Premium Gramophone Kit - Assembly & Demo 

Timestamps Intro: 00:04 Construction: 02:00 Playing a 78rpm record: 07:00 Comments: 07:45 Recording: 09:38 Playing a 45rpm record: 11:36 Summary: 12:41 Credits: 13:48 End: 14:27

You could have played the entire top 40 on that thing without hitting a content match 😋

I can imagine your neighbours, “what’s the looney shouting now”!

"Listen Harold, the man with the window robots is shouting!"

"See if you can spot what I'm reciting." Calling this lo-fi would be an exaggeration, more like no-fi ^_^ It's still kinda neat as an educational toy.

Recording sounds like someone gargling but looks like a fun thing to build at least!

This is what Spotify is going to sound like after the next solar flare.

You recorded "Mary had a Little Lamb", the same that Thomas A. Edison made .

Hi, the bad results in the "record-mode" are normal if you use a needle for this. All cutting heads are supposed to use a "cutting stylus" instead of a needle. A needle has a more or less sharp point at the end, but its cross-section is round. So it simply can't "cut", it can only "scratch". A cutting-stylus has likely a triangled cross-section with sharp edges, so it does really cut in the material of the blank disc like a knife. Further, it's made of a hard material (i.e. like carbon steel, sapphire or diamond). If the arrangement works right you'll get a long, thin strand of material while recording. Thats the material that is cutted out from the blank disc to give the groove. If this continous strand of material doesn't appear the cutter does just not cut but "scratch" and the result will be very poor. Further: the material and cross-section of the cutting-stylus has to relate to the material of the blank-disc. So there where different forms and materials in use.

Love the fact that even this toy gramophone kit has an adjustable counter weight... unlike those Crosley things...

11:19 - Ha! Ive never heard "Mary had a Little Lamb" quoted by a Dalek before. 😁

ah that is how they recorded the messages in Bioshock

How do you know it' Easter? Techmoan is playing Christmas songs!

In this episode of the grand tour: James shouts into a phonograph.

This looks like a lot of fun. My desire for it is tempered only by the knowledge that my wife will put up with the audio quality for all of thirty seconds lol.

Back in the late 50's I went to an allergist who had an amazing collection of over 50,000 78's. While he had state of the art electronics for everything else there was no acceptable phono cartridge available. So he commissioned Fairchild electronics to make him one. The sound was amazingly good. And the cartridge used cactus needles for the pickup. He got the cactus spines from a cactus dealer in Arizona, and, of course, changed the needle every time he changed the record.

I'm real impressed with the separate platter and belt driven mechanism for optimum fidelity. I was thinking of getting a VPI turntable next, but I dunno... kinda tempting.

"see if you can tell ..." = we knew what it was before it even started

11:18 drunk Adolf's personal recording from 1935

I think this is the most in-depth video on this kit I have seen. I have so say I am impressed it recorded anything at all and the fact that it comes with an actual wind up motor is really great even if an electric version would have been quieter and probably have worked better, and perhaps even been cheaper. It really drives home the point of how there's nothing electronic in it

Ah, that warm vinyl sound Truly the greatest medium

Love the fact that the mechanism is winding down as you make your final remarks. Neat detail.

This tickled me in many ways. Lovely, lovely video.

I realized that you now have an HMV 102 - the greatest acoustic portable gramophone ever produced - as a proud owner of one, I really look forward to seeing your take on that in the near future! P.S. I am sure there are still plenty of old music on a lot of British-made 78rpm records that would not trigger RU-vid's content ID matches and I am quite willing to help you with that!

Techmoan you NEED your own TV Show, Honestly its 4 am here but I will wake up just to watch your video! Your honestly my favorite RU-vid! Cheers Mate your amazing!

Rebuilt my first victrola 3 years ago. My daughter loved it so much, we refurbished one for her. She loves it and still plays some of our shellac records on it, specially during Christmas.

This was an interesting kit. It looks like the nostalgia is more in the building and accomplishment of a more or less working phonograph. It still looks like it would make an interesting display piece.

The quality of Japanese assembly instructions, always a delight.

Once again Mat delivers the content we need during the pandemic. Thank you!

This kit is really impressive. So is the depth and cadence of this video. Thank you! 👍

Hello there! A regular viewer here. Just wanted to say hello and tell you how much I enjoy your channel. Also, your mention of Berliner phonographs in this episode reminded me of something I've been meaning to share with you. I'm Canadian, and currently live in the city of Ottawa, but I spent most of my life in Montreal, Quebec. Montreal once had a huge Berliner phonograph factory, which was later absorbed by RCA Victor, located in the city's St. Henri district. St. Henri is a former working class part of town that's become heavily gentrified in recent years, and the former Berliner factory has become a mixed residential/commercial loft building. But it also still houses the Emile Berliner Museum of Sound, a small, very eclectic, privately run museum that even most Montrealers probably don't know exists. I once wrote a little profile of it for the Atlas Obscura website, here: www.atlasobscura.com/places/emile-berliner-museum-of-sound The museum's own English website is here: moeb.ca/en Given your interests, I thought this might be something you'd like to know about, if you don't already. And, as an aside, I also wrote a review of Techmoan (along with some of my other favourite RU-vid channels) for The Typescript Magazine, which you can find here: thetypescript.com/edutainment-of-the-apocalypse/ I hope your corner of the current apocalypse is treating you and yours as gently as possible. And I look forward to your next video

Dismissed as a toy. Some crazy engineers came up with a way to play and RECORD for $85, amazing. I want to beer with them badly.

I would write a dissertation on the awesomeness of this. The playback reminded me of a Fred Quimby era "Tom and Jerry" cartoon. Thank you.

The recording feature would be useful for creating Sci-Fi voice effects, a la the Daleks. Perhaps for a terrifying and unintelligible answering machine message? Thanks for another great video, hope you're doing well on lockdown.

It's very well made, made me want to buy just because of the details richness. Another great video, Happy Easter!

The soundquality wasn't too bad for a toy. I expected much worse

As Always, Thank you for the video :)

Whoa! You watched our video!? Thanks for checking it out and the nice link! You always seem to be up to something awesome. Cheers from Japan (and another holded of fondness of minidiscs!)

Another excellent episode! I couldn’t make out what you were saying, but it sounded like a flustered Dalek!

Considering it is a toy, that recording feature is still impressive!

That was a great review. Thank goodness I never bought one of those for my kids when they were little. They would have probably let the air out of my tires on my truck.😂

This was lot more fun than anticipated :) It's good to see that you're well.

That clip you used for the ending was perfect.

I keep expecting to see a dog sitting in front of the horn

Bamboo stylus? Don't be giving Crosley any ideas...

It looks like it's fun to put together and I'm impressed with all the thought they put into the mechanism and the little details. So I might consider looking for one just for the heck of it, even though it doesn't actually work all that great. It looks interesting as a toy and conversation piece.

Thankyou for another really good video. Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved these old phonographs

Finally, the perfect device for me to play my Paysage d'Hiver and Velvet Cacoon LPs!

Would be interesting to hear how good the quality could really be on your real gramophone as a comparison. Always wondered if they were worth buying?

What a fun piece of kit. Really enjoyed the vid TM.

I must tell you I almost felt pain upon thinking of that contraption being used on any of my vinyl records, some of which are older then I am. While I suppose it could be a useful educational tool for little kids, but if I did have little children I would have to discard that device after school was out. Thanks for your continue great work.

10:56 .. so that's how all those ghosthunter crews get their "ghost voices" recordings!! 🤣

Have the puppets left you? Did you kick those curmudgeons out of the house? I miss them 😢

Can't understand how Gakken makes such a hash quality wise of these kits. Really looking forward to your review of that HMV102 portable, without doubt the original boombox of its day, in production 27 years, silent motor, superb sound quality for an accoustic machine. -I've rebuilt several and really all they ever need is a good clean and there good for another 50years.

The finale with the music slowing down was brilliant!

Sometimes you remind me of John Peel, but never more than when playing records at the wrong speed :)

11:18 That sounded like the alines from Mars Attacks :D

Yeah. That looks like a lot of fun! Thank you for pointing out at the beginning that a nicely functioning record cutter would be very expensive.

Happy Easter. Fun video. Really miss the puppets.

SP= standard play LP= long play EP= extended play

All I could hear when playing back the record was "libera te tutemet ex inferis"

Very interesting look into this amazing toy- quite remarkable what the engineers managed to create for the price- it has a rustic charm!

Awesome!!!!! Looking back I think building a tamiya rc car as a kid wired my brain for logical discovery. Love this kit

You know your copyright system is broken when a "78 RPM record of Nat King Cole will get content matched. Remember when it was for the life of the author only?

11:25 is this a Dalek?

I'm now looking forward to the video on that lovely looking proper one.

DJ Techmoan be dropin them block rockin beats YO!

11:18 Sounds like Davros yelling at the Doctor... Interesting kit though.

the 78rpm sound quality reminds me of how early movies would artificially degrade the quality of recordings due to their own audio being of similar quality.

Mary had a Little Lamb is the only appropriate choice for making an experimental recording. Awesome kit, wish these things were easier to find. Thanks for the vid. :D

All the noise from the motor makes it sound like you are listening to the records in a sewing shop. It's like you were playing Christmas music to keep all the sewers' spirits up while they work. :D

そのレコード持ってます、かなりレトロを感じてくれる物でした

Is it bad that I recognised the 45 as Lime's "Guilty"? ^_^'

Very cool that it actually WORKED!!! Recording, not so much, but I was actually impressed. Thanks for sharing....

I believe I cried when you played that 45 with the steel sylus ! so funny !

I asked my eleven year old if he would like one of these. The answer was a very definite no. He does think though that I have amazing ears though for realising you were reciting Mary had a little lamb which did give me the opportunity to educate him on the story behind that though.

I heard "Lime - Guilty" on 7"

Nice demo vid, thanks for sharing. Years ago my Dad showed me that you could take a standard sewing needle or pin, punch it thru a paper or plastic cup then hold the needle point against a vinyl record spinning on a standard turntable & get gramophone type sounds out of it. YT also has videos of people making horns out of tin cans & plastic containers. Don't use your good records though, you'll ruin them.

every video from this guy is pure gold. hope he gets over 1 million subscribers soon. frohe ostern from germany

I highly recommend this as a gift for a kid who has any interest what so ever in vinyl records. I got this when I was 15 and have had a record addiction since, beware of that. But that phonograph really was the only thing I listened to records on for at least a year!

Cool to hear “Mozart’s Turkey Trot” in the back ground near te end of the video. I have the 78’ of that myself as well. Its a lovely record!

The turntable motor seemed to be a lot better than I expected. Quite well made and ran very smoothly.

Thanks for posting! Happy Easter from Vienna!

Thanks for the video. I really enjoy your content. especially in the lock down driven boredom

That is a great looking object, I really like that gramaphone sound.

Thanks for the video Mat. It was very interesting.

I would have loved something like this when I was a kid. Thanks for sharing!

Jingle Bells on eastern why the heck not?! Good episode dear Sir!

Brilliant. The playback of the speech on the recordings was so funny.

That rendition of Rondo Alla Turca at the end was brilliant

Thought and care went into this toy, more than a lot of finished consumer products.

Phew 😅 thought there wasn’t going to be a video this weekend !

For the recording part, I would have directed a speaker to the cone, and tried to have it record some royalty free music, or maybe a recording of your own voice, since surely in that way you could give it more volume, getting the needle to vibrate better while avoiding busting a vocal chord hahah great video as always!.0

Brilliant video as usual

Thank you for always bringing back pieces of the past, even if they don't always work today they way it was meant to back then. Something that doesn't work today is not a failure, it's simply an experimental result that didn't meet your hypothesis. :) Curious how much those kits cost when they were available (I know they are limited collections).

I don't know why, but seeing this little contraption do its thing just gave me so much joy.

I built one of these not too long ago, never could get it to record very well, but it does work fine for playing 78s (wouldn't trust it to play 33s or 45s) with either steel or bamboo gramophone needles. A little grease quiets down the motor and a little tinkering improves the sound. When I want to blow somebody's mind, I wind 'er up and show you can have music without electricity.

The portable gramophone that you showed us toward the end, I have a similar unit and they sound really quite good actually for the age of the thing. It sounds better than a full size upright console that I have.

As always, thanks for uploading!

your voice playback sounds terrifying! stuff of nightmares was what you were reciting