I got myself for 180$ a vintage Pioneer S420 amplifier, Pioneer TX410 tuner, big 80s Akai speakers and a Technics cd-player and turntable. all used but in great working order. Sounds amazing! I cannot imagine I would had spent that amount on money on this instead :')
@@FrightfulAccountant There's nothing wrong with all in one systems in general, a good high quality all in one system is perfectly fine. Unfortunately crappy ones ruin the reputation of them.
@@thesherlockhound Racks of separates is my thing, but I won't deny there are some great all in one sets out there.. In the early 90s, my granny owned a JVC all in one set. Lasted for over a decade, untill lightening litterly would strike and cook everything from the inside. But non of the sets she owned after that one ever lasted for that long nor sounded that good. Mass market electrics were falling in quality rapidly and the era of Croslies and Victrolas and the like mark a sad low of sound quality.
Had one. Bought it because I loved that retro look and wanted to convert some vinyl to MP3. The look was really nice but that's as far as it went. This review is very kind; I was not as forgiving and returned it to Amazon. Love your reviews!
The "originals'' from that era were absolute not better or worse. Nowadays we heve better soundsystems and are spoiled especially since internetradio /DAB but for a lot of elder people this stereo radio is more than okay.
It's a shame China still makes things like this; it does nothing but discredit the country's manufacturing reputation even further. Good things are made there, but the phrase 'cheap chinese POS' is so commonplace, it's just depressing at this point. The margin between these kinds of units and component hi-fi systems which don't cost TOO much more than this is just phenomenal. You'd think they were made by different species, not just people in different parts of the world. It's very depressing when you use a product into which no love or even care has been placed.
And if you buy a component system used... There are always numerous great 90s component systems on Craigslist for well under the $200.00 price tag of this thing.
Thank you for a really good review and demo (1) you told it as it is , It is refreshing to hear truth (2) you let us hear the setup first class so I subscribed
I paid a fair price for mine, $29 at Goodwill. I was attracted by the sliderule dial and dark wood color, which reminded me of our Philips radio before we had TV, I mean ages ago. I noticed when I got it home - NO tone control. You would think most any radio above the $19.95 new, store price, would have a tone control, or maybe a bass boost button. Maybe they didn't want you rocking the bass with a turntable directly above it? I also noticed the "choppy tuning" on AM, like the AVC is suddenly cutting in, an odd effect. I thought the AM and FM sections actually not bad for selectivity and sensitivity. The turntable. I always suspect the tone arm weight on this kind of mass consumer combo thing, and I suppose the average buyer never even thinks about tone arm weight and doesn't give a damn anyway, it's all disposable after all, including the records, isn't it? I wouldn't be playing any rare collectible LP on it, though. / My particular one has only crappy midrange tone, even on classical music it's obvious. Some day i'll dig into it and look for maybe some lytic caps that have already dried up, and also straighten out some dial backlash. Electrohome doesn't make it easy, because it looks like there's no service data available. Warranty is a year, and after ownership is transferred, well, you're on your own, pal, because consumer stuff isn't meant to be repairable.
Regarding the built in turntable on this system (and others like it): The reason why they don’t always sound as good as they really should is because of the fact that many of these are not properly equalized for the output of a ceramic phono cartridge, which is rather unfortunate…
Electrohome! cool! That used to be a Canadian brand name back in the day. Older Electrohome TVs had very sensitive tuners for use in Canada, in places where TV transmitters were few and far between. It's a shame this once great brand name is used on low end junk now. This is a nicer looking stereo than most of these nostalgia systems, but it's still as cheap as ever. Haha, like you wouldn't have opened it if there was a "do not open" sticker lol
We have a similar situation in Australia. AWA(Amalgamated Wireless Australasia) Ltd., a company synonymous with broadcasting in Australia and New Zealand, were making product for both ends of the industry from the beginning of broadcasting here and in NZ. By "both ends" I meant they were making radio receivers, then later, TV sets for consumers, plus they were building transmitters and mixing desks for the broadcasting stations and also TV transmitters and ancilliary gear for TV stations. They were gearing up to produce equipment and receivers for our Colour TV in 1975 when the arch-traitor to the Labor party, Gough Whitlam killed off our electronics industry with the stroke of a pen(Tariff Reduction Bill). AWA's "Deep Image" TVs were among the best on the market, if not THE best, and their colour sets were second to none, likewise their stereos, radios and other gear were equally top-notch. But Whitlam's act of treachery killed that off. For a while AWA stuff was being made by Mitsubishi(and branded as AWA). It was good quality product but not as good as AWA themselves could've done if given the chance. Then came the day when Mitsubishi no longer made gear for AWA, Some unknown Chinese maker started churning out utter shit with the AWA brand on it and dragging the great brand through the muck and mire. Makes my blood boil to think about it.
It's the same in Europe , some of very good brands had been spoiled by chinese companies to sell bad equipment ( ex : Scott , Dual ....) In europe the equivalent of Crosley is Yorks ,or supermarkets brands as Alba or Prostar ( the brand i've mostly fixed) when i was a tech in an aftersale shop , cheap components in them , crappy speakers and low power amplifiers ( never over 2 watts rms ) .I played to hook one of them on good speaker hifi boxes , it sounded a little better , but the 2w rms amplifier clipped very early .
The motor is a eg-530sd-3f. WIth the help of your video, I managed to adjust the speed of my sound system. I only tune the "L" pot to adjust the 33 RPM speed. I hope it's gonna stay steady because I don't like the wobbly sound and tone caused by the varying speed.
+1972myc Exactly what I did. Bought me an old Magnavox console with a 4-speed MicroMatic changer. Not a 'high end' turntable by any means, but miles ahead of anything made by Crosley or its clones/competitors today. And after a little basic service, that 50-year-old machine works flawlessly and sounds fantastic. The total I paid for it? Under $100.
My grandmother used to have an Electrohome TV and both turn-dial buttons had issues. The volume button would crackle and lose sound when you touch or turn it. The channel button started losing contact and the TV screen had constant flickering due to the lousy contact. I hope the turn-dial buttons are of better quality these days. That was 40 years ago. For the speed issue, some places have different voltages. Many places are 110 volts, others are 120 volts. If they lined up the speed with 110 volts and your voltage is 120 volts it could be why it's spinning faster for you. Our voltage here in Quebec is 110 volts @ 60 Hz. However, there should be an easy way to adjust the speed. A screw on the bottom or back of the unit that you could turn. Burying it inside the box is really nuts. That's ridiculous that they took so many shortcuts and still charged $200. - No tone or bass/treble adjustments - Low quality MP3 recordings - Low quality tuner - Cheap looking LEDs on the tuner - Low quality record player needle - No user-accessible turntable speed adjustment - A turntable adapter that does not function correctly Thanks for the honest review. Hopefully people will watch this before going out and buying it. I would never buy it after watching this review. :-) I hope no one opens one of these up for Christmas tomorrow. Yikes!
@@ds99 when was this? aerosol contact cleaners have been around since the 60s at least, even wd40 or 3 in 1 oil spray can be used as a last resort , preferably not wd40, though , ,before that it was available in 'oil can' type dispensers, even normal 3 in 1 oil likely wouldve been used!
@@andygozzo72 I do not doubt for a second that aerosol compressed air existed in the 60s. What I meant was WE did not know it existed or even how to tackle a problem like that back then.
I remember considering this unit back when this video first came out 4 years ago and I was so glad I watched it because all of it's caveats made me decide NOT to make that mistake. Thanks!
I have a feeling that the built-in turntable on that unit has poor bass response on purpose so there would not be feedback to the phono cartridge from the bass vibrating through the unit.
margaretsville No, it's just a poor design, that doesn't properly match the impedance of the phono cartridge. The Crosley Collegiate has built-in speakers, and has much better bass response, without any problems with feedback.
vwestlife Yes, now that you mention it, my local used record store uses a Crosley Collegiate for in store playing of records and it does sound good. I think the Collegiate is the best thing that Crosley makes.
@@vwestlife This would actually be easy to test and would make a great video if you did it. You could try both a peaky 2nd order passive filter on the woofers around 80 Hz or wherever the speakers start rolling off to get the added "benefit" of the resonance, and you could also splice the amp IC's output to a real amp with an "LOC" (or make your own transformer or whatever, I'm sure you're up to the task) with enough power to really push the woofers. You could test to see whether the woofers blew first or the record skipped first LOL. I know you have a video addressing the topic but I haven't watched it yet and have to make this comment to see how close your procedure was to this idea.
Well, I see many of these retro-styled systems, but I personally don't like them that much as a real tube receiver. On top of my shelve I have a beautiful restaurated Telefunken Allegro 2183 looking like new with an adapter cable to hook up anything with a 3,5mil headphone jack, I prefer it especially because it is really sixty-what years old and has actual tubes and sound sounds amazing
***** Lack of bass due to not properly matching the impedance of the photo cartridge is a common problem on nearly all modern Chinese-made record players with a ceramic cartridge.
vwestlife Yeah but what I'm saying is that maybe they did it on purpose (either because it was cheaper or it's because they wanted to reduce the bass). Does the manual mention anything about brands of cartridges to use?
great review, I wish I had seen this before I bought the damned thing. You're right when you say the radio sounds right for the price point but that record player is pathetic!!
Thanks for this detalied review. Yesterday this "Electrohome" unit was a strong contender towards my decision but it's OUT now. I'm specifically looking for an "all-in-one" unit because I want to start using my CD's too, and I know I'm automatically losing quality because of the all-in-one factor. What do I want? A nice looking, strong piece. Around 150-300 price mark. I was looking at Crosleys Memory Master II, and two Teac units. You look like you know what you're talking about, I like it. I'd appreciate your opinions on what I'm looking for.
foomex Unfortunately no such thing exists on the market today. The all-in-one systems available today all use this same cheap, tinny ceramic cartridge record player. If you want a good quality magnetic cartridge record player, you'll need to buy a standalone turntable and connect it to a stereo system or amplified speakers.
vwestlife I do think that's a big shame, surely it wouldn't be too difficult for some reputable company to develop an all in one stereo system with a good quality record player in it with at least decent performance. My younger brother has been interested in getting a record player, my mother and I were looking at them recently, but the only record player the store had was a Numark component style player and so we'd need to buy an amplifier for the thing, I was looking at what I thought was a good quality Pioneer stereo system for the turntable, but then Mum brought up a good point. The cost of buying a record player soon adds up really quickly if you don't already have a suitable stereo system.. My brother does have an iPod dock with a digital radio in it and an audio input, but who'd want to use that as a speaker system for a turntable? Yuck.
teac still makes a normal entry level tt, so does sony, denon and marantz. not the best but they will sound better than this junk because you will be using a real amp and speakers and they're designed by actual people with intact hearing
I have the same player. I changed the needle. Get a standard tip screwdriver n pull down on the front where the needle is it’ll come off. I replaced my 5 year old needle.
+1 for Match Game! Kinda laughed when I heard it; I've been going through all the episodes that someone posted here on RU-vid -- thought I had somehow started it playing in the other tab, haha. I'm kinda curious though; why do ya have the opening as an MP3?
I can tell from that X-Dream song that the speed of the record player is slightly higher than it should be, but it's not horribly bad in my opinion, but the tinny sound is a more serious problem. I also don't like the choppy FM tuning much. I'm surprised it can't record MP3 files from the radio. Since it can play MP3 files from USB thumb drives, I'm going to assume the system can play MP3 CDs too. When playing MP3 files, can you easily jump from folder to folder, or must you laboriously jump from track to track as you do with quite a number of cheap MP3 players which don't provide you with any quick folder navigation?
I've seen two other reviews of this unit where the turntable'a speed was a little more accurate, but the tinniness of the speakers was the same. And the 45 adaptors in those units were fine; I think you got a bad one.
Is there a brand you would recomend for a budget price, I was trying to find reviews of cheap models of electrohomes but it looks like they sound terrible, is there an alternative?
Thank you on another web site that is popularthey claimed this was a great sounding turntable made of quality wood and he claimed it was quality!!!! just looking at it I figured it was not thank you for confirming my suspisions also the 78 you used as a demo ,would like to know where you got it from, my father had that exact record when I was a child he used play his 78's and I remember listening to that song ,thanks for the fond memory JRo
Either a Crosley Collegiate (the only good Crosley record player made today), or an Audio-Technica AT-LP60 turntable and a pair of amplified speakers (since the A-T doesn't have speakers built-in).
vwestlife Thanks for your recommendation. I have a Jambox speaker that has good sound, are you familiar with those speakers? They are mainly used for bluetooth but I could also connect via an auxilliary cable. I'm not sure if that sort of setup would do the record player justice though. I have a small apartment so I don't need a lot of sound, but do want quality. Can you recommend some affordable speakers to pair with the AT? Thanks, your reviews have been very helpful.
So what would you recommend for someone who needs a VERY small, compact record player with a lid? I only have about 2’ of space and absolute max budget of $200. So frustrating that there seems to be NO budget option that people agree on. I just want decent sound from a relatively dependable player in my kitchen. Impossible?!
The TEAC LP-R550 and LP-R660 are the best all-in-one record player systems, but they cost more than $200. Maybe you can fit an AT-LP60 turntable and a small pair of powered speakers? That would give you much better quality than any inexpensive record player with built-in speakers.
Did you wind up purchasing an all-in-one? I found a lightning deal on Prime Day ....1byOne Nostalgic ....I paid 105...pretty decent. Back in the early 80's I had great equipment, just wanted this for fun. I do think it's one of the better all in one systems.
WOW!!! The manufacturer should be ashamed to sell something like this. It looks nice but that is all. Just the fact that it is made in China tells the story. Let's go back to the days when just about all electronics was made in Japan. and the quality could not be beat. I wonder how long this item will last before it dies? I bet not very long!!!
I own used vintage hifi equipment , for me that's the better choice i've done , you can find used vintage hifi in specialized shops , the equipments are fixed , and well cleaned . If you're good at fixing electronics , you can find some equipment for cheap on garage sales .I've trashpicked ( in a recycling center) a 150watts rms DJ amplifier , there was just to clean a bad contact in a relay to have both R and L channels operating.
+vwestlife Found a few copies available on Discogs, vinyl the only way to go. Wish more bands like this, some consider rare or obscure, would be available for digital download, or at least proper remastering to CD.
Its an excellent entry level record player, the only problem is the welfare youtube trolls who cant afford it. Used this model for 2 years now and love it.
How do you avoid those stupid RU-vid copyright bots? Also, may I please know the name of the song that you sampled for the Pioneer PL-990? It sounds like something that I would like to put in my RU-vid playlist
What bugs me about those poor-quality "retro-style" audio systems (read: Crosley, Electrohome, etc.) is that when I look at the radio dial that's not a very aesthetically "retro" look -- it just looks like somebody made a dial in Arial (Helvetica's lesser font cousin) and said, "okay." It has no character (qualifications for this statement: 25-ish years in printing and typography). If I was designing a unit like this I would have taken a better look at actual old units and made note of details like that. #picky
Now if it did Bluetooth too I'd consider it. But then when I think about it I've got a bluetooth dongle that has an audio plug on it that go into the aux input.
Too bad it's not made a little better, it *does* look pretty cool, and the sound isn't too bad. But as you say, it's a little cheaply made to be 200 bucks. Still, a nice little conversation piece I suppose. Thanks for the review!
The tinny bass on the turntable is probably the result of no EQ on the ceramic cartridge. Though they roughly follow the RIAA curve on their own, they often need a bit of bass boost when used with a solid state amp.
Cool! The same cheapy mechanism in a different box! And these same cheapy mechanisms will keep on being sold as long as people continue to buy them. I`m no audiophile but I kind of prefer a decent quality product.
Built-in speakers with no option to connect external speakers? Stereo is best heard with speakers spread out as wide apart as the speaker cable will allow, so that's one count against this stereo. No headphone socket? That's two counts. VWestlife's own appraisals add the next three counts against this stereo for build quality and performance, turntable and USB quality. This gets a thumbs-down from me, not for the video, so don't be offended, VWestlife, but for the stereo itself.
I have the same one. I noticed that my records are playing slower and slower each day. Does anybody know how to repair a turntable or what the issue is with my record player?
Interesting are you going to send this back or sell it on or keep? Another thing could be done is take out the parts and replace with better made ones though not sure if it will be worth this as wood is cheap. But it would be OK to have in a room if there is no radio or music player in there if bigger house.
I've already bashed a faux retro style system today, I am not going to repeat myself. But one that sticks out on me: Why putting in a blue lcd screen in this one? You didn't get blue lights on any radio, befor the era of the stereo receivers of the 1970s, everything was yellow and orange before. And I once had a 2000 a Sony microset with orange leds that would had fit this style much better than that blue lcd, so why Electrohone not just used those orange lcds? I would not know...
I wish these were manufactured with a 78/LP flip needle.The turntable mat does look like rubber. My friend has a different style new old look Chinese unit and the turntable would not keep a constant speed. I think the belt was malformed and I was the first to use the turntable.
If you really want to go retro, why not just invest in an actual unit from the period, restored? I'm sure that reconditioned Grundig items don't come cheap, however.
That choppy tuning drives me crazy. I have a RadioShack headset radio that tunes better. PLL tuning forever. I have an 80's retro style boombox with mp3 playback and record. Records from the radio at 128Kbps and sounds pretty good but I wish the tuning was PLL digital.
Electrohome? That's interesting. They are (or at least were) a Canadian company that manufactured a lot of TVs in the late 1940s to the mid 1980s. I have a TV that has the Electrohome name on it, although I think it's actually a JVC TV because of some of the parts inside. It was manufactured in 1979. Some of the stickers on some things inside also mention JVC. Just had to say that, because it was very interesting to see something with the Electrohome name on it in the US. Although, in 2010 it was bought by another company that I can only assume is located in the US.
Simmilar to Lenco, they built some of the best record players in the '70s and were made in Germany, but now someone bought them and they build cheap USB-all in one-radio-turntable stuff.
So many once great companies that were bought out by other corporations and are pretty much nothing more than a brand name. Magnavox, RCA, Sanyo and Sylvania amongst others. It's a shame really.
If the TV was made between 1984 and 1999, it would have been made by Mitsubishi in Japan. Prior to 1984, Electrohome made their own products in Kitchner, although after 1975 they were using a lot of imported parts, including those from JVC. After 1999, Electrohome became a Citizen Electronics (formerly Jutan International Ltd.) brand. Since 2010, Electrohome and Citizen have been owned by Bluetronics Group, a division of Niagara Falls based Circus World Displays, who also own Magnasonic, Fluance, and several other brands.
Hope you didn't waste good money on that!! Lets EOL it! :) Speaker, headphone jacks and ext antenna are an easy mod, same with adding your own tone control....
Most vintage turntables had AC induction motors and were idler drive. Belt drive was introduced by the Japanese in the early 1970's, along with S shaped tone arms.
these novelty players are just that...novelties....They are low end made in China inexpensive players...They never have tone or bass controls as this would add to the cost...There should be no surprise at the lack of quality. Novelty players are very popular these days and because of the budget prices, they sell quite well. Just saying.
Choppiness between FM stations is normal, because of the wave pattern(s) that FM creates; for one thing, it's a much narrower wave form than AM. And for the same reason, AM usually carries (can be heard) much further distances than FM. The tradeoff is that AM has a lot of static when the station is far away, while FM tends to drop out completely when a station is quite far away. But within range, FM hss a much cleaner and clearer signal. And AM is finally suffering a slow death it avoided back in the Eighties because it salvation at the time, Talk Radio, is moving to FM.
No, it's not normal. See this video where I provide a direct comparison between analog and digital tuners: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-t1thDa4zeog.html