Cheap but good 1991 Realistic Clarinette 125 stereo system

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  • Опубликовано: 30 окт 2024

Комментарии • 524

  • @thisislilraskal
    @thisislilraskal 8 месяцев назад +139

    Just like when a stray dog follows you home, it was nice of you to give Clarinette a clean, a feed, a place to stay and love it back to life. She'll keep you good company

    • @dougfisher1813
      @dougfisher1813 7 месяцев назад +5

      I've got the 1979 version of this unit. One of the tape decks is 8 track with record function, the other being cassette.

    • @greenaum
      @greenaum 7 месяцев назад +1

      Not really, the record player is likely to be very poor, relative to others, and even objectively won't sound great. Tapes sound bad, and where would you even buy a cassette these days, and more importantly why would you bother? So it's basically a cheap, low-quality radio. If it had aux inputs you could at least wire it to your computer or phone or something.
      You could still do that using one of those dummy cassettes with a 3.5mm plug input, meant for use in car tape players back in the day, letting you plug a portable CD player into them. Although again, where you'd even find one. Or you could use one of the little FM broadcaster gadgets meant for doing the same from your MP3 player to your later car, which had CD and not tape. But again it'd be crap quality and for the money, better to just buy some amplified speakers.

    • @supermasterPIK
      @supermasterPIK 2 месяца назад

      14:36 surprised face?

  • @adamgenard3188
    @adamgenard3188 8 месяцев назад +166

    It never ceases to amaze me when VWestlife demonstrates how the cheapest entry level black plastic crap from 30 or 40 years ago was vastly superior in both performance and reliability to the majority of what's being produced nowadays.

    • @ssnoc
      @ssnoc 7 месяцев назад +13

      Better than most crap produced today - nice unit I wish Radio Shack was back

    • @tourmaline07
      @tourmaline07 7 месяцев назад +1

      @@ssnoc I was wondering how the sound quality was so good despite there being youtube compression!

    • @jC-kc4si
      @jC-kc4si 7 месяцев назад +5

      The manufacturing technology and materials were too primitive to make things super cheaply back then.

    • @xaenon
      @xaenon 7 месяцев назад +7

      @@tourmaline07 When these were new and were still playing through the factory-supplied speakers, they honestly did not sound all that fantastic. An upgrade to better speakers does wonders with cheap electronics. Even a Crosley Cruiser can be made to sound respectable. Seriously, I played with one a few years ago; disconnected the internal speakers and wired the amp's output to drive a pair of thrift-store RCA home-theater 'surround' units. Not hi-fi by any stretch but it was a significant improvement. And you'd be surprised at how well a fractional-watt amplifier can drive larger speakers.

    • @Moonlightshadow-lq4fr
      @Moonlightshadow-lq4fr 7 месяцев назад +1

      Do they actually make decent hi-fi these days? I would like to build a decent amp but worried of getting ripped off using modules off ebay? If anyone knows of a great brand to look for it would be greatly appreciated. Which make is very good for stand alone systems like they used to be in the 80's?

  • @beverpix
    @beverpix 7 месяцев назад +5

    Thank you from my ❤ The loss of knowledge about formats is a fact, as well analogue as digital. You are part of a precious archive. People know all about distant stars, but lack knowledge about present history. You make a difference, thank you so much!

  • @EgoChip
    @EgoChip 8 месяцев назад +79

    When I was younger and got myself out of homelessness, I went to a car boot sale and picked up something very similar to this for £10, complete with speakers. It served me well for over a year.

  • @AlexMitchell-sj4sb
    @AlexMitchell-sj4sb 8 месяцев назад +37

    That's why I love this channel, you find "junk" h-ifi and bring it home and try to find some redeeming features to it.

  • @yandan7010
    @yandan7010 8 месяцев назад +103

    I got a flashback of something I have not thought about in decades, as you skipped through the radio stations.
    Me and my brother used to ask the t.v. random daft questions then change the channel and the first thing we heard was the answer.
    "What's the meaning of life?"
    *click "...a lovely bed of chrysanthemums..."

    • @wilneal8015
      @wilneal8015 8 месяцев назад +14

      "42" 😮 Don't Panic❗😇🐥😎🤎

    • @stanleycostello9610
      @stanleycostello9610 8 месяцев назад +4

      That's sort of zen, if you really think about it.

    • @cheeseparis1
      @cheeseparis1 8 месяцев назад +6

      I used to flip channels in the middle of a sentence and hope for a suitable end, sometimes it was fun. Of course this worked with analog channels when flipping was instantaneous. Kids, once upon a time we flipped through 5 channels in a single second.

    • @jamesslick4790
      @jamesslick4790 8 месяцев назад +2

      I'm glad to see someone else did this! Hell, I STILL do it sometimes!

    • @yandan7010
      @yandan7010 8 месяцев назад +1

      Awesome, folks 😆👍🏻

  • @DominatorHDX
    @DominatorHDX 8 месяцев назад +26

    Hey, I got a Sanyo black plastic crap stereo for my birthday when I was a kid in the 80's and it was awesome! As a kid you don't care. It looked cool, sounded good enough, could play radio, casette and records. Served me well into my late teen years. No complaints here. I even did an "upgrade" by adding a CD player I bought from my own pocket money in 1990 or something and connecting it to the aux input. The CD player was branded just as DIGITAL but it did its job also good enough. The CD player I still have somewhere in storage. Never could do it away as one of the first things I bought with my own money.

    • @sebastiancabrol2014
      @sebastiancabrol2014 7 месяцев назад +2

      I had a very similar cheap Sanyo (still we were so poor that my grandma financed it) with double cassette and record player. The speakers were huge and sounded loud but obviously had a questionable sound. The problem with it was that the belts failed prematurely, causing a lot of wobble and distortion. We used cheap 90 min ferro tdk cassettes that got stuck if you didn't played it regularly.

  • @CARLiCON
    @CARLiCON 8 месяцев назад +27

    I bought a slightly older Realistic STA-785 receiver new in '89. It still works perfectly. Don't underestimate the shack, they sold decent stuff back in the day

  • @PhilipsN2552
    @PhilipsN2552 7 месяцев назад +5

    The beauty of Realistic? It almost always still works.And this unit sounds very good!

  • @GeneSavage
    @GeneSavage 8 месяцев назад +26

    I forgot that AM radios used to sound... less than FM, but nowhere near as terrible as today. Thanks for this!

    • @MrDubbindan
      @MrDubbindan 7 месяцев назад +7

      Ever hear an AM stereo , AM stereo wasnt that bad either

    • @111000100101001
      @111000100101001 7 месяцев назад +3

      Yes, “tune in” to WION AM Stereo 1430 online or on the actual radio if you’re in their vicinity for an Absolutely amazing sounding station that plays great music!

    • @GeneSavage
      @GeneSavage 7 месяцев назад +2

      @@MrDubbindan It was amazing!!!

  • @RoaldvdM
    @RoaldvdM 8 месяцев назад +10

    I'm into 80s stereos and boomboxes - always a joy to see such a 'system'. Not everything is junk. This totally suffices in a garage or workshop, even suffering decades of dust and grime - but still playing (the radio at least)

  • @kirkmooneyham
    @kirkmooneyham 8 месяцев назад +22

    It sounds much better than anyone would guess by just looking at the unit. They got something right back in the day, even at a budget price.

    • @jamesslick4790
      @jamesslick4790 8 месяцев назад +10

      With a LOT of vintage analog gear, The "cheap stuff" was wayyyyy better than the cheap stuff now. Hell the lowest end AM/FM receivers of the mid 1970's - Mid 1980's era will smoke many of the "better" ones now as to actual radio reception!

    • @traxonwax
      @traxonwax 8 месяцев назад

      @@jamesslick4790 Back in the day you had to get it right the first time, once it was out in the market, you couldn't just say, look out for the firmware update. That was it. Nowadays we are all beta testers and if we are lucky, you might get a firmware update that may marginally improve the performance at best.

  • @AG-bp3ll
    @AG-bp3ll 8 месяцев назад +70

    I remember lots of people having turntables like this. My first turntable in the 80s had a ceramic cartridge as well. People freak out over Crosley's like that was the first time these plastic turntables were used. Few of us could afford nice Technics and got by with this type of cheap stuff.

    • @christo930
      @christo930 8 месяцев назад +4

      @@ChristopherSobieniak No it wouldn't. This would be an inexpensive bookshelf system for a living room or maybe a college dorm room or bedroom.
      This was an expensive stereo for what it is. I bought something of similar quality in 1987 for 99.99. That's 4 years earlier.

    • @AG-bp3ll
      @AG-bp3ll 8 месяцев назад +5

      @@ChristopherSobieniak That was the Fisher Price record player. Those were great. 😂

    • @ChristopherSobieniak
      @ChristopherSobieniak 8 месяцев назад

      ​@@AG-bp3llYeah, fine. I'm just going from experience.

    • @31cify
      @31cify 8 месяцев назад +3

      ​@@ChristopherSobieniak Well take your blasted experience and shove it, because it's not welcome here. Ha ha, only joking dude, thanks for your input.

    • @ChristopherSobieniak
      @ChristopherSobieniak 8 месяцев назад +1

      @@31cify Thanks. I feel out of it in my 40's as we seem to have moved on to streaming tracks through Bluetooth speakers.

  • @8_Bit
    @8_Bit 8 месяцев назад +76

    "Listenin' to the radio, drivin' in your car: radio gets results"

    • @banjo304
      @banjo304 8 месяцев назад +2

      Get that irritating ad a ton down here in the south. Glad to hear the northeast also has to suffer through it.

    • @ericdunn8718
      @ericdunn8718 8 месяцев назад +2

      Actually just heard another version of it from a tape I found that someone recorded all the way back in 1989 in a little town not too far away from me (bought tape in my hometown so no idea how it got here in the meantime but not important), so it must have been common at some point. Also all of the little commercials and that bit of a song from some religious broadcaster I've all heard recently on stations in my area (although I live in Michigan and the religious radio is way at the other end of the dial, other way around from him), so yeah, it's definitely a small world for radio these days.

    • @TopSpot123
      @TopSpot123 7 месяцев назад +1

      Yeah, I naively thought this jingle was from one of my local stations.

  • @dhpbear2
    @dhpbear2 8 месяцев назад +39

    9:39 - "Damping fluid"? This is the FIRST I've ever heard of such an animal!

    • @davidbono9359
      @davidbono9359 7 месяцев назад +3

      And where do you find it?

    • @wilneal8015
      @wilneal8015 7 месяцев назад +8

      @@davidbono9359 👀 Next to the
      Blinker Fluid 🌊🍄👍🏼⚠️💥🎯💦

    • @imark7777777
      @imark7777777 7 месяцев назад

      @@wilneal8015and so you don't forget, here's some instructions on how to change your blinker fluid.
      How to Replace Blinker Fluid
      ruclips.net/video/E6GsXhBb10k/видео.html
      This was a pure gem to run across one day and there are other instructional videos too....

    • @Vgp-rp4iu
      @Vgp-rp4iu 7 месяцев назад

      ​@@davidbono9359just google it and you will find many places to find it. Some come in a prefilled syringe that will fill about 8 times. Price ranges from like 10 to 15 dollars.

    • @Vgp-rp4iu
      @Vgp-rp4iu 7 месяцев назад +3

      ​@@wilneal8015why would it be near the blinker fluid? That would imply that dampening fluid isn't a real thing

  • @DK640OBrianYT
    @DK640OBrianYT 8 месяцев назад +7

    Never underestimate true ceramic cartridges. Firstly, they don't need RIAA-amplification. Due to nature, they deliver quite some voltage and they roll of as the frequency gets higher, almost resembling the RIAA-curve, so I'm all in for them. They play absolutely well and it's HiFi.
    What are these cartridges though ? Ceramics also ? Or Moving Magnets ?
    And yes. If you connect some very high quality speakers to systems like this, you're in for a BIG surprise. It's actually amazing and telling. The sound quality would appease most people.
    Your main priority should be buying very-very good speakers. At least 50% of the budget.

  • @danielgbgibson
    @danielgbgibson 8 месяцев назад +57

    I liked it when you suddenly became Techmoan for a couple seconds.

    • @blipco5
      @blipco5 7 месяцев назад +1

      Nice story. Sub'd 👍

    • @imark7777777
      @imark7777777 7 месяцев назад +6

      8:16 in case anybody else is wondering where that is. I looked away at the wrong moment and figured I'd come back to it almost re-watching it later.
      The funny thing is when I originally saw the thumbnail and click the video I thought it was Techmoan and was scratching my head when it wasn't. and i was thinking we'll it's gonna be good either way.

  • @stevenmann9769
    @stevenmann9769 8 месяцев назад +14

    Made to a price but clearly well engineered and did not treat the customer like a chump.

  • @niafer9444
    @niafer9444 8 месяцев назад +10

    I still love radio - I always have. Such a simple concept and easy to build. But there is something very nostalgic and romantic about radio. Thank you for the video.

  • @douglasallen9428
    @douglasallen9428 8 месяцев назад +10

    Other than the lack of an AUX input, this stereo system actually isn’t bad at all, especially for what it is! Thanks again!!!

    • @xaenon
      @xaenon 7 месяцев назад +3

      It is fairly easy to add an AUX IN feature to older units like this. Admittedly, it's a bit of a bodge, but not hard to do at all.

    • @douglasallen9428
      @douglasallen9428 7 месяцев назад +3

      You can also use a cassette adapter in the playback deck to play and record from a computer, a CD player, an mp3 player or your phone.

  • @thatwasprettyneat
    @thatwasprettyneat 8 месяцев назад +4

    I think it's awesome that you've kept up this channel. I don't remember exactly when you started it but it was at least ten years ago, and probably more.

  • @rizzlerazzleuno4733
    @rizzlerazzleuno4733 8 месяцев назад +9

    The Radio Shack (Realistic), Sears, Wards, and other house brands of consumer grade audio equipment that were made in USA, Japan, Korea, Malaysia ,Taiwan, England & Germany in the 60s and 70s were usually quite good (except for the cheapest models) and under the cosmetics were also sold as well-recognized audio brands. The Radio Shack, Wards and Sears catalogs are on line; it is fun to look at what was available. My favorites were the great four-in one compact systems that had AM-FM, a record changer, a cassette player-recorder and an 8-track player-recorder and a set of matching speakers. That combination only lasted about 3 years, when dual cassettes replaced the 8-tracks, record changers were replaced by single play turntables and then CDs replaced the cassettes. Wood grain simulated genuine walnut vinyl finally got replaced by the all black plastic models made in China. Thanks for rescuing this $8 wonder. 👍

    • @danieldaniels7571
      @danieldaniels7571 7 месяцев назад +4

      JC Pennys house brand MCS was actually really decent quality, comparable to Technics or Kenwood back in the day.

  • @adamjeremycapps
    @adamjeremycapps 8 месяцев назад +11

    Old tech will never die. It was just so much fun.

  • @joonglegamer9898
    @joonglegamer9898 8 месяцев назад +38

    I remember when I had a 1000$ technics Cassette Deck with all the fancy stuff, Dolby B,C, DBX, HTX, pro-this-pro-that. I remember buying an expensive metal tape for it, and recording it with Dolby C - and pinning it up against my Hard earned Denon DAT recorder. Me and my friends could NOT hear the difference (and the DAT player were better than CD at that time), so it was absolutely amazing how far you could stretch a cassette player.
    Sadly today's kids will never experience that.

    • @kevinh96
      @kevinh96 8 месяцев назад +5

      Absolutely. I have a couple of Dolby S cassette decks, one from Yamaha and the other from Sony, and if you record from a CD or a good digital source such as a FLAC file or my DAT recorder and play it back it's very, very difficult to hear the difference.

    • @111000100101001
      @111000100101001 7 месяцев назад +3

      Most “kids” today get excited listening to music coming from a tinny speaker the size of a pencil eraser inside their phone :(

  • @randyab9go188
    @randyab9go188 8 месяцев назад +53

    The thing I like about your reviews is you do take into consideration the price point of the product. Most people will look at that and go black plastic crap. Don't even bother. You have to take into consideration that this isn't $1,000 stereo receiver. It works well for its place in the market. People that think this is going to perform like $1,000 stereo are quite honestly idiots.

  • @novelezra
    @novelezra 8 месяцев назад +74

    Make vinyl snobs mad with this one simple trick!

  • @pcallas66
    @pcallas66 7 месяцев назад +3

    Great video. Everything sounded better than I expected with it, too. Even 1.2 watts per channel is enough if matched with the correct, efficient speakers. I do think it looks cool.

  • @ataribowlingcgc4465
    @ataribowlingcgc4465 8 месяцев назад +3

    Great video as always!
    I have a generic Panasonic piece of black plastic garbage in my non-climate controlled shop where the temperature fluctuates between -10 F and 150 F depending on the time of the year that was set up by the previous owner in 1991. To this day, both tape decks work as does the stereo. The record player also works, but I do not use it as I do not want to ruin my records.
    The same stereo has a pair of Sony speakers from the 70s wired to it. The sound isn't anywhere near my listening station in my house that combines Sansui, Marantz, Technics, Magnavox and Polk Audio, but it is a work horse and gets the job done. There's something to be said for older low end stereo equipment.

  • @dmcintosh1967
    @dmcintosh1967 8 месяцев назад +8

    I have for some reason always liked cheap old stereo system from the 80s- early 90s as cheap doesn't mean junk. Some places you don't need or want a big HiFi just something that plays music with reasonable quality and is durable.

  • @itogi
    @itogi 8 месяцев назад +65

    6:04 Arrow actually points from 2 to 1.

    • @briangoldberg4439
      @briangoldberg4439 8 месяцев назад +11

      correct. The reason it depicts it with 1 on the left is to indicate the physical location of the decks in the unit, not to show which one will play first

    • @ivonedev9449
      @ivonedev9449 8 месяцев назад +6

      Good eye!

    • @dmcintosh1967
      @dmcintosh1967 8 месяцев назад +4

      Yea I noticed that too

    • @Kane26510
      @Kane26510 8 месяцев назад +4

      You saw that, too, huh?

  • @Brian-li5up
    @Brian-li5up 7 месяцев назад +4

    $8 for all of that. Amazing! Thanks for the video, this was really insightful

  • @matthewlawrenson3628
    @matthewlawrenson3628 8 месяцев назад +15

    As I've said before, I do the electronics function testing at a charity shop. It's very rare that we get a micro stereo system like this where everything works. The radio is usually fine (no moving parts), but often the drive on the turntable motor has failed or the cassette deck is shot. Even had CD trays fail to open completely. Though last week I did actually do a Sharp CD-MPX880 where everything functioned correctly. That's still stuck in a corner, as nobody can work out the correct price because they have so little experience with them actually working.

    • @christo930
      @christo930 8 месяцев назад +3

      Most radios do have moving parts, unless it is entirely digital. Even many digital radios have moving parts. Generally speaking if there is tuning knob, it has moving parts.
      OTOH, I have seen many 1930s and 40s radios where all the moving parts are fine. It's a remarkably robust system. Usually just a string wrapped around the tuning dial, the tuning indicator and the tuning capacitor.

    • @adamgenard3188
      @adamgenard3188 8 месяцев назад

      ​@christo930 I think he meant the radio tuner has no moving parts...that usually cease to function after only a decade or 2. While I don't regularly service these all-in-1 units or boomboxes, I've acquired about half a dozen in the past 20 years and ALL of them had a non-functioning component but it has never been the tuner. Incredibly simple & robust indeed.

  • @totallyuselessvideoz
    @totallyuselessvideoz 8 месяцев назад +10

    As soon as I saw the LA 1805 IC I knew that this is a SANYO OEM. BtW it's a FM/AM/MPX functions contained on a single chip. The other one is a LA1186N again manufactured by SANYO. It's FM Front End for Recorder!

  • @notreallydaedalus
    @notreallydaedalus Месяц назад +2

    Holy crap, hearing the station ID from one of my regular radio stations in the '90s. Like a quick jab in the gut!

  • @IssanCaliRefugee
    @IssanCaliRefugee 8 месяцев назад +5

    My great-grandma got this when her old console record player finally gave out, and sat it right on top. It was branded Soundesign and came from Kmart. Slightly different appearance, more 80's futuristic fonts, red and green LEDs, four big buttons to change functions instead of the switch. I went over to listen to it a lot. I too was impressed by that tuner, it grabbed a lot of stations my other cheap radios had difficulty with. Thanks for the memories.

    • @NickDalzell
      @NickDalzell 7 месяцев назад +1

      I had that exact Soundesign system. I saved io $100 in allowance to get it at Kmart. It was garbage, but I was proud of it.

  • @cn4340
    @cn4340 7 месяцев назад +3

    @VWestlife this was an amazing episode, even better than the usual. I wanted to point out that in regards to the continuous play feature the graphic seems to actually show an arrow pointing from 2 to the left, towards 1. I zoomed and enhanced like in Blade Runner just to make sure ;)

  • @domfjbrown75
    @domfjbrown75 8 месяцев назад +5

    The turntable motor was made a week to the day after my 16th birthday, when I got a Sony midi system with CD :)
    1991 was a great year...

  • @chrislj2890
    @chrislj2890 8 месяцев назад +20

    14:28 Shocking, lol.
    Another success with someone's throw away. You never cease to amaze!

  • @MVVblog
    @MVVblog 8 месяцев назад +3

    It sounds pretty decent!

  • @Recordology
    @Recordology 7 месяцев назад +2

    Your closing comments were spot on! 👍

  • @VinylTV33
    @VinylTV33 7 месяцев назад +2

    Hey, sorry I got your name wrong in my last video. I pinned a correction to the top of the comments, and I'll mention you in my next video. Love your work! Cheers!

  • @hansu-nihon
    @hansu-nihon 8 месяцев назад +6

    "He who does not honor the small cheap audio is not worthy of the great high end audio." Being an audiophile I do appreciate the lower price ranges also very much. Many of them sound really good for that price range. And it's nice to have them into the collection too.😊

  • @TorontoJon
    @TorontoJon 8 месяцев назад +8

    17:39 VWestlife, I agree with you 100% regarding how the current generation of designers of all-in-one systems by Crosley, Victrola, etc. grew up only knowing Discman CD players, iPods, and streaming and have no idea how good vintage equipment could sound in terms of turntables, cassette decks, reel-to-reel decks, and even a number of 8-track players back in the day.
    Heck, I was watching RUclips videos recently of a young woman who collects vintage VHS VCR's, but when she played 'Titanic', the VHS tape had all sorts of glitches in the image and aside from it having been demagnetized at some point in its life, she hadn't even adjusted the tracking of her VCR. She probably initially thought that those of us who grew up with Beta and VHS simply tolerated bad playback or that the visual interference from not adjusting the tracking was how viewers normally watched VHS. These new generations have a lot to learn, particularly if they are nostalgic for all things 80's, but didn't live in that era and don't fully understand the technology. :)

    • @MrDuncl
      @MrDuncl 8 месяцев назад +3

      The strange thing about that is that, in my experience, the very cheap VCRS that were wheb VHS was dying out have really good Auto Tracking, presumably because it is in the chipset rather than using discrete components.

    • @TorontoJon
      @TorontoJon 8 месяцев назад +2

      @@MrDuncl, I'm fond of my JVC VHS and Super VHS ET VCR's with their auto calibration (as well as soft touch tracking adjustment buttons), so I don't have to fiddle with a mechanical tracking adjustment dial like with earlier VCR's and top loader VCR's, but I own and enjoy some older top loader units for their vintage charm. :)

  • @ChadQuick270W
    @ChadQuick270W 8 месяцев назад +4

    I miss my Radio Shack catalogues. I had them all from 1983-1998. I do go to that cool website that has then which is handy.

  • @MagnusPaul1976
    @MagnusPaul1976 7 месяцев назад +1

    I have discovered that if you want to shrink rubber belts, that have stretched over the years, you take ice water and put the belts in this for a couple of minutes. Then, you take these out, dry on a paper towel thoroughly and once dry, you spray the belts with tyre gloss or something similar you spray on car tyres to give it that shine. Thoroughly spray the belts and leave it for a few minutes. This immediately revives the tension and elasticity of the belts. This worked for me on one of the many record players and cassette decks, I own and repeated the steps above on these units as well. 👍👌

  • @The_Haze
    @The_Haze 8 месяцев назад +4

    I'm amazed by how good the turntable sounds for a budget turntable!

    • @EclectikTronik
      @EclectikTronik 7 месяцев назад +1

      I think they actually bothered to equalize the phono input on this one, most of those cruddy stereos did not.

  • @gwheregwhizz
    @gwheregwhizz 8 месяцев назад +13

    In the UK we had Amstrad that made quality looking Hi-Fi (well perhaps from the other side of the room) that used the cheapest components imaginable and sounded bad. I remember Realistic stuff was sold in Tandy and looked cheap and nasty, but always performed well for the money.

    • @ianz9916
      @ianz9916 8 месяцев назад +3

      That's Alan Sugar for you. He did the same with his computers, bought a load of cheap components, slapped them in a box and sold them cheaply. They were bloody rubbish but people got lured in by the price. What he did do was make other manufacturers bring down the prices of their far superior systems.

    • @stepheng8779
      @stepheng8779 8 месяцев назад +1

      ​@@ianz9916Everything Amstrad was garbage. I disagree about it even looking good, not even with your binoculars the wrong way round 😂

    • @anonUK
      @anonUK 8 месяцев назад +1

      ​@ianz9916
      "Viva Hooky Street", the OFAH theme, should be the outro music for the UK Apprentice.

    • @michaelturner4457
      @michaelturner4457 8 месяцев назад +4

      Amstrad "Hi-Fi", the mug's eyeful.

    • @ianz9916
      @ianz9916 8 месяцев назад +1

      @@anonUK The only good thing about the UK Apprentice is it doesn't have Donald Trump in it.

  • @bencross9284
    @bencross9284 7 месяцев назад +2

    I love these videos so much !!!!

  • @Recordology
    @Recordology 7 месяцев назад +2

    Great video…I wish I could identify all of the circuit board components like you did.

  • @audubon5425
    @audubon5425 8 месяцев назад +5

    This was the last "cheap" stereo with a turntable (and the last Clarinette) Radio Shack marketed. There was a more expensive Modulaire model with a CD sold along side this one through 1993. For 1994 they brought out the Optimus System 7xx series and no more turntables. After 1998 RS ditched all the compact stereos (except a few boomboxes.)

  • @glonch
    @glonch 7 месяцев назад +4

    I got the Clarinette 104 back in 1982... I was on Cloud 9 as I didn't have any 'stereo' at all and I played records and tapes until the unit died about 5 years later. I think I wore out the tape head playing AC/DC all the time...

  • @SouvenirDin24
    @SouvenirDin24 7 месяцев назад +1

    The key is, as you say, the properly matched 'high' impedence amplifier. I like the suitcase record players. Maybe it's nostalgia for me as I remember my M&D had one back in the late 70's. It had valves inside (you could see them glow) Sounded good when I was a kid and I was amazed when the tonearm moved over and knocked the next record onto the turntable. I can guarantee it had a ceramic cartridge in it too. All the cheap turntables these days seem to connect a ceramic cartridge to a low impedence amplifier (doh!) which kills the bass and makes your records sound tinny. I ripped out the internals of my crosley, replaced the speakers, ceramic cartridge and needle (flip over), weighted the tonearm, installed a high impedence preamp and a 10w main amp. It sounds tons better and is ideal for me due to the portability of it :)

  • @alanthorne3921
    @alanthorne3921 6 месяцев назад +1

    Had one of these and served me well as long as you didn’t touch the graphics as shown.Volume knob was touchy,had to tap it to get both speakers to work.One tape deck gave up(belts) and the other started to chew tapes.Radio worked well.Turntable hardly used but it was noisy and feedbacked hum.Still it gave something to listen to when I was down n out.

  • @fhwolthuis
    @fhwolthuis 8 месяцев назад +3

    Nice video, Kevin. I had a pretty cheap Philips F1250 music set during my highschool years and I had a lot of fun with it. Bought it new in 1986 😅

  • @peacearchwa5103
    @peacearchwa5103 6 месяцев назад +1

    The AM and FM tuning section reflects quite well on its designer, Radio Shack. They weren't cutting corners on the tuner quality even at this price point.

  • @johnnytacokleinschmidt515
    @johnnytacokleinschmidt515 7 месяцев назад +1

    As a kid I'd want to put my fit through it. As a middle aged person I appreciate that everything was built to a purpose. Some of these basic systems do work really well. I enjoy hooking up and checking out just about anything. Some components work extra well together.

  • @Markimark151
    @Markimark151 8 месяцев назад +3

    I had a similar Realistic Clarinette as kid, but it was a bit sleeker and I used it to play tapes and vinyl in my bedroom, I used to listen to lots of children music on that stereo.

  • @charbokh
    @charbokh 8 месяцев назад +3

    13:50 I've seen one procedure that a mexican sound engineer repair man makes for all the motors when restoring vintage audio equipment. His name is Christian Tutoriales here in YT.
    He says that you have to take the motor out and check the voltage. If the voltage is 6 Volts DC you connect it to a 9 volt DC battery with a drop of oil and let it run one day or two depending on how dirty the motor is. The centrifugal force will clean the contacts removing the gunk inside the motor and then you install it. If the motor runs with 12 Volts DC you connect a 12 volt battery and do the same.
    I might have to try it on my vintage Goldstar Cassette Deck.
    This is what I liked about Realistic and RadioShack audio equipments. They were cheap but well made. I mean, AC Bias cassette recorder with an electro magnetic erase head for 179.95? Sign me on!

  • @brenthooton3412
    @brenthooton3412 8 месяцев назад +6

    I had a couple of these types of systems as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. I had it made! I had graduated from a kids' suitcase record player and suddenly I had (1) tone controls (2) DUAL tape decks (3) ability to RECORD direct from LP or radio or another tape (4) actual stereo speakers. It may have been black plastic crap but dammit it was MY black plastic crap and I loved it.

  • @WC0125
    @WC0125 8 месяцев назад +8

    Great information. The LA1186N is Sanyo part number for the FM front end IC. They described it as "Monolithic LInear IC - FM Front End for Radio Cassette Recorder Use". It included the RF amp, Mixer, Oscillator, and AFC Diode.

    • @RealEpikCartfrenYT
      @RealEpikCartfrenYT 8 месяцев назад

      I initially thought it was a FM stereo decoder as some cheaper stereos had a separate chip for handling such thing. There would be an IF amplifier, tuner, and FM stereo decoder. But by then single chip designs were already starting to surface.

  • @JoeOrber
    @JoeOrber 7 месяцев назад +1

    Wooooow! It has great radio reception, the tape decks work great, even the turntable section! It is definitely a very good find! Just the cassette decks alone are great, and you can manage to record from external sources using the dubbing feature with one of those car cassette adaptors as the source tape 😅… I probably laughed too loud when you aligned the old belts in the shape of a surprised face hahahahaha 😂… fantastic video, keep up the great work! 😊❤

  • @ajaugenti1976
    @ajaugenti1976 8 месяцев назад +4

    Beautiful classic Realistic stereo system.

  • @toddblanks
    @toddblanks 7 месяцев назад +2

    I hate but at the same time, i like it.
    Although im more of a high end man, there is something quite charming about these kind of things.
    I suppose its the part of knowing about how things audio work electronically and mechanically.
    There is also something plesant about the laid back sound, probably to do with the cheap intergrated chips used in the amplifier circuits the same as you'd get in a portable boombox. Its always the speakers that these units come with that lets the sound down the most. I like it, its 1000 times better than a modern crosley.

  • @edandrews6424
    @edandrews6424 7 месяцев назад +1

    More amazed that you have the original Radio Shack catalogue from that year!!😃

  • @Choralone422
    @Choralone422 8 месяцев назад +4

    Nice review. I remember seeing these in the catalog and in the store back then.
    It's a shame that even the "cheap plastic crap" of years past is in many ways better than new reproduction stuff of today for the reasons you mentioned in the video. Makes me wish I had been able to keep more of my old gear from then.

  • @WhatItBeLike123
    @WhatItBeLike123 8 месяцев назад +2

    Another gem of a video. Thank you!

  • @seanachilleos1438
    @seanachilleos1438 7 месяцев назад +1

    Something that most people forget is that when parts of a stereo system's outer consists of wood it is likely to swell over time and perish. And most of the time it's made of press wood which is a no go. It's better then to go for plastic in such a case

  • @tourmaline07
    @tourmaline07 7 месяцев назад +1

    4:08 - I don't know what you do in terms of the sound mastering of these but I'm really impressed how clear this sounds through my Logitech X220 speakers. This 1991 Clarinette radio tuning sounds very clear compared even to some digital music I've listened to...

  • @Weissman111
    @Weissman111 8 месяцев назад +3

    The chip is an A1186N - an FM front-end for radio cassette recorders and music centres - made by Sanyo.

  • @duprie37
    @duprie37 7 месяцев назад +1

    Cool, this looks just like the first stereo system I bought outright with my own money earned working at the local supermarket part-time after school when I was 17. I was so stoked to have it! The best thing about it was the EM erase head which were still common even in cheap hifi systems like this then, whereas getting anything but a permanent magnet eraser in an average boombox had become almost impossible. It made such a big difference to me as I recorded almost everything onto cassette back then. Then a few months later my parents endowed me with their far superior Sony hifi system as they upgraded & after that I have no idea what happened to my long saved for piece of crap LoL.

  • @sonatahewrote
    @sonatahewrote 7 месяцев назад +2

    whoa franklin mint recording makes a cameo at the end!

  • @peterofenback9263
    @peterofenback9263 3 месяца назад +1

    In Germany we called these cheap all-in-one devices “lifestyle” gadgets. You should know that back then “lifestyle” was a derogatory term for inferior stuff that looked like more than it actually was and was mainly used by its owners to show off.

  • @greenaum
    @greenaum 7 месяцев назад +1

    To be fair the continuous tape play logo does have an arrow from 2 to 1. It's tiny but it's there, so they aren't trying to mislead you, it's supposed to work that way. Double-tape decks were always that way, far as I can remember.

  • @teletronikoforever
    @teletronikoforever 8 месяцев назад +2

    Wow! I wasn't expecting an electric erase head and full autostop cassette decks! When I first saw it I would have bet it used the typical autostop only in play - permanent magnet erase head Tanashin mechanism you still find today in cheap "come back" cassette decks! Very good surprise for a cheap stereo system, it won't be high fidelity "audiophile approved quality" but it plays and records quite good and at least it won't eat up your tapes.

  • @fraudsarentfriends4717
    @fraudsarentfriends4717 3 месяца назад +1

    Component stereos are not audiophile. It's a stereo system for the living room, which is why they can come with nice wood cabinet speakers or a nice wood record player. A big part of their price tag is in the way they look. It's a piece of furniture that plays music. Plastic all-in-ones were intended for offices and maybe a kids bedroom. Then there is clock radios.

  • @joshm264
    @joshm264 8 месяцев назад +2

    At the end of the video you quite literally took the words of of my mouth (or i suppose my comment), but I'll add that from what I've seen, all most people today care about is the novelty factor of having a record/cassette player and if the device has a bluetooth input or not, so the sound quality is often an afterthought for many consumers as well...

  • @dashcamandy2242
    @dashcamandy2242 7 месяцев назад +2

    I've owned plenty of "Black Plastic Crap," and some if it was surprisingly-good. More often than not, they were let down by budget speakers, rather than the internals.
    4:33 - "It's gonna take a lotta love, to change the way things are..."
    Discovering some, if not all, of the internals were Sanyo seems to be the key here. Sanyo made a lot of budget-level stuff that was pretty decent.

  • @dathat3204
    @dathat3204 8 месяцев назад +2

    It is a great occasion for me every time Mr.Fantastic is brought out from the doldrums of history to be played on this channel!

  • @F40PH-2CAT
    @F40PH-2CAT 8 месяцев назад +8

    To add, the Jersey music radio scene is so much better than NYC.

    • @dashcamandy2242
      @dashcamandy2242 7 месяцев назад +1

      And Connecticut. 🙂 I find myself listening to WELJ quite a bit (out of Montauk).

  • @83Roboto
    @83Roboto 8 месяцев назад +2

    Your average audio enthusiast used the BPC term as well. There truly was a lot of that stuff on the market back then. One brand that comes to mind was Yorx.

    • @NickDalzell
      @NickDalzell 7 месяцев назад +1

      My Yorx is from the 1970s and is higher quality than this...thing

  • @AmigaA-or2hj
    @AmigaA-or2hj 7 месяцев назад +1

    Thanks for the tip! I didn’t know that boiling the drive belt would revive them. 👍

  • @TryItAgainTomorrow
    @TryItAgainTomorrow 8 месяцев назад +1

    How you didn't get content matched on this one, I'm amazed! :D

  • @andygozzo72
    @andygozzo72 8 месяцев назад +3

    i had a couple of 'similar but different' things in the mid to late 80s, here in the UK, one was an Amstrad, cant remember the other one, they worked similar, but gave better results with better speaker than what was supplied,

  • @natechrisman5333
    @natechrisman5333 8 месяцев назад +4

    I love how you make your videos keep up the good work

  • @cjmarsh504
    @cjmarsh504 8 месяцев назад +4

    I remember the black plastic fantastic stereos in the late 80's and 90's we had a replaced the Century radio from the 70's for a Quasar entertainment center. Yep, a quasar all together unit, with an optional CD, or standard Phonograph. Quartz locked. Let's not forget the 19 inch Quasar color TV. That Realistic Clarinette 125 is not bad

  • @stanmarsh14
    @stanmarsh14 8 месяцев назад +3

    Ahh yes, Realistic a brand I know well, but via Radio Shack's UK arm, Tandy.
    Basically this brand was akin to another well known UK brand (Which just the past few days, I learn is being re-launched as a digital media company), Sir Allan Sugar's AMSTRAD.
    I do miss Tandy loads :(

  • @Fluteboy
    @Fluteboy 7 месяцев назад +1

    16:07 - I am sure this will remind Techmoan of those childhood holidays in Morecambe. The hotels with the funny-smelling bedsheets, and the Wurlitzer music playing.

  • @paulillingworth1242
    @paulillingworth1242 7 месяцев назад +2

    Used to to love Radio Shack stores

  • @martinlimon3589
    @martinlimon3589 7 месяцев назад +2

    Its a bit 'budget', but far superior to our own 🇬🇧 Amstrad.
    Great video 👍😁😁

  • @turbomustang84
    @turbomustang84 8 месяцев назад +2

    Radio shack in that same catalog had a mini system model 710 that was also sold by denon as the 700 and I bought it for $399 and it was fantastic

  • @a1white
    @a1white 7 месяцев назад +2

    I had. Practically the same system, in the UK, branded differently. The cassette decks were numbered 1 and 2 the other way around (or A and I can’t quite remember) so the first tape deck was on the right. RadioShack got their tape deck numbering wrong on this for continuous play

  • @uxwbill
    @uxwbill 8 месяцев назад +2

    An auxiliary input would have been a nice bonus.
    The mystery IC is an LA1186, also from Sanyo.

  • @tomyegerlehner9472
    @tomyegerlehner9472 7 месяцев назад +1

    Really enjoy your topics and style. Was just looking around on the Sony site and would like to see you review the ICF-506

  • @AMDRADEONRUBY
    @AMDRADEONRUBY 8 месяцев назад +2

    It was made on my bday! June 22 1991. too lazy for modified my previous comment lol! i love when you find neat stereo system!

  • @RegiPavan
    @RegiPavan 7 месяцев назад

    Very detailed review, thanks!

  • @princemegahit
    @princemegahit 8 месяцев назад +4

    There is an arrow between the numbers one and two pointing to the left. It's not very visible, but it's there: Continuous Play 1

  • @racecar_spelled_backwards868
    @racecar_spelled_backwards868 8 месяцев назад +3

    The nanoscopic type does show the arrow pointing 1

  • @TooHipChicks
    @TooHipChicks 8 месяцев назад +3

    Nice pick up! Thrift stores are still one of my favorite sourcing spaces to find "vintage" electronics. Great job!😀

  • @revolver64
    @revolver64 8 месяцев назад +7

    I grew up using systems like this. Even as a kid, nothing close to an audiophile, I knew these systems sounded like absolute garbage, especially the record players. I think that’s why vinyl fell out of favor so quickly after cds were introduced - because so many people just assumed records and tapes were subpar since most people only heard them through cheap equipment.
    Now that I’m grown and can afford good hifi components, I have really come to appreciate vinyl and to a lesser degree cassettes. The fidelity is amazing and the physical aesthetic is quite satisfying.

    • @NickDalzell
      @NickDalzell 7 месяцев назад +2

      A great number of vintage stereo systems and components are cheaper second hand today than this thing cost when new. Better late than never

  • @lowkeylunatic
    @lowkeylunatic 8 месяцев назад +2

    I love the fact that you referred to pressboard as "wood-like material" 😂