The material used for belts can vary greatly on cassette decks. I've had Sony decks from the late 90s with completely melted belts and also other really old decks (particularly Panasonic) that had no problem with belts that were over 30 years old. It's just a shame that manufacturers knew how to make belts that lasted almost forever, but they made the decision not to do so, which gives vintage tape deck fans much unnecessary grief.
philips belts were notorious for turning to tar like goo in many of their open reel machines, dunno about cassette machines, i had a couple of philips cassette players, they hadnt gone to goo...not quite..but a bit squidgy.😉
Yeah.... and good though it is that those original belts are still working, they're audibly deteriorating; you can tiny micro rapid fluctuations in playback speed when it comes to music. A new set of belts could really help... the deck otherwise sounds good; nice clean, noise-free sound. Of course... after 30-odd years, it may just be old grease and oil that needs refreshing, but after leaving it running for several hours, if doesn't improve, then just re-grease/oil the motor, and replace the belts. The decks sounds well worth it!
late 80s Kenwood KX-94W with completely melted to goo belts, yet I had one that was a couple years older and the belts were still fine, so it's not even consistent by brand. However, I've noticed that replacement belts you can buy today are complete trash, with some of them deteriorating within only about 6 months just from exposure to air. Really annoying
When it comes to decks, the thoughts are that earlier the better, as they look better and were better built. However this looks over the fact the the electronics got better, as with computers, smaller and more convergence. It's like with cassettes, as the tape got better, the shells and design got worse. At least the 2 decks seems to be independent and not sharing motors and belts. As far as it goes, this is probably one of the best, non 3 head, dual Wells ever. It's late, feature packed and sounds good. Nice review fellah!
Purely for the listening experience, and even as I hate an automatic buttons, for this purpose (when you have a tone of various demos..) it's idial - mid 90s Technics (for ex) with hyper fast rewinding, self closing (and then simltaniously play mode), track searching tool... and also when its goes to the need to compare the cover song with original its the only way (by pieces ).. all in all, very aesteticaly pleasant and at the same time quick as you only want.. Philips has a better design/look though, when it goes to the cheaper prods
Wow, took me back to around 1989 or so. My dad rang me, I was married and had my own home and told me he had 2 tickets to a Philips exhibition. We were wined and dined and we bought a system each. Dad passed away 2002 😭 but this video has give me very warm memories. Thank you my friend 😘
I remember this one. I wanted it and as soon as I got the money to buy it (I was a teenager), it was not sold anymore. Got one later on ebay. What's funny is that Philips was selling pure chrome compact cassettes at the time, but their decks were not calibrated for pure chrome and this one performed better with TDK's and Maxell than with Philips cassettes.
I have both of these Phillips components which I bought in 1993 or 94, and they're both still working fine today. I also bought the single CD player that matches these components. Not sure what happened to it after I upgraded to a multi disc player. Greatly enjoy your Channel, thank you.
Kevin, this is a typically great video. Yours is one of the absolute best UA-cam channels. You combine tremendous knowledge with a dry sense of humor and a winningly soothing camera manner. I'm so glad you decided to make this stuff available to the public.
Philips were certainly radical in their design department. The charcoal grey colour and the granite appearance. Certainly belongs only in an all-Philips 900 setup!
Philips made some very brave design choices in their late 80s and early 90s portables and it's great that some of that personality continued into this range. I've no love for any of the black with round feet style of most of the components of the time but this one; especially when you put the receiver with it, really brought out some character and the symmetry of controls was undeniably beautiful. It's a shame a little flourish of Philips turquoise from a few years previous didn't make it onto the fascia. Still a real standout from everything else on the shelf at the store.. for better or worse.
Nah, Tesco takes that award, couple weeks back I was in the local store and they played that song over the tannoy, talk about an epic store-wide rickroll!!! :P
Philips operated a factory in Ovar (Portugal) between 1970 and 2009. This deck was most likely built there. By 2009 Philips only manufactured remote controls there. At it's peak that factory had around 2500 employees.
The label on the deck says "assembled in Portugal" - therefore I believe many components were made outside of Portugal. However many manufacturers of HiFi used components made all over the world (this deck uses Sony-made Dolby chip which was definitely not made in Portugal (not even in Europe)) so it was normal.
What a great buy, and having the matching receiver is icing on the cake. That Jeep commercial at the end had me rolling on the floor. I just recently ran across this channel and subscribed, but if I had years ago I'd probably have a half dozen cassette decks by now. The only thing we have is a small Magnavox boom box I bought my wife back in the '90s, so I ordered a Maxell tape from Amazon to play with, and also the "Guardians Of The Galaxy" tape for her since she loves those movies.
This in my feed was an even more pleasant sight than normal, I think. My dog, my little buddy of 11 years, got put down on Saturday. The symptoms that led us to that difficult decision only came on a few days beforehand, too, so it was unexpected, and seemed so quick. He was mostly fine before it, as well, and still moved around just fine. I thought he still had a good amount of time left, and was even optimistic at the beginning of the problem that it was something he'd get through. We were able to have it done at home, at least, which is great, but he's still gone. Needless to say, it blows (massive understatement). Anyway, seeing a new video of yours - one of my favorite types, if not my favorite (love your audio and computer stuff, cassette related in particular) - was just a nice little thing. Edit: great video as usual, and I like the grey, too, heh
Hey VWestlife, I am a huge fan of your channel. I like how direct your videos are with very good information. You're an inspiration for my channel. I look forward to seeing more of your videos!
That's a lovely machine, now I want one. Also for some reason I really enjoyed that ad reel you played. It sounds like classic radio ad genre and reminded me of the master tape of adverts from the 1960s that Techmoan demonstrated.
Never gonna give you up! lol... All the bells and whistles you would expect from a dual-well auto-reverse of that era plus one feature I wasn't expecting, the auto-bias button. I have a Kenwood 2-head with that feature, but it's a single well. More common is the "bias fine tuning" knob, but it's hard to finely tune the bias on a 2-head. I believe my Philips 4-head hifi VCR from that era had that same charcoal grey finish. Very nice find!
15:10 That is typical for Philips... Damn Torx screws in different sizes everywhere. This is a nice deck with cool features. But from a engineering standpoint it is just as crazy as every Philips product. The dutch engineers seem to have consumed too much green stuff ;)
I used to buy the Philips loudspeaker drivers that were build in Holland to build speakers. They were famous in my teen years 75-80's. The Philips speakers were really expensive as were all but the components kits were great. By the way the affordable decks were Toshiba.
And when it comes to anything with a menu system, all Philips equipment is on a planet of its own. I've never been able to understand why Philips equipment is so hard to use. When my wife bought a Vauxhall Insignia with all the bells and whistles, we found that the Sat-nav is painful to use. I'm going to take a bit of a stab and say I know who built that.
Philips was weird about many things. It wasn't uncommon to see some products with torx and others with phillips screws. I wouldn't be surprised if only outer case of this deck was tightened with torx and all other screws were standard phillips type.
Very nice to see this on UA-cam. I own the same one ( fc931 ) and a fc930 to complete my two 900 series sets. They both play great, I never regret getting them both.
I dig this deck this for the tape counter features alone. As to the "unique" finish, That wouldn't bother me at all, NONE of my components match! My "Hi-Fi" setup has gear from the late 60's to the late 90's!
I like devices like that. The interaction when choosing the track to be recorded was unmatched. It was a pleasure to separate the tracks and record in k7. Thanks for posting this great video!
Hello! I just watched this video and I must say, that Philips is actually a neat-looking deck. I also wanted to say I owned the Technics RS-AZ7 on two separate occassions. The 'Amorphous-Z' thin-film head was it's only highlight but it sounded really excellent. I got best results with TDK SA and MA tapes. The sound was very clear with excellent high frequency extension and dynamic impact. It's bass was really excellent two and was especially impressive if you played tapes that were recorded on it or on cassette decks with 'hyperbolic' heads like some Yamaha 2-head decks. One other peculiar thing about it was that it really didn't record well on type-I (normal) tapes. Basically, it was a dead loss with type-I even though it could play them really well. It was a whole different story with type-II and -IV though. The display was small but beautiful and I generally liked the feel of the controls - very straightforward and purposeful. It also used some audiophile-grade capacitors (Technics TA-KEH which were actually Panasonic X-Pro) which was uncommon for a midrange machine of the mid-to-late nineties. In reality, it could give a headache to much more expensive cassette decks if used properly. Hope you get a chance to own one. Cheers!
Awesome. The first video on UA-cam that I ever liked before watching it. I'm a big fan of your channel since I discovered it years ago. I'm also a 900 series fan since I saw them appear in the catalogs when they were brand new. (I'm going on 39 so do the math if you want to) Also, I finally started collecting different 900 series components in March '19. Almost got a dozen so far. Thanks again for the video!
@@troyconnolly9053hey, I'm one of those people too!! I have amassed 7 different components so far!!! The FC920 is playing right now!!! Cheers to you, brothers...
This 900 series were thé most amazing product range ever produced. Quality were excellent. Unfortunately a lot of people pulled their noses up due to the brand.
Oh Sweet! The bottom button row looks almost the same like on the Philips 5 CD changer of my parents, which they bought somewhere in 1994 or so. That thing impressed me a lot as a kid back then. It was a Philips CDC 925 And it too had this headphone out.
Excellent video! I love this decks features even if it's missing Dolby S or DBX This deck is still desirable in today's standards. To my ears sound test failed at 18:39, obvious flutter.
My folks had a cheap Magnavox in that color. But... all-in-one minisystem. No need to add a cassette deck, and I don't think it had inputs for one anyways.
Back then I thought the whole 900 series looked stunningly elegant, with the Philips logo depressed into the front panel. I still like the design, though by today’s standards it is positively “boxy” and I can’t imagine having a classic “stereo tower” with like 5 different boxes. The world has moved on as well. But as a kid I used to dream about this stuff. I must admit though, the recent DCC activity has rekindled my love for the brand. It’s not rational, I know that. But I must admit I was looking into whether the DSS940 and DSC950 were offered used anywhere. This was there top of the line stuff. That DSC950 takes digital inputs so other devices could easily be connected. But it only makes sense to go there if I get a DCC deck as well. Will I go there? Probably not. Will I feel sad about it? Yes. But maybe it’s a good thing. In this case, maybe not meeting my idols is the better choice. Oh Philips, what might have been. Oh well... but I want to do something with this still. With again, owning music.
I'm in the Netherlands, and worked in an electronics store when these were new. For some reason, the Philips 900 series didn't really catch on, and they certainly didn't sell well. The majority had already turned to the by this time far more popular all-in-one systems. The more serious music enthusiasts had their minds set on the Japanese brands, and didn't really seem to take Philips serious anymore as a "serious" HiFi brand. Perhaps also the looks of the 900 series were too unconventional, the more classically designed 800series was still available, but only in lower range models. Philips introduced more upmarket models of the 800 series when it became apparent that the 900 series didn't really catch on. I do really believe that the "digital" 900 series system, with its "opto-digital" speakers (DSS 930 and 940) and digital control center (DSC 950) was certainly very innovative, and probably up with the best (at least in a technical sense) of its day. Truth is, that almost no-one spending those kinds of money would ever consider a Philips system, and unfortunately also didn't really help to attract more buyers to the Philips 900 series.
I also worked on the store of the Philips dealer in Albania in the mid-90s and I got a 900 seroes system (FT920, FA911, FC930, CD950 + FB695) They were all few years old and obviously Philips pushed us to take them (they have sales targets too). Most probably they put them as a condition to give us what and how much we wanted (probably 21" BlackLine TVs). The HIFI is collecting dust at my parents home in need of some TLC. Only the tuner was in perfect form, the amplifier needs some potensiometer cleaning, the CD needs the tray wheel and belt change, plus some cleaning, the cassette dec needs more work. The belts work but will be replaced, one of the mechanism gear is probably broken cause it goes in autoreverse loop, the sound is horrible so probably a good ricalibration is needed, the speakers needs to get the foaming redone. I did it myself some years back but it is getting unglued, it needs to be done by a pro. I got the new belts for the deck, and the CDM9 wheel and belt for the CD player .... now I only need a pro to get the job done.
Would love to see a review of the receiver as well . Enjoyed this review. You never disappoint. Most of the mechanism looks to be metal Feature packed unit .
I have one of those receivers, and it’s actually pretty interesting! What other receiver has dedicated inputs for DCC, CDi, Laserdisc, and still has a phono preamp?
3:45 matte charcoal grey, rough touch: I had a Sony MCX(?) compact component system (sold for 1500 in 1992) with the same surface look. Dark grey plastics with some kind of powder coating. (and no, i didn't like that finish much either)
I enjoy your reviews. Having previously owned Philips electronics in the past, I'm weary of the lasting functionality. My question would be, "With use, will the functions still adequately work far beyond its newness?" I recently bought the Teac Ad850 based on your Tascam review of its sister deck. Excellent review and an excellent deck! You really go through these components with ease and expertise! Thank you!
I have one of these but it uses security screws of some kind so I’ve never bothered replacing belts and they are perished. I use a Pioneer from the same period and it has Dolby S, which is really the peak of cassette technology, analog at least.
I have a pioneer tape deck that does all that. Bought it when I redid my old rack system back in the late 90's. Played one tape and never used it again, still sits in my rack system, just tried it out, still works!
That sounded wonderful...Working A-OK after 25 years in abeyance. Excellent video. Ha ha @Mr Astley. I recently sold all my cassette machines. I was lucky enough to have worked in the trade for over 30 years and had picked up both a Nakamichi Tritracer 700 and 1000. I was going to keep the 700 because I love the design and it doesn't take up the space of the 1000. If you get the chance to get a Nakamichi get with one of their high end mechs. (The low end models had mechanisms similar to the Philips) When you look at how well they engineered them you can understand how they managed to get true HiFi from this format in the early 70s. They have a dual capstan arrangement that perfectly tensions the tape and removes the need for the pressure pad (that introduces variability in recording and playback). They referred to it as a 'closed loop tape path' The heads and all the engineering is wonderful, all cast alloy chassis etc. They were the first to introduce three head machines in the 700 and 1000. Even if a 20 dollar CD player sounds better...possibly...There is no other tape machine to compare, none...Until the DCC came along at any rate, the thin film heads were a revelation and analogue playback quality was much touted at the time. I would guess it would be difficult to find a DCC machine these days, they didn't make many and from memory came and went very quickly.
Phillips really made a nice line of components with this set. As much as I despise CD players, I did find the carousel CD player they made, with remote, at a local thrift store. It’s the only CD player I was truly happy to buy, as I knew of the stellar reputation of the line. It sounds fantastic, and is chock full of features. Many features stand on their own, but many do shine as part of the mid 90’s Phillips lineup. Cosmetically, I do like the neutrality of the finish.
The recording of the first commercial sounded as if the speed was varying. Don't know why. Maybe it's just me. But that last one made me lough out loud. :) Excellent review and presentation as always!! Thumbs up!
I have that same cassette deck my parents bought ours brand new in July 1995 got it on clearence at Circuit City. My dad let me have it when he didn't use it anymore my Phillips is still going strong in 2020. Just did the belts in mine old ones were still good but I didn't trust em. I've got a ton of tapes that me and the family have purchased over the years. I was jaming out to some Van Halen eariler today.
The source was a 128 kbps MP3 file so the quality wasn't great to begin with. But since the belts have been sitting in the same position for almost 26 years I should replace them even though they're still functional. That would reduce the flutter.
Neat deck! My brother has amp and cd player matching this, not sure of the model numbers tho, bought back in the day. They look pretty solid. Will take a look at what they are called next time I see them.
Well you got the Phillips receiver the tape deck and the DCC all you need is the Philips turntable and you will have a set I always wanted a complete set of the Philips stereo unit I think they're one of the nicest stereos of the 90s and best sounding
That series went up to the 960 model range, but the 950 was the highest end in that aesthetic. The different versions of each product were made all over the world. Some components of 900 series were made in belgium. My FC910 was made in singapore. There are a few other countries involved too. I don't know if you're as interested, but on the amp side of things, the FA 900 series, they're some of the best value for money you can get with a used amplifier. My FA910 is similar in specs to my more modern Marantz PM5003, but the Philips absolutely destroys the Marantz in terms of pure sound quality. There's an FA950 for sale on ebay for about $80, I think it's well worth it.
Great to see that and I definitely agree . 900 series is a bit underrated when realy its excellent value for money and personaly I think it looks great
Very interesting video. I had forgotten that Phillips did cassette decks ( don't know why i did). Still thinking about recording audio onto VCR's to pasd the time in lockdown.
The last time I saw a hifi stack of these was in the philips personel store, I assembled profesional satalite recievers for 2 weeks and bought a hifi VHS vcr of that. 15-20 years or so in that same plant they develloped the cd player.
I have the 910 deck and matching receiver and CD changer; came with the house I bought a while back. The tape deck need belts, never got around to fixing it but this gives me encouragement :). Everything else works perfectly. They use those large STK chip amps in the receivers.
Vwestlife the weirdest thing is I can't get one in Portugal. Never even seen it. I remember a lot o Philips cd players, micro systems, car radios, speakers and turntables, i do have several Philips TVs but I can't remember ever seeing a Philips hi-fi cassette deck here.
Matsushita and they’re great design. I own a Technics TR333 with perished belts and it’s a real pain to replace them. What’s the song at 07:19? I saw some recent OEM car audio components made in Portugal.
I remember when the 900 series were new. Our electronics stores did not carry them, however a local furniture store did. So it is not shocking that this would be from an unlikely place like a Dillards. Kinda like buying a stereo at Macy's or John Wanamaker.
It does sound like the belts are getting a bit slippy, the deck is suffering from serious flutter. And Dolby C will really stress the adjustment and alignment, you will hear any misalignment pretty quickly when using it.
Nice video demonstration 🙏👍🏻!! Keep up the good work too. Did Philips make any analogue three head decks in 90s? The great TDK SA 😍😍👍🏻 Can’t go wrong with that SA bias tuning on any deck😉👍🏻
I was never a fan of the Philips 900 series, I liked the Matchline series better: everything was straight, rectangular, perpendicular with Matchline, none of those blobs all over the place like the 900 series. But I have to say this is an impressive deck when it comes to features, and the build quality looks more than okay! I have a Philips (Marantz-made) FC567 from 1987 which is a double auto-reverse deck where both decks can record (simultaneously or sequentially), with Dolby B and C. It also has music search and you can even tell the deck in which order it should play the tracks. It can dub one tape to another tape (in normal or high speed) and reorder the tracks while it does it. But only one deck has a (mechanical) counter, the VU meter doesn't have enough (LED) segments, so the FC931 beats my FC567. Nice review! Thanks for posting. And thanks for the hand wave to DCC :-) (By the way the 871... bar code is still from the Netherlands even though it was made in Portugal)
Perhaps it's because I was a kid in the 90's but I really love the look of 90's hifi components. My family had a midrange Sony setup (I don't remember any specifics) with double cassette, receiver, 5 disc changer, EQ, and turntable. It got a lot of use and after being used from brand new in the early 90's to about 2005-ish the cassette deck went out first shortly followed by the 5 disc changer. I made hella mix tapes on that for years. It was all black and the cassette deck had soft buttons. I wish I knew the model number but I don't.
I have this exact one, enjoyed it for a while and it recorded pretty good. Being cassette and magnetic tape it still needed to rewind and fast forward. I liked that it played standard cassettes. Decided the next year to buy a Sony Mini-Disc (MD-1), which I found more convenient and flexible. A few years ago, after being re-boxed, I connected the DCC to convert its tapes to recordable Compact Discs (yet another recording deck) but it was DOA. Maybe I’ll try again, I couldn’t bring myself to toss it as it wasn’t cheap and I’m pretty sentimental.
One of my current projects is a 1979 Phillips N-5171. One thing after another. First the counter and auto stop belts were goo. Then I broke the record pot for the right channel. Now it doesn't play at the right speed and the auto stop gear is cracked. But mark my words, one of these days I will have that thing completely sorted.
When Philips owned Grundig they had a massive factory in Portugal, where some of the best Grundig gear was made. This was probably assembled there. I wonder if the internals are Grundig as well...
Great review and video. Who can beat Rick, but Love that you put a Jeremy Heiden song in there as well.
Q
Well said
8:22 The meters really shows the dynamics in the kickdrum on the "rickroll" track. 20 dB is plenty. Much better than modern mixes.
So true. Modern music would made the meters max out and not move at all.
I thought exactly the same. I do wonder if those meters were properly calibrated at all.
The material used for belts can vary greatly on cassette decks. I've had Sony decks from the late 90s with completely melted belts and also other really old decks (particularly Panasonic) that had no problem with belts that were over 30 years old.
It's just a shame that manufacturers knew how to make belts that lasted almost forever, but they made the decision not to do so, which gives vintage tape deck fans much unnecessary grief.
philips belts were notorious for turning to tar like goo in many of their open reel machines, dunno about cassette machines, i had a couple of philips cassette players, they hadnt gone to goo...not quite..but a bit squidgy.😉
Yeah.... and good though it is that those original belts are still working, they're audibly deteriorating; you can tiny micro rapid fluctuations in playback speed when it comes to music.
A new set of belts could really help... the deck otherwise sounds good; nice clean, noise-free sound.
Of course... after 30-odd years, it may just be old grease and oil that needs refreshing, but after leaving it running for several hours, if doesn't improve, then just re-grease/oil the motor, and replace the belts. The decks sounds well worth it!
It also depends on where they are stored. If stored in an attic, those belts will MELT!
harman kardon td4600 ..1990 belts are fine 100% working
late 80s Kenwood KX-94W with completely melted to goo belts, yet I had one that was a couple years older and the belts were still fine, so it's not even consistent by brand.
However, I've noticed that replacement belts you can buy today are complete trash, with some of them deteriorating within only about 6 months just from exposure to air. Really annoying
Early 90s, my upstairs neighbor had a complete set of those Philips 900-series. Think he also had a color-matched Philips telly & VCR.
Could you identify the models through your ceiling? That's being an audiophile, right?
When it comes to decks, the thoughts are that earlier the better, as they look better and were better built. However this looks over the fact the the electronics got better, as with computers, smaller and more convergence. It's like with cassettes, as the tape got better, the shells and design got worse.
At least the 2 decks seems to be independent and not sharing motors and belts.
As far as it goes, this is probably one of the best, non 3 head, dual Wells ever. It's late, feature packed and sounds good. Nice review fellah!
Well said .
Purely for the listening experience, and even as I hate an automatic buttons, for this purpose (when you have a tone of various demos..) it's idial - mid 90s Technics (for ex) with hyper fast rewinding, self closing (and then simltaniously play mode), track searching tool... and also when its goes to the need to compare the cover song with original its the only way (by pieces ).. all in all, very aesteticaly pleasant and at the same time quick as you only want..
Philips has a better design/look though, when it goes to the cheaper prods
Wow, took me back to around 1989 or so. My dad rang me, I was married and had my own home and told me he had 2 tickets to a Philips exhibition. We were wined and dined and we bought a system each. Dad passed away 2002 😭 but this video has give me very warm memories. Thank you my friend 😘
I remember this one. I wanted it and as soon as I got the money to buy it (I was a teenager), it was not sold anymore. Got one later on ebay. What's funny is that Philips was selling pure chrome compact cassettes at the time, but their decks were not calibrated for pure chrome and this one performed better with TDK's and Maxell than with Philips cassettes.
The fc950 could handle metal tapes .
I have both of these Phillips components which I bought in 1993 or 94, and they're both still working fine today. I also bought the single CD player that matches these components. Not sure what happened to it after I upgraded to a multi disc player. Greatly enjoy your Channel, thank you.
Kevin, this is a typically great video. Yours is one of the absolute best UA-cam channels. You combine tremendous knowledge with a dry sense of humor and a winningly soothing camera manner. I'm so glad you decided to make this stuff available to the public.
Philips were certainly radical in their design department. The charcoal grey colour and the granite appearance. Certainly belongs only in an all-Philips 900 setup!
100% yes. V unique. I liked the philips fc870 3 header
Philips made some very brave design choices in their late 80s and early 90s portables and it's great that some of that personality continued into this range. I've no love for any of the black with round feet style of most of the components of the time but this one; especially when you put the receiver with it, really brought out some character and the symmetry of controls was undeniably beautiful. It's a shame a little flourish of Philips turquoise from a few years previous didn't make it onto the fascia. Still a real standout from everything else on the shelf at the store.. for better or worse.
8:22 next level rick roll
the stereo separation was really good tho😆
Nah, Tesco takes that award, couple weeks back I was in the local store and they played that song over the tannoy, talk about an epic store-wide rickroll!!! :P
@@twocvbloke whats a tannoy?
@@und4287 A brand specializing in making high end Hi-Fi speakers.
@@twocvbloke I'm surprised that you had the chance to see Tannoys for sale on Tesco.
Philips operated a factory in Ovar (Portugal) between 1970 and 2009. This deck was most likely built there. By 2009 Philips only manufactured remote controls there. At it's peak that factory had around 2500 employees.
Do they have this model on the local used market?
@@cokecl I would say that's highly unlikely
The label on the deck says "assembled in Portugal" - therefore I believe many components were made outside of Portugal.
However many manufacturers of HiFi used components made all over the world (this deck uses Sony-made Dolby chip which was definitely not made in Portugal (not even in Europe)) so it was normal.
What a great buy, and having the matching receiver is icing on the cake. That Jeep commercial at the end had me rolling on the floor. I just recently ran across this channel and subscribed, but if I had years ago I'd probably have a half dozen cassette decks by now. The only thing we have is a small Magnavox boom box I bought my wife back in the '90s, so I ordered a Maxell tape from Amazon to play with, and also the "Guardians Of The Galaxy" tape for her since she loves those movies.
This in my feed was an even more pleasant sight than normal, I think.
My dog, my little buddy of 11 years, got put down on Saturday. The symptoms that led us to that difficult decision only came on a few days beforehand, too, so it was unexpected, and seemed so quick. He was mostly fine before it, as well, and still moved around just fine. I thought he still had a good amount of time left, and was even optimistic at the beginning of the problem that it was something he'd get through. We were able to have it done at home, at least, which is great, but he's still gone.
Needless to say, it blows (massive understatement). Anyway, seeing a new video of yours - one of my favorite types, if not my favorite (love your audio and computer stuff, cassette related in particular) - was just a nice little thing.
Edit: great video as usual, and I like the grey, too, heh
The jeep ad at the end was hilarious!, great video, nice cassette deck, very informative!
Hey VWestlife, I am a huge fan of your channel. I like how direct your videos are with very good information. You're an inspiration for my channel. I look forward to seeing more of your videos!
That's a lovely machine, now I want one. Also for some reason I really enjoyed that ad reel you played. It sounds like classic radio ad genre and reminded me of the master tape of adverts from the 1960s that Techmoan demonstrated.
To me the first two adverts sounded better than most of the new music that gets played on the radio these days.
@@MrDuncl I now want a Jeep Cherokee although my first name is not Jim or Francis
Never gonna give you up! lol... All the bells and whistles you would expect from a dual-well auto-reverse of that era plus one feature I wasn't expecting, the auto-bias button. I have a Kenwood 2-head with that feature, but it's a single well. More common is the "bias fine tuning" knob, but it's hard to finely tune the bias on a 2-head. I believe my Philips 4-head hifi VCR from that era had that same charcoal grey finish. Very nice find!
15:10 That is typical for Philips... Damn Torx screws in different sizes everywhere.
This is a nice deck with cool features. But from a engineering standpoint it is just as crazy as every Philips product. The dutch engineers seem to have consumed too much green stuff ;)
I used to buy the Philips loudspeaker drivers that were build in Holland to build speakers. They were famous in my teen years 75-80's. The Philips speakers were really expensive as were all but the components kits were great. By the way the affordable decks were Toshiba.
Nou mooi is dat😭
And when it comes to anything with a menu system, all Philips equipment is on a planet of its own. I've never been able to understand why Philips equipment is so hard to use.
When my wife bought a Vauxhall Insignia with all the bells and whistles, we found that the Sat-nav is painful to use. I'm going to take a bit of a stab and say I know who built that.
@Oleg knows best my BNS speakers has VIKA (from Danemark) drivers in it and yes they are very good
Philips was weird about many things. It wasn't uncommon to see some products with torx and others with phillips screws. I wouldn't be surprised if only outer case of this deck was tightened with torx and all other screws were standard phillips type.
Very nice to see this on UA-cam. I own the same one ( fc931 ) and a fc930 to complete my two 900 series sets. They both play great, I never regret getting them both.
I dig this deck this for the tape counter features alone. As to the "unique" finish, That wouldn't bother me at all, NONE of my components match! My "Hi-Fi" setup has gear from the late 60's to the late 90's!
I like devices like that. The interaction when choosing the track to be recorded was unmatched. It was a pleasure to separate the tracks and record in k7. Thanks for posting this great video!
1:10 Damn i got flashbacks of when my dad bought a Phillips tv and a Hifi system. It was the exact same box
Hello! I just watched this video and I must say, that Philips is actually a neat-looking deck. I also wanted to say I owned the Technics RS-AZ7 on two separate occassions. The 'Amorphous-Z' thin-film head was it's only highlight but it sounded really excellent. I got best results with TDK SA and MA tapes. The sound was very clear with excellent high frequency extension and dynamic impact. It's bass was really excellent two and was especially impressive if you played tapes that were recorded on it or on cassette decks with 'hyperbolic' heads like some Yamaha 2-head decks. One other peculiar thing about it was that it really didn't record well on type-I (normal) tapes. Basically, it was a dead loss with type-I even though it could play them really well. It was a whole different story with type-II and -IV though. The display was small but beautiful and I generally liked the feel of the controls - very straightforward and purposeful. It also used some audiophile-grade capacitors (Technics TA-KEH which were actually Panasonic X-Pro) which was uncommon for a midrange machine of the mid-to-late nineties. In reality, it could give a headache to much more expensive cassette decks if used properly. Hope you get a chance to own one. Cheers!
I'm asking everyone (not just you, Anton): Which deck has better heads - Technics RS-AZ7 or Nakamichi (e.g. ZX-7)?
(NB: Specs sheet give advantage to AZ7, better freq. response, better S/N ratio)
Awesome. The first video on UA-cam that I ever liked before watching it. I'm a big fan of your channel since I discovered it years ago. I'm also a 900 series fan since I saw them appear in the catalogs when they were brand new. (I'm going on 39 so do the math if you want to) Also, I finally started collecting different 900 series components in March '19. Almost got a dozen so far. Thanks again for the video!
Great to see another fan of the 900 series hope you already belong to the dedicated 900 series page on face book .
@@troyconnolly9053hey, I'm one of those people too!! I have amassed 7 different components so far!!! The FC920 is playing right now!!! Cheers to you, brothers...
This 900 series were thé most amazing product range ever produced. Quality were excellent. Unfortunately a lot of people pulled their noses up due to the brand.
Lol my favourite Brand
Oh Sweet! The bottom button row looks almost the same like on the Philips 5 CD changer of my parents, which they bought somewhere in 1994 or so. That thing impressed me a lot as a kid back then. It was a Philips CDC 925 And it too had this headphone out.
Excellent video! I love this decks features even if it's missing Dolby S or DBX This deck is still desirable in today's standards. To my ears sound test failed at 18:39, obvious flutter.
See my follow-up video in which I replaced the belts. That got rid of the flutter.
@@vwestlife Good Job! Great sound quality.
Technics did that grey colour in the nineties too. I still own one.
Technics machines were more of a gunmetal grey. I still have my RS-BX501, with no belt changes and working well.
This finish show a shiny plastic when scratch this.
I was thinking NAD - as well.
My folks had a cheap Magnavox in that color. But... all-in-one minisystem. No need to add a cassette deck, and I don't think it had inputs for one anyways.
@@CptJistuce A Magnavox unit in a similar finish makes sense as the Magnavox brand is owned by Philips.
Back then I thought the whole 900 series looked stunningly elegant, with the Philips logo depressed into the front panel. I still like the design, though by today’s standards it is positively “boxy” and I can’t imagine having a classic “stereo tower” with like 5 different boxes. The world has moved on as well. But as a kid I used to dream about this stuff. I must admit though, the recent DCC activity has rekindled my love for the brand. It’s not rational, I know that. But I must admit I was looking into whether the DSS940 and DSC950 were offered used anywhere. This was there top of the line stuff. That DSC950 takes digital inputs so other devices could easily be connected. But it only makes sense to go there if I get a DCC deck as well. Will I go there? Probably not. Will I feel sad about it? Yes. But maybe it’s a good thing. In this case, maybe not meeting my idols is the better choice. Oh Philips, what might have been. Oh well... but I want to do something with this still. With again, owning music.
The finish on the case of this deck reminds me of what Philips was using on their CD-i game console at around the same time.
Fun fact, the Philips receiver he uses in this video actually has a dedicated input for a CDi, probably the only one ever
@@allocatingdesign7884 this is the exact type of minutia I come to this channel for, thank you! :)
does anyone notices the camera keep focusing back and forth a tiny bit on 18:55 ? or it's the speaker vibrating the camera?
Wah ada peminat VWestlife dari Indo di sini..
I'm in the Netherlands, and worked in an electronics store when these were new. For some reason, the Philips 900 series didn't really catch on, and they certainly didn't sell well. The majority had already turned to the by this time far more popular all-in-one systems. The more serious music enthusiasts had their minds set on the Japanese brands, and didn't really seem to take Philips serious anymore as a "serious" HiFi brand. Perhaps also the looks of the 900 series were too unconventional, the more classically designed 800series was still available, but only in lower range models. Philips introduced more upmarket models of the 800 series when it became apparent that the 900 series didn't really catch on.
I do really believe that the "digital" 900 series system, with its "opto-digital" speakers (DSS 930 and 940) and digital control center (DSC 950) was certainly very innovative, and probably up with the best (at least in a technical sense) of its day. Truth is, that almost no-one spending those kinds of money would ever consider a Philips system, and unfortunately also didn't really help to attract more buyers to the Philips 900 series.
I also worked on the store of the Philips dealer in Albania in the mid-90s and I got a 900 seroes system (FT920, FA911, FC930, CD950 + FB695) They were all few years old and obviously Philips pushed us to take them (they have sales targets too). Most probably they put them as a condition to give us what and how much we wanted (probably 21" BlackLine TVs).
The HIFI is collecting dust at my parents home in need of some TLC. Only the tuner was in perfect form, the amplifier needs some potensiometer cleaning, the CD needs the tray wheel and belt change, plus some cleaning, the cassette dec needs more work. The belts work but will be replaced, one of the mechanism gear is probably broken cause it goes in autoreverse loop, the sound is horrible so probably a good ricalibration is needed, the speakers needs to get the foaming redone. I did it myself some years back but it is getting unglued, it needs to be done by a pro.
I got the new belts for the deck, and the CDM9 wheel and belt for the CD player .... now I only need a pro to get the job done.
Would love to see a review of the receiver as well . Enjoyed this review. You never disappoint.
Most of the mechanism looks to be metal
Feature packed unit .
I have one of those receivers, and it’s actually pretty interesting! What other receiver has dedicated inputs for DCC, CDi, Laserdisc, and still has a phono preamp?
@@allocatingdesign7884 so True
3:45 matte charcoal grey, rough touch: I had a Sony MCX(?) compact component system (sold for 1500 in 1992) with the same surface look. Dark grey plastics with some kind of powder coating. (and no, i didn't like that finish much either)
Great find! I remember drooling in the hifi store when I first saw the 900 series... Sadly they were too expensive for my student wallet 😅
Indeed. That price tag sounds like a bargain. The 900 series was quite expensive back in the days. At least in the Netherlands.
Same here. However I got to listen to it quite often as a good friend did buy one
Thanks for this thorough and detailed explanation of this interesting machine! I always enjoy watching your videos.
From Portugal, greatings for this owner
I enjoy your reviews. Having previously owned Philips electronics in the past, I'm weary of the lasting functionality. My question would be, "With use, will the functions still adequately work far beyond its newness?" I recently bought the Teac Ad850 based on your Tascam review of its sister deck. Excellent review and an excellent deck! You really go through these components with ease and expertise! Thank you!
Have the fc 950 had it sense the 90s excellent deck no issues
I have one of these but it uses security screws of some kind so I’ve never bothered replacing belts and they are perished. I use a Pioneer from the same period and it has Dolby S, which is really the peak of cassette technology, analog at least.
GREAT timing putting Rick Astley up right when the meme song started 😍
I have a pioneer tape deck that does all that. Bought it when I redid my old rack system back in the late 90's. Played one tape and never used it again, still sits in my rack system, just tried it out, still works!
That sounded wonderful...Working A-OK after 25 years in abeyance. Excellent video. Ha ha @Mr Astley.
I recently sold all my cassette machines. I was lucky enough to have worked in the trade for over 30 years and had picked up both a Nakamichi Tritracer 700 and 1000. I was going to keep the 700 because I love the design and it doesn't take up the space of the 1000. If you get the chance to get a Nakamichi get with one of their high end mechs. (The low end models had mechanisms similar to the Philips) When you look at how well they engineered them you can understand how they managed to get true HiFi from this format in the early 70s. They have a dual capstan arrangement that perfectly tensions the tape and removes the need for the pressure pad (that introduces variability in recording and playback). They referred to it as a 'closed loop tape path' The heads and all the engineering is wonderful, all cast alloy chassis etc. They were the first to introduce three head machines in the 700 and 1000.
Even if a 20 dollar CD player sounds better...possibly...There is no other tape machine to compare, none...Until the DCC came along at any rate, the thin film heads were a revelation and analogue playback quality was much touted at the time.
I would guess it would be difficult to find a DCC machine these days, they didn't make many and from memory came and went very quickly.
What a magnificent machine. I love it. Great video.
Wow, that “Keep Idaho Green” commercial was something I’d almost forgotten.
Phillips really made a nice line of components with this set. As much as I despise CD players, I did find the carousel CD player they made, with remote, at a local thrift store. It’s the only CD player I was truly happy to buy, as I knew of the stellar reputation of the line. It sounds fantastic, and is chock full of features. Many features stand on their own, but many do shine as part of the mid 90’s Phillips lineup. Cosmetically, I do like the neutrality of the finish.
said the one who loves shitty vinyl)
Well said definitely agree with you .
I got presented with one of these decks for my birthday. Now I´m looking forward to testing it soon.
The recording of the first commercial sounded as if the speed was varying. Don't know why. Maybe it's just me. But that last one made me lough out loud. :) Excellent review and presentation as always!! Thumbs up!
I have that same cassette deck my parents bought ours brand new in July 1995 got it on clearence at Circuit City. My dad let me have it when he didn't use it anymore my Phillips is still going strong in 2020. Just did the belts in mine old ones were still good but I didn't trust em. I've got a ton of tapes that me and the family have purchased over the years. I was jaming out to some Van Halen eariler today.
I was never a fan of the Philips 'look' but this deck seems decent enough.
I remember that Grundig 210 has a similar charcoal finish. Don't know if they sold that brand in the US at all.
They had a Grundig/Telefunken factory also in Portugal. They were generaly nice quality, out of fashion and expensive.
We got shortwave radios from Grundig, but not their hifi components.
Grundig licensed Philips products to make themselves
I remember a fancy Grundig double deck reviewed in Stereo Review magazine.
Like your videos you do good reviews of products and explain things in a detailed manner which I wish others would do.
Is it just me or there's some flutter in the last test? 19:00
From my experience: whenever you think there is flutter, it's present, no matter how small
The source was a 128 kbps MP3 file so the quality wasn't great to begin with. But since the belts have been sitting in the same position for almost 26 years I should replace them even though they're still functional. That would reduce the flutter.
@@vwestlife nice topic for the next video! 👍👍
Yes, there was.
Heard it from the start of the demo, earlier on in the vid. Could be a brain fluke tho
Neat deck! My brother has amp and cd player matching this, not sure of the model numbers tho, bought back in the day. They look pretty solid. Will take a look at what they are called next time I see them.
13:02 For BASF, the letters are said separately. B-A-S-F. It's an initialism, not an acronym. For example FBI is an initialism and NASA is an acronym.
In the Netherlands we call it { ba:ss-ef] }
@@KR1275 Maybe in the Netherlands. But for English speakers, I'm going with these guys, ua-cam.com/video/yJ1uONILAu8/v-deo.html
@@sandgrownun66 Same as the German: B-A-S-F. It's a German brand.
You opened a can of worms here I remember disliking it when folks said youfo instead of u.f.o. 🛸 🤣
vwestlife was a nice video and a completed review about this device was a pleasure see a nostalgic stuff
thank you a lot desde Mexico un saludo
What a cool deck! I want one! I've been looking for a deck that has an Auto bias function for years, but they're always outrageously priced.
Well you got the Phillips receiver the tape deck and the DCC all you need is the Philips turntable and you will have a set I always wanted a complete set of the Philips stereo unit I think they're one of the nicest stereos of the 90s and best sounding
8:22 V-Westlife, how dare you got me Rick Roll'd!!!!
Nice deck!
I liked Philip's components especially when they released DCC but had already brought SONY components.
That series went up to the 960 model range, but the 950 was the highest end in that aesthetic.
The different versions of each product were made all over the world. Some components of 900 series were made in belgium. My FC910 was made in singapore. There are a few other countries involved too.
I don't know if you're as interested, but on the amp side of things, the FA 900 series, they're some of the best value for money you can get with a used amplifier. My FA910 is similar in specs to my more modern Marantz PM5003, but the Philips absolutely destroys the Marantz in terms of pure sound quality. There's an FA950 for sale on ebay for about $80, I think it's well worth it.
Great to see that and I definitely agree .
900 series is a bit underrated when realy its excellent value for money and personaly I think it looks great
Like the review I wish digital cassette would come back
Very interesting video. I had forgotten that Phillips did cassette decks ( don't know why i did). Still thinking about recording audio onto VCR's to pasd the time in lockdown.
As far as I know, Philips invented the Compact Cassette, and the deck that was used to play and record them, during the early 1960s.
I have 2 of these. Also a philips 951 dcc and 2 working amps and 2 broken cd players (belt's)
It's easy to find here in the Netherlands.
I live here in GIlbert, Arizona!! Great video on the deck!
I will always like this look of Philips gear, since it's in Contact. It sounds very good, gotta say.
The last time I saw a hifi stack of these was in the philips personel store, I assembled profesional satalite recievers for 2 weeks and bought a hifi VHS vcr of that. 15-20 years or so in that same plant they develloped the cd player.
It's a shame that Philips sold almost everything and don't produce great stuff like this any more. Greetings from the Netherlands to you VWestlife!
Never expected to be Rickrolled by a cassette deck. Bravo
I have the 910 deck and matching receiver and CD changer; came with the house I bought a while back. The tape deck need belts, never got around to fixing it but this gives me encouragement :). Everything else works perfectly. They use those large STK chip amps in the receivers.
What is the difference of sound of this Philips cassette deck with the Pioneer digital casette deck model CT-W606 from (1998)? I owned one.
Nice writing on the closing Jeep ad.
Was that Shelley Berman at the end ? Nobody else sounds like that.
Vwestlife the weirdest thing is I can't get one in Portugal. Never even seen it.
I remember a lot o Philips cd players, micro systems, car radios, speakers and turntables, i do have several Philips TVs but I can't remember ever seeing a Philips hi-fi cassette deck here.
Matsushita and they’re great design. I own a Technics TR333 with perished belts and it’s a real pain to replace them. What’s the song at 07:19? I saw some recent OEM car audio components made in Portugal.
those days of tapes our childhood 😍
Does the DCC decks enhance or improve the sound of normal music tapes when playing them?
I was born June 8, 1994, so seeing that this cassette deck was made June of 1994 surprised me. Very good video nonetheless ❤
I had 8 boxes off tapes and mum made me get rid of them but still have 4 boxs left I keep the ones I can record on still quite a few hundred there.
I remember when the 900 series were new. Our electronics stores did not carry them, however a local furniture store did. So it is not shocking that this would be from an unlikely place like a Dillards. Kinda like buying a stereo at Macy's or John Wanamaker.
Oh wow, those commercials at the end though! (Especially the Jeep one)
It does sound like the belts are getting a bit slippy, the deck is suffering from serious flutter. And Dolby C will really stress the adjustment and alignment, you will hear any misalignment pretty quickly when using it.
LOVE the Love, Simon Tape! Didn't know that was on cassette, loved that movie.
My wife heard me yell when you Rick-Rolled me!
Nice video demonstration 🙏👍🏻!! Keep up the good work too. Did Philips make any analogue three head decks in 90s? The great TDK SA 😍😍👍🏻 Can’t go wrong with that SA bias tuning on any deck😉👍🏻
Yes, the FC950 that I mentioned.
And the FC870, made by Marantz
VWestlife 😉👍🏻👍🏻
Frank Wolthuis 😉👍🏻👍🏻
Hoeveel kostte zo’n bandrecorder in 1980?
I was never a fan of the Philips 900 series, I liked the Matchline series better: everything was straight, rectangular, perpendicular with Matchline, none of those blobs all over the place like the 900 series.
But I have to say this is an impressive deck when it comes to features, and the build quality looks more than okay!
I have a Philips (Marantz-made) FC567 from 1987 which is a double auto-reverse deck where both decks can record (simultaneously or sequentially), with Dolby B and C. It also has music search and you can even tell the deck in which order it should play the tracks. It can dub one tape to another tape (in normal or high speed) and reorder the tracks while it does it. But only one deck has a (mechanical) counter, the VU meter doesn't have enough (LED) segments, so the FC931 beats my FC567.
Nice review! Thanks for posting. And thanks for the hand wave to DCC :-)
(By the way the 871... bar code is still from the Netherlands even though it was made in Portugal)
Ooh Matchline.
I always dreamt of that while looking into the glossy "Philips Magazine". It was as having the future in your home today.
Perhaps it's because I was a kid in the 90's but I really love the look of 90's hifi components. My family had a midrange Sony setup (I don't remember any specifics) with double cassette, receiver, 5 disc changer, EQ, and turntable. It got a lot of use and after being used from brand new in the early 90's to about 2005-ish the cassette deck went out first shortly followed by the 5 disc changer. I made hella mix tapes on that for years. It was all black and the cassette deck had soft buttons. I wish I knew the model number but I don't.
I have that reciever, although mine is branded as a Magnavox. Same remote too!
Magnavox was the US subsidiary of Philips.
Magnavox = Philips
Do you put PSA's on your radio station?
Watched this video in Portugal.
made in Portugal, Germany, France, UK, USA... those were good times.
I have this exact one, enjoyed it for a while and it recorded pretty good. Being cassette and magnetic tape it still needed to rewind and fast forward. I liked that it played standard cassettes. Decided the next year to buy a Sony Mini-Disc (MD-1), which I found more convenient and flexible. A few years ago, after being re-boxed, I connected the DCC to convert its tapes to recordable Compact Discs (yet another recording deck) but it was DOA. Maybe I’ll try again, I couldn’t bring myself to toss it as it wasn’t cheap and I’m pretty sentimental.
The first-gen DCC 900 decks often fail due to bad capacitors. I have a video about it on my channel.
Where did you get those jingles in such clear sound (Keep Idaho Green, Eye Institute of Southern Arizona)?
What is that techno song? :) At 7:18
It's "Interlude" from Organonomy's "Renovation" album: organonomy.bandcamp.com/album/renovation
They used the same torx screw back in the mid-80s on their HiFi equipment.
One of my current projects is a 1979 Phillips N-5171. One thing after another. First the counter and auto stop belts were goo. Then I broke the record pot for the right channel. Now it doesn't play at the right speed and the auto stop gear is cracked.
But mark my words, one of these days I will have that thing completely sorted.
When Philips owned Grundig they had a massive factory in Portugal, where some of the best Grundig gear was made. This was probably assembled there. I wonder if the internals are Grundig as well...
Great review . I enjoy watching your videos
I'm a little dissapointed that there's no "CAL" (or similar) marking on a display (or no LED lit) to show that the current cassette was calibrated.