bit blurry.
A fascinating and very thorough review, as always: Thank you! It is interesting just how many old tech niche photographic products are still being made new today. Cosina in Japan makes a full range of 35mm and 120 film cameras. Several smaller manufacturers offer larger sheetfilm cameras (4"x5", 8"x10") which sell to landscape photographers. Leica, Nikon and Fuji all still produce limited quantities of film cameras for us "filmosaurs". Many of the classic Kodak color films are again available now that Kodak has emerged from bankruptcy ... and the hippest directors use film stock for their feature films and music videos. And Polaroid's engineering team in the UK bought the entire film pack production line when Polaroid went under. They successfully market instant film packs under the rubric "The Impossible Project", as a nose-thumb to the finance whiz kids told them their plans were just that! All proof that quality never really goes out of demand, or out of style.
Great review, as always! I've been considering a high-quality but "practical" boombox to counter my high-quality but "impractical" one, the Sharp VZ2000 with vertical turntable, and now I'm very interested in this Japanese one. Also, I'm one of those pathetic aging geeks who thought the BlackBerry 10 devices (and operating system) that came out in 2013 (but are now dead) were about the best mobile devices ever created, and suppose I could have taken offense to the puppet dialogue were it not so damned hilarious! And then, with the Spectrum and C64 part, you just had me rolling! It's one of the funniest puppet segments you've ever released. And the cocaine comment... I'm often eating while I watch these. Luckily not tonight; it would have been a huge mess. :D Your style of reviews is the most interesting and entertaining in all of tubeland. That is why I am here.
My last Sony cassette boom box was purchased in 1993 in Calgary, Alberta. It now has a home in a kitchen in Margaret River, Western Australia. Great sound for the size, wish the new ones were a bit bigger so they could house beefier speakers. Anyway, my old unit, if it jumped into a plastic bag, might float back to Japan where it was born.
"It's cocaine! No, watcha call 'em... It's raisins." Only 8 minutes in and I know I'm settling in for another great video. I'll go watch the rest now!
Great video as always! "Yodabashi Camera" shops in Japan are 10 floors+ of electronics with a huge variety of stuff. You can see multiple "old" technologies still being sold as - a search for "cassette player" at yodabashi.com shows the player you have, plus more from Toshiba, Panasonic plus other less known brands. How do these still find a market? Many other strange devices currently only on the Japanese market that would certainly attract a Techmoan crowd! PS As a Spectrum owner, was always a bit envious of that SID chip on the C64!
"Won't be blasting any ghettos" is a great line in another excellent review. And I'm so happy the puppets are back!
As always, thanks for the video! :) And I for one appreciate that you go out of your way to find new and interesting things to present, even if they aren't items I'd buy for myself for whatever reason.
First of all the cocaine comment was hilarious. Secondly, in response to a previous comment I hope you don't do a behind the scene video on the puppets. Because I've seen stuff like that before and it just takes away "the magic" from the final product. Some things are better left unknown.
You're right and I've said before that I will never do a behind the scenes on the puppets...for one it would just be embarrassing and secondly it would kill the whole thing dead in an instant. Then again, if I ever want to stop doing those segments, that's one way that's guaranteed to make everyone lose interest in them for good.
Great video. I would definitely buy that newer Sony unit if it were for sale in the USA.
Its great seeing another one of my favourite YouTuber supporting another... :)
Thanks for another Great Video :) Also love the putty banter at the end, Hope you do a behind the scene of the puppets for Patreon Supporters :)
I couldn't do a BTS on those scenes...no one wants to see a middle aged man rolling around on the floor doing silly voices.
Why was the volume defaulted to 11? Actually the answer has already been proven to be 11. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edGoKWrCOjI" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edGoKWrCOjI</a>
Very nice and solid episode! I've added a comment on youtube regarding the out of stock tapes. I'm currently working on getting reprints of the existing two, as well as making a Retro Grooves Vol. 2. It just takes a substantial amount of investments first since I'm looking at buying cassettes for $1500+ and also composing some new tracks that won't be released other places so that the cassettes will be a little more interesting to buy. I'd also like to point out that the track you chose to showcase the decks, is one of the ones I struggled a little bit with the mix. The original track is too sharp and has too much high frequencies in the 2,5 - 6kHz range so it can sound harsh pretty much on every device. It was rushed a little since I composed in 48 hrs during a little competition we had on Facebook back in 2014. So I was very tired when mixing it close to the deadline and it suffered somewhat there. However, I must say that it does come off pretty decent on tape, so I guess that just shows that analogue tape does warm up and soften the sound pretty well. :)
Funnily enough I chose that track because it was nice and clean - no pitch bending that could be mistaken for tape speed issues, and no whooshing or hissing type effects that could be mistaken for tape noise. It did the job. Ideally I'd have chosen a simple acoustic piano track with no effects and perhaps a clean vocal on top. I've got plenty of suitable things on tape (Bruce Hornsby, Billy Joel, Elton John) - but nothing I could use.
Very good review. When you mentioned about playing cd's and mp3's in the car, it hit me that I have never played a cd in my four year old vehicle, and have no idea if the player even works. Time is certainly flying by in giant chunks now, scary.
I'm expecting a few people to argue this point - but I'm with you. It's the first MP3 CD I've burned in a decade...and even before then I'd only done it a couple of times to try it out.
I'm wondering...is it possible that the "UK version" radio might not have been initially designed for the UK and is trying to tune in the frequencies ever-so-slightly off? Never a problem in the old analog tuning days...
I don't think so, it tunes to every frequency (it's not skipping any) - its just a weak tuner.
Awesome! I was actually doing the same thing only a month or two ago - looking on Japanese auction sites like Buyee to import one of their cassette player models, but I ended up buying a Panasonic model (RX-D55) from an American website which seems to be have the best specifications in terms of speaker quality, and it definitely doesn't feel cheap when you pick it up. The only thing I really dislike about it is that the styling is truly awful - very bulbous and fat, very late 90s-early 2000s. That new Japanese Sony model you've showed is a lot nicer. One thing that should be mentioned - most of these modern machines will state that they will only play Type 1 cassette tapes in the owners manual. I think my Panasonic one mentions that in the owner's manual, and I think the manual for the CFD-S70 did as well when I was looking at it online.
Indeed, there's a section about tape compatibility at around the 18:35 point.
Bugger! I let my mother in law buy the Sony UK machine yesterday.
Best Mangle? I'd watch that ;)
Great video! Aren't people tired of pointing out the obvious things anymore? I can't believe you have to shoot them down in the beginning. They're sad people. And I've just recently returned from Japan. They are still selling blank cassettes EVERYWHERE. Not just the 60/90 minute ones, they've even got 10, 20, 30 and 40 minute cassettes. I don't understand why. They've got players like this everywhere too.
Unfortunately I've found unless I state the mind numbingly obvious then I'll be inundated with questions about things I just assumed everyone knew. Yes it seems like something is going on in Japan with cassettes - I wonder if any of my Japanese viewers could elaborate further as to what's driving it.