Martin sports his Sharp CF-5656 boombox at a Grandmaster Flash concert in Vienna, Austria. There’s no mistake that “old skool” rap has made a comeback. I will have to find my fat-laced Pumas and Kongol in the attic. Hmm, Grandmaster Flash in Vienna shouldn’t be too surprising. Remember Falco making it big in the US?
Another model in the Marantz “Gold Line,” this is the PMS-3500. Like the 6000, this one also has that home audio feel, and we can guess that tuner knob has a weighted flywheel.
Why is this little thing here? Well, the Aiwa CS-M1 is significant for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s the very first portable stereo to contain a micro-cassette instead of a standard size one. Secondly, Aiwa marketed this model to women, thinking the small shape and attractive look would make it a hit.
This Sony CFS-D7 had an almost unheard of feature for its day–digital tuning! The Sony product line was strong in the early ’80s. Unlike most manufacturers’ releases, their models seemed to shrink as the ’70s ended and the ’80s endured. This one sold for around $500 back in 1981.
Why is this man smiling? Bill is the proud owner of several large, glitzy ghettoblasters, including this Conion C-100F. But that’s not the only reason he’s grinning: he sold a system just like this one for US$700! We’re clearly in a seller’s market for boomboxes. We’re only praying that sales gurus at Sony, Panasonic, Aiwa and Sharp are viewing this site and thinking…
In the US, these surface under the Conion line, in Canada they appear as Clairtone. This Clairtone 7980 is an incredible piece in Chris’ collection, who resides in North Bay, Ontario. Here are the stats directly from the owner: a three-way speaker system, SIX speakers. The woofers are 8″, output power: 22.5 watts/channel. Tuner is FM/AM/SW1/SW2, the FM tuner is excellent. the tuning knob has a flywheel weight!! Cassette 1 is record/play and has programmable song search There is an LED-animated tape travel display. Cassette 2 is play only and has auto-reverse. Thanks Chris!!
I’d classify Mike Goode as a portable audio expert, as his collection is varied and large, and includes this Pioneer SK-21. Says Mike, “I can also tell you that the cassette boom-box initially appeared earlier than known here, I grew-up overseas in the old Panama Canal Zone, my father worked for the US. Government then. Panama due to the canal and commercialy strategic location was a re-distribution point for literally hundreds of Japanese brands being distributed through a free-zone to all of America, consequently, you could find a myriad of electronic products that never made it to the US.”
Canon was a big player in the calculator industry throughout the ’80s. This LC-34T was one of many models that had functionality beyond the standard mathematic calculations. It also had a clock with an alarm.
We must thank Thomas Fears of Rochester, NY for this week’s Magical Gadget. Thomas picked this Micro-Walkman up in Japan. Its silver finished and raised lettering indicate this was made during the hey-day of the quality-built portables. The micro-cassette is probably nearing extinction, becoming replaced with digital recording CD-Rs and the mini disc. But back in the late ’70s and well into the ’80s, the micro-cassette was a godsend for travelling businessmen, press people and size-conscious audio folks. Micro-cassette recorders offered all sorts of features, including stereo-recording, auto-reverse and in the case of Thomas’ Micro-Walkman, FM tuning. This incredible little gadget had an FM tuner in a micro-cassette shaped case, so you could listen to the radio, or remove it and record. This little module appears to be all-metal also and even has a little LED indicator for stereo reception! This idea was well executed in standard size audio-cassette walkmans in the early ’80s, but the M-50 is the only micro-cassette with such a tuner. Thanks Thomas!
With its gold color and fold-out turntable, this Marantz PMS 6000 is exotic. Controls are up top, as is the cassette deck and AM/FM tuner. The PMS Series was was promoted under the manufacturer’s Gold series audio components in 1982.
