techmoan

Bose® Wave® - good buy?

Amongst the things you could always count on - there was death, taxes and a Bose® Wave® advert in the back of your Sunday magazine.

However while death might edge ever closer and taxes ever higher, the Bose® like so many other tech perennials, quietly waved® its final farewell a few years ago. If like myself you haven’t leafed through a Sunday supplement for a many a year, this shocking news might well have passed you by.

But now that the Wave has gone, I miss it and I have to wonder was it actually any good? Or was it, as so many claim, overpriced junk sold to people with too much money who didn’t know any better. Seems like it’s time for an overlong video examination of the final model.

https://youtu.be/7hQWYaGEx_E

This video took a few days longer than I’d anticipated to assemble and I’m not sure there’s really enough of an audience for it to make all the extra time spent on this worthwhile. Irregardless, I’m just happy to have finally tried a Bose® Wave® after all these years, better late than never I suppose.

Have a great week.

AUDIO Oddcast August 2024

This month’s video oddcast without the video.

If you prefer the video - you'll find it in the next post.

VIDEO Oddcast August 2024

Not too much has happened this month - so here’s an hour-long video all about it.

https://youtu.be/AX6MjjgMATo

There’s also an audio-only version of this available under a separate post.

Links to things mentioned...

Kanto Syd at Crutchfield.

YT Pop Video I inadvertently contributed to.

EDIT - shaved a few seconds of my alternative pronunciations of the company name Nikon from the section where I was talking about how it’s odd to expect pronunciations to be uniform globally. Perhaps rather ironically my message of harmony somehow didn’t translate with these in place.

This is a Cartrette

Thanks to the eagle eye of a patron I’m taking a look at an audio tape cartridge you’ve likely never seen before, I certainly hadn’t. It’s a neat little format…albeit one that now suffers from a few age related issues.

Thanks to Alucard for spotting this one and for taking the time to send it over.

The personal air-con I showed last week helped me to finish this one. Things got very hot in the studio for the last day of shooting so it was ten minutes of full blast neck-con, followed by five minutes of trying to get a section recorded to camera until my head eventually overheated and then back to the neck-con again. As an air cooler it's definitely not a patch on any of my car’s air-con systems but it did enable me to get this video finished, so it has its uses.

Hope you’re all well, take care and enjoy the rest of your week.

UPDATE

I’ve added a couple of on-screen annotations and as well as thirty seconds of additional information on the Cartrette at approx. five minutes into the video.

The updated video is the one now embedded above and linked to below.

https://youtu.be/OefACe8g-Sc

Cool New Tech

My favourite gadget of August 2024 (so far) - Personal Air Conditioning.

A quick video about a surprisingly effective device.

https://youtu.be/6kw4B-8ez1M

Enjoy the rest of the week. Take care.

Audiophoolery III (?)

Remember my CD Shaver video about a device designed to separate the obsessive audiophile from their money. That video amassed 1.7 million views so naturally this seemed like a product category that might warrant another video. I moved on to take a look at a CD Demagnetiser. That video has 488K views. Clearly a significant drop off, but also entirely understandable, as after the first video you know exactly what’s coming.  “Here’s an item that seems like it will do nothing, let’s test it, yes it does nothing…don’t forget to like and subscribe.”

While making the demagnetiser video I acquired a third audiophile accessory, but I felt the audience wouldn’t be interested in another very similar video quite so soon, so I stored it away.

I think enough time has now elapsed since that last video to warrant having a look at this device that fires negative ions at a CD(?!)

https://youtu.be/3MQCkny4GJc

You’ll notice we’ve reached the end of the week again. I was hoping to get ahead, but that wasn’t to be. Oppressive heat in the house was a big factor, I could barely record anything worthwhile in the afternoons all week.

 I’ve decided I’m going to only release this video on Patreon for a week while I try and build up more of a buffer between the Patreon videos and the public ones.

Hope you’re all well - take it easy and have a good week/end.

UPDATE: A couple of tiny nips/tucks - added a blur transition and reduced a volume level.

The last Boomboxes

 ‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’.

This Ferris Bueller quote comes to mind whenever I discover that tech I've taken for granted has vanished while I wasn't paying attention. This was very nearly the case when I went shopping for a proper CD Radio Boombox. Yes there are loads of devices calling themselves Boomboxes but only in the same way I could call myself a 100 metre runner.

However when it came to finding what I consider to be a true Boombox, this turns out to be a device on the edge of extinction. Fortunately, I was just in time to capture this rare example of an endangered species on camera shortly before it is consigned to the museum of bygone tech.   

https://youtu.be/vwCP6I--jgs

Everything and anything that could delay this one did - health, weather, the cat, plumbing, (not mine this time),  perhaps things I'll talk about another day, but it got there in the end.

Special thanks to Simon and his assistant Generative Phil ;-) for helping out with the thumbnail… I’ve made a note to talk a little more on this in the next update in a few weeks.

Oh and as usual I’ll be keeping an eye out for music content matches on this one - I’ve been careful with the clip length, but if any do subsequently pop up, I’ll re-edit and re-upload, so please don’t be concerned if the video vanishes for a while…it will return, slightly shorter.

I do feel that I might need to start making a few shorter snappier videos - last week’s ITIC2 was the biggest flop in memory and I’m pretty sure this video won’t have mass appeal. Hopefully the thumbnail helps its chances a bit.

Take care and thanks for all the help and support. Have a good one.

Interesting Things In Cases #2

It’s well over a year since I kicked off my ‘Interesting Things In Cases’ series - so it seems it’s high time I made a second episode.

https://youtu.be/QyVr9pMjZ1M

This was the first time I’ve got to use a machine like this. I have been curious as to how they operated and it turns out to be more complicated and clever than I’d imagined.

You might have noticed that the current title and thumbnail are the polar opposite of click-bait.  I have intentions to keep things this way as an experiment to see what effect a cryptic video title combined with an uninviting thumbnail has on viewing figures. What could go wrong?

In the morning after a strong coffee or two,  I hope to get right on to working on my next video.

I hope you’re all well, take care and enjoy the rest of your week.

Update: Snipped a second of a tape being played as it was mentioned in the comments that it was “Bad timing for the Dead Prez reference.”  Now the reason I used that tape is because it was the one on the top of the pile next to me as I often use the Dead Prez track ‘Hip Hop’ as a bass test.  I’m unaware of any recently deceased Presidents of any country - but I suppose there are plenty of ex Presidents around the world who aren’t getting any younger so it might end up being seen as inappropriate if any of those passed away on the same day a video about a cassette recorder goes live. Since I’d already moved the case and its contents to my locker I didn’t have any other footage of a music tape being played over the speaker I could use - so I just snipped off the first second where the artist name is more visible.

July 2024 Patreon Exclusive Oddcast

Here’s my July 2024 Patreon update. I haven’t uploaded an audio-only version this time as a good proportion of this one is reliant on the accompanying visuals.

It’s a long one so be sure to utilise the chapters if you want to skip a section.

https://youtu.be/szQUaVPtwyI

Oh and I feel I should mention that while I enjoyed my recent short break, I don’t intend  to promote cruises. I'm really not a fan of the industry and I don’t plan on going on more cruises for numerous reasons, but I'm not the only person in the household - so we'll see. Regardless, here’s the finished shortened video I made about a cabin with an unusually large balcony.

An eye on Monoculars (UPDATED)

The subject matter of this video will be familiar to anyone who saw the last Patreon update.

Since then though I’ve been on, and returned from, a seven night Norwegian fjord cruise on which I got to test the effectiveness (or otherwise) of these and I can now report back with my findings.

https://youtu.be/MJoOLWwpKws

I don’t know if this will end up being the final thumbnail - but it’ll do for the moment.

Now that I’ve managed to get this new video completed, I’m going to set about answering the emails and messages which accumulated while I was away. I’ll also start assembling the contents of the next Patreon update video. Which I suspect will be largely holiday related, but there’s other things to talk about too.

I hope you’re faring well - I know from the comments some people have been going though some unpleasant stuff, so for them, I hope things improve, hang in there and for everyone else, I hope you take time to enjoy the moment.

Oh, and I haven't had time to update the Patreon credits this week - I'll get to that on the next video.

Right that’s it - it’s back to work for me. Take care.

UPDATE: 11th July - the Nikon Monocular I ordered from Japan just turned up in time to add in an extra minute featuring it at the end of the video. 

The updated video is the one now embedded and linked to above. 

Candy TV - a wedge of failure

I wanted to get one last video out before my break so as not to have a two week gap - and here it is.

A quick look at an unusual looking portable rechargeable digital TV, DAB radio and media player. A mostly pointless device in the age of smart devices with wireless data, however this one is almost unusable anyway.

https://youtu.be/oV3APh3gkA8

Right that’s it - computer off, see you in a couple of weeks. Take care.

Karatastrophie

You may recall that I was struggling to get a video finished - well finally here it is. My issue wasn’t with trying to assemble a brilliant, complicated video, it was more trying to salvage something (anything) from bad luck and bad ideas.

If you enjoy disappointment, combined with mediocrity, this should be right up your street. Anyone else might be best off doing a swift U-Turn.

https://youtu.be/-UJFO3pRTPM

There’s not much more to add this time, other than it’s likely it will be a couple of weeks before my next video is ready. Then again I might be able to record, edit and upload a very simple one I have planned before I take a short holiday, we’ll see.

I hope you’re all doing well, take care.

Sharp's Back-to-Back Boombox mixtape madness

Compared to the shambles of my incomplete yet still pending video,  this one was a breeze to put together. Everything just seemed to fall into place, including the weather.

A bit of behind the scenes info - this is the only video I’ve shot entirely with a DJI Pocket 3. This was used because it’s easy to carry around and yet still has a wireless mic. You might also spot one of its face tracking shots used in here.  I recorded most of this one away from the house to mix things up a bit, that and the fact my studio table and cameras were set up to shoot the other video. I think it worked out well. I couldn’t shoot every video this way, but it made sense to do this for a portable stereo.

https://youtu.be/mUKtAa31Lm0

Hope you enjoy the video.  Have a good weekend, take care… but please be sure to read the rest of this if your name has inexplicably vanished from the end credits.

...

I’ve taken a crack at getting the end credits name list bang up to date. It’s very possible though there may be some names erroneously missing now due to the less than stellar way Patreon presents this data.

If you are signed up to the appropriate tier to have your name listed but your name doesn’t appear on this particular video - please let me know in the comments here on Patreon - or send me a message if you prefer, and I’ll fix it in the next video and hopefully trace the error back to avoid this happening again. I apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused.

British male apologises for the delay

…and any inconvenience it may cause.

Just a quick note to let you know that the video I was planning to have ready by now didn’t work out. That’s the nature of weird old tech - sometimes it lets you down.  Then my idea to incorporate the footage I’d shot into another video also hit a snag when that thing turned out to be useless too. While I wait for a delivery of a third thing which might let me finally put a cap on this shambles I’ve moved on to making a quick simple video which should hopefully be ready before the end of the week.

In other news after a couple more intrusive medical appointments it turns out I probably don’t have prostrate cancer - so that’s something. My elevated PSA readings could be down to an infection but I’ll only find out after a month of antibiotics. I celebrated in the only way I know - by buying myself a refurbished iPad Mini.

For now it’s back to work as normal - thanks for your patience and understanding.   

Take care.

Tefifon - in Stereo

In this video I’m finally going to play a Stereo Tefi cart - and you’ll get to hear it too (with a few caveats).  A repair, a demo, some trivia and a bit of music, enjoy.

Here's the video: https://youtu.be/nKGY0_xC3co

In other news  I might find more out about my potential medical stuff next week, but if I have anything worth saying I’ll save it this the oddcast update videos.

There’s nothing else I have to add this time - it’s been a rather non-eventful week. So I hope you’re well, take care and thanks as always for the support.

Oh and of course thanks again to Markus for making this video possible.

UPDATE

I’ve uploaded a new version of the video with additional appearances from Overlay Mat stating the obvious in a soon to be proved futile attempt to prevent unnecessary confusion.

UPDATE 2

A couple more tiny nips and tucks.

Tefi - Band in the UK

Very occasionally a video I make will have a positive impact beyond just providing a few minutes of ‘entertainment’. The Tefifon video(s) are an example. Today things come full circle as I get to share information as well as demonstrate a rare Tefi accessory provided to me by a chap called Markus.  Markus wasn’t aware of the Tefifon before watching my video featuring it - but in the years since he has become an expert on the topic. This video wouldn’t be possible without him.

https://youtu.be/fpamZczQOTU

Markus is a Patron as well, so he might be reading this. So thanks again to him. The video only just skims some of the information he shared, but that’s the nature of compressing something into a YouTube presentation. Hopefully he’ll write the definitive Tefi book one day.

Take care and have a good remainder of the week.

UPDATE: Swapped an image to the correct model of Tefi for 1950 and did a couple of other minor nips and tucks including a new thumbnail.

Oddcast May 2024

It’s been a week of enforced commitments to anything and everything besides making videos. So on a sunny Friday afternoon I took the opportunity to go for a walk and record a video just for Patrons about what’s been going on this month.

https://youtu.be/yMgHURpORX8

It’s a bit earlier than usual, however there’s still a few things to talk about (hopefully one of them is a non-event).

If you’re watching this, it means I’ll finally have been able to move on to shooting my next video in a very stuffy studio/back-bedroom. Take care.

SONY VT-M5 - Beautifully Obsolete

A classic 1970s Sony Hi-Fi component which unfortunately is more useless than most, yet no less attractive for it.

https://youtu.be/p5-Kv3OMvhc

A bit of behind the scenes. I tend to use two main techniques to make my videos. One of these uses live commentary which results in longer more freeform videos that can sometimes be quicker to shoot but often need a lot of careful editing to rescue. These ones haven’t been doing too well recently and my abilities to think off the cuff seem to have dulled in recent years.

 The second method produces denser shorter videos with barely a second wasted. These take longer to shoot and have a retrospective voiceover but as I get time to consider my words I can be more efficient with them.

This video is one of the latter and I feel that I should perhaps aim to make more videos using this method. They might also appeal more to the modern attention span. We’ll see.

I hope you enjoy the video - take care and enjoy your week.

Woojer? Wooj-nah!

A short video this week - but it’s more than enough time to cover this simple gadget I’ve been testing…The Woojer.

https://youtu.be/ALQ8DbcMuiY

For one reason and another I’ve had limited days available for making videos this week. The ideal opportunity then to shoot something quick and easy - but unfortunately not necessarily good.

It’s a Bank Holiday Monday tomorrow, which means it'll be raining and I'll be stuck in the house with the Mrs who will be going stir crazy and finding countless unpleasant jobs that need doing.

I should be able to get back to making ‘content’ on Tuesday, but I’ll be breaking off for an hour to watch the Apple iPad event. The Mrs is due a new iPad as her ancient one has a cracked screen. It could end up being an expensive afternoon.

As for the videos I think I should return to a familiar retro device next time as the new stuff invariably proves to be disappointing.

Take care and enjoy your week.

Beltin’ - Fixing the S2 Walkman

In this conclusion to the award winning and critically acclaimed Sports Walkman video trilogy - I attempt to repair my WM-FS555 S2 personal stereo cassette player. An edge of your seat thriller you won’t want to miss.

https://youtu.be/aLJNNHWEInw

Incidentally, the word Beltin’ seems peculiar to my part of the UK. It's used as a synonym for an enthusiastic ‘good’. As in ‘I had meat pie and chips for tea, it was beltin’.  However on this occasion it might also refer to the fix for this Walkman...as in, 'it needed a new...'

Take care and enjoy whatever remains of your weekend.

UPDATE: Shortened the video by a minute by taking out an unpopular scuff removal section. The updated video is the one embedded and linked to above.

It’s the April ‘24 Oddcast Audio Edition

It’s mostly a recap this time.

Unfortunately the audio level is too hot throughout the majority of this one. I was trying a recording setup I haven’t used together before. It was only once I’d finished that I discovered that both the mics and receiver had separate gain settings.

Enjoy(?).

The video version of this is available in a separate post.

Oh and if the thumbnail is a muppet I have no idea why this is. Sometimes it shows as me in a visor and other times it's the dad puppet and I really don't know where it got this pic from.

It’s the April ‘24 Oddcast.

It’s mostly a recap this time, but with added scenery.

https://youtu.be/29JWLCX7mgY

Unfortunately the audio level is too hot throughout the majority of the video. I was trying a camera and mic combo I haven’t used together before. It was only once I’d finished that I discovered that both the mics and receiver had separate gain settings.

Enjoy(?).

An audio version of this is available in a separate post.

Sony S2  - The oft-overlooked 2000s audio sports portable redux

Do you remember the Sony Sports S2 range from the early to mid 2000s? I'm not sure I do.

It’s odd how such a wide range of products completely passed me by at the time. I have to assume that most, if not all of these were never sold in the UK. Either that or it was my aversion to anything categorised as sports that made me look in the other direction.

I suspect the S2 were likely the last time the Sony Walkman range featured models capable of playing all the popular analog and digital portable music formats.

https://youtu.be/zauEXTdKtUc

I need to work on the thumbnail, title and description - these are placeholders. I'm also likely to take another pass at the edit, but I thought I'd put this one out on Patreon on Sunday rather than delaying things any more.

In other news I did shoot a Patreon update, but I didn’t like it - it needed more energy, so I’ll try again in a couple of days. I’m thinking it might help if I record some of the segments outdoors. At least then there will be some scenery to liven things up but this very much depends on the weather though, so we’ll see.

In the meantime take care and have a good week.

UPDATE: I managed to shave three minutes off the video which hopefully makes it flow smoother, or at least feel quicker. It could probably do with another 23:29 taking out, then it would really fly by.
The new shorter version is the one embedded and linked to above.

Dirt yellow

A lightweight video prompted by a slew of confidently incorrect corrections.

Shooting this one got me out of the house, which offers a welcome change of scenery for the viewer so it’s not a complete waste of time.

https://youtu.be/HXRrINa-Z9g

I think it might be time to assemble another Oddcast video, so look for that coming soon for Patrons only.

Have a good week and take care of yourself.

UPDATE 1 - After watching it again today while listening through headphones, I realised a few of the volume levels were a bit peaky, so I’ve done a quick re-levelling and re-upload. The updated version is embedded and linked above. Of course the original email is still linking to the earlier version on YouTube so I’ve left that one up, but paused the ability to post comments under it.

UPDATE 2 - Swapped out a couple of confusing/inaccurate overlays and re-uploaded a new version.

UPDATE 3 - OK now surely this is the final edit. It turned out that the (perished) rubber-plugged hole at the bottom isn’t a DC power jack or a speed pot, it’s an air pressure release valve. Thanks for the confirmation Steve. Appropriate on-screen overlay added and video re-uploaded…again.

Finally - the Wheel 2

In this video I finally get to take a look at the Wheel 2 record player from Miniot.

https://youtu.be/pQfWRvsDu8I

This was the experience that put an end to me backing any more Kickstarter campaigns.

I’d initially thought that backing some of the more promising looking products would enable me to make videos about them when they arrived.  Since all the main tech companies had moved into making either phones or nothing, it seems a good idea.

However after a number of experiences where the things either never turned up, or were irrelevant and poor quality when they did, I had to knock the idea on the head.

That said, Kickstarter now is nothing like it was back in 2017. It’s no longer small teams trying to fund a start-up and make something unique, it’s mostly just a store front for pre-ordering low-quality, ready-to-go products from established businesses based in China. It’s funny how I can even get nostalgic about the good-old bad-old days of Kickstarter.

Anyway this is the video I’ve been working on non-stop since the last one. I hope you like seeing the Wheel 2 - it’s far cheaper to watch a video demonstration than it is to buy one.

While you’re here, if you notice your name is missing from the credits and it should be shown, please let me know.  I’ve just updated the credits and I’m pretty sure I’m not getting all the data from Patreon.

Take care and enjoy your week.

Update

The section where I mention the non replaceable cartridge, generated questions about replacing the stylus. Therefore I’ve gone back and added in a longer explanation of what can and can’t be swapped out.  The updated video is now the one embedded and linked to above.

UPDATE 2 - Swapped around a scene to avoid a continuity error. The new version is the one linked to and embedded above.

HDMI via a Cat6 cable works surprisingly well

It’s unfortunately become quite a rare occurrence where I’m impressed by a new device. Bucking the trend though, this week I bought something inexpensive to do a simple job, on the off chance that it could work… and it ended up working out so well that I just had to make a video about it.

https://youtu.be/ZP5XuKK9jNg

This was not intended to be the only video video I'd have put out by now, unfortunately external events have conspired to make it that way. A long bank holiday weekend resulting in various family commitments combined with some hospital visits, have deprived me of quite a few of my usual working days. Fortunately things are now returning back to normal. In addition, a (very) long awaited and (hopefully) interesting device has just arrived so I plan to move straight on to making a video about this.

I hope you’re doing well. Thank you for your support and your help, have a good week and take care.

UPDATE: Spent the evening editing out any use of the word Ethernet.  The updated version of the video is embedded and linked to above.

Sony’s Deadphones

The answer to my present day AV needs, lie only in Sony’s past.

In this video I share my surround sound headphone saga. All 9.1 channels of it.

https://youtu.be/unfJahrvtuU

This has really been one of those weeks. I suspect I might be the subject of a hidden camera show that's seeing how much nonsense one person can take on. I therefore feel it’s for the best if I just keep this post brief, simple and to the point.

So I hope you enjoy the video and I trust you’re doing well - take care and have a good one.

4K Virtual Pinsanity

Better late than never here’s a video about AtGames 4K virtual pinball table. After a mammoth shoot and a bum-numbing, multi-day and night editing job, I think this one is just about ready to share with you, so here’s a link:

https://youtu.be/Aqo3kug8pPg

This video was almost all shot on a DJI Pocket 3 due to its 4K60 abilities - something my usual cameras can’t match. Since the pinball table displays at 60 FPS it only seemed right to try and show it accurately.

I’ve noticed a few minor technical issues but overall I think the camera did a decent job. Its wide angle lens and lack of overheating were additional benefits.

All I have to do now is figure out how to arrange to get this coffin-sized lump taken out of my garage, but first I’m going to take a day off because I’m currently seeing pinball whenever I close my eyes.

Have a good week and take care.

UPDATED: Tweaked some volume levels, added new explanatory overlays in a few places, adjusted a couple of crops and edit points…but most importantly, I’ve added in the plastic film peeling music following a public outcry, street riots and a strongly worded letter writing campaign. This updated video is the one now embedded and linked to above.

Apologies, nothing to show...yet.

Just a update to say that the next video will take me a few more days to finish.

I started the week by recording a retro product review, but that  needed to be put on hold while waiting for a replacement  to arrive from Japan.

Then mid-week a new item I'd been waiting for finally turned up. So I started making a video with this, however there’s a few days more work to do on this one yet.

If you’ve really got nothing at all to watch, ‘Skip Intro’ tells me he has just uploaded a capture of a VHD of ‘Movies Vol 4’ from July 1987 - and that can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/jPuhUN29TNM

He tells me there are  some glitches where brief sections get repeated due to a jumping stylus…but apparently he didn't have time to go back and fix this in the edit as he was concentrating on finishing some other projects. 

Sony's 360º cassette player from 1982

One final video at the end of the week, featuring everyone’s favourite pastime.

https://youtu.be/tfXnOHewsDo

Have a good week/end. Take care.