The Last Boomboxes
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- Опубліковано 13 січ 2025
- JVC still sells a big loud portable CD Radio - it’s one of the last true boomboxes.
I bought my JVC RV-NB300DAB direct from the JVC website - it seemed to be the best deal.
Amazon also sell it amzn.to/3WDRf22 (AFFILIATED LINK)
This video features some music kindly provided by Andre Louis - his work can be found at onj.me
CORRECTION - According to Daniel in the comments the FM radio can be controlled like this without the remote…
You can't manually tune the stations without the remote, but if you set the input to radio and then press the square STOP button on the boombox (which you'll notice is also "AUTO" on the remote) the radio presets will automatically be filled with all available radio stations (up to 30). Then just press forward and back to flip through them. You can also change the "scan settings" to "Strong Stations Only" for this mode where it will only fill the presets with stations it is picking up clearly.
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Seeing the muppets return is like hearing from an old friend. Always a pleasure
Yes absolutely ❤❤❤
Oh man, I have not even watched the vid yet and I'm excited for the ending lol.
Missed them lots, will be great to see them.
@@MiloPerrotti They're having an early and short appearance at about 5:45.
I love the muppets, such a funny clever way to get a point across
Always a great day when you get a mention in a Techmoan video. Many thanks.
‘Not Just Garden Variety’ is quite a bass-test, it’s one of the ones I use myself when testing new speakers and of course, no content-match.
That’s the second track of mine you played, for those reading the comments.
Thank you sir.
Good man!
It was good. I like using Hello Brooklyn for my personal tests. It’s an unnecessary amount of bass.
I bought a JVC boom box back in 2001. It died in 2022. It has been on every vacation, every year since I bought it, so we held a wake when it died.
It will be missed.
RIP JVC Boombox, You will be missed!
Now it is in Boombox heaven, where there is no such thing as empty batteries or complaining neighbors. It finally found its well-deserved eternal loudness.
o7
Maybe you can repair it
Most failed electronics can be repaired. At this age and given its provenance, it's likely just a shorted power semiconductor, like a voltage regulator or MOSFET, which are generally very quick and easy to discover. Capacitors are also at exactly the age where you expect trouble, so worth a test.
This thing looks designed for exercise classes and maybe dance classes. This makes a lot of features make sense, including the reliance on the remote and the fairly plain colour language
Or children's parties any kind.
That makes a lot of sense. This is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect to see sitting on a cart at the side of a primary school gymnasium.
It looks like something designed and manufactured by a sewer pipe factory, trying to branch out.
Oh WOW! I had a JVC Kaboom box back in the year 2000. It looked basically just like this and cost me $300 back then. The model back then had a tape player and guitar/mic input. It didn't have a DAB or the lights though. They've been updating this basic design since the 90s. This is an amazing thing to see on a Sunday morning 24 years later.
My school used one of these older models on my exams, and they probably still do. Loud and clear audio, perfect for listening tasks on exams. Probably why they picked it.
Couple of months ago I repaired a Hitachi boombox made in 1977. Dropped in a bluetooth cassette adapters, loaded it with D-cells, and proceeded to blow my friends' minds with the sound quality. It just sounds so much better than a normal bluebooth speaker, and has a way cooler stage presence with its working VU meters, dials and switches.
I hate modern portable bluetooth speakers. I've yet to come across one that doesn't sound terrible
The cheap Bluetooth speakers yes. But there are higher quality ones made by Bose, Sony, and Sonos. But those go for 200 to 300 dollars. Not the 60 dollar Bluetooth speakers at Walmart.
It's probably something akin to the adage "no replacement for displacement"
Most portable Bluetooth speakers are pretty small in comparison and almost none have big woofers.
I suspect they also will mess with the audio a bunch eq, bass boost etc whereas the old one will just put out what gets put in.
They have Bluetooth cassette adapters???
There are bluetooth boom boxes that cost 500, 1500 even $5,000 now. Blow away a portable anything from 10 years plus ago. Check out the DiamondBoxx lineup, impressive sound costig up to $2,000 for a portable bluetooth speaker box. Plug in a CD player and you'd got the true modern day Ghetoo Blaster, not this junk Techmoan is reviewing here from the 90s.
i'll never forget the scene in the James Bond film 'The living Daylights' where a Boombox turns into a rocket launcher. After it blows up a wall M turns to Bond and says "Something we're making for the Americans. It's called a ghetto blaster."
Q, not M.
@@talon262 You are correct!
Which had some rather disturbing implications.
I'll never forget the scene in the film "Ghetto Blaster" where a gang member puts a boombox on his shoulder and it results in a a pathetic explosion that does nothing. I'll never forget it because it's the worst thing I've ever seen. Q's gadgets aren't what they used to be.
@@print-master Use your imagination.
If there was ever a feature missing from the original boom boxes, it was the unintelligible PA announcement echo function
Sometimes you just wanna sound like a train station.
Jamaican sound system-style toasting on the mic input?
bunny...i never knew I needed an echo function all these years...I've been playing music for half a century on dozens of Hi-fi's and Cassette radios with and without CD...I'll have to sell all my retro separates and buy one of these JVC's...or somehow manage without an echo...
@Particular_Sky
[vacuum cleaning and shouting in background]
@@markianclark9645
What... The heck are... You talking about... And why are you us... Ing so many ra... Ndom ellipses?
In Sweden they were called bergsprängare
Berg = Mountain
Sprängare = blaster.
I loved them.
Ooh, I like that. I will start referring to them as mountain blasters from now on.
Thank you!
What's, uh, _mountain_ about them?
@@cacogenicist It's to insinuate that they're loud enough to blast holes in mountains.
This was standard dance studio gear because it had a mic input, was very loud and could be locked in a cupboard.
We had quite a few of these, but ours had no flashy lights and no dab radio. Thanks for the memory as usual!
14:09 rolling shutter effect due to the bass vibrations. That thing is not kidding when it says bass.
Yes it was nice to see and proof it works well
Yeah that was interesting to see.
I have hands on experience with an older (2010-era) JVC device, and they do bass!
Reminded me of my rear view mirror when I had subs.
Bass you can see!
Muppets and the cat guarantee a good video!
Not untrue, but Mat hikself always guarantees a good video. 😁
Was wondering where Mat's cat' been
Puppets AND the kitty make an appearance?!
This made my day! 😁❤🐈
It’s weird that we have advanced technology and a mono Bluetooth speaker with only streaming capability is the gold standard for portable audio
The average consumer unfortunately doesn't care enough about advanced technology or audio quality to demand anything more. I know a few people who can't even tell the difference between 128 and 320kbps audio in casual usage
pay more to get less
@@adaml.5355 BT audio quality has certainly improved a lot, but even the best codecs like LDAC and AptX are still unable to send full losslessly compressed CD quality audio, which is the minimum I'd consider to be high fidelity in 2024.
Ha 😂 it's Idiocracy mate.
There are good stereo Bluetooth speakers
Matt. I have got the Minidisc version of the JVC boombox. Got it in 1998 and it's still going. They made them to last back in the day. Great video.
Nearly 42 years after it was first released to the public, the CD is still one of the best consumer audio formats ever invented. It has excellent quality audio, no DRM, and most discs last practically forever. And it's even experiencing a bit of a vinyl-style comeback at the moment, which means that decent quality players - and even boomboxes, by the looks of it - are still available.
The good thing about CDs is that even if there were no good players left, one can just use a computer with a good DAC connected
I’ve got several compilations and movie soundtracks on CD that I still listen-none are available streaming in their entirety (because of the licensing I guess)
You didn't work in the early stages of duplication then.. The failure rate of CD's produced at the start was well over 65% they suffered from del-lamination, crazing of the layers and the centre of so many were not sealed, so a little moisture could get in rendering them useless. Remember CDs read from the centre out any damage here will be catastrophic. The German produced ones in the early 80's were bar far the best quality. In my opinion Mini Disc were better, if they had been 25% larger and held more music the format would have killed CD's dead. You cant record on a CD over a million times but you can on a Mini Disc....
@@jacobsvideochannel5998You shouldn't have used your CDs as coasters and especially not to stop the table from wiggling.
polycarbonates are the new vinyls!
I giggled like a school girl when the muppets popped up on the screen. I forgot how much I missed those guys! Thanks for the teaser Matt!
Full speed USB 1.1! Haven't seen that spec in a lifetime!
Even the PlayStation 2 has usb 1.2.
It's easy to support + no power distribution requirements/expectations.
Good enough for playing 320kbps files to be honest, my gripe is that none of those MP3 players support NTFS or exFAT, which is a problem if you have a single large-capacity USB stick with both songs and movies (and find yourself hitting FAT32's 4GB file limit quite often when trying to copy movies into it), which means you have to carry two USB sticks: one for songs and one for movies).
@@Δημήτρης-θ7θany mp3 record is essentially junk (
@@old_liquid MP3 is good enough for most people, and anyway, you aren't hitting FAT32's 4GB limit with any reasonable FLAC file either.
Ugh, I am so happy to have seen your channel grow to what it has all these years later! Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the craft, truly!
This video reminded me that I rescued an old boomcylinder like this from being thrown out last year. Forgot all about it and just went and dug it out of the spare room and it is in fact a prior model to this. The JVC RV-NB100B, a similar design but also features an iPhone (lightning) dock front and centre. It's only 40W but it still packs a punch and the sound is actually rather wonderful. I shall be giving it a good clean and will put it to use. Thanks as always for the upload x
That need to use the remote to flip through DAB stations is crazy. This is very obviously going to end up sitting on a shelf in workshops etc, that remote is getting lost almost immediately.
You really wonder about some product designers
Sounds like a feature, set to classic rock station, lose remote, never hear top 40 again.
@@drworm5007 Except when that classic rock station switches format to top 40.
"I choose to buy compilation CDs instead of several records, because I find it easier" is not a sentence I would expect to hear on 2024, but I'm here for it and I'm happy there are still people like you, sir.
Maybe because more people are realising that vinyl records, despite being very cool, are simply not practical in any shape or form when compared to a CD that holds so much more content, digital, portable, and cheap to buy.
@@am_pm.17 Now, now. No need to be practical about things when I can have a large pile of vinyl bending my shelves 😜
The train station announcement was hilarious. The guitar input is also an interesting idea. The lights not reacting to the music is a missed opportunity.
I'm also disappointed that you can't control the pattern and colour separately on the lights.
I would have thought not being able to quickly and easily play with the mic volume without reaching round the back would have got annoying quickly too
I would hope that you could turn the lights off. I don't like RGB in computers either.
Needing the remote to change the presets has killed it for me.
Ghetto blaster = listening to rap in New York
Boombox = listening to Spice Girls in Straford-Upon-Avon
What about listening to say, Led Zep in Detroit?
@@chrisjamesr77 GhettoRockBlaster.
Bumbux = Listening to Aqua in Rotterdam
Boomblaster = Listening to Stone Temple Pilots in an auto repair shop in a podunk Midwest or Atlantic Coast U.S. town
Ghetto blaster = Hi Point C9
Boombox = Daniel Defense Mk18 SBR
90s HipHop in Southern California?
What do we want ? Getto blaster, when do we want it, 43 years ago. 😂
A friend of mine (German), working in Atlanta, Georgia, entered a shopping mall and wanted to get a "ghettoblaster". She told us, the face of the seller she won't never forget in her life.
seller returned with a tec9
And the employee returned with a DL-44 made in an inner city shop.
"Hello, du you haben Panzerkampfwagen Tiger for me bitte?"
Ma'am we don't sell fentanyl here.
Universum BB 500-20 Ghettoblaster - sounds like a futuristic gun, but is indeed a boombox that is being sold here in Germany.
Good old Ghettoblasters. lmao.
What an epic thumbnail! And a subject near and dear (boomboxes), and a return to muppetology? Yes please!
They could so easily have included a storage feature for the remote in the oversized CD compartment.
Put the square in the circle is a problem ... Leaking battery inside a laser it's another problem ...
Matt's solution is just fine.
@@BogdanDulgheru inside a laser? Just have a little indentation in the bottom and the lid that holds it.
@@TheSighphiguyit has that lithium ion battery in the back it looks like there is no space.
I wonder if those bass ports go deep? Chuck the thing right in.
@@TheSighphiguyhe mentioned in the video, it runs off recharchable li batteries
I recently inherited my grandpa's 80's Magnavox twin-stereo dual-cassette boombox. They took that thing out to sea and wherever else they vacationed. It's still holding up, definitely needs new belts in the tape mechanisms. But yeah, super cool thing to just have.
I have a Sony Xplode boombox, and it's excellent. It has a remote, but you don't need it. And it has a subwoofer. My dad has a 90s JVC Boombox that I found for him in a thrift shop for I kid you not $10. It's got lots of manual switches for adjusting the sound. And he absolutely loves it. He was about to settle for a cheap tube-shaped boombox from our local Bimart, because they were the only ones who still seemed to sell a boombox. He's much happier with the one I got him. I needed it's CD Drive cleaned and rebuilt. But it was worth it to him.His stereo also has an excellent cassette deck that was a part of a stacked stereo he had in the 90s. He junked the first stereo I remember him having. But I saved the cassette player from it. 20 years later he buys his current stacked stereo, and it's cassette deck was faulty. So I went to my place, dug up the vintage one I'd saved out of storage, and brought it over to him. He was amazed to see it, and pt it into the stereo right into the stack where the faulty cassette deck was, and it still worked like new. It's still a part of his stereo now.
I laughed HARD at the trainstation announcement !! Hilarious !
Matt should start doing this at random crowded locations far away from actual train stations, and record the reactions!
When I was a kid the terms Boom Box and Ghetto Blaster were considered interchangeable. I've never heard of someone insisting it be called one or the other lol I'm glad to see the Puppet Pals make an appearance!
Maybe a regional difference. I don't think i ever heard someone use the term Boombox in Germany in the 80s and 90s.
I have a weird feeling that anyone insisting on calling it a Ghetto Blaster either does not care or relishes the fact that it was a phrase tinged with racism.
They were interchangeable in Pennsylvania and probably the whole US. (and large scale racism had not yet been resurrected)
@@RocketboyXGet over it.
@@beckigreen So that's a yes from you. Got it. Thanks for letting us all know.
LED lights should have been a VU meters. Lost opportunity…
They do have modern day boom box, these things are called job-site radio, made by tool companies like DeWalt and Milwaukee
"block rocking beats". Mat, you're the fucking best
the tribit stormbox blast is a really good speaker if you just want a boombox form factor speaker. lots of battery, can do indoor volumes for at least 14 hours straight. and we didnt have it quiet, we just wanted to be able to hear each other to communicate while we were working. it has enough output to fill a small outdoor space like a backyard party. in a straight line you can hear the music clearly a hundred or two feet away. if you have it for any normal indoor space, one of these things absolutely fill it with music loud enough to hurt your ears if you stand in the wrong spot (and i dont mean pressing your head up to it or something silly like that either)
ive had it for a couple years now and its great. i saw it on the list and i know that this video is not for that but i know that a lot of people will find plenty use from bluetooth speakers. it is the perfect size to throw in a car and its too heavy to be convenient but its light enough to be reasonable to carry. ive gone on walks with it
also as for jvc calling the subject of the video 3 different things, i dont think they really were.
-"boomblaster" sounds like a product name. like how the hyundai elantra is not a statement on how all 4 door 4 wheeled vehicles are called "Elantras" speakers with radios and physical media players are not "boomblasters"
-"boombox" is them using the standard nomenclature, i live in america and the only time ive ever heard of someone referring to something as a "ghetto blaster" is when they are talking about a very cheap handgun, especially a hi-point. everyone ive ever known calls them boomboxes. theyll even call big bluetooth speakers boomboxes if they are old enough. to some people the notable quality of a "boombox" is just a speaker able to create sound under its own power, separate from a wall, and that is of a certain size/can play music louder than a smaller portable radio.
Using the Hyundai Elantra metaphor, this would be like advertising it as a "compact sedan"
-"mobile hifi system with powered subwoofer, CD, USB, DAB/FM-tuner and bluetooth audio streaming" is the very dry technical name. this is the modern standard of product description with minimally required cultural context. in 50 years when audio tech has changed significantly the semantics in this definition will be much less contentious than what is and is not a "boombox"
Going back to the Elantra it would be like saying it is a "five seat, four wheel an automobile with a closed body and a closed trunk separated from the part in which the driver and passengers sit"
this is all assuming "boomblaster" is actually not a word that is used to describe boomboxes in which case egg on my face i guess
There exist two kinds of ID3 tags. ID3v1 is probably the only one this thing supports, these are just a set of fixed-length fields at the end of the file (you can easily read them with the naked eye if you open an mp3 in a hex editor and scroll all the way to the end). ID3v2 is a rather complex, extensible data structure at the beginning of the file. It can include arbitrary unicode strings and embedded cover art, among other things. Your files probably only have ID3v2.
I was suspecting the same thing, saw your comment and wanted to also plug that the v1 tags might be supported on both MP3 files for USB *and* CD data w/ MP3's. Might be worth seeing an updated video with MP3 v1 tags tested on both.
glad you addressed this; was gonna comment too
Keep in mind, some software that handles id3v2.3 tags just fine can choke on id3v2.4 tags, which are more common in Apple software, in addition to correctly suggesting trying id3v1 tags. As this device was released in 2019, odds are that if it only supports one sort of ID3 tag, it's id3v2.3, and not id3v1 or id3v2.4. But I'd definitely suggest making a test set of MP3s with each kind. Tag&Rename supports id3v1 and id3v2.3.
Cat had enough of waiting for the bench LOL. 'You done yet?'
Being a teenager in the 1980's I remember the proper Boomboxes. This is the closest I've seen in quite a few years. I remember lugging my 40lbs Boombox on my shoulder and I would hope the batteries would last a couple of hours. It kills me when I look online for one now days and see these cheap dinky things. No audio output, crappy radios and if they have tape decks they sound terrible. I'm glad to see JVC at least trying to revive a bit of the past. I remember back in the 80's and 90's they did make some great sounding units. Matt thanks for keeping the dream alive. I hope designers at some of these companies watch your videos. Maybe they will take the hint.
I bought one of the original JVC Boomblasters when I was 15, which I still have at my parents house, and that thing is a beast and has been with me all over the world.
It had a better shoulder strap than this one, with a nice soft shoulder pad and a pocket to store the remote and carabiners for easily taking it off.
My brother had an older version of this. It had a pouch for the remote on the shoulder strap. It was just as reliant on the remote to access all functions so that isn't new, but it's amazing that they stopped including at least a small piece of fabric for something so important to be stored
i have no reason for thinking this but I'm certain your cat loves listening to you speak.
tech meow
@@HamburgerAmy Clever!
Quite possibly. When I was younger, my family used to have a black lab that loved to lay on the couch next to me while I played guitar. Had a cat for 16 years that would curl up in our laps, close his eyes, and purr when my wife or I would hum along to music.
But he did NOT appreciate whistling. lol He would sit in front of you and meow plaintively, and if you ignored him, it would escalate to pawing, then climbing up in your face. haha I miss that little guy.
Puppets and a cat? Lordy this could be the best episode ever.
It makes me happy to see these are still being made. I always wanted one in the early 2000s but coudln't afford them. Then, in 2014, despite being WAY late to the party (bluetooth speakers were already becoming a thing), I fulfilled my wish and bought a RV-NB75 which has lots of similarities with this one, for example the thick plastics, and the CD lock twisty knob. My model still runs on D-cells and doesn't have DAB or illuminated speakers, but it's party trick is that it mimics a cassette deck, but instead of a cassette you can put a smartphone into the door and play the files stored on there. Also it's got 2 big volume knobs, one for the general volume, and one for the "super woofer".
I got a few ghettoblasters and I’m keeping them ! Been a Bboy my whole life ! Great video
I still have my Magnavox D8443 Boombox from 1983. It’s still in mint condition and still works awesome.
Great video just wanted to say that I have owned that JVC boombox in an older model which had the exact same speaker setup except instead of Bluetooth it had cassette and CD. It sounded fantastic I actually used it in my house for a long time. This is probably 20 years ago
I bought the JVC RV-DP200 in 2003 (almost 2 decades ago). It was the largest and most powerful JVC boomblaster (larger and heavier than that modern one) with lots of cool and weird features (no LED lights around the speakers though, cause it wasn't a thing back then). You can change the speed of the music, add lots of sound effects, connect external sources to it like an electric guitar or something. It has an orange glowing screen (not glowing anymore), flashing indicator LED's that move to the music and show the intensity of the volume too (from green to red), a drum machine! And the bass is still absolutely insane! When the bass volume is on max it can make things literally move in the room, lol. I've used it regularly since i bought it, up to 2017-18 maybe, even 24/7 for long periods, probably ten thousand hours or something. The CD acts a bit strange now though (sometimes). Now i got tons of great boomboxes and stereo units so i don't really need it anymore, but it's still right next to me in the bedroom (the bed is literally surrounded by different era boomboxes on shelves, and that's just the bed. My apartment is like a boombox warehouse now, lol. A maze of huge shelves filled with boomboxes, but other retro items too (about 150 boomboxes i think, mostly 70's/80's but up to 2010-15. I had one other boombox before the JVC (my first real boombox) that i bought in the late 90's and it was pretty cool too but i sold it later unfortunately. One of my newer boomboxes (from 2015 maybe, bought used), well, a bluetooth device actually, but huge and heavy like the JVC, is my Pioneer DJ STZ-D10Z-R. It's beautiful and very powerful. And i got a few really big SHARP boomboxes from the 80's that sound great and take a lot of space, lol. The biggest one is too heavy and wide to carry around (HK-9000), not the biggest boombox ever but pretty close. It's got like a million buttons and a pretty powerful deep bass. I can't post pics so you have to google them. Edit: the Pioneer doesn't have bluetooth so you have to put the source (mobile or mp3 player) inside it. It's got a compartment. Or use the AUX
Did you guys across the pond never get the JVC Kaboom?!? Man that's the spiritual successor! I remember my dad getting a radioshack credit card in the year 1997 and bringing me to buy a brand new stereo and we walked out with a Kaboom! I immediately drained the 8 D cell batteries out in the yard blasting the subwoofer on some Wu-tang Clan. We loved that thing. Could have used that li-on battery! Makes me want to get one of these!
We did, and apparently we still do. "Kaboom!" is the american name for the "Boom Blaster" lineup. I still use one of the earlier ones from around that time (RV-NB1). 10 D cells and a few extra AAs if you want your screen to light up and your settings/time remembered.
In addition to that it not only has an AC but also a 12V DC input which means it's super easy to power with a modern battery bank.
"Where's the Kaboom? There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!"
I'm not sure which side of the pond you are referring to. Yes the U.K. got the Kaboom in various versions. Bizarrely the JVC website showing the versions with a 30 pin iPod dock is still up.
I got the first Kaboom Box in 1999 (RV-B99) and it still works (well, the tape player doesn't).
Master P hit so hard on the those two 6 inch subs on the ends lmao
Your enthusiasm for boomboxes matches my own.
Always enjoy your videos Thanks Craig
Nice to see a half decent unit with good sound, a little clunky on the interface but not bad for what you get. I recently found a Philips AZ8304 in a ditch whilst walking the dog, I shall attempt to repair it and get it working again. it's wing handles reminds me of this a little and I saw it on the catalogue page on the video.
Mat's radio. Believe me, he likes it loud. He's the man with the box that can rock the crowd.
Great video
Not lost on me ,fella... Absolutely class tune.. takes me back to the lino and spray paint 😂
I have a first gen JVC Kaboom. This is the newest version, glad to see its still around.
It doesn't seem to be in the US, and the US version of DAB--HD Radio is very hard to find portables playing it. Just little things by Sangean
Except the plastic today is from bad quality . There is so many things that are lacking on this JVC boomboxes .
WOW love that you tested the bass using a DEAD PREZ cd!!! You truly are one of the coolest retrotech youtubers there is! Glad to have been following you for years. Ever going to give us a tour of your collection room? Or have i missed that one?
that machine is a blast from the past! my brother had one of it's antecedants of very similar design with a tape deck in the centre in the very late 90s! amazing to see essentially the same shape even now!
The "you have to use the remote" thing makes this a 1-star device right off the bat.
It looks like it’s all ran off that typical Frontier Silicon? DAB chip, the worst one too that comes with that really bad ghosting LCD 😢
No. You dont have to and also you can just use a phone as remote
@@L4ftyOne Having to use a phone is /even worse/ than having to use the remote.
@@L4ftyOne Oh god. I would love to set up a demo somewhere of two mostly identical living rooms.
In one, you have an old-skool HiFi, with a tower of CDs, a bin of vinyl, and some pull-out drawers of cassettes. When you want to listen to music, you press Power, load a disc or tape, press Play. There's a dedicated knob or slider for volume, and speakers that aren't trying to convince physics to change its mind. Everything shipped fully complete -- there are no updates to install, ever. It works exactly the same as it did when it was new, until it literally falls apart from use.
In the other, there's a Bluetooth speaker capsule that requires an app to set it up. You'll be given a phone that is four years old. It's up to you to figure out whether you can still use it, or if the OS is too out of date to load the app anymore. There might or might not be an update to either. That might be the end of your demo -- it's totally up to the whims of some third-party company. That's all part of the fun. If you manage to make it work, there's a streaming service that _might_ let you choose the song you want to hear, or might just "build a station" inspired by your request. You'll have to listen to ads between every three songs. You get to skip five times, and then you listen to what they want you to hear. You lost your right to choose. It'll play at 112kbps, because that's enough for anyone -- and on the "woofer" that is half the size of the one in my childhood clock-radio, it probably is.
Would just love to see if "modern convenience" really pans out to be all it's cracked up to be, when you actually get to compare it side-by-side to what we used to have, and have since lost.
its silly because they could have menus using the wheel for all the functions if it had a click button, that function is a bit of a miss from the software side.
It has the aesthetics of a soil pipe.
I absolutely loved the railway station echo effect!
I have a JVC boombox, from the late 90’s and I have the same type of tuner setup, just like you. I brought it before, they put the aux in, on the boombox and no DAB radio.😢 I still use from time to time, now it’s just in my garden shed. 😊
Solid pick with dead prez, good sir! 🔥
Cool! I sold quite some of the large JVC boom boxes 20 years ago. They were then already considered the last of their kind on the market. JVC had a complete different position in the consumer electronics market then, though. They were one of the most important brands. Now, not so much anymore, at least over here. It makes me happy that this product concept survived through all that time. Now that mobile music players/speakers are again very popular, maybe they could have their own little renaissance if marketed a little better.
Over the last few years I have bought a number of vintage radios and ghetto blasters, mostly the ones I remember myself from the 70s and 80s. The early ones were so incredibly heavy and so well made. later 80s ones were a lot lighter and cheaper build. I’m finding that when it comes to using them that nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be and they are usually a disappointment in the sound quality, but never a disappointment from a fun perspective.
What's sad is all the knowledge from back then is long gone. I know there used to be famously good, high quality units that friends would recommend. You'd get the right one and get pretty great sound from it, and pass word on. But now, 30 years on, all that knowhow is lost to the ether.....
@@zh9732 not really. The good ones going back to the 70s are all all pretty well known still. There are plenty of cataloguing websites and discussion forums like Boomboxery for those that are interested. I'd say that if anything, the information's more accessible now as you don't have to be lucky enough to know someone who knows what they're talking about.
@@zh9732
Which is sad . We had great brand that were made in America,Europe,Japan since 1995 to today they are all replaced with "made in china" crap . Rare are the real brands we loved decades ago Technics is still making great stuff but is way too expensive to my taste same goes for other brands that only stay with the "premium" line instead to have a wider range to please everyone's wallet . ( i'm not gonna pay for a new cd-player for 350€ today which is ridiculous )
I've had two JVC Boomblasters over the last 25 years (the first one got stolen, which is why I purchased the second one) both were absolutely amazing! This one has lost the tape player, but has added BT and DAB, honestly seems like a decent trade off.
Who listen to dab radio ? And why is Bluetooth needed ? I would rather have stayed the classic vintage way . They didn't bother to add lights on the buttons when it's dark . The remote control is pointless only to raise the price . Not even a decent equalizer like we had back then . The poorly design , the cheap made in china plastic . Why does everything needs to be black as color ? would rather have silver color .
I remember they made a boomboxes like a camo "military" design it was fun in the 90's.
Glad the muppets have found a good level of integration into the videos. Always appreciated
Much more interesting than the thumbnail implied. Keep up the good work mr tech moan. legend.
Needs a LOUD button but otherwise a solid unit for something modern :)
@22:41 That's some "One Step Beyond" Madness!
Love your peeling plastic off music.
5:45 Epson PX-8 and a Minitel 257 unless I'm mistaken. Very nice! I like my old computers as much as you like your audio gear I think!
My Shazam picked up that Mohawks tune off that few secs. Cheers Mat! What a classic
Beautifully done video.
Edit****I typed this b4 u pulled out the Kaboombox.
U ever have a JVC Kaboombox. My friend had one back when it came out (I think around 98') It was a very good boombox especially for breakdancing outdoors. Maybe check out one of the older ones to compare the sound
They were also great for skate parks, wire up a car battery and it would play full volume or near it the whole day.
It’s Techcat approved, that’s good enough for me!
Certainly be able to piss off a lot of people on a bus with that
Honestly glad the damn thing costs 300 quid with the battery for that reason alone.
there's plenty of affordable BT speakers that can already do that kinda thing, and theyre loud enough to be used in a metal shop/factory.
Just avoid Vulcans!
If you dare to turn this thing on a bus where I live, you can be assured your ass will be kicked off the bus by the bus driver.
Delighted that you've come back.Thank You!!
Anker Soundcore Motion Boom Plus.
*Low cost, loud, huge sound, big bass, great EQ.*
Today's Boombox video: The Moan Family Puppets are back!;)
The lights not reacting to the music is a missed opportunity
Honestly, overly expensive for what it is sadly
It's a shame... You can tell it's a Bluetooth speaker at its core with some other generic devices bolted on.
not being able to change the radio station without the remote for a portable device is a huge missed opportunity
At least they should have let you choose the colour of the static lights, not just blue.
Really appreciated the sexy music when doing the peeling lol!
I have an original JVC RV-B 90 in green colour. Bought in 1999. Still works....but need a bit of attention. Wonderful piece of kit...
It's always a pleasure to hear the joy in Matt's voice when he's reviewing something he genuinely likes.
Ahhh I love the "internet muppets"! Long been missed. I wish you (Techmoan) would be approached by a big company and consulted about a new boom box - show 'em how to get it right. So many missed opportunities with this one (reactive LED, USB File Formats, CD Text, some chrome or gawdy silver plastic) they're all a no brainer in a modern boom box.
love the end cat came over to say hi
Yeah, the muppet dolls are back!
I grew up with a JVC Kaboom Box that my dad for for me as a pre-teen for a birthday. I kept it until I was 27 and it still worked fine. We tested every similar-style option at Best Buy back when you could do such things and it sounded best, beating out those other all-in-one systems with disconnecting speakers. Now I use high-end studio monitors and some Linkwitz Lab LX Studios that I built from Siegfried Linkwitz’s amazing designs, but that thing and car audio (my dad had an automotive 8-track and a few boxes of tapes for it that he mounted in my Powerwheels for me) got me into audio as a kid.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's happy to see your puppetry again. I always love knowing about people's other passions.
Dig out the lino, the fila tracksuit and any pair of retro Adidas trainers 😂😂
Ooohhh! The muppets made a short appearance! Happy days indeed! :) :) :)
I'm sure it's already been mentioned, but I'm surprised you didn't compare this to the old JVC RV-B90GY from the late 90s early 2000s. Very similar looking devices. Even has the same opening mechanism for the CD/Tape.
Thanks for the throwback product recap. I had two (2) TDK TP6803BLK that I loved (both were the 3 speaker version) that were available around 2012-ish. It was a high shelf, hi-fi, hi-po, solid state, mosfet, system that not only looked as great as an B&O product but produced orgasmic sound that was tight, deep, and felt like a tight hug! Sadly, it is an obsolete product and had severely limited inputs (no CDs, no BT, no remote), just am/fm, mono Aux, or USB 2.0. A few well-used units can be found on ebay, but are asking prices too close to when new. Ah well.
Price checking from a period Argos catalogue!! Absolutely spot on 😎
Great video
Matthew, you should have your cat on screen more, even if it shows contempt being in your presence, that's why cats are entertaining.
I think it was only here looking for mice - in the next take I presented the information clearer - but the cat had already left so I ended up using the version with the cat because it added a bit of interest to the shot. .
@@Techmoanhi there could you possibly do a review and demo of your washing machine if possible i love washing machines i have Austim sorry ir can't
@@Fishyman543Perhaps Technology Connections covered that. Not sure if he did, but he covered just about everything else so the chances are better than average :)
He has done a number of videos on dishwashers. Not the same, I know, but I found them very interesting.
And his video on toasters is a must-see.
Perhaps you find something new of interest on his channel!
13:51 a man of fine hip hop culture right there. ♥
[edit] 16 people like eating fresh fruits and vegetables while learning how to get a doctorates degree in dismantling the colonial white man's system of oppression
17 now.
It was the best the Colonial White Men could do at the time. Give 'em a break! :)
@@johnalexander7490 give the album a listen sometime, you'll understand the joke I made way better.
it's a great album as a whole
Welp, curse you, Techmoan. You've succeeded in making me feel young - in that boomboxes are awesome; and simultaneously old - in that if someone younger than me fired up this device while we were both trapped in a train car, I'd want to throw it (and possibly the owner) under the third rail.
Glad I found your channel. I was about to buy a Philips Bumbox but your review made me rethink that move. I recently found and got a Sanyo MCD like the one I had when I was in high school so my collector side has activated.
A friend of mine built his own boombox in the 80's from an old tube type vacuum cleaner, a car stereo and a motorcycle battery, but the last I heard from him he converted an old JVC (that did no longer run from mains) from D-cells to LiPo batterys and a mains charger so now he has his dream boombox but with great battery time and possibility to have it mains-connected
I would have bought the JVC boombox in an heartbeat, just I can't stand the look of it. From so many different classical design, JVC went for a post industrial design? Who buys such things? I believe it to be an autochthonous Chinese design, i.e. no-one spent one penny on the design of this boombox.
Imagine if JVC pulled out a replica of their old design, I believe they would cost around one thousand pounds, and include CD/DVD (one DVD store 4.7 GB of music), dual tape, 4-band radios plus DAB, audio equaliser, dual three-way speakers, light show, and more. Hi-Fi has always been expensive, and has never come down in price.
Thank you for this video, you made me happy.
Anthony
I forgot to add that, in the '80s, the Japanese made all sorts of good boomboxes, with the exception of Matsushita with their Technics brand, which betrayed all Hi-Fi enthusiasts with attractive looks but a very poor choice of components and materials...
I find the lights tacky. With them off it's not a design that doesn't fit together well. With them on they just annoy me.
31:20 This cat is cute
The Amazon Basics boombox isn't a boombox, it's a disgrace.
Amazon has become a disgrace.
Interesting review, Matt. I bought one of these two years ago when the daughter asked for a boombox for Christmas. After I bored her to death with the definition of “boombox” I started my research when I was sure that we understood each other. This is about the only thing on the market that I think fits the definition. Yes it’s got all those irritating niggles, but go find better. And with it being a JVC it has lineage that you can see carried through from previous models. There is an older model, in that style, with a tape player (unless I dreamt it).
Price wise it does seem expensive until you look at its near priced alternatives that I agree, you can’t call a boombox.
I was looking for a retro 80s GHETTOBLASTER^^ for a while now, 6 min into the video I think, wait a minute I could look if my old "modern" one from 2004/2005 in the attic still works. After 30 secs I found it, and it's a JVC RV-NB1 and it still works like a dream. So thank you in a way, now back to the video :D So after a litte bit of testing I must say pretty impressive the 52 watts of the JVC are almost as potent as my cheap logitech 400 watts 2.1 pc system.
After watching the video I must say I'm pretty happy with my old model, sure it doesn't has the digital radio and bluetooth capabilities and no speaker lights but a tape deck, full controls without the remote and also looks a lot sturdier.