PART 2 - Panda 6507 Walkman - Is This New Portable Cassette Player Any Good? Unboxing and demo.
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- In this video I listen to the playback of the Panda 6507 Portable Cassette / MP3 Player, and compare it to a contemporary and a "classic" Panasonic Cassette player. PART 2 OF 2.
For your North American cassette needs, go to:
www.cassettecomeback.com
This song Reminds me Malibu Club GTA vice City
Panda sounds good to me, not great. However, good is good enough in this case. A nice surprise to be sure. Another great video from the Tonemeister ! Thank you Tony I really enjoyed this vid. 😎👍
I have a Panasonic RX-SR27, which has a pretty similar frequency response to the Panda, the corner is around 8kHz. On my Panasonic, it is possible to modify the circuit to extend the frequency range a bit (I already tried to put in a different head and got the same FR).
Maybe it is possible to modify the Panda as well, though I guess the circuit diagram is not available for it..
The "super USB" looks like it has slightly bad azimuth adjustment or, more likely, that it does not pull the tape straight. Similar FR.
Depending on the resistor type in the Panda, improving it might not be hard. Supposing it uses carbon resistors in or near the audio path, then swapping those out for metal film resistors should improve the sound, and a similar thing goes for replacing any capacitors with microphonics or voltage-dependant capacitance.
@@absalomdraconis I don't think changing the type of components would help a lot, but playing around with values may extend the frequency range.
One nice thing about this panda deck is it has a rewind button. It sucks having to take the tape out, put it back in the other way, FF a random amount, then take out the tape, flip around and see if you are in the right spot.
Oh, p(o)lease. Those f.f/rew buttons are completely irrelevant on such a device. You either have to have a bic in your pocket or improvise with something like an ice-cream stick, stick from a tree, don't cut your pinky nails or whatever. Just don't play around with them buttons. You will definitely regret that. Jokes aside even in the era when portable cassette players became very efficient and you could power them for many hours from a single cell, we never skipped a song. I still believe that was the magic of listening to music back then. I continue doing it to this day because of the same reason, apart from the nostalgia... Another thing is that at least I don't know anybody to have listened to prerecorded albums. We had to very carefully choose a compilation and use the tape to the maximum efficiency. There was no way we would leave the last 50 seconds of the tape empty or have a song which we didn't like much in the middle of the compilation. It used to be a very religious procedure
I still have 3 of those sony HF 90's I got for christmas in 1985.
Not sure why Walkmans got away from built-in equalizers on them. Was, by far, the best feature!
Yeah, and probably cheaper to implement than a speaker.
I think the potentiometers are expensive.
The big manufacturers even removed the EQ from Walkmans in the 90s and put XBass in its place.
But I'm surprised by Panda's sound, it's not good but like you said: it's still musical. Did you have or tested the new Fiio CP13 Walkman?
Two videos, a brilliant way to use real music!
I would be interested to know whether the loudspeaker (magnet) so close to the tape in the cassette has an influence on the recording, i.e. gradually erases the tape...
Even though I am an old timer too I would love to find a decent new personal stereo. Good to see progress
That Panda tape deck seems pretty good to me. My major complaint about it is the battery isn't user replaceable, at least not easily. I was expecting it to use a bog standard 18650 battery and those can be easily obtained and replaced. I can understand the benefits of using rechargeable batteries, but in a device like this, that's not what I'd want. I'd prefer it if it used standard AA rechargeable batteries that you can just replace, if it could also recharge them that would be amazing.
Go West - what a brilliant album that was!
I remember that song from a Grand Theft Auto game!
No wonder this was reminding me of Vice City. Even though I don't remember it in the game, as soon as I heard it, I thought it GTA VC instantly. Funny how the brain does that
Malibu Club have the song in!
@@lizichell2 FLASH FM
Where is better sound quality, Panda or Tomashi from previous video?
It sounds surprisingly good to be honest, on both headphones and SD card output
No repairs needed, will last a couple of years, with decent sound for £29 in your hand. I'm glad you get it, some think I'm trying to say they're better than the best of the vintage stuff...
I think you should listen again to the call me track. There is a very noticeable difference. The tape and the MP3 not so much. But between the CD and the tape, there is a very noticeable difference. There is a clarity you can hear in the CD that becomes more like a compressed sound when from the tape. I am not good at putting into words the qualities of a sound, so my language is probably imprecise.,
I assume it sounded fine when Tony made the copy. I've watched many of Tony's tape videos and 99% of the time, you simply cannot hear a difference between the source and the tape. So this is not just a bad recording.
It sounds like a 64kbit MP3. Given the fact many other players sound like 32kbit MP3 in 11KHz this thing sounds better, no doubt. But it is still very bad.
@@tarstarkusz : The difference was very clear, but none of the three were bad. I have a bad tape player/recorder right now, so I know what bad sounds like. I'm not quite impressed by the Panda, I'm still disappointed by the ongoing absence of new soft-touch mechanisms, but the Panda isn't actually bad.
Note: I'm talking about the first song test, not the one with the Crapmeister 2015.
To be fair it sounded quite good, and as techmoan said once not everyone can service an older device .Your lucky with your panasonic i only have two Panasonic,s and one i hate as it was terrible and only survives as i left it at my parents for many years the other is a small form factor and and its ok but not a touch on a sony or sanyo for sound .
Pandas are making a comeback they were almost extinct. Nice review Tony!
I thought the sound resolution was far better than the Panasonic bass and treble. For a new tape deck was exceptional.
Might even buy one to digitize some of my cassettes.
While the Panda fared well, the Panasonic has clearly more high end. Just listen to the increased hiss.
@@alanturnell7371 Please, no. Buy a proper tapedeck from the 80s or 90s.
@@alanturnell7371 : Some folks are overly harsh on this Panda, but Mac Daniel is right on this, you should get a good tape unit instead.
I watched all the ads on Part 1. I hope that helps. Don’t know for sure. But thanks for part 2
Keep up the good work Tony at getting newbies and oldies alike an affordable way into the world of cassettes again. I thought the Pand-sonic did a pretty good job for a 'cheapo' walkman and will offer someone their first opportunity into the personal stereo world. Try using a set of headphones where you can wear the left can on your right ear and right on your left when using the Panda. The 'mud boost' button on the crapmeister was highly effective, and agreed Gary Stevenson did a fabulous job in producing the first Go West album. Ta our Tony.
Agree about the circuitry. It's like the very cheap TEAC hifi decks of the early 1990s, the Richer Sounds specials. They have the cheapest of the cheap Tanashin mechs of the time, albeit genuine ones with good motors etc, but they actually sound very respectable. Why? Because they are equipped with a stripped version of the exact same audio path electronics as in TEAC's much more expensive '90s decks. The mech only really needs to pull the tape through consistently at the end of the day, for playback sophistication isn't necessary. This Panda seems well up to the standards of budget "low-brand" personal stereos of the' 90s - your Ferguson, Philips or Sanyo type devices.
Yeah, I had an argument with someone who said that the worst 3 head deck sounds better than the best 2 head one, purely because it has 3 heads, completely negating the audio circuitry.
The panda's top end seems to be rolling off just a bit too early... Not sure if they are using a low pass filter on the output of the amplifier to prevent hf oscillation? Or the eq curve (pre emphasis curve) is wrong and therefore is the culprit....
A lot of people don't realise that tape just like vinyl records is recorded with certain frequency bands turned down and then turned up on playback, the turntable with some modern exceptions doesn't have the pre emphasis circuit built-in, it's usually in the amplifier which is why they have a dedicated phono input, most people think that it's just a phono stage preamplifier but it's doing a lot more than that...
The cassette deck on the other hand has its own pre and de emphasis circuits built-in and as you mentioned in the video, the mechanism is only one part of the whole picture, I remember back when we had the LCD and plasma TV war's! It was said back then that the screens were all made by one manufacturer but the individual brands were designing their own controller boards which gave the different brands their own picture quality....
I already have a Sony Walkman which is pretty good, I like the panda! And I love that I has a built-in rechargeable battery and an SD card... The screen is nice and big and if the timer was an actual tape counter! That would have been awesome! Even better if it had a recorded level meter on it! And the equaliser....
As for the speaker.... They should have a look at a high end ASUS phone, if you haven't already heard the sound quality from its built-in speakers, I urge you to go out and hear it for yourself, just imagine how your phone sounds through it's speaker except in stereo and plenty bass! I really don't know why they don't make more phones like this? It's not cheap, it's definitely up there with the high end Samsung's and apple's but it's definitely the better phone!
As for the panda! If someone can open it up and find a fix for the missing treble and show how to do it, I will be prepared to purchase one and modify it even though I already have a great Walkman...
I thought the Panda did really well and yes, a three slider EQ is a great addition to any player, personal or Boombox. The moment I see a "Tone" button, it's an immediate turn off. Great presentation and keeping them coming. Cheers! T. Cruz
thanks for the wonderful 80's music.
The Panda(to my ears) has more upper mid-range but the the treble seems to roll off. so its brighter but not near as crisp as the original. So this can come off as bit harsh.
I’ve just ordered one of these from watching this video. It’s actually perfect for digitising my recordings on 40/50 year old type 0 tapes, without damaging my Teac deck and using CD-Rs.
Okay, I was wondering why so many commentators were saying that the Panda sounded so good, while I was shocked at the sheer lack of high frequencies. Even in a blind test (eyes closed while watching the video, and then watching and listening to the video) I could immediately hear that all the high frequencies were missing on the Panda.
I then downloaded your video as a 320k MP3 and opened it in Adobe Audition with spectral analysis. And I am glad that my hearing did not deceive me. The Panda cuts a lot of high frequencies higher than about 12-13kHz.
The Panasonic is amazingly close to the CD. The Crappy Walkman lands in the middle of the field between the Panda as the worst and the Panasonic as the best cassette player.
I don't want to say that I'm a professional in sound analysis, but at almost 40 years of age, I immediately noticed that the Panda doesn't have any buzzing or motor noise, but unfortunately lacks resolution.
Of course, it is up to each person to decide whether he or she can cope with this. For me personally, the Panda is clearly out of the question. But as you may have noticed, I am only describing what I have heard and seen, not whether the Panda is good or bad ;-)
And Tony, THANK YOU for this detailed 2-parter.
Yeah. It's not the azimuth on the Panda either, as adjusting it just makes it "muddier". I just don't think there's a lot of desire to create decent sound circuitry and amplification. If they even put it a basic 3 band eq instead of the speaker and mp3 functions, we might get something really decent...
The CD 💿 sounds damn good ! The tape sounds like the top end is "rolled off" a bit! The mp3 of course is gar-bage as always (typical mp3 compression)! The headphones I have are crap to be fair!
I feel like there's a strong EQ difference on the Panda output. As if the mid section was boosted and the high section cut off, giving it a cheaper more tinny sound. Quite a shame really :( Seeing that it comes with an LCD it should have been a no-brainer to implement EQ profiles (even for a custom one) and the ability to have a neutral EQ setting.
Thanks for all the effort, Tony. I have to say I was surprised to find that I thought the Panda sounded better than the Panasonic! Then again my old ears prefer listening to music with a substantial boost to the treble.
That's the thing, it's all subjective as we're all different. That's why I don't like "experts" saying their thing sounds better than someone else's...
@@CassetteComeback I think Panasonic quality is hard to beat thought.
You can put shaky videos through a fix
Most editing tools can do it (I use the free for personal use version of nch video pad)
Sounds good to me . The Best So Far.
Bought the current incarnation of the Crapmeister and a very well produced popular album from the 'zon last month as a joke or as a piece of kitch shelfware as she hadn't seen/used a Walkman for decades. And she loves it. Doesn't like the background noise, but loves the nostalgia of it. In this case, money well spent, just to bring a little joy 😊
What does brickwalled refer to?
Audio compression.
Someone really paid attention to how much those those USB crap players sell and realised that there is a demand for decent walkmans.
So i listened to them all carefully. Out of all these Panasonic sounded the best. Then Crapmeister sounded better (excluding that motor noise). Panda sounded muffled. It seems like Panda is using aggressive noise cancellation.
The straight panda sounds like it needs an azimuth adjustment. Has that muffled sound.
contra todo pronóstico, suena perfecto :O
I wonder how it compares to the Tomashi F-116?
Don't bother with the "new" cassette players they are all crap.
Tomashi you reviewed or this panda?
Frustrating. These Chinese manufacturers are getting closer and closer to nailing all the fundamentals of a solid player, but that last step, attention to detail, always seems to let them down.
Indeed. That's what annoys me. It really wouldn't cost them more to make them competent. Just an extra minute and an extra dollar...
Crapmeister sounded like somebody threw a blanket over it.
The signal was also boosted in Audacity.
@@CassetteComeback I'm pretty sure that I've got one of those crapmeister usb recorders and was massively disappointed in how it recorded to mp3 (quiet as hell) as I have some hip-hop and electro cassette tapes from back in the day that I want to get digital files for, so may well invest in one of these Pandas to do that job. Thanks for the videos on this machine.
@@s1ddo Investing in a Panda is like buying a newspaper of yesterday. Please don't do it. Buy real stuff from the 80s or 90s.
1:43 is the 1986 Sony HF 90 cassette, I have a bunch of these, and it’s still the best of the bunch, and much better than the later HF’s of that time period.
Mine has “Chandu The Magician” and “Strange Dr. Weird” all recorded on ‘86 Sony HF.
To me Panda's Joint or Dual Channel Encoded 2 Speaker Narrow Panning Stereo with 22khz end wasn't progress in that department but it's recording mode is proper Stereo on level of those other decks but not in the showdown only headphones mode was.
Definitely not an 80s pressing as the EU didn't exist until 1993. Interestingly, my copy of this CD, same catalogue number, says Made in UK even though I am in Australia (although there is a small chance I did buy it in the UK).
Gotta love Go West, always have. Just FYI Tony, no, it's not the first pressing, the first was one of those all silver layered discs with a printed silver label.
First off your Go West cd. It's not a first pressing but a mid nineties reissue with no budget for remastering which is probably a good thing!
Second, yeah, It's not gonna compare well with my TC D5M and like you I'm aware not everyone can afford something like that but for a person who wants to play "Midnights" by Ms Swift from their cassette with good sound, this is great value for money.
If only the silly sausages would get the head wired the right way around!!!
Thanx for the video.
I was thinking the Panda sounded nice and crisp, but you said it was "too trebbly"! It ain't beautiful, but it's practical and seems to work. 30 quid though? I'd give you 20 for it.
What model is the panasonic?
Just purchased a Panasonic R309 AS Cassette player I had in mid 70s. Love it.
In the second audio comparison you did I think that the sound from the bottom tape deck is unbalanced, seems like the sound is coming from the right channel more than the left. I've seen many cassette players do that.
Hi Tony, it is always a joy to me when i'm notified you uploaded a new video.
To me, the Panda needs azimuth touch up and it will be better, the last one might benefit from a 10nF capacitor across the motor to reduce the motor noise.
Wishing you all the best.
I tried to tweak the azimuth, but it just sounded muddy. I think it's the electronics.
@@CassetteComeback It is possible that they polished up a worn head...
Azimuth may be OK there, but if the Panda has a capacitor in parallel with the head, it may sound better if the cap was replaced with a smaller value one.
This or the Tomashi F-116, for someone who is not going to record anything and is just going to use wired headphones?
I want to go back do cassettes, and I have to say that all new options being cheap and crappy make my wallet very happy.
Go West? Can we go back to the RUclips audio library? 😁
Great video, good idea to use a recognisable song. Even if it is Go West 😎
There is no song everyone likes, so I chose this as I think the production is superb.
Philistine! 😂 This is a fantastic song, but then so much of 80s music was. It takes me back to when I listened in my Saisho personal stereo in the library at college. Great memories!
@@CassetteComeback Personally, I love '80s cheese :)
thanks god, at least bass line is there, but even technicaly speaking this much better
m.ruclips.net/video/B3xaIGl85fk/видео.html&pp=ygUKUXVpeCB7c3dlKQ%3D%3D
I mean, when its has rawness its always better, plus wideness or space in simplier recording proces
Hi, great video. I have question - was you using screw driver to adjust play heads on each player - on playback same prerecorded cassette tape from your cassette deck? The deck you recorded tape has different adjustment of recording/playback heads from each player you are testing. And I can bet that these small players doesn't have auto calibration/auto adjustment function. Usually on Chinese players you have loss on low frequencies not on high. If calibrations been done and you have mentioned in the video I missed it some how. Thank you in advance for any respond.
shame you don't have that MP3 adapter thing that plugs into your C64 you could of tried loading games from the SD card from the Panda. When i say MP3 adapter i mean it plays all other sound files as well.
Is the micro trans disk thing player/recorder wired the wrong way round as well? Im a bit confused. Probably it is and you swapped the phono outputs to match the original record. I love your new hobby Tony. I can't believe im sitting here and looking forward towards the progress and future videos of the same sort
I think its okay to listen to music casually if you have already a deck for maximum quality, and we dont have to forget this kind of things are the perfect way to avoid speculators in the second hand market.
Ive got the same USB cassette player for transferring onto USB and the noise is terrible unfortunately. Love Panasonic products but Panda does seem to have made a reasonable product this time. Just a shame the left and right channels are reversed.
Our cockatiel is loving the music. Lots of head bobbing!
Would like to see some objective measurements on these, even if the differences using music as comparison are easily audible.
the panda sound pritty good but for me it has a lower mid boost or something and sound a little bit boxie and not as open as the original
Isn't this like the third Chinese tape player with reversed heads? I get the feeling that they are using a misguided standard. They think they're wiring it correctly when they aren't. I was kind of impressed by the MP3 recording. Sure, it would be ideal if they went with a fixed volume, but it's livable. For people that aren't mechanically inclined to get the best out of a recording that just want to transfer their tapes to MP3, this gets the job done. Besides, it's around 128 kbps. You aren't losing much. Still better than telephone quality duel mono.
It records at 160 kbps for Mp3. I was actually really impressed with that bit. As regards the heads, I reviewed a Panda boombox recently and it had it's heads wired the correct way round...
We need them to bring back the best of old school quality in the tape mech. Dont use tenadjin base_ AT ALL. Reverse engineering of a super good sony mechanism, build with best parts. In 1979 sony charged 200 bucks for the first one. People pay those kinds of prices for cell phones. Sell it for the price of a mid quality cell phone, heck even a flagship, people WILL pay it if your marketing department don't drop the ball. Make sure you also provide it with an apreciable quantity of really good quality tape cassetes. Those things in unopened new old stock are selling for five to ten times original price which is more than enough money to make high quality brand new stock at todays manufacturing costs .
And the more they sell the less expensive quality gets. Marketing people, don't sell it on nostalgia alone. Sell it on the fact that physical media is yours to keep, not subject to take down or cancelation by a so called service.
Ah, that Sony HF brings a smile to my face. I fondly remember the version with the slightly smokier grey shell.
Very nice
Not bad at all, great video, thanks!
Excellent track choice Tony! More!
I guess it's already been said many times but me listening to this on my crappy little phone I can't tell the difference between anything it all sounds bad
Have you left the review of the product with your observations?
It might also be a good option to write to the seller and they might have the option to forward the feedback to the manufacturer.
They won't care. Profit before everything else.
@@CassetteComeback they cared enough to make a significantly better player than the usb crappy. They cared enough to have a qc at all, even if it was lacking.
@@CassetteComeback I would still leave feedback so that other people will see it on the item's site.
Great videos, nice to see this player getting some attention. Something I've found, if you hold down the stop button and listen carefully to the audio output, you might hear another one of its flaws: it adds white noise to everything. Not sure what's causing it, maybe a poor quality amplifier, some kind of cheap digital audio chip with bad signal-to-noise, or perhaps another problem. Either way, it's a bit disappointing.
also think I got unlucky with a dud motor in my player, measured wow and flutter at 0.3% RMS and 0.6% peak, not bad but it's noticeable in some music, and seems maybe worse than the unit you received. overall still much better than any other brand new player I could find for the price, though I wouldn't mind trying some of the newer ezcap models and seeing how they compare.
Yeah, it's a crapshoot. Is your head wired the wrong way round too?
@@CassetteComeback Wow, just checked mine and it's wired the right way round, quite a surprise. There really is no QC or attention to detail with these things, it's just a 50/50 chance.
But will it eat tapes?
No, Panda's are very choosy about what they eat..........Metal tapes only!! 🐼
The Panda had noticeable w&f and slow down and a bit clearer than the Panasonic which had better speed stability. It's the Panasonic for me as at least the channels are the right way round. The crapmeister sounds awful.
Brave move to defy the YT copyright scan and much welcomed to demonstrate something properly! Techmo** I'm looking at you.. have a day off, mate! PS: Call Me by Go West was one of those fantastic productions that was mixed and mastered so it would sound equally great on FM radio using Optimod multi-band limiters and those at home who had just invested in this new-fangled CD tech.. there was a real art to that mastering process back then
Yeah, that's why I chose it, always sounds amazing. I get why professional RUclipsrs don't use copyright stuff. It's their livelihood. It's just a hobby for me, so not important.
@@CassetteComeback Interesting I though the Panasonic was better but as you say all in the ears of the listener
So nice to hear real music tested!
Panasonic 30 years machine way better
Absolutely. The Panasonic sounds exactly like you would expect a player from the 90s has to sound. Not great, not terrible.
Definitely better, though the Panda is surprisingly good. This might actually be a decent donor unit if someone wanted to build themselves a custom player.
It’s not only the price, it’s the availability. Vintage gear is always a crapshoot. And if you find one good vintage Sony for a great deal that doesn’t need any repairs how are you going to repeat it? There’s a lot to say about a pretty good player you can order all day long, brand new, for $30
That's why I'm reviewing these, for the young and the new to the hobby.
The 8kHz corner frequency (I used a spectrum analyzer on the sound from the video) is quite low, at least for my taste. Maybe it is possible to modify the player to get more HF out of it, but why buy something brand new just to mod it. The player sounded to me like azimuth was off (and I don' think it was).
Other players may have similar or worse FR, but don't have the "azimuth off" sound.
Built-in rechargeable battery is a downside for me compared to just using rechargeable AA cells, but I know other people prefer built-in batteries over AAs.
Still, hopefully the manufacturer manages to improve it.
There are enough decks from the 80s and 90s out there, most of them run fine if you change the belts. No need to buy cheap modern stuff.
I prefer the Panda
Неожиданно!
Oh Christ sake cassettes are the worst tech and always have been, the tapes are thin and break easily, the oxide coats the playback head which dulls the sound.
Then why are you watching videos about them?
@@CassetteComeback Not a fan, obviously - the troll is hungry, after having been under the bridge all day!!
Crapmeister 2015 hahaha love it. Panasonic sounds the closest to the original. So an old budget model will beat these new ones. Panda definitely is better than the crapmeister 2015 but panasonic still is a lot better than panda.