The struggle to play Philips' giant cassette

I want to show you a type of Philips music cassette you most likely haven’t seen before. I was very fortunate to get one…but it turned out that was the easy part. Getting its 1970s player to work took a lot more effort.

00:00 Backstory
03:14 The player
06:40 Giving it a go
09:29 Inside the cassette
11:30 Inside the machine
12:45 The Repair starts
20:18 A look at the older machine
23:27 Back to the repair
27:15 The result
27:55 Summary
32:23 Groovy credits

UPDATES
1) Turns out that this system was known as Philips 'Functional Music' - What a fun name.
2) The symbol on the back showing a box with an arrow is the sign for ‘Remote’ not ‘Output’.
3) The tape speed is 1 7/8ips
4) If playback of the tape reels is attempted on a R2R machine only two of the tracks like up with the heads on a 1/4 track machine

FAQ
Q) What's that desoldering gun?

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More FAQs
Q) Why are there comments from a week ago when this video has just gone live today?

Special thanks to Mikkel for spotting the machine with the tape for sale in Denmark and going to all the trouble to send it over to me. It's greatly appreciated, thanks old chap.

[alloria]

I would love to see some of these devices and obscure formats in person. I really wish that Techmoan would open a museum. Would anybody else visit a Techmoan Museum?

[seamusoblainn]

There's something magical about the numerous phyla, orders, and families of old tech from the whole swathe of the 20th century, as they they emerged, mutated, and (often) went extinct.

[MartinPivka]

The low volume level is most probably not caused by components but mismatch with output of the unit and the speakers you connected. It's meant to work with 100V speaker system used in large installations, where you can run many speakers over long distances, e.g. in a shopping mall. This require a transformer in the speaker to match the impedance and levels.

[ZGryphon]

Giant cassettes are the extinct charismatic megafauna of the electronics world.

[JamesOKeefe-US]

The number of times I just go "wow, that's a pain" when Mat is going through this is amazing. Thank you for your patience :)

[MatthewBaggett]

"I just set it really high"
> 420°C
Nice.

[MikeSmith-shko]

Amazing well done Techmoan.
I think the output to the speakers in 100v if selected, line level .
Common with pa speakers and would need a transformer to couple with the speaker . This will enable no voltage loss and little noise pick up .
Also you could series up separate speakers in the system each one having a transformer on the speaker connected👍

[Gulleization]

I am happy to see the machine from Denmark found it’s way to you Mat. I saw it on sale and would have bought it as I thought of Techmoan right away, but of course it was all ready sold when I got around to bid on it myself.
Thanks for great content!

[joshuarosen]

What you needed to undo that screw at 15:03 was a right-angled screwdriver - preferably one with a small ratchet.

[speedyink]

You know I've heard a lot of good things about those desoldering setups but I think this is the first time I've seen it actually used. That looks so slick!

[phrtao]

What a wonderful sense of achievement, it really cheered me up to hear that machine working after following your repairs

[RabbitEarsCh]

Still amazed how as soon as you put some obscure piece of music up on youtube licensors come out of the woodwork. There's this Japanese record that's been out of print for over 20 years and routinely goes for over ¥10000 on yahoo auctions, and yet a video of it up on youtube got content matched almost immediately. You'd think if they cared so much to take this stuff down they'd care enough to distribute the stuff somehow, like Seeburg eventually did.

[SEVE_P]

Just when I thought there was no way Mat would find anything retro new to show us, along comes a video about a giant Phillips cassette.

[atom_zero]

When the sound came out of the speakers I involuntarily smiled. Amazing video I love these

[kennethgroves]

your videos are really good! Thank you.

[cheekychappy]

That was such a fascinating journey. Thanks for persevering to the end! This video was 30 minutes that just skipped by without me noticing.

[silmarian]

This is my Saturday morning comfort viewing while I boot up and drink my coffee. Thank you for making my mornings better!

[ARTofTY-TV]

You've been getting quite good at these repairs! Also, thanks for the end song, really a lovely retro tune.

[jreese]

What a great job! My husband is a repair tech...we were both fascinated. Good on you for sticking with it to the end!

[vwlssnvwls]

You are a super hero for all technology! You are preserving pieces of technological history. Thank you for another great video.
My mind always imagines the times when this was used, and people of those times. It's like looking at old photos, except with our ears.