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Originally posted by jvc floyd:
i think to be a bonafied boombox it has to have a tuner/tape deck /built in speakers/battery power option.that thing looks cool tho .

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Audio Upgrade from Lo-Fi Monaural to Hi-Fi Stereo
In the original VHS format, audio was recorded as a baseband (unmodulated) in a single linear track, at the upper edge of the tape. The recorded frequency-range was dependent on the movement of the tape past the audiohead, which for the VHS SP mode, resulted in a mediocre frequency response of roughly 100 Hz to 10 kHz. The signal-to-noise ratio was an acceptable 42 dB. Both parameters degraded significantly with VHS's longer play modes, with EP frequency response peaking at 4KHz.

More expensive decks offered stereo audio recording and playback. Linear stereo, as it was called, fit two independent channels in the same space as the original mono audiotrack. While this approach preserved acceptable backward compatibility with monoaural audioheads, the splitting of the audiotrack degraded the signal's SNR to the point that audible tape-hiss was objectionable at normal listening volume. To counteract tape-hiss, decks applied Dolby B noise-reduction for recording and playback. Dolby B dynamically boosts the mid-frequency band of the audioprogram on the recorded medium, improving its signal strength relative to the tape's background noise floor, then attenuates the mid-band during playback. Dolby B is not a transparent process, and Dolby-encoded program material will exhibit an unnatural mid-range emphasis when played on non-dolby capable VCRs.

High-end consumer recorders took advantage of the linear-nature of the audiotrack, as the audiotrack could be erased and recorded without disturbing the video-portion of the recorded signal. Hence, "audio dubbing" and "video dubbing", where either the audio or video are re-recorded on tape (without disturbing the other), were supported features on prosumer editing-decks. Without dubbing capability, an audio or video edit could not be done in-place on master cassette, and requires the editing output be captured to another tape, incurring generational loss.

Studio film releases began to emerge with linear-stereo audiotracks in 1982. From that point onward nearly every home-video releases by Hollywood featured a Dolby-encoded linear-stereo audiotrack. However, linear-stereo was never popular with equipment makers or consumers.

Around 1985, JVC added HiFi audio to VHS (in response to Betamax's introduction of Beta Hi-Fi.) Both VHS HiFi and Betamax HiFi delivered flat full-range frequency-response (20 Hz to 20 kHz), excellent 70 dB S/N ratio (in consumer space, second only to the audio compact-disc), and studio-grade channel-separation (more than 70dB.) This method of VCR audio, known as audio frequency modulation (AFM), recorded each of the 2 stereo channels (L, R) on a frequency-modulated carrier, embedding the modulated audio-signal pair into the video-signal. To avoid crosstalk and interference from the primary video-carrier, VHS's implemenation of AFM relied on a form of magnetic recording called depth multiplexing. The modulated-audio carrier pair was placed under the luminance carrier (below <1.6MHz), and recorded first. Subsequently, the video-head erases and re-records the video-signal over the same tape-surface, but video-signal's higher center-frequency results in a shallower magnetization of the tape, allowing both the video and residual AFM-audio signal to coexist on tape. [PAL versions of Beta HiFi use this same technique.) During playback, VHS HiFi recovers the depth-recorded AFM-signal by subtracting the audiohead's signal [which contains the AFM-signal contaminated by a weak image of the video-signal) from the videohead's signal [which contains only the video-signal), then demodulates the left and right audio-channels from their respective frequency-carriers. The end result of the complex process was audio of outstanding fidelity, which was uniformly solid across all tape-speeds [EP or SP.) Since JVC had gone through the complexity of ensuring HiFi's backward compatibility with non-HiFi VCRs, virtually all studio home-video releases contained HiFi audiotracks [in addition to linear-stereo.)

The excellent sound quality of HiFi VHS attracted the attention of amateur and hobbyist recording artists. home recording enthusiasts occasionally recorded high-quality stereo mixdowns and master recordings from multitrack audio tape onto consumer-level HiFi VCRs. However, because the VHS HiFi recording-process is intertwined with VCR's the video-recording function, advanced editing functions such as audio-only or video-only dubbing are impossible.

The considerable complexity and additional hardware limited VHS HiFi to high-end decks for many years. While linear-stereo all but disappeared from home VHS decks, it was not until the mid-1990s that HiFi became a standard feature on VHS decks. Even then, few customers were aware of its significance.

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Originally posted by 71spud:
Wow this reminds me of how - back in the day when hi-fi VHS was released - I used to record audio only on my VHS because the sound quality was superior to standard cassettes. Worked amazingly great and gave you 2 hours of music on SP mode. However I learned the hard way that you needed to include some type of video signal so that the auto-tracking knew where to go...

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Originally posted by isolator42:People used to say that VHS HiFi Stereo was equivalent to a good FM Stereo broadcast. Definitely better than cassette.

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Both VHS HiFi and Betamax HiFi delivered flat full-range frequency-response (20 Hz to 20 kHz), excellent 70 dB S/N ratio (in consumer space, second only to the audio compact-disc), and studio-grade channel-separation (more than 70dB.)

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Originally posted by JLF:
Seriously? Music on a VCR tape?

Can someone please explain how this would be hooked up to work? ...

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Originally posted by JLF:
Seriously? Music on a VCR tape?

Can someone please explain how this would be hooked up to work?

I found this one... Anyone know what the Timer box that makes this VCR a matched pair is for?

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Originally posted by JLF:
Great link!

I love this thread... Im gonna pick up a portable and see what I can do!

Now... Just to clarify... does the Video hook up have to have something for this to work? Or can you leave that not hooked up and the audio still work? Seems to me I read that the video has to be 'involved' in order for audio to work? Even if you dont use the Video portion.

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Was there ever a video tape unit made with speakers and a monitor?