My personal stereo story

Sorry for late comment, I have fallen behind on your videos, loved this one - very nostalgic, I did the same for my first cheap stereo. Should you ever decide you do not want those House cassettes… that’s exactly my bag, so id buy them off you!

I remember listening to Piccadilly Radio in the 80s then Key 103. Apparently, the FM/MW split happened in 1988: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Hits_Radio_Manchester_%26_The_North_West

Thank you, I’m with you when it comes to the nostalgia of that first important stereo, that gateway into music as a teenager. It’s so lovely to hear your memories and the passion you still have for it. Mine was the Panasonic RX-DS45, a few years later. I’ve since bought another one, and although it isn’t the one I originally had, the pleasure I get from it is enormous. What joy we get from buying what we couldn’t afford back in the day! All the very best.

What a lovely video. I did something similar at around the same time as you but with techno and rave. I recently got hold of some of my old childhood cassettes and didn't think too much of it. I'll take time to revisit them now. Thanks for a very lovely watch mate. Ps, do feature your cat in more videos 😊 All the best

thanks Matt! What you describe is what happened to me in the late 80ies when listening to the late, late evening show "Grenzwellen" on RadioFFN, by Ecki Stieg. That was not the normal hot rotation or "best of", but this DJ's heart project (who was doing that popular day program too, for the money)

As soon as Mat said a distant radio station I knew it would be Stu Allen on Key 103. A rite of passage for many in the north west if England at that time. Manchester seemed so far away and exotic, never mind the records that were coming from across the Atlantic!

I loved this video. 😊 It was great to hear the story behind the reason why you often feature hip-hop music in your videos. Interesting how much a radio show would form our taste in music back in the day. Here in Sweden there was a show called "Rakt över Disc" from 80:s to the early 90:s that played contemporary disco, funk, pop and dance music, sometimes with special 12" mixes (some which I recorded to tape) and some of those individual tracks have been quite a detective work to figure out which particular mix or remix were played. My 'pandemic project' was to digitize all my cassette tapes (took around 6 months). I too was also shazam:ing a lot of the songs in the process. 😄 Anyway, really enjoyed the video!

Splendid. Thanks for taking us along on the trip.

Should this not be called " My personal personal stereo story" ?

I'm catching up in a strange order after a week away so just got to this, I've always wondered how you got into hip hop so that was brilliant.

We are about the same age and this resonates so much I did the same sadly didn't keep them. The "boomboxes"of that era we so good as were the CD versions that followed I wish I got a similar sized unit for my first CD player and it sounded so good and had all the features you could ask for CD, Twin Tape Decks, Radio etc.

I like all your videos but I especially love these with 80's and 90's audio/video equipment since these were my formative years in this respect (I was born in 1969). So, great work on this one and I am truly looking forward to the follow-up video/-s about the other two models in this range that you've got.

I’ve still got my first boom box I bought with my first wages in my first job at 16 , a Sharp twin tape with the X bass subwoofer, it was on one of the pages showing the different boom boxes available at the same time. I got it back 1989 in the UK and have it here in Australia, it’s very dusty but not sure if it works

Ah, TDK SA! I loved those tapes, nothing sounded as good for the money plus you could buy them in multipacks from Boots for about a fiver (yes youngsters, Boots the Chemist used to have an electrical section!) I once tried the more expensive TDK SA-X but there didn't seem to be much (if any) of an improvement and it was significantly more expensive.

JVC were really underrated at the time, possibly because their designs didn't shout at you unlike other brands. I had a JVC personal stereo with (I think) a 4 band SEA graphic equaliser (what did the SEA stand for?) In an era when personal stereos emblazoned all their features in large letters everywhere and were in bright colours, the JVC was in a matt rubberised grey with small text. It didn't even have a cassette viewing window! It didn't shout about its features, and yet it could have done because it had Dolby, chrome, the aforementioned 4 band EQ, auto reverse, anti-rolling, and, best of all, 2 headphone sockets with a power output twice as high as any other personal stereo. It sounded fantastic. Later on in the early 2000s I got a part time job at Comet and decided to buy my sister a new hi-fi for Christmas with my discount. There were lots to choose from as you'd imagine back then, but the best for my money (£150) was a JVC UX-P555. 50 watts RMS per channel, a decent tuner with RDS, a drawer-loading CD player (unusual at that price level), a cassette deck with soft-touch logic controls and auto reverse, full remote control that did everything, and 2 really nicely made speakers with removable grills and a decent amount of weight to them. It sounded really good, with a bit of messing about with the sound settings it wasn't far off the sound of the Denon separates that I had at the time. It's a shame that the JVC brand is now just a name to stick on cheap Chinese stuff, there was a time though when JVC just quietly got on with making excellent products. If they were a car maker, they'd be Saab.

For me, I grew up, listening to alternative pop radio in the US on my sister‘s pink stereo with her. But as a teenager, I had an alarm clock radio that I can still picture today. I started listening to the local rock station and got into grunge from the 90s and eventually metal from the 80s. That same alarm clock radio is what I recorded my first song on playing drums while my friend played guitar, recording on an old cassette that had been used many times.

1995: Everyone gets into Britpop. Also 1995: I'm the one discovering German experimental electronic music from the 1970s. Wir sind die Roboter.

In the late 80s, I started recording Tommy Boyd's Sunday night phone-in show on Southern Sound FM (long defunct), based near Brighton. UK Patrons of my age will know Boyd best from Children's ITV. He used to co-host this show with a lady called Nicky Keig-Shevlin. I've at least two of these shows kept, one in particular is the New Years Eve 1989 show into the new decade, so I have it on record that the last song I heard during the 1980s was Europe's The Final Countdown, and the first of the 1990s was, 1999 by Prince. Guess it's the closest they had. The SECOND song of the 1990s I heard was a hip-hop mix of "Donald, Where's Your Troosers" by Andy Williams. I kid you not... https://youtu.be/x5Gd2MQKQuw?is=jXEd9NzQ5Cvfemgk Roll forward to around 2023 and Tommy and Nicky reunited on an Internet-only station to revive the show. He sounding much older, her not in the slightest! Nearly emailed in to ask what state the original show's archive was in, and would they like copies of these two 80s shows, but I just thought I'd get ridiculed or something, so didn't bother!

Lovely video Mat, whilst I don't have the same attachment to any bit of hifi for me it was my first ZX Spectrum. I still have it, although it doesn't work anymore but that doesn't matter - a number of times i'd get the computer out and either pretend to type a program or play an imagery game of match day on it. Fortunately I have a number of working devices to reminisce, but the touch and feel of the old worn out rubber keys brings it all back.

My own *first* boom box was some horrible Sounddesign I bought in the 7th grade with my farming money. But I graduated to a JVC PC-X100 at some point and I too went out to get it again. Same black, gold, and red design language. Love it to death and it sits up on a shelf for looking at. https://www.icollector.com/JVC-PORTABLE-CD-SYSTEM-PC-X100_i50421066

wow didn't realise how hip you were back then (and still are!)

Pure, real, honest and extremely enjoyable to watch. Perfect!

Great video, yep it’s funny how we can remember our first proper hifi. I’m trying to resist getting my first tape deck (Akai CS-34D… 😂) it wasn’t particularly good but to me it looked great. Oh and I absolutely loved my Trio KA-1500, KT5300 and Wharfedale Glendales too! The missus just doesn’t get it 🙄

Bees Knees! ❤️

Wonderful video that shows the reason we all love old tech. It wasn’t the greatest stuff but it was ours and that is all that matters. Please do more of this format. More cat too!

That is indeed the Tanashin TN-21 mechanism in the JVC, and if you want to fix the pause button, see my aptly named video "This cassette deck repair should give you pause".

Awwww, yes! I had this one as well, and as you had it in some previous video, I went searching for it in my mum’s place and… we found it, so I took it with me and now “lives” here. I need to give it some TLC, but it deserves it. Lots of memories!

Amen brother. I am of course referring to the drum break 😊 I had a Saisho stereo that was a lower grade but similar configuration system with detachable speakers, and strangely a record player above on a stand.

This is a lovely video. It has brought me back to the haptic memories of my philips micro system. When I left my parents house, my father got rid of lots of my stuff, including that stereo. It was basic, no dolby and single cassette, but cd and graphic equaliser. I remember the noise it made when spinning them cds up...

Interesting about you using this as your “tape deck” for a separates system. I used my old ghetto blaster as my tuner when I upgraded to separates in 1988. Kenwood Amp, AIWA Adf360 tape deck and Goodmans Maxim II speakers. Amazingly the speakers are all that’s left, and are used for sound when watching TV in our lounge hooked up to an AV Receiver.

Loved hearing this story. Great memories Mat. It was very interesting. Brilliant video

I love this kind of Techmoan nostalgia video.

Some people (if this was on YouTube) would probably complain about Mat rambling, but I also started work in the mid 80's and my preferred music genre was hard rock. I had a minimum wage office job and an Aiwa personal cassette player for a few years, until I could afford hi-fi separates ( a NAD amp, B&W speakers and a record player (I can't remember what it was now).

The closest I have to a proper boombox is a JVC from the early '90s with "Super Bass Horn". Unfortunately it lacks a line input.

Still got my gran and grandads original 80's boombox from the 80's, sounds terrible now by modern standards, but heard so many songs for tge 1st time back in the 80's on it and was what we recorded the radio on when we was often there back then, remember grandad dubbing his records on it too.

This was a wonderful video, with optimum levels of kitty. I know this is unrealistic, so to be clear I do not have the gall to actually ask you to do it, but I sure would love to listen to those mix tapes if they were digitized and put online. I don't know much about hip hop at all, but every once in a while, you'll use a hip hop album for something, and I've always ended up liking them. Dr. Octagon is a big example. It might be one of my favorite albums now, and I found him through you!

I really enjoyed this video.

“Don’t be Cruel” by Bobby Brown is still one of my favorite albums of all time. Every song is a banger.

Super interesting video topic. Same ask as Randy on a playlist or even a straight tape upload. Would be super, super interested in the house being played over there during that time.

This one really has really touched me. Thanks. I'm just a few years older than you, so my "first JVC" was purchased in the summer of 1983. It was very similar to yours (speakers could be separated, graphic EQ, etc.) but mine had a single auto-reverse deck and it was your favorite SILVER finish! I added a smallish JVC phono. I took it to university where I scored a job as a DJ for campus club and frat parties (Technics SL-1200 turntables and other equipment financed by my wealthy roommate). Thanks for bringing back those fond memories. I wonder what website you use to find all of your old catalogs and manuals? I would love to track down my old JVC.

Loved the video, Mat. My second stereo system was a JVC dual-cassette boombox, bought about a year after I got suckered into a "mug's eyeful" system from Yorx. Mine was the PC-W88, and I think I bought it in 1985 or '86. I also can't remember where I bought mine. It was probably either Service Merchandise, which is a now defunct catalog showroom, or Howard Griffin Sound Center, a long-gone local hi-fi shop. https://i.postimg.cc/nLJ0pw1C/JVC-PC-W88.png Unfortunately, I do know what became of mine. It was stolen out of my tent while I was on a camping trip a couple of years after I bought it.

I might be wrong, but on your unit the speaker seems to be that kind where the extra tweeter is put in front of the woofer's center cone. At least that's what i can depict through the grille. Btw this was a nice trigger to go down memory lane. I have some early digital photos from the 2000s where I still had my tape deck, and Google Lense helped me identify it. It was a Sanyo Mw227LO. Pretty basic, but same story, it was my entry into listening to my own music on my own terms :)

I ditched all the cassettes I'd recorded off the radio a few years ago with all the house moves because I didn't want to become a hoarder. I really regret it.

Words can not describe how much I love this video. Thanks so much, it really made me think about my own stereo story and my journey through hi-fi with my first ever boombox, an Aiwa from 1994 that I can't remember the model number for. From that point onwards, boomboxes have been my most enjoyable way of listening to music.

Were the speakers in your unit upgraded? It appears they are 2 way coaxial units instead of full range these seemed to come with.

The only way this video could’ve been better is if the stereo was broken and we got to watch you try to fix it for 3 hours 😄

Fantastic mat, really enjoyed that, my history is very similar, but with a smaller, cheaper JVC and John Peel, and Peter Easton's 'Rock on Scotland' on radio Scotland, also still have all the tapes..

I love tapes. You played 3 tracks from my favourite album "he's the DJ I'm the rapper" released on cassette and vinyl, I've got the vinyl. Edited for cd to fit on one cd but recently released as full album on cd again. What do you use to clean your heads/ rollers please mat?

Before you pointed it out I was thinking about the quite appealing black, red and gold of that JVC - I'm not a huge fan of the 1980s black plastic music device, and that's before getting to the excessively large text so much had, but this is rather a good-looking machine. The shot of the cassettes laid out immediately triggered the part of my memory associated with Panini football stickers in schools - I had to pause so I could look through the collection while repeating the classic litany of, "got, got, need, got, need", which made me smile. Thanks for the video, Mat - I really enjoyed the... ramble? That sounds potentially dismissive or reductive, but that's certainly not what I mean. Let's go with storytelling. It reminds me of your MicroMV and Me video. Thank you for the tale.

Mat pulls out huge cabinet of recorded tapes, we can only make one conclusion: He was a major contributor to the creation of the recordable media tax...

This video is the essence of the entire Techmoan video genre: Mat reminiscing about old stereo gear that he couldn't afford then, but now he can and shares it all with us--and we all love it.😀 I was never a hip-hop fan, but due to being in the US Army from 1988-1992, I was around a lot of people who listened to it, so I at least learned a bit and found that I enjoyed some of it, especially in that classic period that coincides with Mat's own musical history.

I have a playlist of late 70s and early 80s hip-hop [correction, mostly early 80s]. Reminds me that time it was becoming popular here in the UK, and of trips to the fairground with girlfriends (yes, there was more than one (not at the same time), and no, they weren't imaginary). Are we allowed to share playlist links here? I'd like to see what other people were into in the late 70s to early 90s.

Excellent video. This is why I love buying and acquiring job-lots of cassettes, trying to piece together how people's musical tastes evolved over the years, using the age of the tapes as a guide to when they recorded them. Interesting super-slow zoom and slight pan near the end. Was that just to centre the subject, or is it some pro technique to maintain viewer interest?

I've only been able to watch half of the video. I am imagining a young Mat at around 16 years old using his well-earned wages to purchase this and then burning the midnight oil (or 10pm oil) to make recordings. It must have been a high point in the day - waiting to see what new music was yet to be heard. I'm looking forward to watching the 2nd half. Take care 🤍

Unfortunately Stu Allan is no longer with us. It's just coming up to the 4th anniversary since he passed away.

I am somewhat older - First job 1969 - Sansui AU101, Garrard SP25, Wharfdale Denton speakers. Kept it for a long time adding AKAI D4000 reel-to-reel in 1972.

Lots of cat 😻😻😻 There is always something special on using the equipment you grew up with. This thing has a nice 1980s look to it. The cassette mech looks surpringly like my mom's last stereo, an Akai, I think we bought it in the early 1990s. And that had the same trick with the tape type selector: for playback only (120/70 µs equalisation), the manual said explicitly only to use Normal (Type I) tapes for recording... How much did we know back then, we also used TDK SA many times, they were simply good and affordable! Now I know about the bias and what happens when it was wrong: you'll get a brighter sound and some more distortion, maybe it still sounds better than cheap Type I cassettes?

I'm about 5 years younger than you, but my music taste is a lot older. I got a cheap boombox for Christmas 1985 (a Sharp QT-27) but I rarely made recordings on it as none of the music on the radio stations I could find was stuff I actually wanted to listen to - oddly for someone born in 1975 I liked 50s and 60s music, and that seemed to be regarded as old hat in the mid 80s. I actually believed all pop/rock music was terrible until I first heard Buddy Holly in 1986. It was only later on, I think 1989-90, when I started recording stuff off the radio. I found out that for some reason my local independent station (Signal Radio in Stoke) played the good old stuff after midnight presumably as filler, and I filled up a good few Memorex dBS 60s with 50s and 60s songs at that time (too impecunious for TDKs or Sonys). All gone now, sadly, as I got a CD player in 1994 and by that point other 60s music than the Beatles had started to be reissued.

I can't even remember the name of mine. It was a Sony (early Sony obsession) and it has a CD and cassette player. I had long "given up" on cassettes for CDs thinking they were the future. I do remember that I had a terrible accident with it - it feels backwards and hit the hard floor and broke the PCB where the power supply went in - luckily I had a friend handy with a soldering iron (the only advantage in being a physicist (LOL)). He fixed it for me and it gave me years and years of service, I can't imagine a modern one lasting that long. I have no idea what happened to it. But it did take me a long time to get into separates because I was a student for so long that my life was on hold while I waited until I had a job. (Didn't ever work out - but that's another story … sigh!). Lovely cat btw - I dream of finding one just like that.

Marvelous video and a strange coincidence. Around the time that you were getting into hip hop listening to Stu Allan on Piccadilly Radio from possibly outside the area, I was 'istening to Mike Allen on Capital radio on Friday and Saturday nights, where he'd have his hip hop show. Capital, in London, was way out of reach for me on the South Coast but I put up a big aerial, and like you, would tape the shows and enjoy music of not years anywhere else. When you started talking about Stu Allan I though my memory was going, it's Mike Allen surely! Seems both Allan / Allen's had a similar show on different commercial stations in the 80s. https://hiphopradioarchive.org/browse/shows/Capital+Rap+Show+%28Mike+Allen%29/

You should make some Playlists of those cassettes! 🤞

Great video, my own history and taste in music were a bit similar back then 😃👍🏻

I haven't watched the video, yet I'm going to say it: Cat. Any cat, Bees Knees, or otherwise should be voted.

Cat

Very nice change of pace, this video. Put me right back into that time when music seemed at the same time less serious, more creative, and more authentic...

Cat.