We used these in the the 90's - 00's, in a gov't agency as covert recorders for investigations and for interviews. The sound quality was amazing, much better than the digital recorders we use now.
ill have to admit that is a cool device, But could you imagine if that had been the casset standard, you would find yourself Buying albums over and over becouse of losing them
+mysonywalkman1978 Nintendo and Sony experimented with mini DVDs on there video game consoles the the Sony Playstation Vita from 2011 and the Nintendo GameCube from 2001
I have never seen this, very interesting piece of engineering. But I did work with the Sony minidisk quite a bit at a radio station back around 2003. They used it for the ad breaks :)
While impressive, I can't help but notice there was no provision for improvements, such as different tape speed. Also, Wikipedia says it was expensive and fragile.
This little recorder is damn sweet! I really wish this format had more success. I couldn't even imagine a cassette tape that appears to be approximately the size of a standard SD card. This is genius engineering right here.
Wow, Sony had some potential here. I can imagine another reality where an evolved version of this was the next leap beyond the Walkman and the ipod never came to dominate.
s0nnyburnett The first commercial MP3 player came out in 1997, so a small tape like this could have easily postponed the idea of MP3 players by a decade or more. Initially MP3 players could only hold a couple CDs and were as big as Walkmans, so just having a little recorder sized device and a small collection of tapes would've been smaller, and people were used to cassettes already. The only glaring benefit of MP3 (in my opinion) is the ability to skip from song to song, but like I said, that wouldn't have been enough to keep this product from dominating for a decade.
@@jetjazz05I know this comment is 8 years old but none of this is true. MP3 was an unstoppable force, and there's obvious proof of that: MP3 players clearly outsold MiniDisc players, didn't they? MP3s had one obvious, huge benefit. It was not physical. Cassettes were more convenient than vinyl records, and obviously not having any cassettes at all is even more convenient. There is not a single format that could've beaten that, except streaming. Most people would rather not have to deal with hundreds of pieces of plastic when listening to music. Regardless of their size.
@@bezoekers I typed up a pretty big comment but... I decided to just go with this. You're right! MP3 was unstoppable, a way to use less space and digitally transfer a flawless copy bests any analog technology hands down. Still, it's exciting for me 8 years later to see I commented on a comment that has 69 thumbs ups almost a decade later. Your statement is correct, MP3 was unstoppable... but I'm still pleased about the 69 thumbs ups. I heard the creator of MP3s used Tom's Diner to refine the compression which I also really like, I didn't know this when I started using MP3s or even when I discovered Tom's Diner, but still... that song jams.
Sony makes some groovy tape right now, mostly for data-center backup storage. But bringing that technology back to consumer market would be pretty interesting,
The trouble is the intricate mechanisms of modern tape systems do not come cheap. In the datacenter the cost of that intricate mechanism can be amortised over vast amounts of data. In the consumer market not so much.
@@julianjv7325 : yes, but a remote from a Sony minidisc player doesn't work with the Sony PSP or the PS4. The connector is smaller than the one on the Minidisc.
It was quite bad on the first bit actually, loads of signal distortion... probably from recording with a to high entry level ;) 32 KHz isn't great for music. That said, each and every Techmoan video is killer :)
recently found and have been binge watching a lot of your tech videos, all these older audio formats are all very fascinating, thanks for sharing these things with us.
A minute of silence for all the spies who were killed in the '90 because of this kind of micro tapes. "Very good Mr.Bond, we meet again...now please give me the microtape!"
Sony products were beautifully made and styled in the 90's, shame they lost their way. That said, I brought a Sony 4K tv recently and I like it quite a lot.
It's really interesting to look back and realize that each decade past had its own technologies that had their own charm. Even going back just 15 years when we had MP3 players and the dawn of mass market digital photography gives me some nostalgia.
I love Sony for their dedication to innovation in the '90ies! I've never heard of this by the way. That's really cool. And impressive, 2 hours on this little tape. I always enjoy your vids. Cheers.
I have a dozen of those tapes as well as a recorder/player that goes with it ,I hooked it up into my telephone line with a relay that would turn the recorder on when the telephone was picked up ,we recorded 1 of our kids incoming & outgoing phone calls to see if our suspicion was correct , for music not so good but for secretly taping people it's brilliant .
Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your reviews. Enough that I ordered a Sony AS100. It just came in the mail today and I'm re-watching your review to get it set up. Thanks again and keep up the excellent work.
Now had this come out 10-15 years earlier with the same quality, I suppose it would have easily obsoleted the standard audio cassette almost overnight.
Maybe, maybe not. Let's not forget how small these things are, you could easily loose one. In the early 80's they tried to make the micro cassette a big thing with music listeners. Teachmoan did a video of that. Check it out.
Great little unit. Reminds of a Sony product I bought in Tokyo about 17 years ago - an extremely compact AM-FM radio with tiny buttons, LCD display and retractable earbuds. Still working perfectly well.
Wow. Those tapes are tiny! When I was a kid, I had a micro cassette recorder. The tapes were about half way between mini cassettes and the tape in your video. My recorder was made for dictation, so it was only mono, but I used to record audio bits off TV to carry around with me. A couple of friends and I did some pretend documentary-style recordings too.
+CAESARbonds I've got one of those too...I'm just waiting until I can find the player for it. You can find a video about the large Elcaset in my channel too.
+Techmoan The largest cassette I have seen is an Ampex video cassette, but I wouldn't be shocked if there were larger formats. Movie film is huge and weighs a ton after all. My back hurt for days after, but it was cool to get to deliver Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back to a movie theater.
I know the owners of a local cinema and it's exactly the latter. They have a satellite connection that's setup by a company they contracted to get their films through. Occasionally they did get actual 35mm film containers, but that was a few years ago. Also if you go to see a movie in a local privately owned cinema, IE not AMC or Regal, buy a bag of popcorn or some candy, their earnings from ticket sales is about 5-10% of what you actually pay. They can't survive on ticket sales alone. That's why there are rules against smuggling stuff in.
I must live in an alternate reality :-)....My NT-2 is my daily "walkman", I've used MD, DCC, DAT and compact cassette walkmans and this really is my favourite. I recently dropped it and broke the battery door...despite a large elastic band holding the door shut....It still comes with me on my daily cycle commute.
Datasonix created a tape backup device based on this tape. It was called the Pereos and worked on Windows-95/98 to backup laptops through the parallel port. It worked on two 1.5V batteries or on 5V leeched from the keyboard connector. It stored upto 1GB onto a single tape. I have one of these marvels on my desk.
scsirob Similar tapes are actually still used*. I don't know exactly what for but I can tell you we recieve a bunch of them where I work, and where they are to be disposed of in a safe and secure way. *Obviously, they are being phased out where I live. I think banks and insurance companies and such use them for backup (we recieve the tapes as confidential goods.)
The 90's really offered a lot of cool electronics! Exciting times, but it didn't last. Wished I would had known of this format back in the day. Thanks for showing it.
Mark Shannon Unfortunately the price of this was probably beyond what you (or I) could afford back then - One US site lists the original 1992 MSRP as $1700 and I've seen the UK price mentioned as "over £1000"
Really enjoy the videos you upload ... A friend of mine had one of these in college so it brought back some memories. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into making these and sharing it with us.
I’ve still got the earlier NT-1 recorder/player (around 1990). It still works in 2021. The staggeringly small size of the helical drum is around that of a standard pencil !
The key point about the NT cassette isn't that it learned from DAT but is "non tracking" - more explained on the wikipedia entry for this device. I had a few DAT walkmans and the last one was really small and was non-tracking "NT". This meant the head didn't have to accurately follow the tracks but scanned the tape several times in a not strictly accurate fashion and the data was recovered via software. So software and some data storage was used to make up for the smaller and less accurate tracking mechanism - quite impressive for the early 90's.
I've had many tape devices over the years, and mind you kids, these were not because I was a 'collector' or anything, but simply because I grew up in the 70's-90's and have been a thrift store junky in my past. I used to trade with my buddies a lot in the late 70's/early 80's too. Once traded for a little Craig micro-cassette with an LCD calculator on it. I recall it had a clear amber screen and the buttons for the calculator were easy to press. Speaking of Craig, I had a Craig continuous tape cartridge cassette. It was a rare portable unit from the late 60's I believe. Have had several reel to reel decks. Including an Akia with a glass head, another Akia just like it, but just a regular head. Had an Akai ( wait, was it an Akai??) Reel to Reel with an 8-track tape player in the side. The speakers were built into this stand up deck and there were aluminum metal flaps that allowed you to direct the sound how you wanted in the stereo field. Found a very nice like new QATRON STEREO-48 12-eight track carousel tape player ( check out ua-cam.com/video/cYfI-vU1eFM/v-deo.html ). Lots of portable 8-track and cassette players...always wanted a portable record player. Have had lots of turn tables though. Really liked my Marble Base Kenwood Direct Drive Turntable. Also liked my Garrard ZERO100C turntable a lot! As a musician I also had a WATKINS COPICAT MARK IV TAPE DELAY ECHO unit. Now I just look for vinyl records...well, that and 78 rpm records. Just in the past 5 years I have seen a sharp decline in 8-track tapes showing up. Usually have to repair 75% of 8-track tapes. Usually I just record them straight to Audacity on the first listen. Hey' 8-tracks used to get a bad rap, and still do I think, but they have a very warm sound quality and have more headroom than cassettes, AND they are ANALOG. Meaning a continuous recording medium, not chop chop chopped into bits like digital. Sure my ear can tell! I really don't think you can surmise that audio is like visual, in that since the eye can blur 24 frames per second, then so can the ear blur a medium. I don't think so. Vinyl still rules IMO. I love 78 rpm records too. UA-cam introduced me to 1930's music. The best music ever! Check out pax41 channel, he uploads all the time. Recently fell for the voice of Lee Wiley from that era.
+Wren Klayman I think they still exist and are being used. I think a couple of years ago I heard that someone made a tape could hold like 150 TB of data. That's fucking crazy!! (I find it funny that today we think 150 TB is a lot, but later, that will be kind of "meh", I remember when I was a teenager, talking about a computer with 4 GB of RAM was completely nuts, now, any average computer has that amount of RAM)
+CoTeCiOtm Yes, they are still being used though not as widely as solid state memory. DDS tapes (the same DAT tapes, still being produced) can hold up to 320 Gb, they plan on making 500 Gb tapes; some servers use it as a backup memory. I never heard of the tape holding 150 Tb but since the principle behind digital tape recoding is that the tape speed doesn't matter when the head rotates at high speeds, it shouldn't be a problem to make a terabyte tapes. Yeah, in time even terabytes will seem like nothing. And I hope the tapes will be used as much as they are used now, maybe even more.
Perhaps you viewers (or you Techmoan) don't realize the awesome sound quality of the Sony NT format. Carefully recording CD's played on a Technics SL-P1300 (analog out to analog in) I made tapes for listening on many international Flights. I once even recorded (direct cable input to my NT-1) the audio provided on a United international flight entertainment system, which was quite poor compared to what my NT recordings offered. I still have that tape; extreme wow and flutter and quite anemic, even though it was stereo. Even today I play some of those original Classical (and other) recordings I made on the NT-1, and they have superior audio quality over the best .mp3 format or any analog cassette machine ever made. I used the NT-1 for many other recording needs from voice, to data, to FSK -- all with flawless results. A marvel on Sony engineering and a true workhorse for me. I'd love to borrow your pre-recorded NT tape for my review. Of course today, I play .mp3's from my phones memory when flying; convenient, but not as "cool", nor as HI FI. The market for these machines has skyrocketed as I bought an perfect NT-2 for $100 on eBay in the early 2000's, now going in the $1,000 range, but they were always seriously expensive when new. A lot of them were used in court rooms for pristine recordings (I suppose to be later transcripted). The miniature stereo microphone that came with the NT-1 and NT-2 were quite excellent.
Guessing this was the test bed gizmo for the next generation of Walkman. But guess events took over before they got the chance to perfect the tech. Top video never seen this format before
I just had a LONG dream about this or something like it, says a lot about my frame of mind. Hiding from the high tensions and civil unrest outside, I found boxes and boxes of the tapes in a church attic but I couldn't find anything to use them on. There was also a cat's whisker I assumed was used to receive broadcasts recorded on these tapes.
Awesome video on this obscure format. As you stated in the video, Sony had big plans for this format for the broadcast industry. I've got a few articles from trade publications in the early 90s touting its impressive specs.
What a beautiful machine,have forgotten this existed such engineering of the time! Great "video" review thoroughly enjoyed it and other posts you have made.
I still have a working NT-1 here. I bought it the same day I purchased a Mini-Disc recorder (MZ-1), but the NT tapes had a lot more use! I’m an engineer, and was dazzled that they could reliably develop a helical drum the diameter of a pencil - and do it all with a single AA battery! Long haul flights, Bose QC-2 headphones - and a single AA battery in each lasted a whole 8-10 hour flight. The 3-5 hour quoted spec was very conservative. The only problem with the NT-1, was the rubberised ‘flock’ exterior finish which deteriorated, and needed to be rubbed off with alcohol. Today it’s ‘bald’. Still sounds great, and it was considerably smaller than the NT-2 shown here!
I must be old, I remember consultants used to use them at the hospital I worked at. I use an Olympus DM-450 Digial Voice Recorder, it comes with 2GB built in and I popped in an extra 4GD micro sd card, that does all the same and more, (like download podcasts and have audio editing software and can be used as an MP3 Player) all for £30-ish nowadays. It's amazing how technology is advancing so fast!
Matt - You forgot to mention, that reading/writing head mechanism is almost exactly the same as in standart oldschool VCR casette players - cylindrical fast rotating head, placed in slight angle from being perpendicular to tape, rotating to squeeze lot of tracks one after another diaognally on tape.
That tiny cassette looks amazing to anybody born in the 70's or before ;). It even reminds me one of the Transformers I used to watch on TV, who had a cassette player on the chest :)
I somehow like the 90s Sony case designs. I would buy two and make an MP3 player out of one if I could. I own a walkman with integrated radio from that period of time. Very reliable and high quality piece of hardware I need to say.
My dad always had a Dictaphone of one kind or another for his work, I loved the tapes as a kid because they looked like the cassette tape Transformer and just the idea of a tiny version of a normal cassette tape was hilarious to me
Reminds me how much I enjoyed my Sharp Vu-Cam, my first 8mm video camera, not digital but I connected my analog tapes to my computer by running the signal through my (newer at the time) Sony Digital 8 vid-cam .... both cameras still work & enjoy working with tape from time to time for my 'home movies' .... although concerned when using them as recording devices, and tend to 'continue' to save the mechanisms for playback only.
We had the Sony NT-1 machines - smaller I think than the NT-2. At the time I was introducing people to the history of recording formats and comparing this tiny, Barbie-doll sized cassette with one of those really heavy Marconi-Stille steel tape reels was always impressive - to show how technology had progressed. The NT-1 was really robust and you could shake it violently while it was playing, and there would be no audible interruptions or glitches. Partly due to the non-tracking correction but also, I guess, because of the very low momentum of the moving parts.
Thanks for reviewing this unique piece of technology. I was always curious about this product. And yes, I've enjoyed this, watched the video two times. :)
This in only the second of the micro MV recorders I have seen. The other was at the dealer I worked at back in the 80's. I have the big brother to this unit, the TCD-D3 DAT walkman, and just did an overhaul of the mechanism on my channel. talk about a tedious small mechanism to repair. looks like Sony learned a few things when they brought out the microMV format. Like fewer moving parts. The D3 had much ligher specs mind you, as it was a full studio quality recorder that sony sold thousands of units to musicians for field recording, as it had both analog and digital inputs and outputs.
Techmoan Sorry my mistake, I typed that and then went "of shit" i typed the wrong format. Yes I know, I used to have to work on the microMV format. It was the MPG2TS format that Sony released. I meant to type NT, but it was late, and my brain was half shut down for the night. Hey remember the old ELCassette?
Techmoan I thought I was the only one that had one of those. How about Sony AM Stereo, have any of those? I have 4, plus 3/4" video PCM-F1 / Sl2000 combo. Lots of old vintage sony gear. I overhaul them on my channel. Having been a Sony factory tech in another lifetime helped.
Hey your "Take a memo Mrs. Jones" sounds a lot like one of those cool puppet characters I see on UA-cam. You could probably do a good impression of the puppet.
I'd actually like to get one of those just for the sheer novelty of it! I can imagine myself sitting on the train, pulling out a cassette just to see the look on people's faces when they realise what I'm doing.
Great video your channel is very interesting I'm just getting into cassettes, 8 tracks, records I'm loving everything on your channel! Thanks for providing the entertainment
More Sony NT Shenanigans here: With the only pre-recorded tape known to exist. ua-cam.com/video/unj79pzEHNQ/v-deo.htmlm22s
Techmoan yay finally
what song did you record originally, the overblown recording? it sounds excellent (not the hot recording but the post rock sound)
who would make a tiny tap
read sony
makes perfect sense then
Imagine the tape in one of these snapping
This is definitely the format I pity most for never have taken off.
I pity this spool
We used these in the the 90's - 00's, in a gov't agency as covert recorders for investigations and for interviews. The sound quality was amazing, much better than the digital recorders we use now.
+Firelock no you didnt
Do you enjoy lying through your teeth
Explain to me why I am lying through my teeth, as I am certain we don't know each other
Lots of agencies carry out investigations and securing proof I assume is important, so must be a mundane element of some people's work
These are digital, though.
It's that digital... the seamless side switching blew my mind.. that was freaking awesome...
This is probably my favourite audio gadget that you've reviewed. I kind of wish I had one.
ill have to admit that is a cool device, But could you imagine if that had been the casset standard, you would find yourself Buying albums over and over becouse of losing them
+DatPhatGamer now if Sony had said that to the record companies at the time they'd have jumped onboard.
I can't imagine how many times I probably would have purchased Licensed To ill, lol.
+Techmoan Have you considered making a NT cassette collection,I would love to se a colection like that.
+JosephKing75 CBP How do you mean...they never released pre-recorded NT cassettes (well I say never, but I do have one).
Techmoan Well,I would record music on them and keep them in my arsenal all the time.
You can't blame Sony for not trying.
Yes! I remember that this format had little marketing. Unlike MIni Disc
+mysonywalkman1978 Nintendo and Sony experimented with mini DVDs on there video game consoles the the Sony Playstation Vita from 2011 and the Nintendo GameCube from 2001
+Tommy Whitaker psvita is memory card based not DVDs and psp was umd a smaller format than dvds
I have never seen this, very interesting piece of engineering. But I did work with the Sony minidisk quite a bit at a radio station back around 2003. They used it for the ad breaks :)
While impressive, I can't help but notice there was no provision for improvements, such as different tape speed.
Also, Wikipedia says it was expensive and fragile.
This little recorder is damn sweet! I really wish this format had more success. I couldn't even imagine a cassette tape that appears to be approximately the size of a standard SD card. This is genius engineering right here.
Wow, Sony had some potential here. I can imagine another reality where an evolved version of this was the next leap beyond the Walkman and the ipod never came to dominate.
s0nnyburnett The first commercial MP3 player came out in 1997, so a small tape like this could have easily postponed the idea of MP3 players by a decade or more. Initially MP3 players could only hold a couple CDs and were as big as Walkmans, so just having a little recorder sized device and a small collection of tapes would've been smaller, and people were used to cassettes already. The only glaring benefit of MP3 (in my opinion) is the ability to skip from song to song, but like I said, that wouldn't have been enough to keep this product from dominating for a decade.
@@jetjazz05I know this comment is 8 years old but none of this is true. MP3 was an unstoppable force, and there's obvious proof of that: MP3 players clearly outsold MiniDisc players, didn't they?
MP3s had one obvious, huge benefit. It was not physical. Cassettes were more convenient than vinyl records, and obviously not having any cassettes at all is even more convenient. There is not a single format that could've beaten that, except streaming. Most people would rather not have to deal with hundreds of pieces of plastic when listening to music. Regardless of their size.
@@bezoekers I typed up a pretty big comment but... I decided to just go with this. You're right! MP3 was unstoppable, a way to use less space and digitally transfer a flawless copy bests any analog technology hands down.
Still, it's exciting for me 8 years later to see I commented on a comment that has 69 thumbs ups almost a decade later. Your statement is correct, MP3 was unstoppable... but I'm still pleased about the 69 thumbs ups.
I heard the creator of MP3s used Tom's Diner to refine the compression which I also really like, I didn't know this when I started using MP3s or even when I discovered Tom's Diner, but still... that song jams.
How beautiful that era was man..... cellphone eated everything... relations, landline, PC, Letters, Alarm clock, walkmen, camera and much more
ate*
@@jacobdaniels3246 whatever dude english is not my language
Meer Asif Talpur oh sorry
was mostly joking though
ANOTHER audio oddity that I had no idea even existed. Good vid, well done!
Sony makes some groovy tape right now, mostly for data-center backup storage.
But bringing that technology back to consumer market would be pretty interesting,
The trouble is the intricate mechanisms of modern tape systems do not come cheap. In the datacenter the cost of that intricate mechanism can be amortised over vast amounts of data. In the consumer market not so much.
reads the data off the tape like a VHS, and looks like late 90s to early 2000s, Sony really did put effort into engineering a quality device
joe muncey only possible to invest so much time effort and engineering excellence by one company that is SONY.
I think that that headphone connector for the extra remote is also on the PSP! Well, at least something extremely similar.
+LazerLord10 I was gonna say the same. Lots of Sony products had them, including some early MiniDisc players back in the day.
The control of the playstation 4 have it.
@@julianjv7325 : yes, but a remote from a Sony minidisc player doesn't work with the Sony PSP or the PS4. The connector is smaller than the one on the Minidisc.
@@ZaireXIII : I think almost all the Sony minidisc players have this connector. But it's not exactly the same on a PSP or a PS4 (it's smaller)
The music quality actually wasn't that bad
the destroyer it was nice TBH
lol
Sounds bether than Crosley
It was quite bad on the first bit actually, loads of signal distortion... probably from recording with a to high entry level ;) 32 KHz isn't great for music. That said, each and every Techmoan video is killer :)
At 12-14bit 32kHz is decent multimedia format. Not equalling CD quality, but very close to our old fashioned tapes, without the hiss.
recently found and have been binge watching a lot of your tech videos, all these older audio formats are all very fascinating, thanks for sharing these things with us.
Great sound from such a tiny tape and handheld held recorder/player! Thanks for showing this, always fascinating!
i would totally wear one of those cassettes on a necklace, if i had one.
A necklace is easy to find nowadays :))
thegougy u fool
He meant having a cassete
@@cjclow052, it's called irony, you sorry little imbecile.
Id record a bunch of old classic rock bands on it my parents and i love.
And put it on a car keychain : )
A minute of silence for all the spies who were killed in the '90 because of this kind of micro tapes.
"Very good Mr.Bond, we meet again...now please give me the microtape!"
Sony products were beautifully made and styled in the 90's, shame they lost their way. That said, I brought a Sony 4K tv recently and I like it quite a lot.
The father of micro sd card
Hahehu
No, its grandfather. The father's called sd card. I wish to live and see micro sd grandsons
Haqet the father of the SD card is Sony Memory Stick... I have a 32mb one lol
memrory sticks make me think of psp
I really wanna see a nanoSD someday
You can tell when a device is old when it is Made In Japan (1:06) and that means it is probably still running fine today.
Nickos1b
Most of the made in China stuff we have today probably will no longer work when it's over 20 years old.
Some Chinese stuff doesn't last for 20 hours.
My NT-1 *does* still run today (31 years old) !
New AA battery though.
It's really interesting to look back and realize that each decade past had its own technologies that had their own charm. Even going back just 15 years when we had MP3 players and the dawn of mass market digital photography gives me some nostalgia.
I love Sony for their dedication to innovation in the '90ies! I've never heard of this by the way. That's really cool. And impressive, 2 hours on this little tape. I always enjoy your vids. Cheers.
I have a dozen of those tapes as well as a recorder/player that goes with it ,I hooked it up into my telephone line with a relay that would turn the recorder on when the telephone was picked up ,we recorded 1 of our kids incoming & outgoing phone calls to see if our suspicion was correct , for music not so good but for secretly taping people it's brilliant .
It's like a tape fetus.
F Stanz Keep it away from the liberals, theyll try to kill it.
"Tape Fetus" would be a great band name.
Wow, what a great find! Very nicely engineered device indeed.
Nicely done... your ability to anticipate the top questions is unquestionably superb.
Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your reviews. Enough that I ordered a Sony AS100. It just came in the mail today and I'm re-watching your review to get it set up. Thanks again and keep up the excellent work.
I can't believe this video is from nine years ago! This is really high quality, props to you!
I like how the loading mechanism they used in this, later went to their video recorder and the PSP.
+Crystal the Glaceon 7 years ago I bought my PSP FAT for that loading mechanism. PSP SLIM didn't have it.
Yeah I like the old PSP fat model because of how cool looking they are.
One of the rare Techmoan videos where I get to actively enjoy the obscure tech as I watch techmoan enjoy it.
Another cool little product presented in an interesting and entertaining manner.
Now had this come out 10-15 years earlier with the same quality, I suppose it would have easily obsoleted the standard audio cassette almost overnight.
Maybe, maybe not. Let's not forget how small these things are, you could easily loose one. In the early 80's they tried to make the micro cassette a big thing with music listeners. Teachmoan did a video of that. Check it out.
Probably not just like how the 8" CD never took over the 12" ones.
Pepsi Man
We never were able to increase the amount of data storage on those though, were we? (Excluding Blu Ray)
Pepsi Man
I know we did with the laser disc to compact disc, and that is the norm now.
Ford Mavericks OS X
It definitely would be easier to destroy or lose in a sewer grate, but if they were treated like jewelry, that wouldn't happen.
Fun that you did a colab with LGR on the Datasonix Pereos Cassette Backup System ^^ Both your channel and LGR are excellent :D
amazing as always. Watching your videos is like a visit to a museum. Keep they coming.
Nice, never saw this before. It's officially part of history now.
I still do listen to my grandfathers tape collection: live recordings of his band.
Great little unit. Reminds of a Sony product I bought in Tokyo about 17 years ago - an extremely compact AM-FM radio with tiny buttons, LCD display and retractable earbuds. Still working perfectly well.
This has got to be my favorite piece in your collection. Nice find.
Yes it's a real gem.
Wow. Those tapes are tiny! When I was a kid, I had a micro cassette recorder. The tapes were about half way between mini cassettes and the tape in your video. My recorder was made for dictation, so it was only mono, but I used to record audio bits off TV to carry around with me. A couple of friends and I did some pretend documentary-style recordings too.
and the world's largest cassette?
+CAESARbonds I've got one of those too...I'm just waiting until I can find the player for it. You can find a video about the large Elcaset in my channel too.
+Techmoan Maybe largest cassette is VHS.
Is it a u-matic
+Techmoan The largest cassette I have seen is an Ampex video cassette, but I wouldn't be shocked if there were larger formats. Movie film is huge and weighs a ton after all. My back hurt for days after, but it was cool to get to deliver Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back to a movie theater.
I know the owners of a local cinema and it's exactly the latter. They have a satellite connection that's setup by a company they contracted to get their films through. Occasionally they did get actual 35mm film containers, but that was a few years ago. Also if you go to see a movie in a local privately owned cinema, IE not AMC or Regal, buy a bag of popcorn or some candy, their earnings from ticket sales is about 5-10% of what you actually pay. They can't survive on ticket sales alone. That's why there are rules against smuggling stuff in.
I must live in an alternate reality :-)....My NT-2 is my daily "walkman", I've used MD, DCC, DAT and compact cassette walkmans and this really is my favourite. I recently dropped it and broke the battery door...despite a large elastic band holding the door shut....It still comes with me on my daily cycle commute.
Datasonix created a tape backup device based on this tape. It was called the Pereos and worked on Windows-95/98 to backup laptops through the parallel port. It worked on two 1.5V batteries or on 5V leeched from the keyboard connector. It stored upto 1GB onto a single tape. I have one of these marvels on my desk.
scsirob Thanks for the info - fascinating stuff (I'll keep my eye out for one).
scsirob Similar tapes are actually still used*. I don't know exactly what for but I can tell you we recieve a bunch of them where I work, and where they are to be disposed of in a safe and secure way.
*Obviously, they are being phased out where I live. I think banks and insurance companies and such use them for backup (we recieve the tapes as confidential goods.)
You can watch LGR's video on it: ua-cam.com/video/_h-u20eMwlw/v-deo.html
The 90's really offered a lot of cool electronics! Exciting times, but it didn't last. Wished I would had known of this format back in the day. Thanks for showing it.
Mark Shannon Unfortunately the price of this was probably beyond what you (or I) could afford back then - One US site lists the original 1992 MSRP as $1700 and I've seen the UK price mentioned as "over £1000"
i love these old vintage/odd tech channels.
I really like those time capsules, learning about stuff taken apart flying saucers..
SOUNDWAVE IS PLEASED AND HAS INVADE YOUR MIND WITH HIS SWEET VOICE
Never heard of this format. Thank you for the video.
Very seamless recording!
Wow what a charming bit of tape tech. And pretty great sound too.
Really enjoy the videos you upload ... A friend of mine had one of these in college so it brought back some memories. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into making these and sharing it with us.
I used to have one of those. Loved it. I think I've still got it around with a pile of dictated tapes.
I’ve still got the earlier NT-1 recorder/player (around 1990). It still works in 2021.
The staggeringly small size of the helical drum is around that of a standard pencil !
The key point about the NT cassette isn't that it learned from DAT but is "non tracking" - more explained on the wikipedia entry for this device. I had a few DAT walkmans and the last one was really small and was non-tracking "NT". This meant the head didn't have to accurately follow the tracks but scanned the tape several times in a not strictly accurate fashion and the data was recovered via software. So software and some data storage was used to make up for the smaller and less accurate tracking mechanism - quite impressive for the early 90's.
I've had many tape devices over the years, and mind you kids, these were not because I was a 'collector' or anything, but simply because I grew up in the 70's-90's and have been a thrift store junky in my past. I used to trade with my buddies a lot in the late 70's/early 80's too. Once traded for a little Craig micro-cassette with an LCD calculator on it. I recall it had a clear amber screen and the buttons for the calculator were easy to press. Speaking of Craig, I had a Craig continuous tape cartridge cassette. It was a rare portable unit from the late 60's I believe. Have had several reel to reel decks. Including an Akia with a glass head, another Akia just like it, but just a regular head. Had an Akai ( wait, was it an Akai??) Reel to Reel with an 8-track tape player in the side. The speakers were built into this stand up deck and there were aluminum metal flaps that allowed you to direct the sound how you wanted in the stereo field. Found a very nice like new QATRON STEREO-48 12-eight track carousel tape player ( check out ua-cam.com/video/cYfI-vU1eFM/v-deo.html ). Lots of portable 8-track and cassette players...always wanted a portable record player. Have had lots of turn tables though. Really liked my Marble Base Kenwood Direct Drive Turntable. Also liked my Garrard ZERO100C turntable a lot! As a musician I also had a WATKINS COPICAT MARK IV TAPE DELAY ECHO unit. Now I just look for vinyl records...well, that and 78 rpm records. Just in the past 5 years I have seen a sharp decline in 8-track tapes showing up. Usually have to repair 75% of 8-track tapes. Usually I just record them straight to Audacity on the first listen. Hey' 8-tracks used to get a bad rap, and still do I think, but they have a very warm sound quality and have more headroom than cassettes, AND they are ANALOG. Meaning a continuous recording medium, not chop chop chopped into bits like digital. Sure my ear can tell! I really don't think you can surmise that audio is like visual, in that since the eye can blur 24 frames per second, then so can the ear blur a medium. I don't think so. Vinyl still rules IMO. I love 78 rpm records too. UA-cam introduced me to 1930's music. The best music ever! Check out pax41 channel, he uploads all the time. Recently fell for the voice of Lee Wiley from that era.
Just wanted to say how much I enjoy these strange HiFi videos of yours. Thank you and please keep them coming!
For everyone wanting to know, the song at 3:20 is Bet On It by Silent Partner.
Nice demonstration!
To think that the era of digital tapes hasn't happened to fully rise... This really could be the future of media storage.
+Wren Klayman I think they still exist and are being used. I think a couple of years ago I heard that someone made a tape could hold like 150 TB of data. That's fucking crazy!! (I find it funny that today we think 150 TB is a lot, but later, that will be kind of "meh", I remember when I was a teenager, talking about a computer with 4 GB of RAM was completely nuts, now, any average computer has that amount of RAM)
+CoTeCiOtm Yes, they are still being used though not as widely as solid state
memory. DDS tapes (the same DAT tapes, still being produced) can hold
up to 320 Gb, they plan on making 500 Gb tapes; some servers use it as a
backup memory. I never heard of the tape holding 150 Tb but since the
principle behind digital tape recoding is that the tape speed doesn't
matter when the head rotates at high speeds, it shouldn't be a problem
to make a terabyte tapes. Yeah, in time even terabytes will seem like
nothing. And I hope the tapes will be used as much as they are used now,
maybe even more.
Perhaps you viewers (or you Techmoan) don't realize the awesome sound quality of the Sony NT format. Carefully recording CD's played on a Technics SL-P1300 (analog out to analog in) I made tapes for listening on many international Flights. I once even recorded (direct cable input to my NT-1) the audio provided on a United international flight entertainment system, which was quite poor compared to what my NT recordings offered. I still have that tape; extreme wow and flutter and quite anemic, even though it was stereo. Even today I play some of those original Classical (and other) recordings I made on the NT-1, and they have superior audio quality over the best .mp3 format or any analog cassette machine ever made. I used the NT-1 for many other recording needs from voice, to data, to FSK -- all with flawless results. A marvel on Sony engineering and a true workhorse for me. I'd love to borrow your pre-recorded NT tape for my review. Of course today, I play .mp3's from my phones memory when flying; convenient, but not as "cool", nor as HI FI. The market for these machines has skyrocketed as I bought an perfect NT-2 for $100 on eBay in the early 2000's, now going in the $1,000 range, but they were always seriously expensive when new. A lot of them were used in court rooms for pristine recordings (I suppose to be later transcripted). The miniature stereo microphone that came with the NT-1 and NT-2 were quite excellent.
Thanks. It's always fun to see what you come up with.
WOW!!! What this smallest cassette tape like this. I'll never see those smallest cassette before! What a little gem it is! 😮🤓
Would have loved this if I knew about it in the 90's. Thanks Techmoan for your great videos!
Guessing this was the test bed gizmo for the next generation of Walkman. But guess events took over before they got the chance to perfect the tech. Top video never seen this format before
paulmcnamara16 Those are my thoughts too...similar to how the Walkman came from the Pressman.
I have cassette player and mp3 Walkmans l
I am listening to this on my high-end Sony Headphone :-) The sound is 1st Class !
I just had a LONG dream about this or something like it, says a lot about my frame of mind. Hiding from the high tensions and civil unrest outside, I found boxes and boxes of the tapes in a church attic but I couldn't find anything to use them on. There was also a cat's whisker I assumed was used to receive broadcasts recorded on these tapes.
Awesome video on this obscure format. As you stated in the video, Sony had big plans for this format for the broadcast industry. I've got a few articles from trade publications in the early 90s touting its impressive specs.
WOW that is one slick device. That is why I love Sony designers and technicians, they can come up with wonderful devices sometimes.
Why is this 120min of DIGITAL audio? Is this not analogue?
What a beautiful machine,have forgotten this existed such engineering of the time! Great "video" review thoroughly enjoyed it and other posts you have made.
Nice video, I really enjoy these flashbacks. Thumbs up.
So many little details from this remind me of my first Sony MD player and my first ever PSP. It's really interesting to see!
I still have a working NT-1 here.
I bought it the same day I purchased a Mini-Disc recorder (MZ-1), but the NT tapes had a lot more use! I’m an engineer, and was dazzled that they could reliably develop a helical drum the diameter of a pencil - and do it all with a single AA battery!
Long haul flights, Bose QC-2 headphones - and a single AA battery in each lasted a whole 8-10 hour flight. The 3-5 hour quoted spec was very conservative.
The only problem with the NT-1, was the rubberised ‘flock’ exterior finish which deteriorated, and needed to be rubbed off with alcohol. Today it’s ‘bald’.
Still sounds great, and it was considerably smaller than the NT-2 shown here!
That... is the cutest little tape I've seen besides the sticky kind.
I must be old, I remember consultants used to use them at the hospital I worked at.
I use an Olympus DM-450 Digial Voice Recorder, it comes with 2GB built in and I popped in an extra 4GD micro sd card, that does all the same and more, (like download podcasts and have audio editing software and can be used as an MP3 Player) all for £30-ish nowadays.
It's amazing how technology is advancing so fast!
Matt - You forgot to mention, that reading/writing head mechanism is almost exactly the same as in standart oldschool VCR casette players - cylindrical fast rotating head, placed in slight angle from being perpendicular to tape, rotating to squeeze lot of tracks one after another diaognally on tape.
Very cool. I love your retro equipment reviews.
That is really awesome tech. I wish I could have had this in the past.
Sony could have started a revolution with small music players.
They did.
That tiny cassette looks amazing to anybody born in the 70's or before ;). It even reminds me one of the Transformers I used to watch on TV, who had a cassette player on the chest :)
Another very cool format that I never heard of. Thank you for sharing.
This is incredible! Truly a feat of engineering.
Thumbs up. Amazing technology. Especially the seamless change of direction!
I cannot get over how adorable these little cartridges are. I felt the same way when the GameAdvance cartridges released.
I somehow like the 90s Sony case designs. I would buy two and make an MP3 player out of one if I could.
I own a walkman with integrated radio from that period of time. Very reliable and high quality piece of hardware I need to say.
My dad always had a Dictaphone of one kind or another for his work, I loved the tapes as a kid because they looked like the cassette tape Transformer and just the idea of a tiny version of a normal cassette tape was hilarious to me
The audio quality actually sounds amazing
Great video. I remember reading about it many years ago in Wireless/Electronics World, but never saw in action.
that sounded better than what i remember regular big cassettes sounding.
Another great video, never see those tiny tapes in action. Thanks!
Reminds me how much I enjoyed my Sharp Vu-Cam, my first 8mm video camera, not digital but I connected my analog tapes to my computer by running the signal through my (newer at the time) Sony Digital 8 vid-cam .... both cameras still work & enjoy working with tape from time to time for my 'home movies' .... although concerned when using them as recording devices, and tend to 'continue' to save the mechanisms for playback only.
Cool !! Never knew that device existed. Sony has made some very interesting equipment over the years. Great video.
I have one of these, thing still amazingly cool and small, i feel like they should've kept this up
We had the Sony NT-1 machines - smaller I think than the NT-2. At the time I was introducing people to the history of recording formats and comparing this tiny, Barbie-doll sized cassette with one of those really heavy Marconi-Stille steel tape reels was always impressive - to show how technology had progressed. The NT-1 was really robust and you could shake it violently while it was playing, and there would be no audible interruptions or glitches. Partly due to the non-tracking correction but also, I guess, because of the very low momentum of the moving parts.
Thanks for reviewing this unique piece of technology. I was always curious about this product.
And yes, I've enjoyed this, watched the video two times. :)
This in only the second of the micro MV recorders I have seen. The other was at the dealer I worked at back in the 80's. I have the big brother to this unit, the TCD-D3 DAT walkman, and just did an overhaul of the mechanism on my channel. talk about a tedious small mechanism to repair. looks like Sony learned a few things when they brought out the microMV format. Like fewer moving parts. The D3 had much ligher specs mind you, as it was a full studio quality recorder that sony sold thousands of units to musicians for field recording, as it had both analog and digital inputs and outputs.
12voltvids This isn't MicroMV it's NT- MicroMV is a bigger tape that holds video (I own a MicroMV camcorder that I will make a video about some day).
Techmoan
Sorry my mistake, I typed that and then went "of shit" i typed the wrong format.
Yes I know, I used to have to work on the microMV format.
It was the MPG2TS format that Sony released.
I meant to type NT, but it was late, and my brain was half shut down for the night.
Hey remember the old ELCassette?
12voltvids yes I've got an Elcaset machine, you can find a video about it in my channel.
Techmoan
I thought I was the only one that had one of those.
How about Sony AM Stereo, have any of those? I have 4, plus 3/4" video PCM-F1 / Sl2000 combo. Lots of old vintage sony gear. I overhaul them on my channel.
Having been a Sony factory tech in another lifetime helped.
An interesting curio. I have never heard of the Sony NT until now.
Hey your "Take a memo Mrs. Jones" sounds a lot like one of those cool puppet characters I see on UA-cam. You could probably do a good impression of the puppet.
Hi, just wanted to tell you that I really enjoy your videos.
I'd actually like to get one of those just for the sheer novelty of it! I can imagine myself sitting on the train, pulling out a cassette just to see the look on people's faces when they realise what I'm doing.
If i had known bout this I am sure I would have been a big fan of this format. I love tiny tech
Great video your channel is very interesting I'm just getting into cassettes, 8 tracks, records I'm loving everything on your channel! Thanks for providing the entertainment