The 3-in-1 oddness of the Triplecorder
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2024
- A proto-boombox from the 1960s.
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ThatSFXGuy - • Six Million Dollar man... - Věda a technologie
Word to the wise.
If you get to the 21 minute point - perhaps just watch *three more minutes* before submitting that comment ;-)
Very interesting machine. I recall having a portable 3 in 1 back then and it was much much bigger and filled with plastic and electronics. "Portable" meaning no need to be plugged in but really it was quite heavy... 😅
Very promising (first?) attempt to proto-SciFi... :) I was SO enjoying the comments, oscillating between thinking ”Have Techmoan gone mad?” and grinning in expectation of the final piece of the explanation that was boring and very interesting at the same time... Sweet!
But how are people going to be able to feel smug about them self and their knowledge if they watch an entire pre-recorded video to see if what they know is already covered in said video? It's the 21st century, Smug > Not coming of as a twit.
I laughed a lot by reading your comment, I liked hahahahaha (and yes, I watch everything before saying anything)
You are mean with the Japanese Time Story...
It's weird that there was an era where plastic was considered premium and metal was for the off brands.
There were even weirder times when aluminium was considered to be a precious metal.
There was an era where exposure to radioactivity was considered GOOD for your health ;-)
Which was very weird, seeing has that was after Marie Curie had died of radiation poisoning, and that was no secret.
That was probably speculation. Plastic was always cheaper. That is why the cheaper table radios from the 1930's on were plastic.
It wasn't necessarily much cheaper, but there was a certain cachet to using it. Also, early plastics like bakalite were quite heavy and brittle, so unsuitable for portable stuff. But cheap, light & damage resistant plastic was readily available in the 60's. Affordable plastic portable radios (like the EKCO Princess) were being manufactured in the 50's.
Ah, the classic time traveling tape recorder patent heist. So iconic
My grandpa tried to do that with a croissant, he got caught butter handed.
wasn't Sean Connery in that?
“5 Transistor”
Most people don’t understand how much of a selling point that was, for products of that time. More transistors = More good.
Like the watches that had the "10 Jewels" printed on the dial
It’s like the bit wars between video game consoles during the 90’s. More bits = more power (whatever that means)
Are you implying that number of transistors isn't still a selling point nowadays?
I had a 16 valve car in the 90s. I magine my disappointment when I realised it referred to the engine, not the stereo.
something something Atari Jaguar
I love how you built up the suspense with speculation and conspiracy just to tear it down with 1962. Great vid
The five minute odyssey to the obvious answer for the year was awesome.
you do realize that since you are not a licensed repairman representative for the Answer manufacturing company you essentially voided the warranty by removing those screws ??
@@samuelfellows6923 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humour
Yeah no quality seal, let the company prove it...oh wait.
The supreme court last year ruled
That the standard US citizen is allowed to tinker with anything they buy as long as it is without malice.
@@frathouse2319 So unquestionably the company has no case to answer
@@JoeyRivers lol i see what you did there.....
I really like the way the aerial and stylus just plug in and change the function - great UI design!
I've always wondered what a Heart cover done by the Chimpmunks would sound like. Thanks!
"Chimpmunks"? Is that a Monkees reference or a typo?
@@MrRowskey Alvin and the chipmunks voice actors voices would be modified to be high pitched by recording them and playing them at 45 rpm or higher. This is referring to that
@@okalright3941 yep. Someone made a full album of chipmunks records played at 16 rpm and it sounds kinda grungy and dark but yiu can hear the natural voices of the singers.
Every time you turn on a vintage radio and I hear modern broadcasts it catches me by surprise.
Very nice video! I just love weird old devices.
The interference you are hearing on the AM radio is most likely not from WiFi because WiFi uses totally different frequency bands. You are probably hearing interference from switch mode power supplies.
A comment about the patent document. It was submitted in 昭和37(1962) and was accepted or registered in 昭和39(1964). By the way, great video! I was born in 昭和41 so the machine was little before my time. I've never seen it before.
I think the "year" 39 referred to how many years the emperor back then was in office when the patent was issued.
haha, so cool :) but my question is, in your country how these can stay packed away so long?? i dont understand... i mean, space is valuable in japanese cities, why would anyone pay for storage to keep items like this. and also it was a good storage, the unit was extremely good condtition. time to time these extremely old new stock emerge from your country its very interesting. in my country (Central Europe) this is basically unimaginable. TBH i never heard anything like this, only stuff found in attics or old basements and those are in terminal condition.
when I saw the patent document I instantly thought about this naming convention for Japanese years. People still use it sometimes, though less often now. Glad the confusion has been lifted :)
@@kbuss10 yeah, space is valuable in japanese *cities*, but if you go out to the countryside, it's almost free.
Japan's about the size of most European countries with a roughly comparable population. But the Japanese limit the area of their cities. The government doesn't allow urban sprawl.
This is to protect their forests. Even though three things Japan isn't short of, are tea, forests, and weird cartoon porn.
When I was a kid I loved to see the latest developments in technology, now I find it even cooler to look at the older stuff.
Thank you very much for your exquisite videos!!!
For 56 years old, that looks amazing.
*feels smart as he looks up a conversion for Gregorian calendar to Japanese calendar during shaggy dog story*
*prepares to write comment*
*Shaggy dog story ends*
*deletes comment*
Wow, I LOVE those little Japanese crystal mics of that era. So expensive now though, if you can even find them.
Definitely had a late 50s, early 60s feel about it. Fascinating.
Your initial guess on the device's age was spot on. 昭 37 is 1962. Japan like to use the coronation year of their latest emperor as year one and then start offsetting. I'm relieved that they started adopting AD a few decades ago.
Tomorrow will be New Year's Day Elizabeth II 65. Happy New British (if we did what the Japanese used to do) year everyone!
Japanese use western years now but it is still secondary to the Japanese year system. All official documents use the imperial years. Contracts, driver licenses, etc.
In JP the emperors year is still used for everything official. Banks, Govt, Drivers licenses, your car registration, insurance, you get the idea. It is far from gone and I'd guess they are still using it for patents.
My Japanese commuter's pass as well as the national health insurance card used the Japanese year system.
"mjaap What year is it?"
This year is apparently Akihito 29.
What I think might surprise people is that Hirohito (Akihito's father) remained as Emperor after World War II.
Despite its flaws, I kinda love this device. I think the form factor and feature set make it a gorgeous little box. I'd love to see a Kickstarter for a hi-fidelity version.
That set is just plain awesome. It's so clever and cool how the designers arranged it all... the antenna-jack switching thing... the phonograph setup... all metal construction...everything...that thing's crazy-cool.
It's interesting that, even though it's an AM radio, the aerial is a telescopic rod you usually find with FM radios, instead of the loop antennas you usually get with AM radios. It'd also be interesting to to connect those old batteries up to a multi-meter and see if there's even a small charge left on them.
A traditional AM loop antenna inside a metal case would not work as it would be shielded from any signals. Karl
Aussie Highways: I found a carbon zinc C size cell in an old toy railroad lantern. The battery had FEB 1943 printed on it and it still produced one volt at no load!
I like the look of '60s batteries. Beautiful. 1:22
20 dB s/n ratio has to be about the worst I have ever seen... kudos to them for being totally honest with how bad this is going to sound.
20dB??!?! i get a better signal from my $9 mic!
Probably about the same as the dynmaic range of the shite they pump out and call music these days
Probably one of the most entertaining and informative episodes you've ever done - really terrific!
Thanks very much!
Cheers!
Gorgeous looking thing. Love all the metal in it.
It's a possible Mission Impossible prop. Make it smoke when it's done playing a tape!
I once read a hoax virus warning that included as a symptom "grey smoke coming out of your computer". One of the comments on it was "how do they refill my computer's smoke pellets remotely?"
Time travelling tape recorder patent heist. 😄 Epic ! Another brilliant episode, Mr Moan.
14:18 Heart - “These Dreams” - what a song! My teenage years!
The construction is definitely in the tin-toy era tradition. For me the transistor cases and dipped poly caps put it right in the late '60s so I concur on that. Superb sleuthing!
Fran Blanche hey I know you
Early to mid '60's.
@@MaximRecoil It's a toy, the build quality is so bad.
@@Justwantahover That's no toy - toys are FUN!!!
The Shedposters Good Catch! She is now building a HeathKit.
It's basically a 60's boombox, love it!
Before I saw this video, I didn't even know this channel existed.
For the first time, CZcams recommended this video to me - and that's great: I couldn't stop watching the video because it's interesting, well based on deep knowledge, with really nice storytelling.
At first, I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to watch a 27-min-video, but it made time fly (in a really good way).
WHAT A GREAT VIDEO. Thankyou.
14:18 might be the start of my favourite moment in history. This is unmitigated joy! All of Ann & Nancy's catalogue recorded with tons of wow & flutter, please!
I almost died at 15:18!
What an absolutely adorable machine! Thank you so much for reviewing this piece of history, it was love at first sight, so I've just ordered the only one I could find over here on the US ebay. (phew!) It's such a double-edged sword when you review lesser-known items, because I find that they tend to sell out or jump up in price after you pique all of our collective interests; luckily I was awake before dawn for an errand, so I'll have the pleasure of restoring one of these cuties when it arrives next week. Cheers!
Will you film and tube youtube your restoration?
Has anyone else listened to the radio program he was testing the radio on outside? It's about Liverpool's five European Cup wins. It's really interesting if you're a Liverpool fan. You can find it on BBC Radio 5 Live.
THANK YOU for all your Videos and for seeing again these wonderful devices that I was allowed to use in my youth 70s and 80s.
I still have AKAY 625 today, lots of tape decks, just haven't found a good turntable yet
Wow... an utterly ridiculous device, packed full of ingenuity!
8:42 As soon as I heard your voice played back I thought: "I really wish he'd said: EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" LOL :D
Purple Crow - TOH LPC He's English. You have a point.
Let's just call it the "poltergeist recorder" at 8:42 lol
Honestly, my first thought was that he sounded like Baron Silas von Greenback.
For classic fans:
*EXTERMINATE! DO NOT DEVIATE! EXTERMINATE!* and the occasional: *KILL THE DOCTOR!*
Reminds me of Earth vs the Flying Saucers...
Good luck, Jim. This tape will self-destruct in 15 seconds.
HA HA great Mission Impossible reference! :)
I only remember Mission Impossible in the original TV series format, which was periodically repeated on UK TV.
No . . . Don't put it in the waste bin ! . . . Stop! . . .
It's not going to be a lot of good without a new rubber drive wheel. I suppose you could keep it as a dummy tape recorder, whilst replacing the innards with an MP3 recorder.
me too! I grew up watching the original 1960's series here in the US. it was one of my favorite shows :)
always amazed me the things they could pull off on a mission.
This gave me a good chuckle. Thought you had gone off the deep end for a brief moment, but then I realized it was just that usual dry British humour coming through. Jolly good show.
A fascinating little gizmo. The round shape gives it a sixties spy movie vibe.
I always wondered what it would sound like if the Chipmunks sang "These Dreams" by Heart. Now I know.
Hey! You inadvertently made a nightcore phonograph.
Interesting little gadget!
Just a couple of things;
The fastening you referred to as a split pin is actually a circlip.
You can easily repair damaged rubber items using a product called Sugru which is a moldable putty that cures to become a silicone rubber compound and is available in a vast array of colours. I keep a pack of black and white sachets (that's how it's packaged) in the fridge (it increases the usable lifespan to over 3 years) for whenever it's needed.
It’s like a proto-Walkman. I love how it changes to radio mode without a separate button.
Nope, it was definitely time travel, all you need to do is slingshot around the sun at warp speed and you're in a time warp, simples... :D
I remember in the 80's, sears had a microwave oven, color crt tv, clock radio all in one in the catalog. Find one and review it please!!!
Is this a troll?
If it was Radio Shack they'd have built it all into a stuffed animal.
I imagine it didn't last long, as there would have probably been internal interference that would cause the other components to melt.
Sounds like a dorm room dream!
No trolling. They absolutely had a countertop/under counter microwave with what I believe was 7 inch CRT color TV, VFD digital clock with alarm, AM and FM stereo radio. I believe the speakers were on the sides and side firing. As a techno nerd, it was quite awesome. But the cost was insane. I cannot find any reference to it anywhere. It could have been Wards or Pennnys... but seem to recall it being Sears Kenmore. Not making it up. It was 80s awesomeness in every way and now I cant find one to fill the childhood memory. The CRT was on the right with all the other controls.
I actually had to pause the video and go listen to Heart - These Dreams. Another great video Mat, thanks.
Hey I wanted to tell you that the year 39 is reference of the current King of Japan at time. Every time a kind/ruler dies or abdicates the year is put back to 00 (of their rule). Now a days it's mostly business as most people use the most common Georgian calendar. People are freaking out though right now with the current ruler leaving apparently with their servers it's sort of like the Y2K problems having to change things.
And they couldn't call it a tricorder.
i cri
A tricorder Jim, but not as we know it.
It pre-dates Star Trek.
Oddly, there is a professional Ampex reel to reel, (also later than this) model ATR-102.
Came just to find this reference.
That's.....logical.
The only phrase that comes to mind when seeing this item is "Jack of all trades, master of none".
the full proverb ends by "oftentimes better than a master of one" though :D
Why? This might have been a mediocre record player even for the time, but for a portable tape recorder and radio, it could have been excellent. Difficult to judge with all that decay that it suffered in half a century of storage.
Going from right to left makes perfect sense in this case. After all, the record has to turn clockwise while the tape is running forward to record. I guess they could have placed the heads at the top of the device.
Wow! Love the style of the machine. I'm watching this on the last day of 2022.
Could the rubber wheels be restored with a bit of sugru? That stuff's magic.
I think it definitely could!
Good idea! I hope he took measurements before grinding off the remaining rubber.
ig ke the rubber wheel looks like an idler wheel it's diameter won't make any difference.
I never knew this stuff existed. *mind blown* Guess I'm ordering a bunch of it today.
no it would've decreased the gear ratio meaning it spun faster
I think the long, daft, and completely rambling story of the Time-Travelling Japanese Patent Heist might've sounded better coming from a bloke in a leather jacket with a foam nose. Flippin' eck!
I dunno, As a theory, I kind of like it!
i laughed at the "no one could be in the same room as this thing because if that tape flew off, it'd chop your arm off."
My love of old tech is lived vicariously through you. I also enjoy the humor injected into your videos; much better than the typical review/teardown.
Techmoan, you are able to make anything interesting. Congratulations on your research and attention to details!
Appreciate the inclusion if Heart's "These Dreams."
The wife and I's "song."
Much love for both my wife and Techmoan... Thanks for another great video!
20min in... I was born in the early 70s and was given one of these tape players, mine had a leather carry case, for Christmas with a story read by David Bellamy, it played perfectly, no distortion what so ever....
That microphone is lush 💚
It's great finding new old stock.
It's so beautiful even though it's totally impractical as anything other than an AM radio.
Must have been fun when it was new for a novice to work out. Crazy idea 😊
0:46 5 transistors! They spared no expense.
That's actually the case. 5 is really less than they could have used, there'll presumably have been a few small transformers in there coupling stuff together so they could share the same amplifier. Transistors cost a ton back then. For the first few years, in the '50s and '60s, yields were also often low, many transistors were defective off the production line.
They took over from valves though, fairly quickly, because they had so many advantages, despite their price. They could work on low voltages, with low impedance circuits. No need for transformers all over the places. A valve amplifier might have had an input transformer, an output transformer, and a power transformer with several windings to provide the voltages it ran off. All expensive, heavy, and prone to failure.
And the valves themselves, metal pins inserted through a glass case, with vacuum inside. Vibrations would induce cracks which stop them working. As would a jolt, and they'd eventually just die of old age, and the thermal stress of having a heating element glowing inside.
A portable machine with valves would use an A battery, with an adjustable voltage of 80 - 90 - 110V or so. A B battery of 3V to 6V. Both would be chunky and sucked down quickly by the hungry valves.
Anyway.....
Yep transistors. Without which there'd be no microchips. Although they're talking about bringing back vacuum tube technlogy in microchips. Just make them tiny and use an electric field to control electron flow from one electrode to another. You wouldn't need an actual vacuum since the distances are so small air atoms would barely interfere.
Love these retro audio vids-always interesting how the tech evolved
You're videos are amazing. Your love of vintage tech is contagious. I also like how you take apart things and show us how these things were made. Keep making videos mate!
Really enjoyed the piece - and now I want one!
You mentioned the proprietary tape spools, but notice also the odd thing about the transport: The spools must rotate at a constant speed in order for the record to playback correctly - so this means that the tape speed will increase as more of the tape moves to the left spool, increasing its diameter. Usually, the pinch roller keeps the tape moving at a constant speed and the speed of the reels varies as they, basically, just take up the slack.
This means that you cannot even splice the tape since changing a section of recorded tape (for example) from the beginning of the reel to playback at the end of the reel would increase the speed on playback, giving that Pinky-and-Perky sound! Fun!
Oh man, a lethal tape player, people back in the day got all the fun
Really surprised by the lack of capstan / pinch roller! Quite ingenious to run the take-up reel at a fixed 45rpm though. I'm estimating the tape speed starts off somewhere around 4ips and reaches 7.5ips towards the end of the tape - so higher fidelity closer to the end, a bit like that reverse-spiral record you showed us :)
If constant-angular velocity, variable speed recording is fine for records, why not for tapes? Surprised they didn't use it for cassette.
The only big disadvantage I can think of, is for manufacturing. I believe pre-recorded tapes are recorded over and over at high speed on a big reel of tape, then it's cut into lengths and inserted into cassette bodies afterward. So they're not recorded at the same relative speed sthey're played back at. You could compensate for that but it'd be difficult to get exact, so speed would be off.
This is TOO incredibly weird!! I think I'm the guy that won the unit on Ebay. Moreover, I must now confess my kindred spirit with TECHMOAN. It was his expose of TEFIFON that motivated me to buy one. Despite the glowing description - it turned out to be less than stellar in it's condition and required significant repairs and restoration. With ALL due respect my friend(s) this channel has become my techno-porn. I've been collecting (mostly recording devices) for decades and since I'm convinced I'm older than. . . I'm the one who has been cloned :) -Retrotechnophile
Fantastic that they are still around in brand new retail package. NB for mono recording right to left is perfectly compatible with playback left to right. The greater compatibility issue would be the non-constant speed.
13:57 “… and the band was … Sho-waddy-waddy!” Tips hat to High Dennis on Mock The Week.
15:17 T H E S E D R E A M S
I loved that exploration into the date of manufacture of this thing. Excellent video with quite a bit of thought put into it, as always!
Very nice little recorder! Nice fix on the speed stability. The rim-drive design was extremely common in the '60s for cheap recorders--that coupled with DC bias!!
Got to admit, despite your feeling that it didn't look like something from the mid-'60s, it looks to me just like something I can imagine Twiggy carrying in some old newsreel footage of swinging '60s London. Oh, and I *loved* your discussion about the possible dates!
David Brider
A little bit like the Valentine typewriter 😊
I used to buy "Fuji Novel" batteries at Big Lots, much more recently than this. They weren't Duracells, but they weren't bad, and were cheap.
I wish Duracell could make batteries that could go for a few years without leaking. Leaking Duracells wrote off my £120 Central Heating Controller.p.s Am I write that in the 70s/80s Duracell said that they would pay to repair anything damaged by their batteries. p.p.s I do have a couple of calculators which still work using the original 1980s Japanese AAs.
I have same Duracell problem. Had a whole unopened package of them leak that were dated good till 2022. Maybe someone brought those back from the future to give duracell a bad reputation and devalue its stock?
Love your channel and love your humor...as well as information..well done!
It's a nice touch to let us hear the details of your work on the drive wheel, thru the device itself, gives it charm of an era.
And must say, i've seen some entertaining outrun titles, yours make top 5 of the list.
Thank you very much for this video absolutely fascinating and enjoyable. I've learnt quite a bit about technology since I subscribed to your channel about two years ago. Thank you again for your CZcams channel.
20:47
創作者 - 宮本茂
Creator - Shigeru Miyamoto ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Smart kid, at the age of 10 he was already patenting portable reel-to-reel recorders.
I loved that you did the whole history mystery of this machine. That was great to hear.
Thanks for a cool video again,
Chris
I LOVE when you DIY these old machines and resurrect and bring new life to them. It's like I can imagine the person who bought this when it was new and was so impressed with its technological prowess. Old tech needs loving hands like yours.
Love the chipmunks version of the song 😂
13:52
Elevator music as we go down into hell. lol
There were 66,668 views when I started watchng this (today, the first day of the upload) & now, half way through watching it, there are 67,035 views! Congrats, Techmoan, it's probably going to a million shortly! Like many others, I too had a tiny reel to reel as a kid, one very similar to this one. I used to collect tiny recorders from Japan for a while. They are still very fascinating. Thank You for the wonderful upload!
You really got me there for a moment with the time traveling story :-D That's one thing I love about your videos - you always go and explore all the possible aspects of a matter, no matter how absurd (almost as if you've been reading my mind) LoL
I rather like like the speeded-up version of "These Dreams." And I love the design of the recorder.
It must be the time traveler. Time traveling is true. It must be, right?
Sure time traveling is true, we travel forwards in time all the time. It just takes 5 minutes to travel 5 minutes into the future ;)
@@Juho.S. _five minutes later_
"By gosh, he's right!"
...... Mate, you have come so far in 8 years. I think mainstream networks are nuts for not picking you up.
Well done.
Really enjoyed the presentation and the build-up of your research about the patent date! Top video!
Do not mix up your Triplecorder with your Waffle Maker.
Martin Kronström I get an excellent AM signal on my waffle maker.
Or with your tricorder.
Aw god, my waffles are playing Bruno Mars again.
Instructions unclear. Got penis stuck in triplecorder.
Or the poltergeist recorder at 8:42 lol
Ohh I see this is the predecessor of the Star Trek Tri-Corder :-)
I wonder if they got the name from it.
@@azureprophet maybe :-)
You did a great job with this video. I enjoyed learning about the history of this technology and the detective work was interesting. One of the few CZcams channels that I actually learn something from.
Really like your channel. Informative with a relaxing, laid-back presentation. 👍
Also predates the circular shape if the discman.
It might have never been a good idea but it sure looks neat.
The chipmunks singing these dreams was a nice bonus
At 16:05 - the 85mm reel was a European standard. It was usually referred to as the 9cm reel. I have some of those including BASF, and have you ever heard of a German company doing something that was not standardized! Another proof is that it fits perfectly into the table of tapelengths vs reel diameters.
Tripplecorder..... Now with free man purse!
This is essential when you're exploring Alabama. ;)
would go great with Kramer's Bra for men with Moobs. that he called "the Bro"
You should see if you can get your hands on that pretty phonograph pocket record player. Would love to see a review of that
Party Pat
Later plastic case versions branded Commodore/Seibu (unrelated to Commodore computers)
Great episode - one of the best imo. Loved the way we were lead through the age investigation. Really enjoyed it.
i am blown away: 1. by this triplecorder 2. how nice this video was put together and thought out! please do a review of the 900 series philips line!