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Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: Guitarman
Date: February 28, 2006 10:22PM
Geeze what is this, everything that is old goes up in value? Then why haven't I gone up in value?

[pocketcalculatorshow.com]



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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: Jimmypoo
Date: February 28, 2006 10:27PM
Because you don't work as good as you used to. You're showing age. Your pinch rollers are drying out.

(It's an audio tape mechanism reference, people! Get your mind out of his bung hole! I know mine is!!)


EDIT

I just looked at the site. Interesting.. for a while. But one glaring error on the first page, which is amazing because this person is really into this stuff - so I'd expect more accuracy!

They talk about the term boom box and stores carrying them in 1981 and 1983 as if that was when they took off. That's a load of crap. I was in 10th grade in 1977 - and I had a retail license, and was selling high end boom boxes to fellow students and people who didn't like the offerings of the "Service Merchandise" type place I worked at on the weekend - in the audio/camera department.

I had JVCs and Sanyos going for between $250 and $300 back then, an enormous sum of money, but so, too, were $1000 VCRs. (I even sold a bizarre Sanyo car stereo to a neighbor that came with a microphone. You could hook the stereo to an external PA speaker like a CB radio and broadcast, or sing karaoke in the car or actually RECORD tapes in the car! Totally useless features! This is when Craig was still king of car stereos.)

JVC had really begun to take off because this arm of Matsushita/Panasonic had recently been set free and was raking in the success of VHS, though it hadn't yet become the winner in the format wars.

Before I graduated HS I had sold a dozen or so to people I went to school with - I primarily used them just to get my own orders for toys over the order minimums, so I never marked them up more than $20-$40, and with a few orders, I would cover enough to get myself something for free, or something else that I really wanted, among which, at the time, included a Thorens TD 125AB.

The memories are dated by high school - so there is no error. And the term for the big units with 8" or 10" woofs... was Boom Box.

I had a small, mono GE unit that the sound quality was so good, I could take it into a school classroom, and awe people with as though it were a Bose Acoustic Wave - and it just had 1 little 3" speaker and a cassette am/fm. It cost me $70 in 1978, but I was knocked over by how it sounded.

And then I already had my first pair of EVs (Sentry IIIs) and a Crown DC 300A, a jewel I wish I had never sold.

Interesting this came up - I just mentioned the era and that Thorens in conversation tonight.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2006 10:57PM by Jimmypoo.
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: rexrzer
Date: February 28, 2006 10:38PM
Oh Yawwnnn, he's still on my Ignore list JP, so I have no idea what is being spewed about now. Gotta love that Ignore button! G-Man....poof! Gone!

________________



What's the difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make some sense.
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: Guitarman
Date: February 28, 2006 11:04PM
I'm amazed by how much cash I had in those days. I had a pair of Luchase cowboy boots that sold for $300. Back then that was rent. I had this portable panasonic stereo cassette player with 2 detachable speakers that I carried around on the road. Damn those were the days.

PS, why do people have to inform others that they are on their ignore list? I mean, big deal. Now if Clive Davis had me on ignore, I'd be upset, but some moron named rexrzer? WTF cares?



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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: Seacrest
Date: February 28, 2006 11:19PM
I had this really 'def' boombox from Pioneer, early eighties. Detachable speakers w/detachable metal grills, dual cassette, Dolby A and B, or B and C, whatever, big LED VU meters, but the whole package was streamlined and slick looking -- not like those garish looking space-alien thangs that came later.

I remember always buying cool border-line grey market gear from dicey stores in Times Square or Canal St or on Market Street in Philly.

Thems were da days.

PS: how can Clive Davis ignore you, when he has no idea who you be?
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: rexrzer
Date: February 28, 2006 11:23PM
This is a GREAT subject JP...I remember that era well. I paid over $1400 for a 4-head, 4-motor Mitsubishi/MGA DiamondVision VCR in 1983 that lasted until 1999, with thousands of hours of tapes played through it, and recorded on it. Man that thing was built with a future in mind, not like these crappy things that are made today.

I still have a JVC Boombox, model PC-X130, with "1-Bit DAC" Audio Sampling, that's in my bedroom to this day. It's all black, with heavy wire-mesh grills over the detachable speakers (that sound perfect still), kindof like the grill work on a G5 PowerMac, with an IR remote, full function clock, AM/FM tuner, dual cassette decks with synchro recording ability, and a single CD player on top. I forget how many it takes, but you can power it for remote use with D cells (I think it's 6 cells).

I use it to wake up to music every day, with it's Sleep/Wake Timer feature. Damn, they don't make them like that anymore. I wonder how much it's worth? What do you think? It doesn't have a scratch on it, and would clean up, with a little Windex and a couple of soft rags, to look as new. The remote control still works perfect too, in fact, I haven't even changed the batteries in it for at least 8 years as I think about it!

________________



What's the difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make some sense.
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: davester
Date: February 28, 2006 11:31PM
That stuff really sucks design-wise. It's just boring. Oh, and another thing..."boombox" is the sanitized PC version. They are "GhettoBlasters!!!!".



"Man is a little germ that lives on an unimportant rock ball that revolves about a small star at the outskirts of an ordinary galaxy. ... I am absolutely amazed to discover myself on this rock ball rotating around a spherical fire. It's a very odd situation. And the more I look at things I cannot get rid of the feeling that existence is quite weird. -- Alan Watts
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: Seacrest
Date: February 28, 2006 11:36PM
rexrzer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> I still have a JVC Boombox, model PC-X130, with
> "1-Bit DAC" Audio Sampling, that's in my bedroom
> to this day. It's all black, with heavy wire-mesh
> grills over the detachable speakers (that sound
> perfect still), kindof like the grill work on a G5
> PowerMac, with an IR remote, full function clock,
> AM/FM tuner, dual cassette decks with synchro
> recording ability, and a single CD player on top.
> I forget how many it takes, but you can power it
> for remote use with D cells (I think it's 6
> cells).


Sorry, it's not REALLY 'vintage' if it has a CD player. winking smiley
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: rexrzer
Date: February 28, 2006 11:51PM
Naww, my JVC looks really cool, design-wise davester. It's all black, with black mesh grills over the speakers, which are detachable, but I have mine hooked up to the chassis. Here's a picture of the remote, which does all kinds of things:
[www.remotes.com]

And by Googling the model number, I couldn't find a picture of it to post, but a place called Global Pawn.com has one for sale for $125, which would be a pretty good buy considering the original cost=about $300.

________________



What's the difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make some sense.
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: Jimmypoo
Date: February 28, 2006 11:53PM
The Ghetto wasn't buying them in the 70s. Dudes on pristine campus courtyards were, and using them at the beach to attract girls over to their blanket (and hopefully to the one at home!)

Rex - My bet is like so many of the things from then (of quality) - it's worth far more to you than you could get for it. I remember your VCR. I bought the top end Panasonic in 1986. It retailed for $1100. I got dealer price on it at $699. $50 less and I had the identical unit made by Matsushita/Panasonic, but lacked digital indexing. My not yet then wife bought the GE and I had the Panasonic. Those two machines were oblivious to copy protection, had pre-digital perfect freeze frame, and if you used them to record 6 hours of music, would provide near digital signal to noise and dynamic range, of that new fangled CD thing that debuted 2 years prior.

The big difference between then and now?? Japan and Singapore were the sources of hardware. Now it is China. Korean made stuff is far superior to the knock off Chinese stuff - because they AREN'T made to last.

Of course.. how could they be? WHY would they be? VCRs for $39? Our units would buy use 30-40 of those today!!
I still have the GE. I don't recall why I ended up with it and SHE got the Panasonic. It blew a fuse in 1998. I boxed it for eventual repair, and now it cooks in the FL heat in storage.

One day.

I hear that our units are great for copying DVDs. Again, the older ones have no recognition of CopyGuard. The limitation is finding high quality tape that won't dry out.

That's assuming that you don't want to just buy the DVD for about the same price as the HQ video tape! And store the DVD in a sleeve......

etc.

Someone should invent a way to digitally compress music CDs to a smaller format, and create a hand held unit - sort of like a digital walk man, that would carry some ridiculous amount of songs.. like 20,000 or something.

That's wear I see the future of portable music headed.

And Gman... I saved the money for keys, not boots. Which in turn kept my head spinning at 17-18-19 years old with "older women" of 21-25 vintage, coming my way, thanks to "The BAND."

It's a real shame I was already dating the PANASONIC VCR THIEF at the time. I sure did turn a blind eye... with some kind of PussWhipped devotion, to all that meat. What a dumbass I was.

Man do I regret that.

BRING BACK THE OLD DAYS - BEFORE BACK PAIN AND MORTGAGE PAYMENTS!!!!
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: rexrzer
Date: March 01, 2006 12:06AM
Seacrest Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rexrzer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> >
> > I still have a JVC Boombox, model PC-X130,
> with
> > "1-Bit DAC" Audio Sampling, that's in my
> bedroom
> > to this day. It's all black, with heavy
> wire-mesh
> > grills over the detachable speakers (that
> sound
> > perfect still), kindof like the grill work on
> a G5
> > PowerMac, with an IR remote, full function
> clock,
> > AM/FM tuner, dual cassette decks with
> synchro
> > recording ability, and a single CD player on
> top.
> > I forget how many it takes, but you can power
> it
> > for remote use with D cells (I think it's 6
> > cells).
>
>
> Sorry, it's not REALLY 'vintage' if it has a CD
> player. winking smiley

That may be your interpretation of the word "vintage"--but I bought it when my daughter was 2 years old, in early 1986, so that makes it 20 years old this month. I don't know how old something has to be to be "vintage", or if a CD player negates the idea...what do I know when there are "experts" like you? Whatever.......

That's a long time for something to last, and still work perfect. It's not like I've babied it...it's been all over Hell's 1/2-acre in that time, and it's survived intact. I do tend to take care of my stuff, but don't remember giving the JVC any particular special treatment to make it last. And I use it every day, waking up to a favorite CD with the sleep/wake timer function.

Even if it's not "vintage" I'm still enjoying its use--and I haven't had to buy anything new for my bedroom's hi-fi needs for a long, long time. Now don't get me started on the new 42" Plasma TV that I'm about to spring for, intended for our bedroom...that's a whole 'nother subject.smiling smiley

________________






What's the difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make some sense.
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: Grateful11
Date: March 01, 2006 07:40AM
In '83 or '84 I paid $700 for the first car CD player a Sony CDX-R7, what a
piece junk. I got more errors than I could count. I also had
the first Sony Discman, paid something like $300 or $400 for
it. I also bought a new car and a new to me house in '84. Single life had its perks.



Grateful11
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: Will Collier
Date: March 01, 2006 08:42AM
I'd love to get my hands on a Panasonic RX-5050 boom box. Had one when I was growing up, it sounded great, and would take a serious beating.

Mine only died because an idiot roommate plugged it into a power socket in London in 1990 and fried the innards.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2006 08:45AM by Will Collier.
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Re: Did you know that '70s and '80s boomboxes are now collectibles?
Posted by: the_poochies
Date: March 01, 2006 09:53AM
I have always loved that boombox tribute site. Does anyone remember this unit that came with a turntable?



Growing up in the 1980s, my ghettoblaster of choice was a Panasonic RX-5030 with little red LED lights that pulsed to the music. It had fantastic AM and FM radio reception.
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