REVIEW: Majority Fitzwilliam HiFi Tuner (FM/DAB/Internet) & Music Streamer. Cheap at 1/2 the price
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- čas přidán 23. 01. 2020
- A DAB radio, FM Radio, Internet Radio, Network Music Streamer, Music File Player, Spotify Connect Receiver and Bluetooth Receiver - a bit of a ‘jack of all trades...master of none’ but if you buy one on the right day (which might now only exist in the past) you can/could get a good deal.
AMAZON LINKS (all affiliated)
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While the only finish currently available in the UK is Black - you can get both Black and Silver in some other countries.
As it's a DAB Radio Receiver - it's only sold in countries with DAB Radio Broadcasts
(So not USA, or CANADA etc - they have HD Radio and Sirius instead)
Extra info - a few patrons have mentioned the similarity of the menus to various other radios from companies including Roberts - it appears that they must share a common chipset or a slight variation of it. This is no surprise really - as we’ve seen with the modern cassette decks - they’re just assembled from a few ready made components sourced from various suppliers. Amp from here, power supply from there, chipset from somewhere else... etc. Stick a badge on it and Bob’s your uncle.
The important things to take from this though are not to overpay for the same internals just to get a familiar logo on the front...but also to be aware that this operating system appears to be quite common - and it’s lacking in some areas.
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"there's no point reviewing something you can't buy" - my favorite videos on this channel are of the things I'd need a time machine to get!!!
Sounds like a cue for the young Moan puppet. Inversely, I'd give credit to *Techmoan* and his puppet for highlighting the 'crap shot' angel in the "Cut the Crap Shot" video (watch?v=JGKM9oi0mkA).
L😂L
pretty sure he was being ironic
It’s for Sal in black on Amazon, but the silver is much better looking.
8:58 Your taste in old-school hip hop never ceases to impress 😎
I cannot wait for you to hit 1 million subscribers. The most deserving CZcamsr I watch.
Not a very interesting product, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the video. I'd watch techmoan review a carrot
Funny ... I just commented on the wish of the 1 million subscribers, will he win a prize as being the millionth subscriber .... ha ha ha
Until I saw your comment, I thought he had a few million subscribers.
&disable_polymer=true is what you need to append at the end of any CZcams URL to see the old version of CZcams (i.e. the exact number of views on the channel overview).
?disable_polymer=true should be appended instead if the URL lacks question marks.
And "true" can be replaced with the digit 1.
(But I'm sorry, Techmoan's exact subscriber number will still be rounded off in the new style, even if you revert your CZcams view to the old style).
I know, huh! Matt is a damn fine human being.
9:55 - Damn it Techmoan, I WARNED YOU that all of that time travel you've been doing was going to cause nothing but trouble. You've clearly caused some sort of rupture in the space-time continuum and now the Techmoan effect on pricing is now happening before you even upload a video.
Love your comment lol
Did anybody else read that in doc Brown's voice?
Was thinking the exact same thing.
Underrated comment
Another unbiased, comprehensive informative and interesting review. Thanks always for these, Matt
"Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory."
I was very interested in this product until near the end of your (excellent) video.
Hello Techmoan!I want to thank you for all of your informative videos and information about consumer electronics.
Born in 1966 here in Germany i grew up with tube radios,transistor Radios and more and more devices that were equipped
with integrated circuits.I discovered the history of the underrated Radiophonic Workshop.At a time where there was no
synthesizer they made a huge effort to create new sounds,amazing.
Here in germany we had the studio of the WDR in cologne which did some things like this using laboatory equipment
such as function Generators or filters....
Thank you for taking the time to post, I always enjoy your videos.
7:43 "BacDaFucUp" It never ceases to amaze me how into old hip-hop you are
2 Live Crew? I haven't heard from them in decades.
The speed of the on screen text is a BIG fail, I wonder if the newer version is any better?
considering how slowly the screen refreshes at times (to the point where you can actually see it redraw the LCD from top to bottom) it seems like the whole thing is overburdened quite a bit, as if whatever CPU/SoC they used is at its limit
Yeah, telltale signs of using something completely underpowered for the task. Reminds me of infuriatingly laggy and slow interfaces that were common on TV's for a while - irritating to use.
@@Knaeckebrotsaege I think is the software implementation and not a hardware problem. I have a higher resolution screen on one of my embedded devices and a small micro controller connected over SPI to the LCD and I can make text scroll so fast that you can not see it :)
@@electrodacus Wasn't talking about the scrolling text but about the screen refresh in general. In some of the closeup shots it's so slow to refresh the screen contents you can see it redraw the whole thing from top to bottom because it takes almost a full second to do so (one example is at 3:39 when it changes to "connected"). The sideways text scrolling is more than likely just a software thing though
@@lemagreengreen Tell me about it. I've got a 32" Philips 32PFL4508K "smart" TV from around 2014/2015 that's infuriatingly slow to use. No idea what idiots looked at this during the design phase and thought "this is fine, let's ship it as is"
2:47 I swear I've seen the exact same remote design for some Chinese no-name and off-brand streaming boxes and pay TV pirate recievers!
Different colours but basically the same.....
I have an identical one also with a Chinese Android box as well as a budget 800x480 LED Projector (which I found for free beside a dumpster) identical remotes, identical coding with different screenprinting.
Majority are just chinese box shifters.
Common remotes are, er, very common.
When creating a budget item you can definitely get away with not having the costs of designing and manufacturing a specific remote.
I have the same remote for an android TV box
that display looks like something off a 2004 chinese mp4 player
If you would have asked me in the 1990s what a Hifi system in 2020 would look like, I might have sketched something like this (though I have to say, I would probably like the black one better). A slim device with a color screen and remote control. What I wouldn't have thought of is that there are now more analog connections and fewer digital ones, and that the Bass and Treble controls are now hidden in an on-screen menu somewhere.
Jac Goudsmit well, I guess you’re right but, the reason why they need the analog connection in the first place is because they require a physical connection. If you count the WiFi antennas, Bluetooth and all the more software side functions digital has moved towards going wireless:) it’s crazy how everything changes, I cannot imagine in what ways yet. wonder what it will be like in a few decades.
The bass and treble controls are on the amp, that this connects to.....
I don't know, I would draw something from the Jetsons. But then again I was in pre school, so there's that.
@@rosemeyer1939 But there is an eq built into this also. And a volume control. If this is meant to be plugged into an external amplifier which should also have it own volume and tone controls, why does this have a volume and hidden eq. This just says cheap to me.
@@jerryspann8713 Fair comment, but I suspect the chipset (bought off a shelf from far east) simply had this facility, so they've implemented it.
And, this kind of flexibility does help when connecting direct to a pair of powered speakers, which for a £65 device may well be how it is used (kitchen / garage system).
Listening to mine now, through a NAD 3020 / Tannoy 603 speakers and it sounds pretty good...
Btw, I was really hoping you'd open the unit up. I suspect there's shockingly little inside.
I got the upgrade, after reading between the lines of your review, and apart from the Bluetooth connection sometimes being tempermental, the sound through my amp is a lot more detailed than what I was expecting
First I have to say that your videos and the current lock down got me back into my HiFi which has been rather neglected. I was interested in Internet Radio especially since you showed us the problems with DAB. I had a look as this system and others which are all even more and do about the same. In the end I decided to put the money to a replacement cassette deck as mine has seen better days and just add the internet radio to the Fire which which can play through the HiFi in that room via the TV. Thanks for all of the very interesting videos a real blast from the past.
I have their majority Pembroke version of this with speakers included. It's kindve like a mini boom box. Me and my partner both love it and would highly recommend. She would not be as interested in hard to use tech, and so found it really easy to use.
Sound wise as well it packs a punch for its size. A very good and affordable company to go with fo anyone in The market fo a bit of kit like this
You know, I find it a very nice machine! If on the second version they have make the navigation more simple, then I think the price is alright. That receiver gives you many options!
and unfortunately, they have not improved the interface AT ALL on the version 2
I'm even wondering what changes they made, as I can't find any changes apart from the manual that comes in the box (which now has 5 languages in it, 2 seem to be partial translations as there are sections missing), and the fact that my one didn't come pre-bent
Merci, from Québec , Canada, Like you say AS ALWAYS thank's for your good review... And WOW, close to 1 million subscribers, you deserve it, and what I like about internet and CZcams are the possibilities of private productions which bypass the boring mass media TV stations...can wait for the next one
I love your videos ! Always get excited for them !
If you use the undok app you find that once it's linked to the player, finding and storing internet stations is so much easier. I use undok here in Australia with my wintal internet radio and it works really well. You can even changed stations and switch between dab, internet, Bluetooth and fm using the app. Also as someone else pointed out, my screen looks very similar to the one in the video and it's a way smaller device. Same same but different. Anyway I hope that helps.
That gaping mouth zoom in at the end was my favorite part.
Happy New Year and I love your channel!
Please make a review of the Audio Pro Link 1, thanks!
I'm at work but looking forward to see this episode in the evening.
I bought one of these last year and had to return the first one as faulty the second one is working fine though they did send a reconditioned unit out which i play through hy hi fi, sound wise im quite happy with the unit though your review did not comment on the sound quality.
that's a digital output, so just throw a decent DAC at it and be on your own merry way
You should have popped it open - you might have found something like a Raspberry Pi in there.
...and could've bent the chassis back in the process. Highly doubt he'll find a crapberry pi in there though. Likely just some nasty cheap generic chinese OEM parts one could buy on aliexpress and the like, slapped into a "nice" case to make it look like it's worth more than it actually is.
That's a laugh. Best case scenario it's a few off the shelf parts. Worst case it's a mystery blob
well allwinner is not that cheap compared to some other chinese manufacturers
Spoiler: www.frontiersmart.com/venice-65-0 These have been used for a few years, not overly interesting but well made with good audio quality.
your point? Android runs on jobbies too you know.
Yey, I saw you flicking through your albums and saw Acid Jazz go by! So it's not just me that has that on my Majority Fitzwilliam!
Wow!!! That's a kind of beautiful, pristine and useful piece of equipment!!! Listening to the radio on that kind of tuner is kinda interesting!!!
Hey fellow TWIT listener! Had no clue Techmoan listens to Twit! (My hometown is Petaluma)
Petaluma Techmoan enthusiasts represent! Glad to see another Petaluman on here!
Best Internet Radio Station: SomaFM and all their ~18 station with different kinds of Music.
San Francisco based, streaming since 1995. :)
nope, best one would be Radio Paradise... and you can stream it in FLAC.
Another great video. This was particularly interesting for me as I am always on the lookout for flexible radio / audio devices with lots of functionality.
My wish list includes:
- DAB and Internet radio (FM not essential)
- Programmable timed radio recordings
- Plug-in (eg memory card/stick) mp3 play capability
- Alarm / sleep timer
- Good quality remote (that is easy to use for navigation)
It is very difficult to find anything that offers all this at a reasonable price. There is the Brennan range of products, which covers a lot of options (plus an IP address for downloading MP3s), except timed recording, but is ridiculously expensive. Then there was the Pure Evoke 3, which also did almost all, except for Internet radio, but has not been available for some time now. I guess the other option is to build something myself based around a Raspberry Pi (which is basically what the Brennan is).
This device reminds me a great deal of the Philips Streamium NP1100/37, a 12-year old device now. Which was just a modernized version of the same basic product that was introduced to the market 15 years ago. I had firmware-level knowledge of that 15 year old product, as my company had considered selling them under their own brand.
Here endeth the Majority Fitzwilliam
They deserve it just for the name, to be honest.
Kiths me hardy.
I'm amazed they found it so hard to make a decent UI when it's mainly just text. lol
And the fact that the bezel around the LCD is slightly too small.
For the price (of the original unit), it looks OK, and seems to work OK.
But I can't help feeling it's probably a generic main board from AliExpress inside a slightly nicer case.
Definitely not worth £125 for the newer version, IMO.
ElectronAsh yes it’s like the screen from a HP printer…from 2005, I don’t want to disrespect a British based company, least of all one from Cambridge but it does look like a parts bin assemblage from older products of other bigger companies. Mind you it is following on from the traditions of those other companies from the region PYE and Sinclair
I remember having a decent UI on a smaller screen on my RockBox firmware modded Sansa Clip Zip. I also remember playing doom on it. If they went with a lower res font they could have fit more text had less scroll and eased the issues. Then again they are probably targeting this at older people in which case they should have had a larger or wider screen.
Yep, a very similar UI on this one...
www.aliexpress.com/item/4000644235317.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.3c9d42fdUKh5ZZ
Not the same type of product, granted, but it shows what is out there.
I do respect that it's a British company designing stuff for a change, but the price hike on the new unit is pretty bad.
@@electronash Well this seems to be a neat device too.
go specksavers
Hi Techmoan! Another fine video! Thanks!
Excellent machine, good sound, very happy with my mk2. Good videos
It has exactly the same icons as my 35€ touchscreen car radio with reverse camera...
Seems like every Chinese piece of "smart" audio equipment uses similar Android based menus. No sense in reinventing the wheel I guess
Well it's because they use the same DAB+/FM/Network modul.
@@happytorrentt4500 Most cheap car radios use a Windows CE-based os
Bring back the full outro music. It's part of the techmoan ritual for me.
Yes, I miss it, too.
👍
I bought the "Majority Peterhouse Graduate Internet Radio" about 2 years ago, pretty good, still working strong to this day.
I was a big fan of Majority's in-car DAB add-on units. This is an interesting review.
I wish something like this was available in the US, I have a Grace Digital tuner that has a monochrome screen on it and I don't know how much longer Grace is gonna support it.
I once had a CD-Player that was bent like your receiver. I put it on a flat surface, loosened the cover, tightened the screws again and the problem was solved. Btw: what does the receiver look like inside? Not much to see in there, i suspect.
Excellent Review and very good that you pointed out it has doubled in price
Very pleased to see Cymande in your iTunes collection!
This remote control is a chinese generic one, I have 3 that look the same for many Devices...
Yes I've noticed this more and more in the last few years now companies share the design...ie the remote with my octagon sf8008 satellite receiver is exactly the,same as my A95 max android tv box
Yes and they will operate all sorts of random stuff in your house if they happen to use a similar system. We have LED strips in the kids rooms with IR remotes and the colours change when you try to set a CD or adjust the volume on their player!
Yes, I have one of those that came with a crappy 30€ Android TV Box
@@fab1604 which is it ? There are some excellent boxes. I always look at the reviews from chigz
@@digitalmediafan It has some generic name like OTT Tv Box 4x
If Techmoan doesn't demonstrate what a device's built-in alarm sounds like the people will riot.
I have one of their personal DAB radios and its brilliant for the price I paid. It was just under £25. Reception is very good and battery is about 8-10 hours between charges.
Watching him scroll through the audio folders gave me major flashback/nostalgia for my OmniFi.
These things go under various different brands, even the german TechniSat sells a variety with a built in CD-Player
In the US< Ocean Digital has some similar stuff without the digital radio.
Got a similar device (they sell tons of very similar models under different brands) for my sister, she couldn't be happier. The user interface is alright (not amazing, but ok even for non-technically minded people) and it just works. She mainly uses it for shoutcast radio. Also very nice that it remembers the last few stations played, so you don't have to dig through the station list again. Favorite management is very non-intuitive, which is my main criticism. Why do I have to do this online, why can't I just press a button and save the current streaming station as favorite? (You show presets but for some reason that doesn't work on our model)
Thank you so much for the review. I had been wanting to suggest a similar machine called the Mondo+ by Grace Digital for about a year now but I never got around to it because I wasn't sure if it was available outside the US. The Majority HiFi Turner seems to have nearly all the same features except it offers a LOT more presets than my Mondo+, though Grace Digital did make it much simpler to browse, save and select presets as well as offer a way to access then by implementing an app for iOS and Android users to augment their controls. I also like how your Majority HiFi Tuner is designed to fit in your entertainment center rather than the stand-alone look of my Mondo+.
Both are good machines though, and I do enjoy a sort of Radio, whether it is FM or Internet because I do like having new songs of my preferred genre introduced to me to expand my musical experience and library.
We needed a teardown! Seemed exceptional value. Good review, although I did like the black one...
the display menus look identical to the Roberts range of DAB radios with the Frontier chipset.... very same fascia buttons too. @techmoan will it interact with the UNDOK app??
The John Lewis ones are the same OS too. According to JL, made by JWood audio of China
Yep, same as my Roberts Stream 93i.
These are all the same thanks to the frontier chipset. Hama internet radio is same and Silvercrest radio from Lidl is same as well (same remote as well).
It works with undok.
@@TheFoggyjones I thought the same thing - exactly the same as my Roberts 93i.
The name 'Fitzwilliam' is familiar to me as it is named after Fitzwilliam College in Cambridge (where I live, and it's not far from me)...
after this review the college might ask Majority to stop using it's name on this product.
I bought this exact same model for my Hi-Fi setup for nearly £80 a year ago. Going through the menus and stations on it's tiny screen takes as long as a 9 to 5 job and I can't find a way to type in letters whilst searching with the remote, but apart from that most of the features seem to work as they should and the bit rate of some internet radio stations even as far as Japan beats out DAB stations here in the UK!
There are so many internet stations out there that I even managed to find radio stations that have most of my families names on them including mine! Most of those stations sound pretty good but some of my favourite stations include SomaFM, Café Del Mar, Absolute Radio 60s - 90s and Jazz FM.📻👍
Perhaps version 2 has addressed some of the issues in the first one like the very slooooow scrolling text. I've got the majority shower radio which is excellent btw for £24 reconditioned...the display btw is exactly the same as the Roberts stream internet radios
Another device that would have been cool ten or fifteen years ago but has in many ways been overtaken by the smartphone revolution.
Aside from DAB, which is crap anyway, I can do everything this unit does with a £30 Chromecast Audio in the back of my big old Aiwa receiver (which has a great AM/FM tuner in it) and a reasonably modern Android phone, without the clunky navigation or yet another remote control to clutter up my lounge, especially as I don't see smart / voice control anywhere.
I guess you can only store so many mp3s on a phone, but I have something like 5500 on a SD card so how many is enough? I only use mp3s now because I'm still on prepay wireless and data is too expensive for streaming music on the bus!
To be honest, you could do most of what this thing does with a Raspberry pi and the right software. So, unless the sound quality is absolutely mind-blowing (unlikely for £65), this just seems like more Chinese landfill fodder. Next...
This is what I thought. I currently have an Echo Dot plugged into my stereo. With my mobile phone paired, there's nothing this can't do on that setup - apart from DAB which, like you say, is pants. And I've got FM on the stereo already...
DAB sucks so much
It seems to be a hardware solution to a problem that is increasingly solved by just software these days . Mostly could be done by smart phone apps more conveniently and more flexibly . I don’t really see the point . Great channel and great Tech summaries though ... :)
This device feels like something from 2008 at 1 tenth of the cost.
Still, I'd say it would be a neat idea, putting modern music sources into an old-fashioned box to match a retro hifi setup, but the execution looks a bit poor to me, even for the original, affordabe price. The menu in particular looks a little worse than the menu of my first mp3 player (which had to work with a monochrome screen the size of a postage stamp). Screen keyboards like this are just tedious, I've never seen one that wasn't and there are better solutions out there. Using the number keys on the remote the way you typed text messages on old mobile phones or using that select knob to quickly cycle through letters when you need to enter text (like the Sony DAP shown in another video). I was also surprised to see an external power supply on something like this. Those are generally an inconvenience (especially wall warts) and I'm pretty sure there's enough room inside the unit for it. Lots of little niggles that could've been done better for the same price or perhaps 5-10 pounds more.
Agreed. Synch with any shiite phone and this unit may be golden. How difficult could this be I wonder?
remote control looks like the one from my xoro 600ir. love this type of radios. greets from germany.
Another great review. I'm sure a lot of followers would like it if you listed your favorite old school hip hop from the 80s and early 90s.
Thanks for this review. I'd have been tempted (we could do with a tuner for our conservatory) but your review made me think again. Like you, £65 would be worth a punt, but a 100% price rise makes me think again. Incidentally another Amazon customer also complained about a distorted chassis, so that might conceivably have been a construction issue rather than a delivery mishap?
Just read the same 2 star review about the twisted chassis, and like you I might have forked out £65, but I think the 100% increase has saved me from wasting £65.
@@slm60uk Must be the same one I read! I was looking for any info on the MK2 version to see if anything had been revised, but can't find anything different in the specs.
Is no one going to comment on the fact that Techmoan listens to Snoop Dogg?
as well as to "BacDaFucUp" by Onyx :D
He’s an old hip hop head he’s got em all , lots of rare and underground cassettes too
Perhaps we should see Mr Moan do a review tour of Amsterdam cafes whilst listening to Snoop on an audiophile mp3 player.
He reviewed that smaller-than-a-CD diskman with Dr Dre's 2001 album as well :D Amongst lots of other CDs throughout the video...
czcams.com/video/AowJGns66_4/video.html
@@tartanthing Dam right! thats so funny I nearly lost my drink...I've been to Dam seven times and I don't think Mr Moan would like the cobble stones...
This product really appealed to me as i have an old Yamaha AVR which has had its net functionality removed. This is product is definitely something i would of been interested in till i heard that the price had almost doubled. I cant justify spending that kind of money when i could now just replace my current AVR for a more modern one for the same money albeit a pre-owned one.
Aways informative and always a surprise in every episode....did i see Chubb Rock on your music playlist? :) Awesomeness mate!
6:30 I see Mat listens to Leo Laporte. I've been watching / listening to him since Tech TV.
The slow display refresh is horrible! You can see the display updating top-to-bottom at a slow rate.
Bernadette Treual That’s because of the camera’s frame rate. You wouldn’t normally see that.
@@dam4274 If you don't have a clue what you're talking about, best keep your mouth shut. Look at 3:39 for example and tell me that 1 full second it takes for this piece of junk to redraw the screen from top to bottom is somehow the cameras fault...
Knaeckebrotsaege 😂 Excuse you.
@@Knaeckebrotsaege That's what, in scientific terms, we call... a wipe animation.
@@Mini_Celeste You didn't even watch what I linked (the "connected" screen appearing). Gotcha.
The form factor and some of the functionality reminds me of the Turtle Beach "Audiotron" from about 20 years ago. It was an early MP3 streamer component with Internet radio.
Thanks for the review!
I never catch a video 10 minutes after upload, so just had to comment before I'd even watched it.
I miss the old full length closing titles.
+1
mi mi mi
This. Actually thought about suggesting adding the titles of the clips so a new viewer can go and dig for it on the channel without having to ask if anyone knows that that snippet is from... only to find out the whole outro has been dramatically shortened and appears to have lost its whole point (teasing things to new viewers to keep them interested) in the process
And I do not.
Looks good, even has Optical/Co-ax outputs. Might get one...
Great video. Am buying my own so thanks
Is this the first example of a pre-emptive / precognitive Techmoan effect?
I have one of these and, as sugested by a number of your viewers, it works with UNDOK via your smartphone. No need to ever look at the screen as virtually all fuctions are accessible via this clever little app. Lets be honest here, who's going to keep getting up off their comfy seat to fiddle with the unit over the the other side of the room where your hi fi lives and squint at the screen when you have a larger screen in your hand with all the functionallity (including easy preset programming and storage) you could hope for.
I paid the same as Techmoan for my unit and it was a steal at that price. The hike in cost is a bit surprising but at £65 it was probably under-valued. I don't have the Fitzwilliam 2 for comparison but if the build quality and overall specs have had any improvement from the Mk1 then it's still a good way to give your old Hi-Fi a new lease of life to my way of thinking.
Very happy with mine.
I think, if nothing else, it has zero competition at around £100. I bought mine because there was nothing else with this much functionality.
4:46 and for that reason a looong time ago I just started googling what I want to hear(say chill stuff = chill fm) and getting whatever station shows up with good quality & no ads, they all get ads eventually and so I find a new one, its been like this for like a decade now, I use AIMP and I never looked back at stations lists
I recently built myself a small internet radio using an ESP32 and VS1053 combo with a couple speakers and an old cell phone battery. I hooked it to an old Bluetooth MP/3 player combo that has a small amp built in that drives the speakers well enough to sound, well a bit better then an old transistor radio. That said, I can get tons of stations, I currently have 70 favorites programed into her, I have the set mounted in a small cardboard box with a bit of carbon fiber like covering on it to hide the mistake holes and such. I like it for simply relaxing to some favorite music while reading the news on my pc.
I’ve done that as well esp 32 and adafruit I2s DAC. Can you get bbc stations to work?, I think they have removed the internet streams
@@lumsdot I have some stuff from the BBC, Comedy 1 and 2 channels seem to work fine, a lot of the oldies stuff from the 30's and 40's still work, I guess that is about all I get from the BBC, that said it has been a week or so since I tuned up the rebuild device. I have made several of them for others but most wanted specialty stations, some that play out of old tube radios and such want oldies from the radio's age 30's through 70's.
@@JerryEricsson I’ve just installed Moode Audio onto my Rasberry Pi, and it’s also,a very good internet radio player, automatically picks up lots of stations, can control it remotely via a phone or iPad, lots of good DACs available for pi, just plug into GPIO pins
7:26 Auto captions thought he said "I've got plenty more mp3s saved on an ASS" lol
It's foreshadowing >> 7:50 "Bikinis N Thongs" album title on display! :)
That does sound like what he said...
New storage technology, Asymmetric Simple Storage...ASS
Calm down, that just a donkey in the UK.
Shame about the price. I think I'd just get a laptop and use it for music. You might say "what about fm" - fm stations are also available on the internet.
......same here....i use my notebook with an analog amplifier and it sounds fine.......
I don't know about the latest phones, but mine has an FM tuner in it. Plus, given its form factor, i'd use this with a decent hifi receiver, most of which have good RDS FM tuners built in.
Thanks, a good video as usual, sir!
I think this one is a good companion to your recent Kenwood one. It helps point out something I've hated for years: why should it be so difficult to find a good workhorse piece of tech gear, one that hits the sweet spot of features, design quality and price? Almost every radio or tuner / receiver / amplifier I own that comes closest to that ideal was made years ago. I'm not saying that you can't find new gear that is adequate or better, just that there seems to be too many compromises. Volume controls that step from too quiet to too loud, lack of direct access to tone controls, cumbersome user interfaced, those sort of things. Heck, I picked up a used Sony bookshelf system for literally a few dollars recently, and you can't even select the AUX input on the unit itself, only from the remote control, which luckily hadn't been lost. Why aren't these sort of things realized and avoided? Is it cost, engineering craftsmanship, or what?
Damn Techmoan, you really do have a random selection of music.... That is awesome! :D
I'm curious about the spotify integration: Does it stream with a high bitrate? I know you can't see that, but the reason I'm asking, is because, using a Chromecast, the quality is audibly horrible on certain tracks with obvious compression artifacts (and I'm not even picky about that!). I've been writing Spotify, but they didn't want to do anything about it. I'm not sure if it's considered a "Premium" subscriber feature when using Spotify Connect, as the quality selector is inaccessible when streaming.
Also, do you know if it supports gapless playback with lossless files? And another feature that I would find extremely useful, is if it's able to send the next-track signal through SPDIF when recording to i.e. a MiniDisc (just like a CD player does). Or do you know if any digital audio player is able to do this?
That’s a good question. I upgraded to paid Spotify as I understand the compression quality is better (plus the lack of ads, obvs) - I think you get 320 kbps as opposed to 128, or something in that region anyway, but yeah, does that automatically get sent to a Spotify connect unit? It’s the sort of thing they don’t tell you either because they think no one cares (and most people don’t) or they’re hiding the fact that it doesn’t.
@@vooveks I would rather say somewhere between 250-280 kbps but I also dislike the bass boost and heavy compression. Even ripped cds with mp3 codec sound better. It will play spotify on highest but propably caps out on 44.1kHz 16 bit audio
Curious here also. Do not have problemes with audio on Chromecast. You think it is not the specific recordings?
Janik11970 Yeah, not sure I’m buying the ‘bass boost’ thing. I can’t think of any reason why they would add EQ to a streamed track. I would need to hear a direct A/B comparison to believe that, TBH. By heavy compression, I’m assuming you mean the mastering kind and not the bitrate kind? That’s generally a symptom of modern music production, rather than a player- specific issue. As far as I know, all the digital streams are flat, EQ wise, except for the actual production/mastering of the track, which is a separate issue.
Having said that, I understand that streaming compression might be a lot more janky than an MP3 rip from a CD and maybe that's what you're alluding to? Sorry if I've misunderstood.
@@SKY11211213 It might have defaulted an eq and data rate to the device you use or stream it too. I have no probs steaming from a decent phone or tablet to a bluetooth to optical receiver. Remember the app might have eq, the device your streaming from might have eq and the receiver might have eq, before it even gets to your amp and it's eqs. My PC is set to flat, my phones and tablets are set to flat, I set spotify to flat. The only thing I ever have to adjust on my main amp is the gain on the 2 15" subs in X.1 mode. otherwise that amp is set to flat in 2, 2.1 and 6,1. I don't notice any eq difference from winamp or spotify form the pc or androids.
I bought the Majority Newton about half a year ago. I still wonder where they managed to find a speaker that bad. Good thing I only wanted it as a cheap Alexa device.
Interesting to hear your take on these and your observations about pricing and availability too. We bought a Kings unit for one of our kids rooms, it has CD and speakers in addition to the features of the one you reviewed. It was a bargain via an outlet shop that they seemed to use. When it arrived the CD unit worked once and then failed to play any other disks. I used the ebay system to let them know it was defective and they said that they would refund me once it was recieved. OK, no problem, I would order another in the meantime, but wait, the unit I ordered is now listed as "NO CD" yet is the same device, with a CD player! I searched for the unit "With CD" only to find it was £20 more expensive! I cancelled the return and asked for a replacement. One duly arrive (in suitably flimsy box as you noted) and I tested it. No CD! On talking to customer service, they asked that I reset it to factory and oddly this worked. On a few occasions it has stopped playing MP3s from the USB and needed a similar reset.
Nice concepts, with poor user interfaces and duff software would appear to be the general gist of the outfit. Shame as they promise a lot and should be good value for money given the feature sets. I like the general look of them too.
Thought we'd wait and see how the unit pans out before buying another for the other kids room! Aside form the remote interacting with the LED strip controller and an occasional dirty disk read issue it been OK so far...
I didn’t expect to see Ashanti in there! Loved the review, I have a question, what’s the best way to start investing in a hifi system? Starting small and building up over time.
That just looks like a rebadged slightly less lowend chineese system....
5:00 Feel free to say its crap...we dont mind techmoan
Love your videos. Can you do one on quadrophonic stereos from the 70's? A great forgotten tech.
Good video, I have the MK2 and it's a excellent device which I record off to minidisc and tape etc. Worth a Buy,
MK3 is out now with rearranged facia and the same small display....
Don't know about England, but in Australia DAB+ has been a dismal failure.
In North wales it has too, our mountains make signal penetration difficult. Especially in cars. On a long journey in the car I have to listen to long wave if i want an uninterrupted service.
Why do they allow .05 MHz intervals? Unless you're a farmer those aren't used.
It's very rare, but some countries do use them. I believe Italy is one of them. Also, when you have analog cable radio it can sometimes happen that the frequency drifts somewhat and you have to adjust with .05 interval. I've had this several times back in the day when I had analog cable radio. It usually only lasted a day or so and was obviously something wrong at the cable head-end station, but still.
I have the Fitzwilliam 2 in silver which I bought for £70 as a refurb. It's alleged to be a category C refurb but I can't find a single mark on it anywhere. The only thing missing from the box is the manual but that's soon downloaded. Overall I'm really pleased with it. It even still has the plastic film on the screen.
I bought it primarily for the Internet radio. It's great to find a station that plays non stop music with no adverts and no presenters.
I have a very similar unit bought some years ago made by Sansui which latterly became Mitchell & Johnson. The sansui wld+201l . It has almost exactly the same feature set as this, although lacking spotify connect and a colour display. I use it daily for internet radio (as im in an area with horrendous radio reception) and streaming music from my NAS. Shudder to think what I paid for it but I'm sure it was in excess of £250. One thing to try to make navigation easier is the UNDOK app on your phone. It's compatible with most internet radios and makes navigating much easier from your phone so you don't need to squint at the tiny screen.
I got everything apart from DAB on Raspberry pi with DAC for much cheaper.
I pretty much did the same except with a $40 thin client.
With screen, enclosure, connectivity, buttons, remote etc... Maybe Compared with the current price, but I kinda doubt it compared with the original. Plus it would be a lot of work to get something as neatly packaged, even if this is a bit budget-y around the edges.
@@anononomous below $50 with 5 inch screen, fitted to old amp case running rune audio controlled over network from phone, tablet, pc.
£125... ouch
Great review, thanks!
1 million subs this year!
I guess I'll watch the new Techmoan video instead of going to sleep
I wish I could up-vote this several more times. *yawn*
Same lol I just can't get enough Techmoan videos.
Where do I put my 8 Track in?
The bin.
UK Kev
Where do I put my cassette in?
Mr. I would love to see what you would have to say about tosslink. And by the way, thanks to you I’ve gotten into minidisc, bought a fairly mint Sony mz r-30 and I’m loving it. Your channel is fantastic.
10:57. Artist seen in the reflection. Concentrating while zooming and focusing. Almost got his tongue in the right angle (EEVBlog style) ;-)