Sound Burger
This week I'm taking a look at the Sound Burger - a record player that looks like a cheap child's toy, but looks can be deceiving.
Comments (34)
Thanks for this video mat, I really enjoyed it! I don't remember this from my youth, but I do remember a red colored device, "swallowing" 7 inch records. Internet search come up with the Penny 7" player, but I'm not sure this was it. Now I remember why I thought front-loading CD-ROM players in iMacs where cool. BTW: enjoy your well deserved holiday.
Maybe I'm a bit late for the party but anyway: The phono cartridge on the "Sound Burger" looks very much like the common "middle class" design that AT has been using for decades and is still using now. Which is another interesting point... they could have used an entry-level cartridge like an AT-91, AT-3600, AT-95 etc. which would still beat the one on the Skywin-based turntables given that they're proper MM cartridges. But they did in fact use the higher quality cartridge body which probably means you could fit something like an AT-440 or AT540VM replacement needle which has a nude diamond stylus with a microline shape... which would be crazy for a machine like this :-) I have no need for one of these machines nor would I play my records on one, but I am impressed by the quality of this gadget. Techmoan - buying obscure and interesting things so we don't have to :-)
I love the headphones warning at 9:35 - I wonder if anyone has ever ended up with their headphones lead tangled up in a record player mechanism.
Who on earth would stoop so low as to knock off a Crosley ... !?
And did you notice how the models were dressed to match the record-players ;-)
I'm actually surprised they didn't include a basic speaker in them so you could use it without headphones (like at a beach party). But wow, a pretty nifty tech to see fixed and working.
Crosley used that infamous existing Skywin turntable mechanism on all of their cheapo suitcase players. I don't think they had anything to do with the design of it...just the design of the case and maybe the electronics. This looks like some kind of attempt to adapt the Skywin design to a new form factor. Clearly it failed.
As bad as your review of the Crosley was, my experience was actually worse. I've never heard such a dramatic wow/flutter issue with anything I've owned. Unbearable with 45rpm records. I opened it up, tried various things to improve it...nothing worked. Cheap motor, cheap platter and bad assembly. Mine also had that motor noise. What was even worse was the RF function that they used to include so you could transmit to an FM radio. It was beyond bad! Just a bunch of over-modulated noise. Terrible machine. AND I WANTED TO LIKE IT!
If yours and mine are both original (not knock-off) machines, they should be ashamed of themselves.
btw a teensy correction that I forgot to mention last time you measured a tracking force; the 'T' on the balance stands for Tare not Tally. Tare zeros out the weight already on the weighing platform. Apologies for pedantry!
Thanks - someone mentioned on the other video where I said the same thing, but I'd already uploaded this video by then, so now there's two with the same problem. By the way, how do you pronounce Tare - is it like Tear?
Hmm... I seem to have fallen off of the credits, been a Patreon since March 2017 except for the Pateron-apocalypse when I had to shut everything down until they fixed their platform. Could you have a look for me?
I must apologise. There were so many people disappeared or changed their pledges at that point that a couple of errors crept in. Unfortunately I've already completed, uploaded and embedded all the videos for the next month in anticipation of my upcoming holidays, so the first opportunity for me to show updated credits is around the 19th of April. I'd recommend dropping your donation down in the time being, sorry about that. I never expected to be looking after such a long list - I thought it would have twenty or so names on it.
The Emerson Wondergram Portable Turntable looks interesting :)
Highly entertaining!
I always wanted one of these. Now I STILL want one!
Awesome video, Mat!
I was given a Sound Burger (with the Mister Disc branding) as a Christmas gift by my parents when I was a kid. (They must’ve been much cheaper here in the States, or else there was a good sale.) I loved the hell out of mine, and it got dusted off and used again when I was in college and I wanted to get back into vinyl. It did the trick for a while, but eventually I ran into the same problem with just playing a bit too fast. It must’ve been a design flaw with the whole product line.
Great video. Considering the quality of the Crosley, I tend to think it's a knockoff. I mean, that motor noise coming through the audio is something no self-respecting company would allow, but that's exactly the type of thing I'd expect from a cheap Chinese knock-off manufacturer because they do ever sort of cost cutting in the world. They'll even leave out capacitors and all sorts of things if they think the product will still "work" without them.
I can't believe it's a real one either, there's bad and then there's unusable. I've bought cheap dashcams in the past that recorded worse video than the PXL2000 and I've seen Big Clive here on youtube take apart USB chargers that were just plain deadly. I suppose it wouldn't matter how bad your products were when you shouldn't be manufacturing them anyway. It's just a small step up from those people who order a 'new iPhone' on ebay and receive a box with a bar of soap in it.
The comments system on Patreon could definitely do with an overhaul - I've noticed I can only view 12 out of 15 comments here despite receiving emails containing the contents of the others. Just so you know that I am reading them, even if they don't appear here. UPDATE - I've just checked the IOS app and I can read them all there - it just seems to be a problem with desktop browsers (I tried Safari & Chrome).
I have had this happen before.. but the comments do eventually show up.
That was fun. Always interesting, Mat.
I had a good laugh of the mister disc ad, just the idea of some guy casually sitting on the stairs of the lecture hall prepared to sit for hours listening to his 5-6 albums that he hauled out there with him. I wonder if the 45 adapter was designed to have that additional "stabilizer" ability because the Audio Technica outdoor testers kept having their records skip from a light breeze.
I never thought about the wind problem when playing a record outdoors, but now you mention it....I bet it could get up under the disc. Perhaps not the best idea to play a record in a gale.
Lovely stuff, but how can you tell us it "closes with a nice reassuring click" without demonstrating the click? Very disappointed. Unsubscribed.
lol
Oh I’ve disappeared
Where from?
You too can own the £21 Argos Fidelity... <a href="https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fidelity-collectable-vintage-record-player-HF42/253452403237?epid=1938177365&hash=item3b02f0c225:g:hyoAAMXQ" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fidelity-collectable-vintage-record-player-HF42/253452403237?epid=1938177365&hash=item3b02f0c225:g:hyoAAMXQ</a>~6VQ8bse Someone else is selling the box only for £30. Great vid, cheers!
It may be interesting to review something like that or the cheap and cheerful music centre seen alongside it. Because they were affordable, these are what most people used. Crosley Cruisers and the like irritate me because the retro look appears to be reproducing something that never existed the first time around.
Say what you like, but despite the awful colour, that Crosley doesn't look so bad, considering it's really a size 11 shoe. Love the commentary, Mat.
Hard to say whether a Crosley knock-off is better or worse than a real one, eh? Good review. Seems like the sound from the Burger is actually decent. How does it compare to the Sony?
I haven’t compared them directly but I suspect in a blind test I wouldn’t be able to hear much difference between them, if any.