Auto-Reverse: The Hard Way 

*A Couple of updates* (If a comment about auto-reverse has gone unanswered - it's probably already covered off here) If you want to see one of the Philips plastic chute machines in action, here it is ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rjXEiY8677w.htmlm53s and it's not half as exciting to watch as you may have imagined. Here's the Nakamichi mechanism in action. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5mEQGmyDhiY.htmlm43s Also a dozen or so people have asked me to mention that amongst the other auto-reverse mechanisms not shown in the video, you can use four track heads so the tape can be played in either direction, this is commonly seen in small *players* like Walkman (Walkmen?) and car stereos. It is rarely seen in *recorders*. The machine featured in this video is a *recorder*.

If it has O-Matic in the name you know it's going to be awesome.

The mechanical sound is even more impressive. Loved this.

Watching it work in slow-motion makes me think about all the things that can go wrong (but fortunately don't). It's remarkable how well preserved this deck is.

My favourite is still the Nakamichi, mostly due to how much it puts the mechanism on display without turning it into a gimmick. With the Akai it's just hidden away inside the cabinet, and with the Philips it seems more like a carnival trick, but with the Nakamichi it's pretty clear that they're putting some respect into displaying their work without compromising the aesthetic design.

Oh wow! I thought that Phillips was convoluted, but this is spectacular! I could stare at the shot at 05:07 for hours.

Thank soooo very much for this Video. My dad and I used to sell second hand home audio back in 80's and 90's and we used to service and fix Tape decks, amps, turn tables and all but, my Father was an EXCELLENT mechanical engineer when it came to re-synchronizing these types of Mechs, something only a watch maker could understand nowadays but, those days have passed and, so has my Father. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for ALL the videos you upload, they bring back fond memories of my Father.

That is some wallace and gromit tech right there.

Japan's product never make me disappointed.

In the early 70s, I worked as a technician for an audio service shop. We were an Akai aurhorized service center, so we often got those in for repair. We nicknamed them "toasters."

I've admired this channel and the production values for quite a while. I'm still discovering videos that were posted years ago. This one is just terrific. It started out as a normal 'Techmoan' quality, which is very high. Then it ran into a montage of close up macro shots showing toothed tracks and gear wheels, belts, servos, actuators, lifting fingers, micro motors. Just wonderful. The smooth shadow and glare free lighting on these shots is astounding. Very difficult to get the tight camera focus and flat, perfectly white balanced soft lighting. Excellent work. Thanks for posting. I hope your skill set makes you a good living and you have little to worry about. Wish you well.

Thank you very much for giving such a great detailed insight into these very old but incredibly engineered machines. I was just simply not aware of this kind of autoreverse at all. It's very impressive.

Ah Nakamichi now there’s a name I’d forgotten about. I got quite excited about owning one as they were considered the gold standard of tape players. It didn’t auto- reverse but had chrome and metal settings. A quality cassette player. Thanks for the video, champion.🇦🇺

Love the "2001 A Tape Oddity" section complete with Strauss.

The more I look at this, the more amazed I am at how this entire machine runs without any computer assistance. You can tell there was a ridiculous amount of thought put into this.

Thanks for posting the video- especially the slow motion of the auto reverse mechanism in use. I never saw the Akai in US stores but the influence on the cassette holder in the Nakamichi RX model rack mounting adaptation is evident. The Philips chute design reminds me of factory production line mechanisms. I especially enjoyed the music used for the cassette rotation sequence as 2001 is one of my favorite movies.

That is an unforgettable classic you’ve got there

As an engineer, that is very satisfying.

Akai: Founded: 1929, Tokyo, Japan Of course it's Japan. Who else would make robots in 1972?

Dear Techmoan! Thank you for that, not seen it before, but what a joy!! I built my business (now over 40 years...) on electro-mechanical design & fabrication, I am still immersed in it now. Though modern electronics, etc. clearly have their place now, I get so incredibly bored stiff at, in particular, everything having to be controlled from a general purpose (mind-numbingly boring and quick to crash) Tablet, or whatever... Give me proper switches, knobs and dials ANY DAY! I have collected all sorts of stuff over the years, much like yourself, including the first (Philips) portable Cassette Player, which my dad bought me for Chrismas when I was about 9. I stripped it down within 24hrs of getting it and still like taking all the old stuff apart again, even now! And what about that SMELL!! - Transistors, Capacitors, Motors, Blah, blah. Thank you again, Mike Hughes, MKH Engineering.

My favorite episode. A perfect example of mechanical engineering brought to its extreme.

How I miss mechanics in home audio/video these days. It always fascinated how VCR's, Turntables, Tape Decks and CD Players etc worked so I was always taking the covers off of my parents equipment, which, of course, made them very mad. ;-) But this is something different. Glad I'm not the only one that gets excited watching mechanics like this. Thanks again for making a great video.

Brilliantly over-engineered.

The modern version of this mechanism is to be had in the NAKAMICHI RX 202 and RX505 cassette decks from the 1980's. All visible and beautiful to watch. Had a pair of 505's myself.

It's hilarious they designed this whole thing. Amazing how the solution is right under your nose and you go completely around it just because that's the first path you thought of.

It almost feels like I'm looking at an automaton machine from the 1800s with all those spinning cogs and levers.

The quality of the old machines impresses. Everything is disposable today 😔

All those gears , belts pulleys & moving parts & its still working after 40 years !! , that would never be the case these days , might get 5 years if your lucky !! , love this channel , love seeing all the things i owned & all the things i wanted to when i was younger , things were built so much better then

Slow motion, "Blue Danube" sequence was excellent!

That's probably the most beautiful piece of engineering I've seen on this channel :O Loved the videography, too!

5:29 Felt like I was watching 2001 again. I like your style, Techmoan. When I grow up, I wanna be just like you.

My dad bought the Philips cassette machine with the plastic chute back in the 70s when it was just released. I was still using it in the 90s. It worked flawlessly for 20+ yrs and was still working and sounding great when I finally bought a new sound system and retired it to the attic. It was a great piece of early 70s technology. You just loaded it up with all your fav tapes and it would play all day without just playing the same one album again and again. Of course you had to get up and eject through the other tapes if you wanted to hear the other side of a tape right away, but back then when it was new, it was a minor hassle for something that was so cool at the time.

Feeling of joy. That noice of lever and gear is awesome.

That's it, I always find these videos so fascinating and I end up binge watching a lot from time to time - *I'm bloody subscribing!*

The slo-mo portion was amazing! An instant cult segment for sure...Thanks for the fantastic video...again.

I had the model GXC-65D that he mentioned briefly. I bought it used, and used it for several years. It was a good, reliable machine. The only work I ever had to do on it besides routine cleaning and demagnetizing was replacing the belt on the counter. I was always impressed by the reversing mechanism. The plastic cover over the mechanism was removable on the 65D, so it was easy to watch it do its thing.

Fun to see the Nakamichi get mentioned. I had one a looong time ago. It went missing in a house move (lightfingered flatmates)

This video was amazing but the slow me was absolutely EPIC! Thanks Techmoan!

I love ingenious engineering. that kind of thing always fascinates me. Knowing that a brilliant mind came up with something that no one else had, to do something so insignificant, it's oddly pacifying.

Quite an amazing machine. It reminds me of one of the opening scene from Back to the Future in Doc Brown's workshop or the scene from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with the toast and sausages. Completely over-engineered and yet you can't help but marvel at its complexity.

I need a cassette deck, I wish I could find one of these, it's absolutely amazing.

I never get tired of watching this fantastic mechanism working! It's really ingenious and impressive! \o/

I have this type in 1973 and still used upto 1980's and had also try to repair this reverse mechanism when got trouble, such an amazing technology at that time,still remembered AKAI until now because this cassete reverse mechanism.

This is the kind of electronics/mechanics I miss the most nowdays, every little part in there is for a reason, and you gotta have a damn good reason to put it in there.

5:30 That nod to 2001 is a master stroke. Chapeau.

That is actually quite brilliant

Clean job dude! Akai created a superior engineering in those old times. A very beautiful casette deck. !!

That is the absolute, most brilliant tape deck i have ever seen, Nothing less than Genius.

imagine how smart was the man who designed it

That has got to be one of the best videos i have seen on youtube, Thank you

Round of applause to that machine for still working so well after all this time - looked almost mint inside - I think he said it was new, but you would have expected some crap to gather by now.

I remember them well! In the early 70s, I was a service tech for an audio repair shop. We were an authorized Akai service center, and got quite a few of those in, for repair. Their problems were always mechanical, not electronic. And we DID refer to them as "toasters"!

absolutely brilliant angles showing off the mechanisms, switches and the like. A+ editing. If you don't have a career in videography, I think you missed your calling.

8:35 Oh, yes. Misaligned heads were SO common. I always thought the b-side had a worse sound than the a-side and the alignement was an issue on portable players. I once had a walkman that would get misaligned on the second side all the time. I usually used auto-reverse players...without using the auto-reverse function.

I repair one of this before, and i love repairing mechanical things, and its running around my brain on how its works, like a puzzle while watching it moves

I was in the home stereo business in 1972. I was just akid (20) but remember being totally in awe of this machine. It was very expensive for the times. I wish I had one today.

that mechanism is so satisfying..

This is incredible and amazing. I love this. I could watch that thing all day. Thanks for this incredibly satisfying video.

I love elegant mechanical designs, when you can see that every part is crafted just right to do a job, and sometimes multiple actions. Thanks!

My friend missing one point when mentioning swapping the heard around for auto reverse is that it is not only turn the head it also make the cassette wheels turning the opposite direction in order to play the other side. In any case I still found those mechanisms truly amazing, especially VHS that rule the world for a long time before taking over by digital media.

Magnificent contraption. To think that folk art the time thought the Japanese engineers didn't innovate... I doubt the British electronics companies of the time would have been able to get anywhere near that level of ingenuity!

Always enjoyed your videos but they've been extra good this year. Loving the cassette and hi-fi videos.

I still have the Akai CS-50 that my father bought in 1973. It works very well and is a Japanese electromechanical marvel, even today it surprises with its complex auto-reverse system and its high audio quality.

Genius. Absolute genius. What a lovely video. Thank you, Techmoan.

"Invert-O-Matic" I really miss the days when names like that were actually cool =)

Excellent video.....clear narration and superb photography. Thanks for producing and posting it :)

Fantastic engineering in the Akai. I used to work for a company that rented out the Philips ski slope players to pubs etc for back ground music purposes. The main idea I think was for continus play, they needed min 6 and max 8 cassettes for the machine to work. They had the ability to record as well as playback but the record feature was disabled in our machines. Quite successful but intended for the domestic market, so being used for 12 plus hours a day meant higher maintenance. I got quite good at repairing them, the most common problem was teeth stripped from a large gear that rotated in the change mechanism. But rater fiddly to repair with a string arrangement used to push the tapes out, great fun.

Great video - I sold these machines way back - having another look at this early tech fascinates me. Will definitely have a look at your other vids. Keep up the good work!

Amazing video, never imagined of such an innovative way to perform auto-reverse 👍

So many simple componets working together to make a beautifully complex machine.

Stepping back for a moment from the awesomeness of that mechanism, I think some appreciation is also needed for how huge the whole machine is!

When I was young.Whenever I was bored of life and couldn't play outside because of weather. I used to transplant tapes that my parents used to listen to in the car and at home. When the car started and mum put the Eurythmics tape in it played The Clash and when dad played The Clash in the garage it would play Eurythmics. It was so hysterical, my little brothers and I had the laugh of our lives.

And most of all, most parts weren't made of plastic, so more durable than in the plastic age we are living now.

pure art in motion

I have the Akai GXC-65D , same as this but has Dolby , and I love it , its an amazing piece of kit .

It's amazing how people could invent such a complex machine with just switches, motors, and capacitors.

That was a beautiful machine, and the way you filmed it was awesome!

*Multiple Head Auto-Reverse* & *Worm Gear* To save scrolling through the previous comments - here are all the comments (so far) about the multiple-head auto-reverse mechanisms not shown or mentioned in the video....and the correct name for the Spiral Gear. *COMMENTS ABOUT FOUR HEAD AUTO--REVERSE* Phill R great video as always! but there was another type of auto reverse where there are tape heads that have 4 "pick ups" and would just reverse the tape direction and have a capstan/pinch roller either end, kinda like a mirror image transport mechanism Vax Buster Much better to use a double stacked head and reverse the motor direction, as Walkmans used to do Remco Meeder the cheapest solutions didn't even turn the heads but used double heads like the ones used in auto reverse walkmans :) pcuser80 For players there is a much simpler solution. In my old sony/aiwa player they used a 4track head. i am sure that some decks also used a 4 track head, the head turnaround comes later. john shead there are machines that have a head like a 4 track machine. they just use the play record head in the correct direction and an erase head on the correct side of the record head. Erik Bruijn didn't later cassette players use quad channel heads, 2 for each side, instead of rotating heads? Sparky Projects Didn't most auto reverse use a 4 track head, and simply reverse the direction of tape travel, and swap tracks electrically ? players didn't have the erase head to worry about, recorders had 2 erase heads iirc ncdv47 I'm pretty sure that's the way it worked too, at least on the players I had. There were no parts that flipped or rotated. william fleete Car stereos used a single playback head but had 2 stereo head areas on each side and the stereo switched which half of the head it was reading off as well as the direction of the mechanism instead of changing the rotation of the head or flipping the tape jormot I think you didn't mention the 4-track head system. I don't know if that system was used in recording machines, but it was used in auto reverse car tape players. Mike James Car cassette auto reverse is done with a 4 track fixed head. R-man R-man I have a cheap ghetto blaster by Hitachi from about 1987, which has a luxury of 4 channel head, so it reverses playback without flipping anything. Shamefully, it's my only tape deck now. DrSid42 I had a autoreverse walkman from Sony IIRC which just had double head and double roller. terastarship2 there are 2 types of auto reverse, your is the first earlier by using mechanically. later type using the 2 or 3 heads by revering the roller that wheels the tape. FeCr3 There are some vintage auto reverse cassette deck's they have a fixed autoreverse head onboard like auto reverse car stereo's too... Like my DUAL C828 from 1981: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VTEU-jX-Ikk.html Philip vB Only thing I would have added are the autoreverse Walkmen that had a 4-track head that did not turn and only switches channels, these are even perfectly azimuth-adjustable and totally reliable. (Example: Aiwa HS-PC202MII) MrFixer1967 Now they do not flip the head or the tape. There are two pick up coils the the head. One for each direction. Martin King More modern machines simply had a head that could read both sides of the tape without needing to be rotated. mikeselectricstuff I never understood why they went to all the hassle of flipping heads etc. instead of doing what they did in car cassette players and simply used a 4-track head MRooodddvvv not only car players. i remember having portable cassette player with 4 track head as well. Allan Bak I'm missing one with auto reserve, pioneer ct-F750, with 4 track head that does not turn the cassetten or head, but just drive the other way when there are no more tape or can drive one way no problem with the head eventually comes out of the right angle Salvatore Shiggerino What the problem with simply stacking four heads and just reversing tape direction? Seems like it would be both cheaper and more reliable. mikeselectricstuff I think it was because most car cassette players didn't have record capabilities so no erase head to worry about being before the playback head in record mode. ForestCat The 4 track heads can only do playback. Due to crosstalk - the record current on 2 heads on one side would be picked up and transfer to the other 2 heads. Also, never satisfactory unless the mechanism was absolutely perfect in manufacturing tolerance... in every auto reverse machine I tried to align if you got it perfect on one side, it would be slightly out on the other... hi-fi nuts didn't like them for that reason :) *COMMENTS ABOUT THE WORM GEAR* Benjamin Harvey The spinning spiral driving the tape counter is called a worm gear in case you are interested. Chad Barrett It is called a worm gear. Not picking on you or anything. I just thought you would like to know what it is called. Helium Road I'm amazed the belts haven't brittled and the grease hasn't hardened after sitting in a box for 4 decades. And BTW, the "spiral thing" is called a worm gear. Sod Alfredsod The "spiral" wheel is called a worm gear. worm gears have the quite intresting abiltiy to turn around a gear that it touches, but not the oposite. This, combined with their high gear ratio makes the ideal for heavy-duty applications. wait, why did i waste time on this? ah, I will post it anyway. herrkelc 6:31 usually called worm wheel

A beautiful video of over-engineered joy. I especially enjoyed the sync of your music with the slow-mo. Lovely content mate, and thanks for sharing it.

Great thing. The KISS principle in action. I tried to create a similar mechanism when in highschool, succeeded at the mechanics and failed at the automation of the operation sequence. Nowadays - nice to see that somebody had the exact thing done right back then.

Thank you for sharing with us this amazing machine!

On the one hand, It's an amazing piece of engineering. On the other, I'd hate to be the guy (or guys more likely) who probably spent at-least a few months or longer trying to devise this contraption, only to see the reversing read head a few years later.

My brother dragged one of those things home back in the 1980's. I was fascinated by it. Enjoyed listening to this edition on my Akai AA-910 that I bought second hand about 40 years ago.

I am going through your back catalog (catalogue) of videos. I found the slo-mo and use of The Blue Danube both pertinent and hilarious!

actually i dunno how i found this video , but this is just amazing , u got a new subscriber!!

Modern electronics is tedious when you see this bad boy I miss the good old days :)

One of the most beautifully shot technical "teardowns" on the Toobs - awesome :)

Loved this. Worked as technician for Akai Aust from 1984-89 my first job on leaving school. Never saw one of these in for repair ever. Maybe they never imported into Australia? Akai made some pretty good stuff in those days. I think what killed them was they went for more of the low end market and started badge swapping stuff out of Korea and Taiwan in the late eighties which was terrible quality and almost un-repairable. i got out of the industry by the early 90's. Was a lot of fun fixing and maintaining good quality kit. Thanks for sharing.

That is absolutely beautiful. I love complex machinery fantastic video

I can't believe they didn't make the flip cover transparent or at least translucent to show off the trick! And I was wondering if he'd mention the one from the 80s. It was shown at the beginning of a famous Paula Abdul music video of the time...

Like cica said.. It's actually twice as exciting as I had imagined! Great vid. You should have a bigger audience. Keep it up

The whole time I was watching this, I was thinking about one I saw many moons ago that was almost as complicated. And then ... there it is at the end. Nice.

So pointlessly complex, yet so enjoyable to watch in action!

My father had 2 of these when I was a kid. Actually he still has them. Not sure he's used them in 20+ years, but they are in his living room.

2:21 I'm from Sri lanka. This Elite Radio & Engineering still functioning in Sri Lanka and nice to see this

Just the thing I wanted to do growing up, use my screwdriver to get inside one of those tape decks at home.... Only, it was my parent's home. Thanks for this, very satisfying.

that's very elegant and probably worked well until the inevitable breakdown. I would love to see the Phillips throw and hope changer.

this is just pure hardcore mechanical porn at its finest watched it 2x and i love how simple it is yet so much is going on and no computer chips no processors just pure reliable goodness

I still have an old Nakamichi RX-505 on my shelf. I keep it just because it’s cool, particularly due to it’s auto-reverse gymnastics. Also a VERY fine cassette recorder.

Absolutely loved the slow down bit.