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In case you haven’t realized it by now,
this channel is called Technology Connections

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because I’ve always been fascinated by the
way innovation happens.

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When we think up new things, we’re often just making a connection between a number of concepts

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and using those connections to achieve new goals.

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I also enjoy exploring the connections we humans have to technology itself

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such as how we interact
with it and the way it changes our lives,

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or sometimes…

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doesn’t, despite monumental efforts.

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And today I have a device which fits neatly into both of these categories.

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And it’s… not this.

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You’ve seen the
thumbnail and title.

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I know you know that,

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but first we must make a Technology Connection.

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The Compact Disc was a truly revolutionary product in a number of ways.

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First,

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it spins.

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Second, it brought digital sound technology to the masses.

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And third, it wound up being
the first truly successful optical disc format,

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unequivocally proving the merit of the technology
through finding applications in everything

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from sound, to video, to software.

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Sorry, Laserdisc, but being first isn’t always best.

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Compact discs were a radical departure from
the conventional audio storage technologies

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we had at the time.

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In 1981 you had your conventional
vinyl discs, known as phonograph records --

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Please. Never. Call this.

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"A Vinyl," you heathens.

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It is a vinyl record

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-- as well as your tape formats,

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mainly the compact cassette but if you wanted to get reel fancy maybe you’ll have a reel-to-reel deck, too.

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Or perhaps you’re clinging onto
your 8-tracks like some sort of 8-track clinger.

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But in 1982 (more practically 1983)

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Sony and Philips released the fruit of their teamwork,

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the Compact Disc.

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See, it’s a disc, but smaller!

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And shinier.

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Using a laser,

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a photodiode,

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some focusy and tracky bits,

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a spoonful of signal analysis,

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a few quarts of quantization,

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some exciting error correction algorithms,

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a dash of data parsing and finally

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a delightful digital to analog converter (DAC),

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you’ll experience sound like never before.

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I made a bunch of videos about the compact disc
which you can check out in that playlist.

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As time wore on and we got better at making
the mechanisms which read the disc,

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we found we could make them more compact.

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Of course Sony had their famous Discman compact compact disc players, and so did everybody else,

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but along with smaller transports came ways to automate the changing of discs.

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In the late ‘80s CD changers started to appear on the market, many using magazines,

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with a particular
niche establishing itself in the automotive world.

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The idea of setting up a sequence of discs
to play one after another wasn’t new at all,

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in fact for decades record changers were a thing.

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I also made a video about those!

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They were responsible for the record sets you might have come across which have their sides

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in a seemingly weird order.

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In fact, that order makes perfect sense
for stacking changers.

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So, naturally, as CDs became more popular, CD changers became desirable.

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And the alternative to a magazine-based CD
changer was the soon-to-be-popular carousel changer.

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With these, you can load up to five discs (usually) to be played one after another or even randomly,

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and some like this one even allow you to load new discs as the one it’s playing is playing.

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These work by placing
the actual CD transport deep within the machine,

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and a specialized disc tray holds the discs
on a motorized turntable.

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To change discs, the player simply releases the disc it’s
playing

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and spins the turntable to move a new one into position.

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Then one day, somebody at Fisher thought to
themselves…

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"Turntable!

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Tuuuurntable.

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Record players have those.

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What if…"

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and then this happened.

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This is a Fisher DAC-145,

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a very clever if a bit silly device.

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A combination
5 disc CD changer and standard phonograph.

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It seems to have been released in 1990, though
I have found a reference to it as far back as 1988.

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It was also available as a component
of the 9025 system;

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you might therefore find this device existing as a DAC-9025, but it’s the same thing.

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Now, Fisher Electronics began life as an American
company manufacturing audio equipment.

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Founded by amateur violinist-turned philanthropist
Avery Fisher in 1945,

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they specialized in hi-fi gear and were pretty significant in their early years.

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Among their accomplishments were the first solid state hi-fi receiver

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and also the precursor to the component systems this very product was a part of,

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introducing combination turntables and radio receivers.

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Their early products used the tradename “The
Fisher”

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but at some point they dropped the The.

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Fisher the person sold the company to
Emerson Electric in 1969,

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and apparently distributed a lot of the proceeds to his employees.

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Cool dude.

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Then in 1977, Emerson got bored with it and
sold Fisher to Sanyo

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and from that point on, Fisher was a brand of Sanyo.

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At least until
Panasonic then bought Sanyo,

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and now it seems they can’t be bothered with the brand.

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Anyway, that means that really, this thing was made by Sanyo,

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and though I have admittedly not
looked super deeply,

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I can’t seem to find an equivalent Sanyo model so it looks like it was produced for the US-market only

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under the Fisher brand.

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Underneath the dust cover you will find…

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a very bizarre looking layout.

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You have what is clearly a tone-arm to the right,

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and what looks to be another superlatively girthy tone-arm to the left.

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The turntable looks like nothing
that could possibly belong in a record player, though.

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It’s full of holes, and a bit bigger
than it needs to be.

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But, no doubt about it, that’s a turntable!

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It’s got a silver spindle in the center, and we even have a space for your all-important 45 RPM adapter.

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You will find two buttons up here, a speed
select button toggling between 33 and 45 ripms,

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and a mode selector button which toggles between
the oh-so-fancily spelt analogue

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(very chic, very European)

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and CD.

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The power is on now,
and if I unclip the tone-arm from its resting place,

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there goes the turntable.

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If I put a record on it, you can see that the record doesn’t quite go to the edges.

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And you might
also notice another glaring problem

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that we’ll get back to.

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Every time you turn it on, it powers up in
record playing mode, ready to play a record.

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In this mode, the player’s display simply
shows the word

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“uh-NAH-lo-guay” to the right of a teeny tiny record player icon

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(it took me longer than I care to admit to realize that that wasn’t just a stylized numeral 1)

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and of course it also indicates which speed it will spin at.

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Because this thing is in fact a functional
phonograph.

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It even features automatic tone-arm return.

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How fancy.

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But of course, there’s
a lot more going on here.

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There are five spots for compact discs to go, complete with handy dandy labels.

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Now if you know a thing or two about compact discs,

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you’ll know that we should find a laser pickup mechanism of some sort under one of those cutouts.

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However, it appears we don’t.

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I can spin this by hand quite easily, and nowhere do we find a laser’s objective lens to cavalierly touch.

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Ah but hit that mode switch to switch into
CD mode (annoyingly spelled in boring US english)

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and watch what happens.

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Nothing.

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OK but instead
let’s put a disc in the disc 1 position

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and now select disc 1 on the front panel and
hit play.

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Now the turntable moves but in a slower and more deliberate fashion,

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and brings disc one near to the girthy tone-arm.

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Once it stops, that tone arm slides over the disc
automatically,

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and as it does so we can see a little shutter move from under the disc, to the adjacent space.

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That exposes the transport hiding beneath, and the CD gets lifted up into the arm’s embrace.

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It starts spinning, and now witness the miracle of the Compact Disc.

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See, that tone arm wasn’t really a tone
arm.

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You probably knew that, but I appreciate the symmetry of the design here.

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The way these…

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shoulders I guess flank the disc tray table is a nice visual touch.

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In reality the left arm contains the upper half of the CD transport’s disc clamp.

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See, aside from transports like
these where you snap the disc onto the spindle,

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in general an optical disc transport will
have a motorized spindle below the disc which spins it,

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and a receiving dead spindle above it
which the disc gets sandwiched between.

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That helps ensure it’s centered correctly and
can spin easily.

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And this is no exception. Most if not all
tray-loading drives work this way.

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But unlike a conventional disc changer which has a fixed
disc clamp

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and a spindle which moves up and down to grab hold of or release the disc,

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this machine moves both the spindle and the receiving clamp.

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This allows the entire CD mechanism to be completely out of the way for playing a record.

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The disc tray table
can therefore be a literal turntable,

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and all it takes to make that play a record is
a tone-arm and a phonograph cartridge.

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Oh but not so fast, already we have a bit
of weirdness to explain.

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Every other carousel changer out there doesn’t need to bother with moving the carousel at all gracefully.

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It can be a sloppy ol’ plastic gear train
with a terrible motor and horrible bearings,

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and so long as it can move well nothing else really matters.

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But if you plan to use the carousel as a phonograph turntable too,

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that ain’t gonna cut it.

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You need it to move very smoothly so you don’t get flutter from the record.

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And so, this is in fact made like a proper
turntable.

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You can actually remove the disc tray,

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or, I guess, platter

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simply by pulling up on it and you'll  reveal that it’s driven
by a belt much like many record players out there.

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They even provide a rear access hole
to help with changing the belt.

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And this makes it even more intriguing.

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See, every other
record player just needs to spin the turntable

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at two maybe three speeds .
But this one can’t just spin it,

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it also needs fine control to turn it slowly and stop
it correctly for the CD mechanism.

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Which of course means that the device needs some way
to know the absolute position of the turntable as well.

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That’s done through these index markings which ride between an LED and photodiode beneath the platter.

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Each disc position has a unique
pattern, allowing it to know in as little

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as one fifth of a rotation exactly where it
is, and I suspect it also uses these markings

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as feedback for the speed of the platter when
playing a record.

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It’s actually quite a shame that Sanyo chose not to support 16 ⅔ RPM records

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as it seems totally possible given the wide range of control it has over turntable speed and position.

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And yes, it does in fact

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use the turntable motor and belt drive to
turn the tray table in CD mode.

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If you noticed these gears near the center, those are simply for returning the tone arm.

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There's a bit of an odd quirk, though.

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You might have caught that something engaged when it switched into CD mode.

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Listen carefully.

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[clunk occurs right before tray starts to move]

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And you’ll also notice that rather than spinning freely,

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there’s a click now as each CD position passes the reader.

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That definitely wasn’t there when it was playing a record.

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This was puzzling to me until I tried engaging CD mode with the plattertray removed.

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This little nubbin thing moves outward,

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that’s what we hear being engaged,

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and you’ll find that it rides against this ridge which has an indentation at each position, causing that click.

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I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of
this is exactly.

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00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:29,580
It may be simply to provide mechanical alignment with the tray table

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to ensure it stops in the full upright position,

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but if that’s its task it doesn’t do a great
job of it.

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You’ll see that as the CD reader lifts up it nudges the platter tray a bit,

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so clearly it didn’t stop exactly where it should have.

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00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:47,130
My other leading theory is
simply that it needs to add some resistance

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in order to be able to stop it precisely.

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00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:53,820
With the belt removed you can see that, thanks to a decent bearing design,

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the disc platter spins with very little resistance as any decent turntable should,

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00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:03,620
and perhaps that’s just too
loosey-goosey for the precision world of Compact Disc.

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Oh, and I’m sure many of you want to know
this;

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Can you leave CDs in place and play a record?

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00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:10,300
Why, of course you can!

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00:12:10,300 --> 00:12:13,730
Records sit quite
a bit higher than the CDs so you can leave

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as many CDs on there as you like and still
listen to your vinyl.

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See, that’s an appropriate use of the term "vinyl", you can have a collection of vinyl,

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but individual discs are not vinyls,

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GOT IT?

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Anyway, I must say that the sight of five CDs going for a spin at 45 RPM is mighty hilarious.

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You might also wonder what happens when you
try to play one of those CDs while a record

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00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:37,500
is still on the turntable.

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00:12:37,500 --> 00:12:41,640
Well, because the record
sits so much higher, as the CD player arm

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00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:46,740
attempts to move into position, it slams right
into its edge and can’t move.

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00:12:46,740 --> 00:12:52,060
After realizing the mechanism never made it to its final destination in time, it reverses the direction,

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00:12:52,060 --> 00:12:54,780
gives up, and switches back to analogue mode.

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00:12:54,780 --> 00:12:56,400
No harm no foul.

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00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:57,720
Oh, and, by the way

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00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:02,020
you don’t have to press the mode selector button to
switch it into CD mode.

221
00:13:02,020 --> 00:13:05,040
It will do that whenever you select a disc with the front panel,

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00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:11,620
so it’s not like if you leave some CDs up there you’ll have to open the dust cover every time you turn it on.

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00:13:11,620 --> 00:13:13,440
And, well, it will also

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switch back to analog mode whenever you move the tone arm out of its park position

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00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:20,720
so in fact that button up there is completely redundant.

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I must admit this device is quite clever,
and a delight to behold.

227
00:13:24,980 --> 00:13:30,340
I mean, ten-year-old me would be thrilled to see a CD spinning in the air like that.

228
00:13:30,340 --> 00:13:32,820
That’s objectively cool on its own.

229
00:13:32,820 --> 00:13:37,240
So much so that Fisher sold
variants of this model which couldn't play records

230
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:40,200
and were instead just unique CD changers.

231
00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:45,740
That probably explains these gear teeth under here that don’t engage with anything at all on this model.

232
00:13:45,740 --> 00:13:50,300
On those other models, including the DAC-143 and its component system brother

233
00:13:50,300 --> 00:13:52,580
the DAC-9115,

234
00:13:52,580 --> 00:13:56,440
there's probably a gear engaged with those teeth to spin the tray.

235
00:13:56,440 --> 00:14:00,620
Interestingly,
those models place the upper clamp in a fixed position

236
00:14:00,620 --> 00:14:03,680
and move the CD mechanism to the
center-rear.

237
00:14:03,680 --> 00:14:08,320
Sadly they made the clamp much larger, so I’m not sure how much of the disc

238
00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:11,660
is actually visible while it's playing, if any.

239
00:14:11,660 --> 00:14:15,540
But notice that the clamp extends
over the center of the disc tray,

240
00:14:15,540 --> 00:14:20,860
likely to hide that center spindle which I suspect is
*absolutely* still there

241
00:14:20,860 --> 00:14:25,520
and that it’s the same exact part, minus the rubber feet which grip the record.

242
00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:30,600
Which, appropriately, leads us neatly into
the discussion about this device’s merit.

243
00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:36,440
Just because an idea is clever or cool doesn’t
mean it’s useful or even good.

244
00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,060
As a CD player, this is perfectly fine.

245
00:14:39,060 --> 00:14:41,772
It has all the features
of any other 5 disc changer,

246
00:14:41,780 --> 00:14:45,780
including the ability to change discs while another is playing because…

247
00:14:46,500 --> 00:14:47,820
well they’re all right there.

248
00:14:47,820 --> 00:14:51,340
Just... just grab one and swap it out.

249
00:14:51,340 --> 00:14:55,700
As far as sound quality, well you’ve only
got standard RCA jacks for output so you’re

250
00:14:55,709 --> 00:14:59,880
stuck with its internal DAC, but honestly aside from
hardcore audiophiles

251
00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:01,540
that’s not gonna bother anyone.

252
00:15:01,540 --> 00:15:05,180
Your average person with a HiFi is
gonna hook their CD player up this way,

253
00:15:05,180 --> 00:15:07,180
doesn’t even know what TOSLINK is,

254
00:15:07,180 --> 00:15:10,480
and will be perfectly
dazzled by this marketing babble.

255
00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:10,980
I mean,

256
00:15:10,980 --> 00:15:13,940
who wouldn’t want an 18-bit 8 times oversampling digital filter

257
00:15:13,940 --> 00:15:17,340
and dual 16-bit linear high speed D/A converters?

258
00:15:17,340 --> 00:15:19,380
As a record player, though…

259
00:15:19,380 --> 00:15:21,140
ehh it’s not fantastic.

260
00:15:21,140 --> 00:15:22,760
So, first; grip.

261
00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:27,020
That's the problem I referenced a long time ago when you saw this.

262
00:15:27,020 --> 00:15:31,400
There is hardly any contact between the turntable and the record.

263
00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:35,200
It’s just these five little
feet, and this rather small center puck thing

264
00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:39,720
which, by the way, is itself not solidly attached
to the turntable.

265
00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:43,240
Pretty much any record is gonna slip when the turntable starts and stops,

266
00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:47,600
and some like this picture disc do so an almost alarming amount.

267
00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:51,120
Now, in fairness,
that’s generally not harmful to a record

268
00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:55,880
as the sound is in the grooves not on them,
but it means that the record itself is

269
00:15:55,880 --> 00:16:00,600
pretty much the only thing providing noise and flutter
isolating mass.

270
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:08,080
Even if it had a really nice grip, the turnplatter is itself very light, and the entire device is, too.

271
00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:12,300
This is not prosumer gear by any
stretch of the imagination.

272
00:16:12,300 --> 00:16:13,400
It’s cheap.

273
00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:17,580
But, as many of you may know, I don’t get
along all that well with audiophiles

274
00:16:17,580 --> 00:16:20,040
because I say things like this;

275
00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:22,120
it sounds fine, though.

276
00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:27,040
Yep, I have but one complaint, honestly, about its sound - 
the cartridge is a little tinny

277
00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:28,980
and could use better bass response.

278
00:16:28,980 --> 00:16:33,640
But I don’t hear any flutter, the speed is correct,
and clarity is perfectly fine.

279
00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:37,140
I wouldn’t mind this being my only way to play a record.

280
00:16:37,140 --> 00:16:40,860
Go ahead and revoke my audiophile card, I didn’t want it anyway.

281
00:16:40,860 --> 00:16:45,560
Want a sample? Well, thanks to Anders Enger
Jensen we have one right here;

282
00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,340
[electronic music fades in; Discovision]
"Now I'd like to show you some of the valuable things

283
00:16:48,340 --> 00:16:50,400
your MCA Discovision system lets you do"

284
00:16:51,660 --> 00:16:53,460
"Most persons find it more convenient"

285
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,680
"Gently pull up as you press down on the center cap with your thumb"

286
00:16:58,640 --> 00:16:59,860
"You'll hear a click"

287
00:17:00,380 --> 00:17:02,780
[instrumental portion]

288
00:17:03,300 --> 00:17:06,040
Here it is loaded up with 5 CDs, too.

289
00:17:06,620 --> 00:17:08,640
"h-h-h-how 'bout that, pretty easy isn't it?"

290
00:17:09,860 --> 00:17:13,960
[another instrumental section]

291
00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:16,920
"D- D- D- D-

292
00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:17,800
Discovision!"

293
00:17:22,620 --> 00:17:25,980
"This red light comes on, simply press STOP"

294
00:17:26,660 --> 00:17:29,580
And now just with two CDs on one side.

295
00:17:29,900 --> 00:17:33,800
"After I've stopped the action, you're going to practice using these buttons"

296
00:17:34,740 --> 00:17:37,580
"The Discovision player gives you many special capabilities"

297
00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:38,580
"Stop

298
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:39,700
Play

299
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:41,720
Slow; forward and reverse"

300
00:17:42,740 --> 00:17:45,800
"Imagine a dog chasing a rabbit around a tree"

301
00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:48,780
"How can you get there in a hurry?"

302
00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:52,400
[instrumentals resume, then speed suddenly changes]

303
00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:54,720
Oh right, that.

304
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:57,320
Ahh, this unit is a bit faulty
in a couple of ways.

305
00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:01,500
One is that the switch which activates the turntable when you move the tone arm

306
00:18:01,500 --> 00:18:05,100
is a little messed up, and rather frequently it thinks you’ve put it back

307
00:18:05,100 --> 00:18:08,000
for a brief moment leading to… 
[music fades in, then slips drastically]

308
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:08,580
that.

309
00:18:08,580 --> 00:18:14,429
The other thing is that in CD mode it rather frequently
gets stuck in this loop where it stops at

310
00:18:14,429 --> 00:18:17,580
the correct disc, but then decides it should
go for another spin.

311
00:18:17,580 --> 00:18:22,660
It can do this up to a dozen times before it finally decides to engage the transport.

312
00:18:22,660 --> 00:18:27,999
Luckily, once it’s done that, it doesn’t have a problem going from disc to disc as it leaves the upper clamp

313
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:29,180
in position.

314
00:18:29,180 --> 00:18:32,620
But anyway, back to the real problem with
this thing.

315
00:18:32,620 --> 00:18:34,860
Who is this for?

316
00:18:34,860 --> 00:18:37,780
What problem does this solve?

317
00:18:37,780 --> 00:18:42,960
Consider that by 1990, conventional
vinyl records were pretty close to over.

318
00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:47,860
Yes, they never went away and have seen quite a resurgence in the last decade and a half,

319
00:18:47,860 --> 00:18:51,300
but there was a time when they weren’t fashionable at
all

320
00:18:51,300 --> 00:18:55,060
and the early nineties through to the early aughts was that time.

321
00:18:55,060 --> 00:18:59,180
It was compact
disc for the home, maaaaybe cassettes for the car,

322
00:18:59,180 --> 00:19:02,080
and vinyl for your grandparents.

323
00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:08,060
If you had a collection of vinyl already, well then
you almost certainly already had a turntable!

324
00:19:08,060 --> 00:19:13,120
So, when it came time to get with it and buy
a totally rad CD player,

325
00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:17,600
you didn’t need another turntable so this device has no appeal to you.

326
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:24,220
There’s a small potential argument for space savings, but it’s not like a CD changer was a mandatory item.

327
00:19:24,220 --> 00:19:28,649
Yes, they were quite popular, and I’d imagine for
a time they represented the majority of HiFi

328
00:19:28,649 --> 00:19:32,880
component sales, but if you were sensitive
to space requirements

329
00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:37,240
you would probably forgo that option and get a smaller single-disc player.

330
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:42,960
Heck, you could even get a Discman and save even more space, plus get a portable player, too.

331
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:51,340
Also, this thing is not small by any stretch - tons of much better turntables are nowhere near this big.

332
00:19:51,340 --> 00:19:57,700
And finally, if you’re buying a component system, space
is clearly not a huge problem for you anyway.

333
00:19:57,700 --> 00:20:00,200
But it is… very neat.

334
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,680
And I suspect that
made for a meaningful point of differentiation

335
00:20:03,690 --> 00:20:07,540
for shoppers looking at entirely new HiFi
systems.

336
00:20:07,540 --> 00:20:13,960
If you’re building a system from the ground-up, then this device is quite logical in addition to dazzling.

337
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:18,100
I do however wonder how many people looking for a new system in 1990

338
00:20:18,100 --> 00:20:20,520
even cared about being able to play records.

339
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:23,140
One of the many reasons I wish I had a time
machine.

340
00:20:23,140 --> 00:20:28,940
But I can say that from personal experience, records were not a thing in my childhood.

341
00:20:28,940 --> 00:20:31,920
The first time I ever played one was in middle school,

342
00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:35,330
and me and this device
are in the same ballpark of age.

343
00:20:35,330 --> 00:20:39,780
Regardless, although I suspect the venn diagram
overlap between new system shoppers,

344
00:20:39,780 --> 00:20:41,560
five-disc CD changer seekers,

345
00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:47,049
and people who still wanted to play records in 1990 was pretty small,

346
00:20:47,049 --> 00:20:51,970
to people in that niche it’s an excellent
option, though with a compromised turntable

347
00:20:51,970 --> 00:20:54,380
(not that my ears are good enough to care).

348
00:20:54,380 --> 00:20:59,480
However, I must add here that I think Fisher really missed the mark by not including

349
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:01,620
a pre-amp for the record cartridge.

350
00:21:01,620 --> 00:21:06,559
It has two separate outputs for the CD player and the
phonograph, and because there’s no preamp

351
00:21:06,559 --> 00:21:10,999
you need an amplifier with a dedicated phono
input. Of course, the component system this

352
00:21:10,999 --> 00:21:16,299
belonged to had one, and they were common
at the time, but I still think it was a miss.

353
00:21:16,299 --> 00:21:20,249
It forces you to change the amplifier’s
input when you switch between modes when that

354
00:21:20,249 --> 00:21:22,720
could have been solved in the device itself.

355
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:27,760
On a holistic level though, this device is
clearly one of those things that,

356
00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:32,380
while it could be done, didn’t need to be done.

357
00:21:32,380 --> 00:21:38,920
It doesn’t really solve a problem and while I’m sure it’s not like the R&D costs to build it were tremendous,

358
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,580
I do wonder if Fishyo took a loss on it.

359
00:21:41,580 --> 00:21:45,679
The CD transport mechanism
in this model is unique to it, as it uses

360
00:21:45,679 --> 00:21:51,980
a single motor and gear train to move the
arm, shutter, nubbin thing, and transport up and down.

361
00:21:51,980 --> 00:21:58,160
I know because I had to deal with
its belt that had gone to goo.

362
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:03,100
Maybe that’s easier to design and manufacture than I imagine, but my business sense tells me

363
00:22:03,100 --> 00:22:06,540
that the ROI on this was was probably pretty weak.

364
00:22:06,540 --> 00:22:12,460
And the derivative models that shared this design but
couldn’t also play records were…

365
00:22:12,460 --> 00:22:14,100
bad CD changers.

366
00:22:14,100 --> 00:22:19,080
Again, novel, but who wants to need
to access it from the top?

367
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:24,399
This model gets away with it because that’s just how
record players do but forcing that

368
00:22:24,399 --> 00:22:28,300
design onto a CD-only player... is dumb.

369
00:22:28,300 --> 00:22:32,380
The entire reason VCRs went from top-loading to front loading

370
00:22:32,380 --> 00:22:35,940
was because people like to put
things on top of other things.

371
00:22:35,940 --> 00:22:40,940
And so, in a HiFi, the record player usually ends up
on the top.

372
00:22:40,940 --> 00:22:45,560
With this design, you really couldn’t also have a record player unless you had a

373
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:48,660
wide-enough space to put them side by side.

374
00:22:48,660 --> 00:22:54,860
Or you, just for fun, had a tray-loading record
player and this top-loading CD player.

375
00:22:54,860 --> 00:22:58,249
Which, let’s be honest, is totally something I
would do.

376
00:22:58,249 --> 00:23:05,020
But anyway, again, I find myself back to saying
that while this is a Certifiably Neat HiFi Gadget,

377
00:23:05,020 --> 00:23:11,799
it fails to actually solve a problem in a meaningful way.
That meant that of course it had a small target market.

378
00:23:11,799 --> 00:23:17,269
It’s mainly just flashy. And while
Fishyo definitely made a good call by adapting

379
00:23:17,269 --> 00:23:22,859
the core design into multiple models to spread
the development costs out, those models themselves

380
00:23:22,860 --> 00:23:28,360
required their buyers to value flashy design
more than they do practical considerations.

381
00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:31,940
This is a very frustrating device to me.

382
00:23:31,940 --> 00:23:35,660
Upon first glance you think, “oh wow, what a neat idea!”

383
00:23:35,660 --> 00:23:37,960
and on second glance you see
it in action and go

384
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,520
“Woah, that’s so cool!”

385
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:41,740
(when it works)

386
00:23:41,740 --> 00:23:46,260
But when you start to look at it objectively,
it makes less and less sense.

387
00:23:46,260 --> 00:23:51,929
I would totally love to get it working properly and use it
in my main HiFi system because who wouldn’t

388
00:23:51,929 --> 00:23:57,129
want to see this whenever you play a CD, but
I don’t like the record player’s cartridge

389
00:23:57,129 --> 00:24:02,179
(though I suppose that could be changed) and
I also just don’t particularly care for

390
00:24:02,179 --> 00:24:03,780
its design otherwise.

391
00:24:03,780 --> 00:24:09,070
It’s... it's too busy, visually,
and I really cannot stand the layout of these

392
00:24:09,070 --> 00:24:11,660
transport buttons. Like, at all.

393
00:24:11,660 --> 00:24:17,440
I hate how small stop is, and that it’s between track forward and back.

394
00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:19,440
Ugh, it’s just so bad.

395
00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:22,020
I’m also not a huge fan of its display.

396
00:24:22,020 --> 00:24:26,040
This is certainly 100% personal preference territory,

397
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:30,400
but while I of course love the fact that it’s
a vacuum fluorescent display (and am happy

398
00:24:30,409 --> 00:24:35,380
it’s clear and bright on this example) I
don’t really like how it’s laid out.

399
00:24:35,380 --> 00:24:41,729
Track time elapsed is really small, though I appreciate
that you can change it to time remaining among

400
00:24:41,729 --> 00:24:44,260
other settings with the display button.

401
00:24:44,260 --> 00:24:47,519
Though,
I really don’t like how the default state

402
00:24:47,519 --> 00:24:52,279
insists on leaving the word "each" floating
over there. And while I commend Fisher for

403
00:24:52,279 --> 00:24:57,299
bothering to put an index display next to
it, I actually think it makes the design too

404
00:24:57,299 --> 00:25:02,210
busy and they should have just left it out. The
index, for those unaware, is a subdivision

405
00:25:02,210 --> 00:25:06,120
of a track which was extremely rarely used
in CDs

406
00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:09,320
so this will read "01" essentially forever,

407
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:13,380
and therefore I think it would be better to just... make it go away.

408
00:25:13,380 --> 00:25:18,480
Or at least, they should have had the time display the same size as the disc and track indicator.

409
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:20,660
Ehhh.. I just don’t like it.

410
00:25:20,660 --> 00:25:22,500
But am I getting rid of this?

411
00:25:22,500 --> 00:25:24,920
No! It’s just way too cool.

412
00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:31,720
I mean, I love the idea of combining devices like this and think that it's done in an extremely clever way here.

413
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:36,180
One day I will fix that switch and will get this going in a secondary HiFi system or something

414
00:25:36,180 --> 00:25:40,460
because it is certainly a treat to use, despite my qualms with it.

415
00:25:40,460 --> 00:25:43,520
But I’m also not afraid
to say that on the whole

416
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,860
this wasn’t the best idea out there.

417
00:25:45,860 --> 00:25:49,739
I’m glad it exists,
and that I get to share this fun novelty with you,

418
00:25:49,739 --> 00:25:53,520
but it’s easy to see why this didn’t
exactly take the world by storm.

419
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,640
It was just too niche, too late, and full of compromises.

420
00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:03,320
Thanks for watching, and a big thanks to AmEv7Fam
on Twitter for bringing this device to my attention.

421
00:26:03,330 --> 00:26:08,690
I had no idea these were ever made, and find
the concept absolutely fascinating.

422
00:26:08,690 --> 00:26:11,700
If mostly questionable.

423
00:26:11,700 --> 00:26:16,100
I’m willing to bet, though,
that this device is just waiting for its own renaissance.

424
00:26:16,100 --> 00:26:19,500
I’ve thought for a while now
that it won’t be too long before the CD

425
00:26:19,500 --> 00:26:23,880
gets the same resurgence that vinyl and lately
the cassette have enjoyed.

426
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:29,540
If and when that happens, maybe this is gonna make more sense than it ever has.

427
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,000
♫ combinational smooth jazz ♫

428
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:39,460
The compact disc was a truly revolutionary
product in a… oh I should totally be holding one

429
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:41,880
And third, it would end up.. Ehh bibuduh

430
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:44,300
It would up‽

431
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:47,100
Wound up!

432
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:52,300
Underneath the dust cover you will find…
a very creaky dust cover

433
00:26:52,300 --> 00:26:55,680
Well, because the record sits so much higher
ah…

434
00:26:56,380 --> 00:26:57,680
Fah there’s a comma!

435
00:26:58,020 --> 00:27:03,780
This thing is in fact… Because this thing
is in fact a functional phonograph.

436
00:27:04,980 --> 00:27:08,000
Even though it’s not behaving right right now.

437
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,340
Because this thing is in fact a functional
phonograph.

438
00:27:12,340 --> 00:27:14,460
[laughs]

439
00:27:14,460 --> 00:27:16,440
Ugh! Why is it doing this now?

440
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:18,380
Ok, we’re gonna turn you off and
on again.

441
00:27:20,220 --> 00:27:24,100
Did you notice how I said "rather frequently" twice within like three sentences?

442
00:27:24,100 --> 00:27:28,700
I certainly did, but of course not during the MULTIPLE days of script work and revision.

443
00:27:28,700 --> 00:27:32,160
Only during the video edit, when it was way too late.

444
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:33,760
So it goes.