I work for a used audio equipment dealer in Japan. I enjoy your videos very much every time I watch them! I am very disappointed with Onkyo audio. Very sad. It's good stuff. One day, when everything is better in this country, I would like to send you a fully working product. From a fan in Japan.
Personally, I think failures like the first one are kind of sad. The weird thing is that recently I've considered buying old stereos that can play mini-discs, despite the fact that I can story more CD's on an SD card than any other recent format.
@Fredrik Larsson I think it is our pragmatism and dislike of artifice or fancy BS. There are plenty of great channels from other countries though. Mustie1 is my favourite car/mechanics channel and he is from USA. 👍
My dad bought a Sony all-in-one system back in the day, with MD, CD and radio, and really loved the MDs. Nobody seemed to use or know what MDs were over here (Norway), and years later he found an identical system at the recycling center, just tossed in with other electronics. He fished it out and now he has two perfectly working systems, still in use today.
Early 00's produced some of the most ugly consumer electronics and somehow Panasonic managed to design this beauty. I was looking for a used mini hi-fi last year and Panasonic (and especially Technics) designs really hold up as opposed to other.
@@Halfpipesaur Panasonic seems to have good designs. I mean look at the SA-PM series mini systems. They all have really decent looking designs and sound good for what they are.
Whenever I see mini disc, my mind immediately thinks of late 90’s, early 00’s action/hacker movies… *starts typing* “alright, I’m in!” *inserts mini disc and downloads files*
@@kuchenblechmafiagmbh1381 These days I'd almost forgotten that MDs ever existed along with the plethora of other similar formats (like the MODs you mentioned) that were commercial failures. OTOH my brother in law died recently and I was handed a box of his collection of VHS tapes. Now I have to try to find a working VCR...
Im a Onkyo user on almost all Musicparts through the House. (Big THX ATMOS in the Livingroom, Onkyo Stacked Hifi in my Room, Onkyo G3 in the Kitchen and so on) and i never had a Part going wrong.
It was like the Mission Impossible opening scene where the instructions self destruct after being played. Just a slightly longer delay on the auto destruct.
I wonder if the problem was that you were running at 50Hz - this could cause saturation issues on transformer if it was designed for 60Hz, maybe resulting in the power supply not being able to deliver enough current
It might seem unlikely, but it does seem odd that all the components decided to have a go at roughly the same time, like i get the CD player failing and it was failing when he first plugged it in so it makes sense that it just decided to get angrier and fail entirely, but the minidisc and amplifier going at roughly the same time does seem to be quite an odd thing, maybe this device didnt have 50Hz in its rating and unlike most japanese components it wasnt meant for the 50Hz region, or maybe his step down transformer was just providing it with dirty power or just slightly off voltage that knocked out the old components. what made me think it seems like a power issue is the CD player... its attitude was to behave like it wasnt getting enough power.
Most Japanese electronics are designed for 50/ 60Hz operation, as their Eastern and Western power distribution grids run at different frequencies (50 and 60Hz respectively). Makes for some interesting reading!
That Panasonic SA-PM50MD was probably made about a mile away from me at the main Panasonic campus in Kadoma City near Osaka. If you ever get to Japan, Panasonic and other audio equipment companies have museums that you can visit and see some of their really cool stuff from the glory days of audio systems.
@KansaiSamurai That is fascinating! I love Panasonic/National electronics, even their mid range equipment generally had excellent performance and lasted for decades it well cared for! I still have a Panasonic RF-4900 Communications Receiver that I bought brand new in 1981 and it still works perfectly, and the thing was built like a tank! The unit was very underrated in it's performance too. Super low noise floor on SW and super sensitive too.
Hey Matt - Here in New Zealand we get a lot of 9~10 year old Japanese used cars imported and have for decades. The console FM radios are often limited to the same frequencies, so a common retrofit is a "Band Expander" which is a box that goes between the car's aerial and the back of the radio. It does need 12V power, but will "shift" all our local frequencies down enough so the radio can receive them. Might help with the Japanese FM radio's reception.
@@qwertyasdf66 they’re just not common in regions that don’t tend to need it. In fact the first time I heard of them was in the context of Software Defined Radio, not FM receivers.
I'm in NZ as well. Band expanders are just plain awful. Yes they work, to a degree. In built up areas where there are a lot of tall buildings (downtown Auckland for example) and due to the proximity of high levels of RF coming off the SkyTower, the expanders just cause a whole lot of noise and distortion. In most cases (with the older cars anyway) the junk JDM radio is removed and one that will tune 87.5 - 108 MHz is fitted. Much better sound, no confusion as to what channel you are listening to and you can get the frequencies above 102 MHz.
@@criggie Saturation and intermod may not be an issue but it his reception will be even worse with an expander if it's bad already. The best thing he could do is plant a nice big FM Yagi on the roof.
Thank you for mailing your product to the Onkyo technical repair centre. Our professional opinion is: “It’s absolutely knackered” Thank you for buying Onkyo
The Onyko system, typical symtoms of cap failure, cd motor undervoltage, through usage similiar issues developed with md and amp, could be an interesting repair.
@@unitedunitedunited_ never noticed that, bit of no brainer though imo, get it working and pur it on ebay rather than have it take up room in cupboard.
I can’t even enumerate all the stuff I’ve fixed by replacing capacitors. Floppy drives, PS/2s, monitors, Pentium 3 motherboards... it’s _always_ the caps.
Thank you very much, Mat, for using our new album Second Sight on the compact disc format to demonstrate the features of the Panasonic SA-PM50MD Mini System and the Sharp SD-FX200 portable device. The Panasonic has a very sleek-looking and "eyecatching" design indeed, while the latter is much more intergalactic looking. We agree with you 100% that bidding on these old audio systems on various auction sites "is a bit of a gamble but then again that is all part of the fun." Have a great weekend. Signing off with gratitude. ~ Candy Apple Blue
The best channel on UA-cam in my opinion. As a Brit now living in the states, it’s great to hear a fellow Brit voice, talking about such cool stuff. If there is something you think I could help you find across the pond, just let me know.
Oh wow, seeing that Yumi Nakashima (of GO!GO!7188 fame) album on the mini disc in the first system was quite a blast from a past.... I do own that album on CD and seeing that in a Techmoan video is quite amazing.
@@AtheistOrphan I work with people that are in their 40s and 50s that listen to radio 1 im 38 I've hated it for years now I'd rather have a rusty screwdriver twisted slowly through my ear canal.
@@jabbany2715 I just got a Full HD one like 2 years ago and sure as heck there isn't much money burning a hole on my pocket to grab a 4K. Maybe one day. But not really in any hurry.
@@Kalvinjj I would definitely hold off on buying one until you can really afford it. Because once you buy one, you can't go back. Not so much because of the video quality, but more because of the sheer amount of stuff you can fit on the screen.
@@user-74652 Yes I can imagine, the jump from 1366x768 to 1920x1080 was awesome for productivity, 4x the working area is another story too. Tho anything bigger that justifies more pixels won't even fit on my desk so reason number 2 to not buy one yet.
@@Kalvinjj Depending upon your internet bandwidth you might still want to set UA-cam to stream at >1080p (where available). While your system will ultimately downscale it to 1080p, it can result a sharper picture than UA-cam's normal 1080p crappy compression.
“Well we’ve probably Learned nothing as usual...” & “You can ignore my advice, probably the better option.” Mat, you f’in just crack me up! Either you are the most relaxed dude on UA-cam or the missus slips Xanax in your cuppa! 😂
Those proxy services for Yahoo Auctions Japan are best used for "impossible to find at home"-items where the price is not of the utmost concern. Other than that japanese "used" goods are (mostly) incredible. They really take good care of their stuff and if there is just the tiniest of dents or scratches on the box, they show a macro-photo of it, apologize, and sell it as "junk". Meanwhile in Europe people re selling a GameBoy cart with sharpie on it and boogers inside as "like new".
Some things are comparatively dirt cheap in Japan too. Like some classical pens selling for less then half the price they are elsewhere due to low prices due to intense competition when those pens were new. Shipping for these light items was not much either. But that was my niche case.
I do some work for someone who imports cars from Japan the condition these cars arrive in is typically outstanding you would not get the same results buying from a British auction 8 times out of 10 you're going to get a bag of nails that was flogged at auction because it could not be sold on a forecourt.
No jump cuts! I just realized after watching many of your videos you don’t take the easy way out by editing several takes together and living with jump cuts. Bravo!
Sir, were you born in a rocket science classroom? Is Albert Einstein a family member of yours? The way you took apart that CD player to troubleshoot the problems, was incredible. Keep up the good work sir and thank you
Oddly, they seem to have been for games only in Japan, never seen movie ones. Thier star has also waned considerably, you can find packs of 10 loose ones clingfilmed together for ￥1000. Probably all crap (or dated sports) games though, no Liberty City Stories buried in there!
At 4:40 I had the exact same issue with an LG DVD player + VCR which was struggling with reading discs. After giving it a bit of help it also started working!
Surface is always cheaper than Air Mail, but not every seller (or repackager) offers it. And during this pandemic, I’ve noticed surface shipments across any distance has been extremely iffy, with many packages either showing up insanely late after getting lost for a while, or not showing up at all. So I’ve had to use higher-grade shipping options just to ensure I even get things and that they arrive in a somewhat-timely manner. It has completely hampered our department (IT), as we order stuff constantly and ship to employees worldwide. Though in Matt’s case, if surface is an option, he _would_ save a lot, he’d just need to be very, very patient and hope another ship doesn’t get stuck in the Suez Canal lol.
Kenneth Mendenhall, II Not sure “joke” is the right word, but yeah I see your intent. Though many shippers still say “ground” for surface shipments that go by sea. I’m still frustrated that Japan has such a superior electronics market. It’s odd to me that they would sell _so many_ things that are designed & manufactured _only_ for their domestic market. They aren’t the only consumer electronics enthusiasts in the world, and you’d think they’d want to open up at least the American market due to our sheer market size. With twice Japan’s population, a substantially higher GDP, and a huge middle-class (yes, a large American middle class most definitely still exists), you’d think they’d utilize it more. I wouldn’t ordinarily think that a single market (their domestic market) would be enough to even make it worthwhile to develop & market a product solely for that market. I don’t know of many American companies of any real size who do that. I understand why they wouldn’t always include Europe, given all of the variations they’d encounter due to how many nations exist there (such as a multitude of different languages and voltage standards). But the US market, at least, gives you 350,000,000 customers in one market and you only have to deal with one language and one voltage. I remember relatives who went to Japan in the 90s and always came back with stereos and other electronics. They all said how great of a selection they have and how cheap everything is there. My dad still has my brother-in-law’s old mini component system from Japan circa 1992, and it still works & sounds fantastic. I wish similar systems were still made & sold.
@@filminginportland1654 The electronics market is very fickle in Japan. They want only the best and newest, most unique items. Products become dated in only a few months. As a consequence they make only a limited number of a certain item. There is no point in making it available for a wider market. Once it's sold, it's gone.
@@lakinnenlako6883 Guess it wasn't the point of the video, getting it to work as opposed to showing imported stuff that ends up being too expensive and doesn't work.
Mate, I just wanted to say I've really enjoyed your videos over the years. Even when you're talking about complete crap machinery it's fun. And I love the end credits music. Please keep doing what you do so well! My Aiwa TPR-950, my pick for best boombox ever made, was stolen in the early 1990s and I don't think I've ever fully recovered. cheers from Oz
@@dervwfahrer what exactly do you mean with "disc moving mechanism"? Is it about the motor that rotates the disc, or the disc receiving/ejecting mechanism? I received an order of Onkyo MD-101A yesterday, just like @techmoan's and it gave me the same Mecha Error. I want to figure out what exactly it is.
7:10 it seems to have a problem with starting the motors. The inrush current of a motor is very high, and it could very well be that the power supply capacitors can't deliver that current spike anymore. The voltage sags when either the tray motor or the spindle motor are switched on, which prevents the motor from generating enough torque to open the tray/door or to spin up the big CD quickly enough. It may also be that the voltage sag will cause the CPU or controller to glitch and not even try to open the tray. You can't properly measure this with a standard multimeter, you'll need an oscilloscope for this or temporarily tack some test-capacitors parallel to the old ones.
For the discplayer , there is speed adjustment trimmer near the cd drive motor. İf you turn it up a little bit to give more power to the motor, i think that cd player might work perfectly.
I do love the way Techmoan spends the best part of half an hour advising us of the pros & cons and do's & don't's of something then at the end says it's probably best ignoring whatever he just said! Nice work, Mat! I am still happier finding out what he thinks about something before pulling the trigger, though!
If you were looking for used audio kit that looks cool, Bang and Olufson always made nice stuff. Trouble is, even old B&O stuff is not cheap nowadays, even on ebay. Maybe people collect it as an investment or something?
With any old hifi I find you need to look at 'collection only' eBay auctions to get a deal. Professional sellers that will ship items wait months for someone to pay over the odds with a 'buy it now' sale or very high minimum bid.
The aesthetic on that Panasonic unit reminds me of nothing so much as the control panel for the PA system at my high school. All it's missing is a mic on a bendy arm and another box with toggle switches for all the rooms. :)
God I love this channel. Love the Panasonic system. Matt your work just gets better and better. Been with you since 1k subs and the magic that was there then is still there in spades. But as a gen X er and nearly 50 I would say that wouldn’t I? 😂
I literally understand nothing about speaker nor minidisks player but the way you showed me all of these with so much love really cool great keep it up man
Well, a very common fault on older systems is the dreaded capacitor. Maybe something in the power supply is messed up and can't supply enough current. Surface-mounted electrolytic capacitors are notorious for leaking and drying out.
7:10 which means that its power supply is worn out. Check out the capacitors if its good, A dc motor will not gonna spin up properly if its power supply going bad. (I had that issue in my knockoff white van speaker amplifier set, and back then i didnt know nothing, i just checked the capacitor, i didnt liked it, so i replaced it, and then it worked.) Ouchies, mhm, yeah, you sold it 😅
YT algorithm dropped your channel in my feed. This channel is top notch! That Panasonic hardware would have been so cool to have when I was a kid. Looks like something from the Apollo program that I’ve seen at Johnson Space Center.
Woah, at first I thought the Panasonic system looks really cheap, which Techmoan pretty much confirmed. But all lit up it looks so amazing, and I love the cover over the CD player!
@BenNew Panasonic items especially the low level and some mid range stuff did come off looking cheap but they still were really durable and reliable when it comes to actually working.
I have a Denon brand mini reciever. I just have the receiver piece which I've been using for FM radio, driving some cheap OK outdoor speakers. Its a UDRA-M10, and its made a very good festival radio, when we've had 120VAC, and it has 40W x 2 RMS output so it can drive middlin size speakers as hard as they can take it. I think it sounds great, and its done exactly what I bought it for., I would plug a Tascam pocket digital recorder into the tape loop, so I could record live off the FM
15:42 I like your space ship decision a lot. It looks beautifull from between the planets and a stellar. But sad to see you have not gotten the speakers that woulf have looked great in that brown you had chosen. Really great adventures if you have purchased something from Japan which turns out to be working or even if not then your prodcedures to make something out of them are the entertainment. Great one. Well done.
This is your second video that I remember you talking about your experience with bad PlayStations from the day. I didn't experience that here in the us or atleast didn't happen to anyone I knew. Would make an interesting video
I vaguely remember something about an early batch tending to have short-lived disc mechanisms, but I can't remember the details. It wasn't on the scale of, say, the Xbox 360 "red ring of death" issue.
@@enp82003 I was in the electronics section of a big-box store once, years ago, and their display 360 had the RRoD. When I mentioned it to the kid working the electronics counter, he replied with a perfectly straight face, "It's a demo unit. It's _supposed_ to show what the product does." :)
@@ZGryphon hahaha. Oh man ps3 was the same though with over heating and having to reflow to get the thing working. Sucks such big name companies make things that won't last. If there is another reviewer 40 years from now reviewing old tech they are gonna have a hell of time finding working anything.
It looks like the high-speed CD to MD 74-minutes cool-down only applies to the case where you wanna copy a single CD to multiple MDs. If you swap for another source CD, no cool-down should exist according to the manual at 22:02
With that first unit, the sequential failure of each component suggests something to do with the power supply. As for the bigger discs struggling, it won't just be the mass, but the distribution of that mass. The larger the radius, the more force is required to spin the disc so that the inner portion spins at the same speed. The outer part of the disc needs to be spinning much faster.
I would think the same except each component is completely separate with its own power supply. In terms of needing more force to spin larger discs, that isn't really a thing. There's very little friction so even a bit of force will make a large disc spin up fully, it will just take a bit longer. I suppose it's possible a weakened motor will make it time out before spinning up but such a bad motor would likely also have problems with 8cm discs.
Hi Mat, I stumbled across your videos about a week ago, searching for "SSI" Cineplex 200 Audio Home Theater System, I had one in the 2000's and I loved it, cheap and functional. I believe it was made locally in California. Some searching brings up not much info. Anyway I've already watched so many of your videos that every suggested one shows "watched" now! I'm HOOKED!
Shipping via a ship (Surface Mail) is actually usually cheaper, especially for larger heavier packages. It just takes a long time, the few times I had something sent from Japan like this is took between a month and two.
That poor Onkyo, gradually dying one piece at a time. Love the Black Knight analogy. :) You're so good at what you do, Matt. I look forward to your weekly mutterings. Please don't ever stop.
Shielded speakers were used mainly in old style CRT type TVs, as the magnets would mess up the picture, particularly on colour TVs. Not really an issue on other electronics.
One of the great things about Japan and America’s relationship throughout the years since WWII is the lack of import duties for items under $200. Although nowadays in the COVID era, since Japan Post isn’t delivering to the USA, you’d have to use a service like UPS or DHL and that can cause the price to jump up pretty high. At least DHL is fast, I guess
This man is always subtly flexing his Hip-Hop collection in these videos and I love it. I wonder how the average Techmoan video would sound if UA-cam wouldn't demonetiize him
If you want to add "The beautiful" to the list, check out the Victor NX-TC5-W. It has MD, CD, Ipod dock, FM tuner, Aux in, USB in and even 1seg. Plus a gimmick that I'll let you discover. I love it!
If you want a boombox with real rich sound get hold of Panasonic RX-DT75 (or 95 which is for Japanese market only), it's pure pleasure for ears and also eye catching in operation
That Onkyo has me in disbelief, I feel like one caused the other to fail even though they were daisy chained via electrical outlets. It just seems so unlikely that a piece of equipment would fail like that, but it happened!
Subscribed about three weeks ago. I watch & enjoy your broadcast almost every night, love it! I did a search on your site and didn't find anything re: “The Optigan". A USA toy made by Revel in the early 70’s -- used an optical (cardboard?) disk and keyboard to promote wholesome family musical fun. Surprised you hadn't featured this. Amazing piece of consumer primitive tech-nology.
WTH? We've been shipping speakers on air freights for years... why would they suddenly affect planes today? Have they been drinking in Asia or what? I mean, I have several pilot friends who can confirm that normal mobile phones today isn't even interfering with air travel - it's just a notion to "be on the safe side to avoid trouble and potential lawsuits". :P But speaker magnets? Makes no sense.
I work for a used audio equipment dealer in Japan.
I enjoy your videos very much every time I watch them!
I am very disappointed with Onkyo audio.
Very sad. It's good stuff.
One day, when everything is better in this country, I would like to send you a fully working product.
From a fan in Japan.
A friend of mine back in the 90s had an Onkyo Hi-Fi system that was wonderful. Sounded great and could shake the house with it's 14-inch woofers.
Onkyo made excellent quality units, mostly. Often over-built, high build quality and good value.
@Zockblatt Shickleblender those shops are neat and you will be overwhelmed by their abundance of choices
It was clear to see that this system was a bit abused by its pre owner. Which is something that is quite rare when you get stuff from Japan.
Hey! I have a question about Sharp boombox, how i can wrote to you ?
Last time there was a Mecha error, it destroyed half of Tokyo.
*dubbed yelling* "OH NO! MECHA ERROR! RUN! RUN!"
*Wonkyo
They should never have gotten into the giant robot.
@Allen Tokyo no u
...and it made Shinji cry 😄
Techmoan's failures are still much better to watch than most other UA-camr's successes. 🥰
The device failed. Techmoan didn't.
That's why your comment hits the spot
Personally, I think failures like the first one are kind of sad. The weird thing is that recently I've considered buying old stereos that can play mini-discs, despite the fact that I can story more CD's on an SD card than any other recent format.
Lovely Kit 👍🏻👍🏻
That's coz techmoan's not a twat.
@Fredrik Larsson I think it is our pragmatism and dislike of artifice or fancy BS. There are plenty of great channels from other countries though. Mustie1 is my favourite car/mechanics channel and he is from USA. 👍
My dad bought a Sony all-in-one system back in the day, with MD, CD and radio, and really loved the MDs. Nobody seemed to use or know what MDs were over here (Norway), and years later he found an identical system at the recycling center, just tossed in with other electronics. He fished it out and now he has two perfectly working systems, still in use today.
That second system looks so cool. A weird Y2K Aesthetic gem.
Its wedge shape reminds me vaguely of those old Coomber cassette players that schools in the UK always seemed to have in the 1980s
Yeah definitely love the screwed in panel look. Gives off an aviation/sequencer vibe.
Early 00's produced some of the most ugly consumer electronics and somehow Panasonic managed to design this beauty. I was looking for a used mini hi-fi last year and Panasonic (and especially Technics) designs really hold up as opposed to other.
Yes, real Cyberpunk!
@@Halfpipesaur Panasonic seems to have good designs. I mean look at the SA-PM series mini systems. They all have really decent looking designs and sound good for what they are.
Whenever I see mini disc, my mind immediately thinks of late 90’s, early 00’s action/hacker movies… *starts typing* “alright, I’m in!” *inserts mini disc and downloads files*
@@6581punk one of my fave movies of all time!!!
Ha! So true... Also some movies used an extracted minidisc disc to make it look like a tiny CD or 'hi tech proprietary'
You mean Magneto-optical discs, these work identical to the Minidisc, almost twins like CD-DA (the usual audio CD) and CD-ROM (but both as -RW).
"The Master of Disaster" from 1995 Hackers movie! Angelina Jolie and the pool on the roof! Ehhh... memories! :)
@@kuchenblechmafiagmbh1381 These days I'd almost forgotten that MDs ever existed along with the plethora of other similar formats (like the MODs you mentioned) that were commercial failures.
OTOH my brother in law died recently and I was handed a box of his collection of VHS tapes. Now I have to try to find a working VCR...
At 19:17 I thought you were listening to "The Grandma" until the scrolling text added "ster Flash"
I missed that, I just thought The Grandma was a garage band that donated their music! 😁
Grandma we love you, grandma we do.
Was looking for this comment haha
The Grandmaster Flash?! That's like your dad saying he likes The Nirvanas
*** Oh -- The Grandmaster Flash Collection -- I take it back
"Technical Diagnosis => Just plain Knackered" needs to be on a T shirt or something :)
Hell yeah!
Tombstone. ;)
I would buy that shirt.
Def for a bumper sticker and I’d buy one too.
I’d wear it, but it would be kinda stating the obvious in my case!
That shirt is surely making the UA-cam's compression struggle
Sus
Looks absolutely fine to me 5 hours later, maybe something was still processing.
Actually impressed it doesn't look blocky!
@@wynard 9:34 I see some discolouration while he's waving his hand
It matches his beard.
"Auto destruct" by ONKYO!
Buying Onkyo is like buying a Range Rover. It's incredible while it lasts.
@@fisqual buy the C7030 CD player . I have mine for 8 years . Best money ever spent.
Im a Onkyo user on almost all Musicparts through the House. (Big THX ATMOS in the Livingroom, Onkyo Stacked Hifi in my Room, Onkyo G3 in the Kitchen and so on) and i never had a Part going wrong.
@@dervwfahrer yah its good stuff!!
It was like the Mission Impossible opening scene where the instructions self destruct after being played. Just a slightly longer delay on the auto destruct.
I wonder if the problem was that you were running at 50Hz - this could cause saturation issues on transformer if it was designed for 60Hz, maybe resulting in the power supply not being able to deliver enough current
Very unlikely, especially in low-power components.
Never had any problem with running JDM components in a 50Hz environment.
It might seem unlikely, but it does seem odd that all the components decided to have a go at roughly the same time, like i get the CD player failing and it was failing when he first plugged it in so it makes sense that it just decided to get angrier and fail entirely, but the minidisc and amplifier going at roughly the same time does seem to be quite an odd thing, maybe this device didnt have 50Hz in its rating and unlike most japanese components it wasnt meant for the 50Hz region, or maybe his step down transformer was just providing it with dirty power or just slightly off voltage that knocked out the old components. what made me think it seems like a power issue is the CD player... its attitude was to behave like it wasnt getting enough power.
Most Japanese electronics are designed for 50/ 60Hz operation, as their Eastern and Western power distribution grids run at different frequencies (50 and 60Hz respectively). Makes for some interesting reading!
@@Oldgamingfart they have both 50 and 60 hz grids? That does sound like an interesting read!
Well, Japan has 50 Hz and 60 Hz depending on where you live. Would be kinda unfortunate if it could only be used in part of Japan...
That Panasonic SA-PM50MD was probably made about a mile away from me at the main Panasonic campus in Kadoma City near Osaka. If you ever get to Japan, Panasonic and other audio equipment companies have museums that you can visit and see some of their really cool stuff from the glory days of audio systems.
@KansaiSamurai
That is fascinating! I love Panasonic/National electronics, even their mid range equipment generally had excellent performance and lasted for decades it well cared for! I still have a Panasonic RF-4900 Communications Receiver that I bought brand new in 1981 and it still works perfectly, and the thing was built like a tank! The unit was very underrated in it's performance too. Super low noise floor on SW and super sensitive too.
Hey Matt - Here in New Zealand we get a lot of 9~10 year old Japanese used cars imported and have for decades. The console FM radios are often limited to the same frequencies, so a common retrofit is a "Band Expander" which is a box that goes between the car's aerial and the back of the radio. It does need 12V power, but will "shift" all our local frequencies down enough so the radio can receive them. Might help with the Japanese FM radio's reception.
That was my immediate thought too. Are band expanders just a new zealand thing or something?
@@qwertyasdf66 they’re just not common in regions that don’t tend to need it. In fact the first time I heard of them was in the context of Software Defined Radio, not FM receivers.
I'm in NZ as well. Band expanders are just plain awful. Yes they work, to a degree. In built up areas where there are a lot of tall buildings (downtown Auckland for example) and due to the proximity of high levels of RF coming off the SkyTower, the expanders just cause a whole lot of noise and distortion. In most cases (with the older cars anyway) the junk JDM radio is removed and one that will tune 87.5 - 108 MHz is fitted. Much better sound, no confusion as to what channel you are listening to and you can get the frequencies above 102 MHz.
@@sw6188 concur - but Matt's got poor FM coverage so saturation of spectrum shouldn't be an issue.
@@criggie Saturation and intermod may not be an issue but it his reception will be even worse with an expander if it's bad already. The best thing he could do is plant a nice big FM Yagi on the roof.
Love the "Optional option" at 12:39.
Selectable via the "Menu menu".
I mean, that's *technically* correct. Same with "that that"
@@USSMarinerSorry, you have the advantage of me. Same with what what?
Thank you for mailing your product to the Onkyo technical repair centre. Our professional opinion is:
“It’s absolutely knackered”
Thank you for buying Onkyo
The Onyko system, typical symtoms of cap failure, cd motor undervoltage, through usage similiar issues developed with md and amp, could be an interesting repair.
@@johncoops6897 My thoughts exactly!
He seems to get annoyed when people in the comments say "replace the caps
@@unitedunitedunited_ never noticed that, bit of no brainer though imo, get it working and pur it on ebay rather than have it take up room in cupboard.
I can’t even enumerate all the stuff I’ve fixed by replacing capacitors. Floppy drives, PS/2s, monitors, Pentium 3 motherboards... it’s _always_ the caps.
Sadly, even if it were as simple as capacitors he no longer has it to try that out.
damn, that motorised panel is cool
I love it as well. Only one issue: I expect it would struggle to open with a cat sat on top!
So cool how it opens fully to reveal some controls, but also can open less just to let the CD out...
“Mecha error”-no joke about giant robots?!
And “no longer in my possession” sounds a bit cryptic-but I presume it’s just at the tip?
Mecha vs mechanical, besides it's just 2.5 characters in Japanese
He has a neighbour called Neimashu Nokamura. He threw it through his window.
Get in the damn Minidisc, Shinji
@@HannuPulli Pretty sure Matthew was aware it meant mechanical. "Mecha" is a term used in anime to describe giant piloted robots.
I wanted to crack one, but apparently someone else beat me to the punch.
That Onkyo maybe had problem with dried up electrolytic caps. It could be serviced but it could be hard reapir.
It isn't a proper Saturday until I see some vintage Tech from techmoan. Thanks for everything you do 👌
Thank you very much, Mat, for using our new album Second Sight on the compact disc format to demonstrate the features of the Panasonic SA-PM50MD Mini System and the Sharp SD-FX200 portable device. The Panasonic has a very sleek-looking and "eyecatching" design indeed, while the latter is much more intergalactic looking. We agree with you 100% that bidding on these old audio systems on various auction sites "is a bit of a gamble but then again that is all part of the fun." Have a great weekend. Signing off with gratitude. ~ Candy Apple Blue
The best channel on UA-cam in my opinion. As a Brit now living in the states, it’s great to hear a fellow Brit voice, talking about such cool stuff. If there is something you think I could help you find across the pond, just let me know.
Oh wow, seeing that Yumi Nakashima (of GO!GO!7188 fame) album on the mini disc in the first system was quite a blast from a past.... I do own that album on CD and seeing that in a Techmoan video is quite amazing.
I am unsure if you read the comments, but the quality of your videos, both visually and content-wise is fantastic...
The smiley face of that boombox!
That slide-up to reveal the CD tray.. a slide-up panel that was already not containing anything!
A lot of middle-aged people just sighed with relief when you said "it only picks up radio 2" What other station do you want?
I changed from Radio 1 to Radio 2 years ago, when Radio 1 started sounding like a load of bricks in a tumble dryer.
@@AtheistOrphan I work with people that are in their 40s and 50s that listen to radio 1 im 38 I've hated it for years now I'd rather have a rusty screwdriver twisted slowly through my ear canal.
Try the new 'Boom Radio' on DAB, or app on phones, tablets etc or website, it's like radio used to be in the 'good old days.
But the Shipping Forecast is on the Home Service...
Literally any?!
Wow I liked that Panasonic. I was a huge fan of their stuff in the 80's.
That system is making me thing "Space 1999" LOL.
@Michael Thompson
I loved season one of Space: 1999! Indeed that unit would fit right in with the comlock.
That new intro is the most flashy, unnecessarly high tech, and overly sparkly intro I've seen for a while
It's perfect
- Anna
A bunch of channels have been making refreshed 4k intros and I'm only now starting to feel like that 4k monitor purchase is making a difference XD
@@jabbany2715 I just got a Full HD one like 2 years ago and sure as heck there isn't much money burning a hole on my pocket to grab a 4K.
Maybe one day. But not really in any hurry.
@@Kalvinjj I would definitely hold off on buying one until you can really afford it. Because once you buy one, you can't go back. Not so much because of the video quality, but more because of the sheer amount of stuff you can fit on the screen.
@@user-74652 Yes I can imagine, the jump from 1366x768 to 1920x1080 was awesome for productivity, 4x the working area is another story too.
Tho anything bigger that justifies more pixels won't even fit on my desk so reason number 2 to not buy one yet.
@@Kalvinjj Depending upon your internet bandwidth you might still want to set UA-cam to stream at >1080p (where available). While your system will ultimately downscale it to 1080p, it can result a sharper picture than UA-cam's normal 1080p crappy compression.
“Well we’ve probably Learned nothing as usual...” & “You can ignore my advice, probably the better option.”
Mat, you f’in just crack me up! Either you are the most relaxed dude on UA-cam or the missus slips Xanax in your cuppa! 😂
The most influencing influencer on YT ?
@@highpath4776 defenitly
it's a reverse psychology!
@@highpath4776 most under the influence influencer lol
@@JaredConnell 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Those proxy services for Yahoo Auctions Japan are best used for "impossible to find at home"-items where the price is not of the utmost concern.
Other than that japanese "used" goods are (mostly) incredible. They really take good care of their stuff and if there is just the tiniest of dents or scratches on the box, they show a macro-photo of it, apologize, and sell it as "junk". Meanwhile in Europe people re selling a GameBoy cart with sharpie on it and boogers inside as "like new".
Some things are comparatively dirt cheap in Japan too. Like some classical pens selling for less then half the price they are elsewhere due to low prices due to intense competition when those pens were new. Shipping for these light items was not much either.
But that was my niche case.
I do some work for someone who imports cars from Japan the condition these cars arrive in is typically outstanding you would not get the same results buying from a British auction 8 times out of 10 you're going to get a bag of nails that was flogged at auction because it could not be sold on a forecourt.
No jump cuts! I just realized after watching many of your videos you don’t take the easy way out by editing several takes together and living with jump cuts. Bravo!
Sir, were you born in a rocket science classroom? Is Albert Einstein a family member of yours? The way you took apart that CD player to troubleshoot the problems, was incredible. Keep up the good work sir and thank you
Brilliant episode Matt, just needs a filippin’ ek! from one of the muppets added in after each of the Onkyo components died.
You have no idea how much I look forward to seeing your new videos, Mat.
A video on UMDs would be neat. I recently found out that not only movies were on the format but even some music albums got released.
Oddly, they seem to have been for games only in Japan, never seen movie ones. Thier star has also waned considerably, you can find packs of 10 loose ones clingfilmed together for ￥1000. Probably all crap (or dated sports) games though, no Liberty City Stories buried in there!
@@worldcomicsreview354 Japan did have movie UMDs.
I've found a digital archive of the ripped videos but no music, I'll keep an ear out for it
@@lShishkaBerryl yeah I personally own the Nirvana album but I’ve seen a Bob Marley and a Metallica one.
At 4:40 I had the exact same issue with an LG DVD player + VCR which was struggling with reading discs. After giving it a bit of help it also started working!
Found you recently and been bingeing and learning so much. Thanks for sharing your hobby and knowledge
Surface Mail from Japan to the UK is cheaper than by air Matt. You just need to wait for a while.
2-3 months usually!
I really wish you'd said Ground Mail because there would be a terrible joke to be made haha
Surface is always cheaper than Air Mail, but not every seller (or repackager) offers it. And during this pandemic, I’ve noticed surface shipments across any distance has been extremely iffy, with many packages either showing up insanely late after getting lost for a while, or not showing up at all.
So I’ve had to use higher-grade shipping options just to ensure I even get things and that they arrive in a somewhat-timely manner. It has completely hampered our department (IT), as we order stuff constantly and ship to employees worldwide. Though in Matt’s case, if surface is an option, he _would_ save a lot, he’d just need to be very, very patient and hope another ship doesn’t get stuck in the Suez Canal lol.
Kenneth Mendenhall, II Not sure “joke” is the right word, but yeah I see your intent. Though many shippers still say “ground” for surface shipments that go by sea.
I’m still frustrated that Japan has such a superior electronics market. It’s odd to me that they would sell _so many_ things that are designed & manufactured _only_ for their domestic market. They aren’t the only consumer electronics enthusiasts in the world, and you’d think they’d want to open up at least the American market due to our sheer market size.
With twice Japan’s population, a substantially higher GDP, and a huge middle-class (yes, a large American middle class most definitely still exists), you’d think they’d utilize it more. I wouldn’t ordinarily think that a single market (their domestic market) would be enough to even make it worthwhile to develop & market a product solely for that market. I don’t know of many American companies of any real size who do that. I understand why they wouldn’t always include Europe, given all of the variations they’d encounter due to how many nations exist there (such as a multitude of different languages and voltage standards). But the US market, at least, gives you 350,000,000 customers in one market and you only have to deal with one language and one voltage.
I remember relatives who went to Japan in the 90s and always came back with stereos and other electronics. They all said how great of a selection they have and how cheap everything is there. My dad still has my brother-in-law’s old mini component system from Japan circa 1992, and it still works & sounds fantastic. I wish similar systems were still made & sold.
@@filminginportland1654 The electronics market is very fickle in Japan. They want only the best and newest, most unique items. Products become dated in only a few months. As a consequence they make only a limited number of a certain item. There is no point in making it available for a wider market. Once it's sold, it's gone.
I love the sliding cover on the micro system; nice to see it's still working as well... :-)
@@lakinnenlako6883 Guess it wasn't the point of the video, getting it to work as opposed to showing imported stuff that ends up being too expensive and doesn't work.
Yeah, it even made me kinda jealous. Looks really cool.
Mate, I just wanted to say I've really enjoyed your videos over the years. Even when you're talking about complete crap machinery it's fun. And I love the end credits music. Please keep doing what you do so well!
My Aiwa TPR-950, my pick for best boombox ever made, was stolen in the early 1990s and I don't think I've ever fully recovered.
cheers from Oz
Mecha Error has to be one of the most badass error codes I've seen. Makes you wonder what is actually going on inside these machines.
A mechanical error I assume.
Disc Moving Mechanism. My Pioneer MJ-D707 Minidisc had the same Issue
@@dervwfahrer what exactly do you mean with "disc moving mechanism"? Is it about the motor that rotates the disc, or the disc receiving/ejecting mechanism? I received an order of Onkyo MD-101A yesterday, just like @techmoan's and it gave me the same Mecha Error. I want to figure out what exactly it is.
*insert WWII air-raid siren here*
7:10 it seems to have a problem with starting the motors. The inrush current of a motor is very high, and it could very well be that the power supply capacitors can't deliver that current spike anymore. The voltage sags when either the tray motor or the spindle motor are switched on, which prevents the motor from generating enough torque to open the tray/door or to spin up the big CD quickly enough. It may also be that the voltage sag will cause the CPU or controller to glitch and not even try to open the tray.
You can't properly measure this with a standard multimeter, you'll need an oscilloscope for this or temporarily tack some test-capacitors parallel to the old ones.
I really love these unusual machines you find! Terrific video.
@Techmoan by the way the laws regarding imports have changed since April.
Vat & duty only applies electronics above £100
For the discplayer , there is speed adjustment trimmer near the cd drive motor. İf you turn it up a little bit to give more power to the motor, i think that cd player might work perfectly.
I do love the way Techmoan spends the best part of half an hour advising us of the pros & cons and do's & don't's of something then at the end says it's probably best ignoring whatever he just said! Nice work, Mat!
I am still happier finding out what he thinks about something before pulling the trigger, though!
6:07
I half expected to hear DankPods say "Hey it's the aftershow!"
Was it just me or did Mat's Bluetooth adapter sound just like the DankPods sexy speaker?
@@eDoc2020 All Bluetooth speakers are sexy with the voice.
Okay, the fact that ypur Bluetooth adapter firs perfectly in that little plastic notch on your boombox is the moat satisfying thing ive ever witnessed
Mecha Error sounds like a great band name
No doubt means "Mechanical Error" - I wonder what had happened? Need to find where Mat gets rid of his stuff methinks!!
@@stepheneyles2198The West Yorkshire waste disposal sites have a special container for techmoan rejects
@@highpath4776 You'd be better off looking in South West Lancashire, round the back of Wallace and Gromit's place.
more like an anime or so...
Or a game developer
I've got a free onkyo amplifier with radio and it's very good and compact, very useful but with yellow lights instead of blue
If you were looking for used audio kit that looks cool, Bang and Olufson always made nice stuff. Trouble is, even old B&O stuff is not cheap nowadays, even on ebay. Maybe people collect it as an investment or something?
With any old hifi I find you need to look at 'collection only' eBay auctions to get a deal. Professional sellers that will ship items wait months for someone to pay over the odds with a 'buy it now' sale or very high minimum bid.
Your sense of humor is absolutely magnificent. It takes an already great experience up yet another level and makes it that much now enjoyable hahaha
The aesthetic on that Panasonic unit reminds me of nothing so much as the control panel for the PA system at my high school. All it's missing is a mic on a bendy arm and another box with toggle switches for all the rooms. :)
You're the star every week I like to watch to. Have a Blessed week!
I have replaced over 100 spin motors when I was a technician same problem!
11:14 reminds me of early 80s Bang & Olufsen systems. Speaking of which - I'd love to see a review of those. One that I recall could be wall-mounted.
Those orange lights give that Sharp boombox an hilarious face 😂
I'm interested in all types of HI-FI equipment and I've learned so much from this channel, thanks.
The Sharp was worth it just for it's happy smiley face :)
This is the ultimate mildly interesting channel. It's bliss.
God I love this channel. Love the Panasonic system. Matt your work just gets better and better. Been with you since 1k subs and the magic that was there then is still there in spades. But as a gen X er and nearly 50 I would say that wouldn’t I? 😂
I literally understand nothing about speaker nor minidisks player but the way you showed me all of these with so much love really cool great keep it up man
Well, a very common fault on older systems is the dreaded capacitor. Maybe something in the power supply is messed up and can't supply enough current. Surface-mounted electrolytic capacitors are notorious for leaking and drying out.
7:10 which means that its power supply is worn out. Check out the capacitors if its good, A dc motor will not gonna spin up properly if its power supply going bad. (I had that issue in my knockoff white van speaker amplifier set, and back then i didnt know nothing, i just checked the capacitor, i didnt liked it, so i replaced it, and then it worked.) Ouchies, mhm, yeah, you sold it 😅
Man, I love this videos; you're living the dream I once had.
YT algorithm dropped your channel in my feed. This channel is top notch! That Panasonic hardware would have been so cool to have when I was a kid. Looks like something from the Apollo program that I’ve seen at Johnson Space Center.
Woah, at first I thought the Panasonic system looks really cheap, which Techmoan pretty much confirmed. But all lit up it looks so amazing, and I love the cover over the CD player!
Exactly my thoughts unpowered it looked like some old millitary junk fresh from the 80s.
@BenNew
Panasonic items especially the low level and some mid range stuff did come off looking cheap but they still were really durable and reliable when it comes to actually working.
I have a Denon brand mini reciever. I just have the receiver piece which I've been using for FM radio, driving some cheap OK outdoor speakers. Its a UDRA-M10, and its made a very good festival radio, when we've had 120VAC, and it has 40W x 2 RMS output so it can drive middlin size speakers as hard as they can take it. I think it sounds great, and its done exactly what I bought it for., I would plug a Tascam pocket digital recorder into the tape loop, so I could record live off the FM
Capacitor problems causing the voltages to sag on the first one?
My thoughts exactly!
Time to bring in Mr. Carlson!
Probably
Definitely a psu problem
Having to manually "kick-start" the full size disc was a pretty perfect physical demonstration of what the caps should be doing.
@3:05 Though I know the brand name carried on in Japan, its still a sight for sore eyes to see the Tower Records logo after all these years.
Man do I enjoy your content
15:42 I like your space ship decision a lot. It looks beautifull from between the planets and a stellar. But sad to see you have not gotten the speakers that woulf have looked great in that brown you had chosen. Really great adventures if you have purchased something from Japan which turns out to be working or even if not then your prodcedures to make something out of them are the entertainment. Great one. Well done.
The Panasonic just looked so cool and odd. Like 80s medical tech or - like you said - space ship console. Just as a display object, it's really neat.
Amazing, the audio of past still superior than today, thanks for your illustration.
This is your second video that I remember you talking about your experience with bad PlayStations from the day. I didn't experience that here in the us or atleast didn't happen to anyone I knew. Would make an interesting video
I vaguely remember something about an early batch tending to have short-lived disc mechanisms, but I can't remember the details. It wasn't on the scale of, say, the Xbox 360 "red ring of death" issue.
@@ZGryphon yes I think every old 360 has a death clock with their cheap solder.
@@enp82003 I was in the electronics section of a big-box store once, years ago, and their display 360 had the RRoD. When I mentioned it to the kid working the electronics counter, he replied with a perfectly straight face, "It's a demo unit. It's _supposed_ to show what the product does." :)
@@ZGryphon hahaha. Oh man ps3 was the same though with over heating and having to reflow to get the thing working. Sucks such big name companies make things that won't last. If there is another reviewer 40 years from now reviewing old tech they are gonna have a hell of time finding working anything.
I had a cd32 that from new only read discs when it was upside down . Sent it back and the replacement was still working up to last year.
It looks like the high-speed CD to MD 74-minutes cool-down only applies to the case where you wanna copy a single CD to multiple MDs. If you swap for another source CD, no cool-down should exist according to the manual at 22:02
With that first unit, the sequential failure of each component suggests something to do with the power supply. As for the bigger discs struggling, it won't just be the mass, but the distribution of that mass. The larger the radius, the more force is required to spin the disc so that the inner portion spins at the same speed. The outer part of the disc needs to be spinning much faster.
I would think the same except each component is completely separate with its own power supply. In terms of needing more force to spin larger discs, that isn't really a thing. There's very little friction so even a bit of force will make a large disc spin up fully, it will just take a bit longer. I suppose it's possible a weakened motor will make it time out before spinning up but such a bad motor would likely also have problems with 8cm discs.
Hi Mat, I stumbled across your videos about a week ago, searching for "SSI" Cineplex 200 Audio Home Theater System, I had one in the 2000's and I loved it, cheap and functional. I believe it was made locally in California. Some searching brings up not much info. Anyway I've already watched so many of your videos that every suggested one shows "watched" now! I'm HOOKED!
Shipping via a ship (Surface Mail) is actually usually cheaper, especially for larger heavier packages. It just takes a long time, the few times I had something sent from Japan like this is took between a month and two.
Loving the new intro, combining new with retro!
"That was the last component, there was nothing left to break."
*Speakers combust*
📻💥🔥😂
That poor Onkyo, gradually dying one piece at a time. Love the Black Knight analogy. :) You're so good at what you do, Matt. I look forward to your weekly mutterings. Please don't ever stop.
That Panasonic system is in fact the computer "Deep thought" from hitch hikers guide to the galaxy 😁
Shielded speakers were used mainly in old style CRT type TVs, as the magnets would mess up the picture, particularly on colour TVs. Not really an issue on other electronics.
Highlight of my weekend? Watching a new episode of techmoan!
That Panasonic system looks incredible, so futuristic and unique. It reminds me of the first Resident Evil movie's production design.
One of the great things about Japan and America’s relationship throughout the years since WWII is the lack of import duties for items under $200. Although nowadays in the COVID era, since Japan Post isn’t delivering to the USA, you’d have to use a service like UPS or DHL and that can cause the price to jump up pretty high. At least DHL is fast, I guess
This man is always subtly flexing his Hip-Hop collection in these videos and I love it. I wonder how the average Techmoan video would sound if UA-cam wouldn't demonetiize him
Get in... another techmoan video about my favourite type of hifi!
If you want to add "The beautiful" to the list, check out the Victor NX-TC5-W. It has MD, CD, Ipod dock, FM tuner, Aux in, USB in and even 1seg. Plus a gimmick that I'll let you discover. I love it!
Have you listened to that Nokko Compilation? She was the lead singer of Rebecca before she became a solo singer. Listen to them, they had great songs.
If you want a boombox with real rich sound get hold of Panasonic RX-DT75 (or 95 which is for Japanese market only), it's pure pleasure for ears and also eye catching in operation
Mr. Carlson diagnosing the Onkyo issues would be an interesting UA-camr collab.
The problem is, it needs a retrofit Magic Eye Tube, which i have instructions for on my patreon
@Ed Lewis
Yes it would I wish somehow they would do a few collaborations!
i'm sitting every day in front of a PANASONIC SA-PM15. no MD. i love the motorized panel ritual when you power it on
That Onkyo has me in disbelief, I feel like one caused the other to fail even though they were daisy chained via electrical outlets. It just seems so unlikely that a piece of equipment would fail like that, but it happened!
15:02 It at least used to be possible to get FM downconverters that would shift the FM band from that used in most of the world to that used in Japan.
10:54 this actually looks like it would be right at home inside the White Base in the original Gundam anime series.
Subscribed about three weeks ago. I watch & enjoy your broadcast almost every night, love it! I did a search on your site and didn't find anything re: “The Optigan". A USA toy made by Revel in the early 70’s -- used an optical (cardboard?) disk and keyboard to promote wholesome family musical fun. Surprised you hadn't featured this. Amazing piece of consumer primitive tech-nology.
WTH? We've been shipping speakers on air freights for years... why would they suddenly affect planes today? Have they been drinking in Asia or what? I mean, I have several pilot friends who can confirm that normal mobile phones today isn't even interfering with air travel - it's just a notion to "be on the safe side to avoid trouble and potential lawsuits". :P But speaker magnets? Makes no sense.
Depends on the ?Au? unit of magentism I suppose. Do magnets affect wireless coms now ?
"Be on the safe side to avoid trouble and potential lawsuits" ... you did answer yourself :)
4:46 Ahhh the old compact disc Kickstart! I remember the days! Rolling the old Sony down the road trying to get it to spin up into gear