A B&O boombox? Sure, if your ghetto happens to be Beverly Hills or St. Moritz. Indeed, audio snobs will scoff us for placing this on the site, the BeoSystem 10 stereo cassette recorder merits notice. The sleek, minimalist design and hefty price tag is typical Bang & Olufsen, but very much unlike any other portable stereo of the period.
Crown is a long time audio component manufacturer. Rumor has it they may even be responsible for selling the very first boombox back around 1971 or so. Our friend Jens from Germany was nice enough to send us a pic of his massive mid ’80s Crown SZ-5100, laden with graphics and LEDs. Check out the tiny condenser microphones mounted up top!
There’s no doubt that Jens is a devoted boombox enthusiast. We must thank him for his terrific additions to the site, including this Tecsonic Mach8800. The chrome trim, six speakers and twin cassettes make this model pleasing to the eye.
What a shame–Dave found this defaced Helix for cheap, but will require great effort to restore. We’re guessing this was modified for some sort of theatrical production, as the lower cassette has been covered and painted. The Helix name is a well-known one for boomboxes, but we have yet to find the brand on anything except portable stereo.
Another Crown courtesy of Jens, this one is the SZ-8801. It certainly has all the inklings of a “decline era” ghettoblaster with its detachable speakers, tiny tuner indicator and blase looks.
Anyone ever see one of these in real life? This rates up there with Panasonic’s RX-7700 as one of the coolest systems of all time. The RX-7000 was probably marketed to the audiophile crowd, as it bore wood grain side panels and controls that resembled those of a home receiver. The cassette featured logic access and, oh my, is that a wired remote control on the left? The $700 price tag would be a steal in today’s market. Click here to calculate what $700 in 1981 is worth today. Thanks, Tracy West for providing this gorgeous photo!
In our opinion, the finest boombox ever made by Toshiba was the RT-S931. It offered feature-touch cassette buttons, which detached to double as a wireless remote control. Toshiba’s music search system was called MQJS, or Music Quick Jump Song Selector.
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.
