Record cleaning

[m. zillch]

I think I also finally figured out what most young people mean by an amp/dac with a "warm" sound. It is short for "gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling". This explains how products with a dead flat frequency response they can still break down into categories they deem "warm" and "not warm".

 

[Squishman]

You are correct about the ultrasonic remotes. My parents purchased a home from a friend and the house had a black and white Zenith TV in the basement. He had removed the TV from its cabinet and cut a hole in the wall so that the TV was mounted flush in-wall. There was a 60 gallon aquarium installed above the TV, also custom fitted flush in the wall. No danger there. The TV used one of those ultrasonic remotes for channel and volume. We got a real kick out of it as kids. Pretty sure that old TV still worked when they sold the place.

I remember the mechanical remotes. Where it had an interior hammer that hit different chimes depending on which button you pressed. You had to press a button rather deliberately to get a proper chime. I cannot recall how many buttons. Maybe 2 or 4 maximum.

 

[Eppie]

I remember the mechanical remotes. Where it had an interior hammer that hit different chimes depending on which button you pressed. You had to press a button rather deliberately to get a proper chime. I cannot recall how many buttons. Maybe 2 or 4 maximum.

Yes, you had to press pretty hard to trigger the hammer. It required a separate button and tuned rod for each function, so 4 buttons for volume up/down and channel up/down.

 

[dlaloum]

My parents called the frig an "ice box" and remote controls "clickers". I guess some of the early ones made ultrasonic tones by striking chimes or metal bars tuned to different frequencies and humans heard mostly the thump/click of that striking but not the ultrasonic ringing itself?

One of the earliest TVs with remote was some sort of flashlight-like system (possibly using light frequencies undetectable to human vision?) where depending on which corner of your TV you aimed the remote the signal was interpreted as, for example, "channel up/down" or "power on/off".

My Grandparents TV had a "clicker" - the channel up down button would activate a motorised system that would turn the large and heavy channel knob on the TV, as it changed channel there was a clearly audible thump, thump, thump as it rotated through the channels.

The term was very apt at the time! - Later TV's where there was no mechanical involvement and therefore mechanical sounds associated with remote control, lost that link... (and remotes stopped being called "clickers")

 

[Squishman]

My Grandparents TV had a "clicker" - the channel up down button would activate a motorised system that would turn the large and heavy channel knob on the TV, as it changed channel there was a clearly audible thump, thump, thump as it rotated through the channels.

The term was very apt at the time! - Later TV's where there was no mechanical involvement and therefore mechanical sounds associated with remote control, lost that link... (and remotes stopped being called "clickers")

Except my dad. He called the TV remote a clicker for as long as I can remember. I never thought of the correlation until now.

 

[lovinthehd]

I remember the mechanical remotes. Where it had an interior hammer that hit different chimes depending on which button you pressed. You had to press a button rather deliberately to get a proper chime. I cannot recall how many buttons. Maybe 2 or 4 maximum.

So they were sound actuated? I remember the stiff mechanical switch remotes but don't remember chimes. After a while I also remember that my parents found it easier to order one of us kids to just go change the channel/volume rather than fuss with the remote

 

[Squishman]

So they were sound actuated? I remember the stiff mechanical switch remotes but don't remember chimes. After a while I also remember that my parents found it easier to order one of us kids to just go change the channel/volume rather than fuss with the remote

Yes. I remember my friend's dad had one in around 1975. The TV and remote may have been 15 years or more earlier. Could be from mid to late 50's or thereabouts would be just a guess. I do not know how they worked on the receiving end.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yes. I remember my friend's dad had one in around 1975. The TV and remote may have been 15 years or more earlier. Could be from mid to late 50's or thereabouts would be just a guess. I do not know how they worked on the receiving end.

LOL went looking, didn't know how those old ones worked https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+did+early+tv+remotes+work&atb=v452-1&ia=web&assist=true

 

[m. zillch]

Battery-free remotes? No need to waste time swapping out dead batteries at a critical moment mid-movie?
I'm in!