Oddcast April 2026

Maybe u could use the glitter as body glitter, give your vids a refresh, add in some twerking & ur set!

Regarding your emails seemingly 'disappearing', have you checked to see if they're getting spam filtered? E.g. setting up test email accounts on different providers to send messages to, or asking your existing contacts if they've received your mail into their junk folders. Spam filters seem to be overly aggressive these days. They don't solely work based on the content of the message; I suspect if your address gets "flagged" on back-end reputation lists (for whatever reason, and whether rightly or wrongly), then many email providers will simply just drop or filter your messages. I had to change my main email from a Microsoft one to gmail a few years ago when I got a bunch of new contacts, and it became essential that we all received each others messages. Around half of my contacts were either receiving my mail into their junk folders, or just not getting them at all. Issue stopped when I changed to gmail.

last year you got me hooked on Wheelie Yellow, now you got me hooked on Bangers & Cash. thanks for the unintentional recommendations.

NAD M3 have 8 inputs and rec out

Hi Mat - Re that clever strap for your iPhone. What does the bead connect to? There’s no provision on my 17 Pro Max to add anything on the bottom! Or are you using a case

Love your Oddcasts 🤩

the setup of this glitter lamp is getting a bit out of control, at least in my eyes. Swapping the glitter and installing a dimmer: o.k. but needing to preheat it at full steam for at least 10 minutes, then shake it, then dim it down for filming: That's quite an ordeal for only one of a dozen different backdrop gimmicks.

On the 'metal-tape-harvesting' episode: back when while watching it, I thought to myself: That's a bold move to straight ignore all the fuzz about that nasty Lafayette guy. But i did not expect that those cult people would backfire in a meaningful way. Anyway: hats off!

Thanks for this and all you do. Can you please (again) drop a link to your 2nd YouTube channel? 🙏🏽

Raising a glass to you, for your health news! My mother who refers to you as "that nice man" will be very pleased!

About the glitter lamp: have you considered putting a black/dark backing behind it, for better contrast?

Yes, dental implants are nightmares. My father was a dentist, and I remember the profound horror when I saw a diagram of one, flipping through one of his magazines as a child. Glad your health concerns are resolved!

Regarding slots (one-armed bandits in the old vernacular), I was in Vegas in the late 1990s and saw a guy (in a cordoned-off section of a casino) pump $1000 tokens into an oversized machine for a couple of minutes or so. He lost nine grand while I watched, and then he slunk away.

Hi Mat. I'm gonna be a hypocrite here, having said just last week how I appreciate you not doing YouTube Shorts. However, when watching the bit in today's Oddcast about difficult to categorise items you'd like some way to collate into a publishable show, I thought: why not put such items into one-minute Shorts? You could collate the Shorts once a month for us Patreon hardnut refuseniks, so we're not missing anything *and* get some of those pesky non-conformist products you've paid for out of the way?

Glad you got the all-clear ☺️

Haven't finished the Oddcast but I had to jump in on the subject of recording over found tapes. I couldn't resist taking a listen first. It's socially acceptable eavesdropping! When I first began driving, there was no radio in the car, so I put a boombox in the backseat. My mom took the car for a drive, and managed to hit the record button. Her whole trip was recorded, and I listened to the whole damn thing, hoping it caught her calling another driver a rude word. No such luck. But it was entertaining none the less.

Didn't finish watching this one until late last (Tuesday) night and only this morning was able to read through all the comments. An hour-and-a-half Oddcast--just the way I like 'em! Agree with your thoughts on the widespread irresponsible use of AI generated images and videos. There should be controls on something that powerful. It's just like it is here in the US with easy access to firearms--no matter if most folks are responsible, there are enough irresponsible people that are causing great harm. Not only is it good to find that you didn't have liver cancer, it's interesting to find out what caused the anomalies on the scans in the first place. A wise decision on the T-shirt design. Even though you are an International Superstar™️ that design should have broader appeal.

Fully with you on the t-shirt thing Mat, it used to be that I didn't look good without my t-shirt on (to loosely quote Tim Minchin) but these days I don't with a t-shirt on too, I prefer as many layers as possible which I feel is better for everyone! Oh and those AI videos, 100% agree - I first noticed it when I was searching YT for videos about the Suzuki Jimny, I found many videos about the "new Jimny" which featured different looking vehicles which were completely fabricated as there is no "new Jimny". One had 550k views! Ars Technica also ran an article about how some channels create "fake AI movie trailers" featuring big movie stars for films that don't exist. The only reason surely is for ad revenue, I agree with you that AI video creation should not be available to the masses. On a positive note, loved the update video and the amp repair stuff. I have an Onkyo A-9010 which has 6 inputs (4xRCA, 1x2.5mm and a dedicated phono) and a line-out although no tape monitor. When looking at recent amps that don't require a mortgage I don't remember seeing many with that many inputs.

Lovely oddcast as always! Hoped you would give some insight into what device you used in the GF777 video to make the camera go up and down. Could you share that? Or is it like a magician with a magic trick?

I was eventually able to view the Oddcast. • The metal t-shirt is phenomenal. • Orangutan? Is that why your nickname is 'monkey boy'? (phrase stolen from a prior video). • I am not surprised in the least that glitter was found 25 years later. I'm also delighted to think you contrived a glitter bomb to conclude partying like it's 1999. • AI is getting really creepy. One day I thought, what if I had a good photographer for my school pictures? Resulted in these: https://ibb.co/gZMR5hHY https://ibb.co/BKT9LHTZ https://ibb.co/PZ4mhYs7 I was both impressed and disgusted. On the other hand I used elements of both Canva and AI to create this graphic: https://ibb.co/KjdVJxRQ I'm conflicted. But I do agree in the hands of despicable people it's very insidious. • I really enjoyed the bit about repairing the amp. Sony missed a potential upselling point for MicroMV, had it not been the rise of the internet. A perfect little videotape that could be mailed overseas, much like those reel-to-reel tapes for family members. Take care. 🤍

The near-miss effect in slot machines is intentional, designed to trick players into mistaking a game of chance for a game of skill. So far so obvious. Unfortunately, many people are susceptible to this, and the fact that game publishers employ the same mechanics in smartphone games for kids is a sad reality. Regarding the inflationary use of AI, I'm more concerned about how this dilutes everything from education, to art, to engineering. Of course, fakes are a problem, too. But even before generative AI was commonly available, being exposed to manufactured content to spin things a certain way was not exactly uncommon. You never knew for sure if you were conversing online with an ordinary person, a professional troll or a bot of some sort. I could be a bot, too ;)

Great ODDCAST Mat, If only all hi-fi gear could be fixed with a good few squirts of deoxit. Good you could save your Amplifier.

That book is definitly brainwashing. As some who can still remember songs from sunday school 45 years ago, repeat crap enough is peak brainwashing. Look at Murica and their pledge of allegiance... brainwashing. AND glitter is the herpes of the art world.

I also watched the Wild Gunman content, more so as I remembered the name form BTTF2, and did see your comment there which surprised me admittedly! But it was a very well made video and it intrigued me as it was using a projector system and reels too. I hadn't played it but thought it was a very well designed system of playing whichever reel depending on the outcome of the gunfight did etc. PS - can you pick me up some Irn Bru - Ice Cream flavour, from Spar, thanks Mat! 👍

I regret not subscribing to the patreon earlier, I really love all the bonus content. I also have a question regarding the Sugar Cube noise removal device - did you try playing a 78 using it, and if so, how well did it work?

My amp is a older unit than yours but equally I bought it due to the number of inputs, namely three tape loops plus the usual CD, Tuner and phono. It's an Audiolab 8000A. I bought it used about 30 years ago and I love it. It's still going fine although did have a much needed service a few years ago which was mostly someone else cleaning the pots and checking the caps were still in spec.

Thanks for the new TV suggestion, I do tend to really love UK car shows even though I am in Canada, I like Car SOS, Wheeler Dealers, Top Gear, Fifth Gear, etc.

AI, please generate a video of Techmoan riding his Honda Trike.

I wonder if the “do you have a link to buy this” comments are from spam bots. I’ve seen that in replies on social media - “someone” will ask where you can buy a t-shirt or something and “someone else” will reply with a link to a site. Maybe YouTube is picking up on the obvious spam link and deleting it, but not the more innocuous-seeming question designed to make the link seem more legit?

You may not consider yourself to be much of a popular youtuber, but amongst anyone who has interest in vintage tech, you're well regarded as one of the few thorough, sober-minded video makers. There's not much of that to be found amongst an ocean of sellouts yelling at the screen, aggressively zooming in, spelling out every word, or cutting to movie clips.

Isn't the volume control in the amplifier a rotary (angle) pulse encoder with two switch contacts inside for up and down. One of the contacts wasn't working correctly which explains that up worked but down did not. There are youtube videos on how to take them apart to see the two switches inside. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog1573-teardown-how-a-rotary-(angle)-pulse-encoder-works/

If you're going to Spar, I'll have some Buckfast.

Well, if you ever run out of old audio formats, just let AI make up something. How about the 9-track cartridge or the reel-to-reel-to-reel tape recorder? 😄

Who knows about Bumpboxx but in their VIP WhatsApp thread they do call out Techmoan specifically as somebody who will be receiving a review unit. It looks like they're waiting to send you a unit from the first run of production.

The glitter advice is timely. I've just bought a couple of v-i-n-t-a-g-e Crestworth (now known as Mathmos) Astro Minis, both with very knackered looking bottles. My intention was to turn both in to glitter lamps, although to my surprise I was actually able to save one of them. Crestworth/Mathmos made glitter bottles for years and theirs were, as you would expect, a cut above. The movement is slow giving the fluid an almost syruppy appearance. Glitter is much bigger too. For whatever reason they are no longer a thing, more's the pity (but if you fancy one in the same form factor, have a look on ebay). There's a company called Goolamp in Germany who do really fabulous looking kits, perhaps better than what even Mathmos were able to achieve, but they're expensive - kits start at €30 but minimum order value for UK shipping is €135 which is a bit of a killer. If anyone reading this wants to go splitsies on an order please reach out! Failing that I've bought a crappy glitter lamp on Vinted and I intend to do exactly what you've done. Good to see it works but not sure I'll be able to live with the glitter being top heavy.

Mushy peas.... ...thrown into the canal. I don't like peas obviously. But I will take some nice coffee if you're in the vicinity.

Yeah, can you check that they still sell corned beef and red onion sandwiches?

Onion rings please! Have you been tempted by the XGIMI Titan Noir projector Kickstarter? Very big, pretty easy to mentally justify, discounts on these and I almost went for the AWOL Vision that you're waiting on (although not so easy to verbally justify to the other half so I couldn't do it).

You're spoiling us, first the long awaited GF-777 video and now am Oddcast. What next an album of karaoke published on CD to sit alongside similar, er, music, by William Shatner?

Cornetto.

Woohoo! Thanks Mat. Will look forward getting watching this after work

Would you pick up a jar of Bovril please?