How many of you are old enough to know what these are for?

[Gothgar]

I recognized them right off and remember playing with them, but couldn't remember what they were for till I read more of the thread

 

[Perknose]

Lol, "It's a Gas", found it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48PIPIyoSmQ

Alfred E. and Furshlinger (sic) Five!

Looking for it, I came across the other Mad Mag flexi record from that same magical year that I'd forgotten, but which was much better:

"She Got a Nose Job": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvPWeP5bwRo

 

[seemingly random]

That's pretty bizarre. I wonder what the mechanism is...

I only had an electronic channel changing TV for a couple of years before I quit TV. I imagine that would be necessary, right? Most of my TV time was using a set that had the old school knobs you had to crank around.

I suppose I should have mentioned that this was with the first, non-electric remotes - the clickers.

I have relatives who still have some of the old console tv and phonographs stored away. Some had quite nice cabinets.

Did you have to go through a multi-step program to quit tv? I quit cold turkey a couple of years ago. Of course, this is kind of a lie since I still watch tv serials and movies on the pc. I don't, however, ever watch any 24-hour news channels anymore. This has been quite freeing.

 

[Rubycon]

Ahhh, homemade! Utah didn't make actual speakers, per se, just the drivers that you bought out of a catalog and put in whatever enclosure you'd built, iirc.

Yeah sort of. The original boxes had trashed drivers and this was the cheapest way to have our jams. They actually cranked decent. We had a pioneer receiver with a stereoscope output meter that had green growing bars as the music was cranked. It was a true quadraphonic model not the type with an AB switch that allows four speakers to be hooked up. Never had a true quad system but did hook other things up to those channels to sing along. Later added a Hammond organ with a Leslie speaker. Neighbors loved the sound.

That's back in the days when ghetto blasters were cool and didn't look like spaceships.

 

[lxskllr]

Did you have to go through a multi-step program to quit tv? I quit cold turkey a couple of years ago. Of course, this is kind of a lie since I still watch tv serials and movies on the pc. I don't, however, ever watch any 24-hour news channels anymore. This has been quite freeing.

:^D

Nah, it wasn't difficult. What I realized is most of TV's garbage, and all I was doing was watching the pretty pictures move around on the screen. I wasn't really enjoying it, and it was acting as a time sink. I watch some TV shows on the computer also, but not too much. I have about a dozen TV series I'll put on on occasion, maybe once per week or something. A few of my favorites...

Star Trek TNG
Twilight Zone
Addams Family
Kung Fu
Northern Exposure

I also like old cartoons from the 20s-40s, and I'll watch old movies. Internet Archive's great for finding old film from the birth of cinema :^)

 

[BoberFett]

some reissued versions I picked up a few years ago...

That green one is the version I had. That provided so many hours of fun when I was 10.

 

[BoberFett]

Nope, it was acting as a microphone and my voice came out of the speakers, via the headphone output jack.

I shit you not!

I wouldn't think there would be enough gain going backwards through the system like that.

 

[x-alki]

Yes, does that make me old?

 

[BoberFett]

Speaking of weird electronic phenomena...

I once had a speaker phone that would occasionally pick up CB transmissions and broadcast from the speaker when the phone was on the hook That was a shaky period in my life, and it would weird me out big time. I had to open it up and clip the speaker wires to preserve my sanity :^D

About ten years ago I lived a few blocks from a radio station. WHMH, St. Cloud MN, The Red House That Rocks. Actually a damn good station, they played good new rock and lots of classic rock as well. They avoided the emo crap that passes for "hard rock" nowadays. Anyway, back to my story... Sometimes while working in my home office I would hear Rockin 101 very faintly. Turned out it was coming through my PC speakers. I had a set of Cambridge powered 2.1 speakers and the signal was being amplified somehow. Not really being an electronics guy it surprised me, because I always figured FM demodulation was more complicated than that.

 

[hanoverphist]

What is the point of these? Didn't record players come with an adapter for 45s? I know ours did.

ours did too, but if you wanted to use the auto stack feature you had to use the plastic adapters. i still have a stack of old 45s in an ice cooler, along with a ton of old 33s. one of these days ill go find a turn table to actually listen to em again.

 

[Liet]

I get so turned on when Rubycon talks all technical...

Granted, my birth was in 1980, so my memories don't reach back to pull-tabs on cans, but I did spend hours and hours in front of my old record player, listening to the same records on headphones over and over.

I remember how struck by progress I felt when we got a record player that could record to casettes. Finally, I could carry my Empire Strikes Back soundtrack in my POCKET! We'd finally created a Utopia for ourselves!

In the late 80s I went to Japan and got the most technologically advanced Sony cassette player made by man. It was a miracle of miniaturization - just large enough to hold the cassette, and it even came with a screw-on battery pack that held one AA battery for extended life, and best of all, a controller on the cord itself! I intend to enshrine it and pass it down to my descendents, so they can bear witness with their own eyes to the Alpha and Omega of cassette Walkmans. Looked something like this:

Edit: Phooey.

 

[Rubycon]

I get so turned on when Rubycon talks all technical...

Granted, my birth was in 1980, so my memories don't reach back to pull-tabs on cans, but I did spend hours and hours in front of my old record player, listening to the same records on headphones over and over.

I remember how struck by progress I felt when we got a record player that could record to casettes. Finally, I could carry my Empire Strikes Back soundtrack in my POCKET! We'd finally created a Utopia for ourselves!

In the late 80s I went to Japan and got the most technologically advanced Sony cassette player made by man. It was a miracle of miniaturization - just large enough to hold the cassette, and it even came with a screw-on battery pack that held one AA battery for extended life, and best of all, a controller on the cord itself! I intend to enshrine it and pass it down to my descendents, so they can bear witness with their own eyes to the Alpha and Omega of cassette Walkmans. Looked something like this:

Wow it's so small I cannot see it!

 

[lxskllr]

Wow it's so small I cannot see it!

It's the rare Sony Quantum. He was very fortunate to have had one for a short while :^D

 

[Thump553]

Got some in my closet, next to an old stack of 45's. I also have a real record album (sleeeved collection of 5-6 albums that played at 78 rpm that predated the LP-each record side was only about 10 minutes long. I also have an actual Edison cylindrical recording, but that and the real record album were bought at tag sales.

I also think LP stands for long player-one record replaced a half dozen needed in the format before.

BTW, I have just come into the modern age-got my first ipod type player ever (even missed out on the walkman era, as well as the eight track).

 

[Rubycon]

Got some in my closet, next to an old stack of 45's. I also have a real record album (sleeeved collection of 5-6 albums that played at 78 rpm that predated the LP-each record side was only about 10 minutes long. I also have an actual Edison cylindrical recording, but that and the real record album were bought at tag sales.

I also think LP stands for long player-one record replaced a half dozen needed in the format before.

BTW, I have just come into the modern age-got my first ipod type player ever (even missed out on the walkman era, as well as the eight track).

That reminds me of this for some reason.

Whooops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4GYg-5AdRw

 

[lxskllr]

That reminds me of this for some reason.

Whooops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4GYg-5AdRw

That was very bad :^(

There's a lesson here kids... Too much alcohol is bad for you, and it can permanently fuck up your life.

 

[Locut0s]

Some interesting stuff here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45rpm#Speeds

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

might have been more of a challenge for some if you had cut off the description part at the top.

 

[Electric Amish]

The one's I'm familiar with looked different, but yeah I know what they are.

 

[lxskllr]

might have been more of a challenge for some if you had cut off the description part at the top.

You might like this then. Who knows where you'd find this?

 

[Regs]

Retro nerdy is so hawt.

 

[Locut0s]

You might like this then. Who knows where you'd find this?

Part of a tape deck? Looks a bit like a reading head for something magnetic. Also looks like a hole punch too though. lol.

 

[hanoverphist]

Wow strange!

That reminds me of a mic preamp that I had that picked up BBC broadcasts. I had no idea until I heard radio shows mixed in with recordings. I thought I was going insane! A floating ground can do weird things!

when my bros band first started up back in the mid 80s, we didnt have a PA. so, i hooked a regular tape deck to the amp pack we already had, plugged in a mic and hit record with no cassette in the drive. instant PA. lasted about 10 shows before we blew it up lol. the sound was very tinny, but they were a punk band so it gave a cool, raw sound to their stuff.

 

[lxskllr]

Part of a tape deck? Looks a bit like a reading head for something magnetic. Also looks like a hole punch too though. lol.

The only hint I'll give is this is for people who do things themselves. I wouldn't expect everybody to know it.

 

[Rubycon]

You might like this then. Who knows where you'd find this?

Points?

They are used on small engines.