Hello All,
Thought I'd introduce myself and my (small) vintage boombox collection here.
I've uploaded pictures of my nice huge Clairtone 7979, looks pretty good considering it's a dumpster find....
Another find is a nice mint Realistic 14-771, rebadging of a Sony CF-515S, see the pics of that too. Makes a lot of noise for it's size, used it down at the lake all summer last year while I was repairing my dock.
Yet another one I got at the dump many years ago is a Panasonic RX-5250 (LS??). AM/FM bands only, no SW, worked well after I cleaned the speaker plug, even the tape deck too. It's still in pieces after I took it apart to clean it up, was a filthy mess. I should look into putting it back together, seems the value has appreciated since I got it lol!
I also have the following two:
http://www.stereo2go.com/clip/501105804sears20204
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sony_cfs_w505lcfsw505.html
The Sears 20204 one was the first one I ever got, my first venture into the world of 'HiFi' (after my walkman at least lol, this one had some power!). Wasn't much left of it when I got it, was already more than half wrecked, but it still works, hanging on by the teeth so to speak. The Sony I don't think you'd call a full-fledged boombox on here, they were getting small by then. However if anyone's interested I'll take pics of them.
Obviously my pride and joy is the Clairtone - boy does it sound good! Pretty good cosmetic shape, not perfect but not too shabby either, have all the buttons except one, amplifier works perfect. I'm going to print myself a cardboard copy of the applique around the cassette door, then it'll look a whole lot better - you can see a rough draft in the 2nd pic, still working on it.
>>UPDATE: Since starting this thread I've managed to repair the tape deck 100%, works great! Also printed myself a cardboard copy of the aplique around the tape door, looks so much better. See below for pics of both.
<<
Tuner is a bit intermittent, going to look for a bad solder joint - AM and SW work fine, but the FM keeps cutting in and out if I push or pull on the selector knob, tuning keeps drifting all over the place, and the microphones keep cutting in and out of the signal - weird. Also going to debug the tape circuit today, motor ran perfect at first then stopped. I've got it down to a couple parts on the PCB, wrote myself a mini-schematic of the motor power circuit, proud I was able to figure it out for myself. Bought a few components on eBay, I'll keep you updated here how the repairs go.
I really like the full complement of controls inputs outputs etc, and he digital clock with alarm is a nice touch. The touch-sensitive tuner knob is a very novel feature, took me a little while to figure it out, and the power plug polarity affecting it too. I was amazed to find it's actually worth several hundred dollars, hard to believe!
To close, here's a tip I learned about the Line-In: I learned if you want to select the line input, make sure all 3 selector buttons (Radio,Tape,Phone) are popped OUT, so NONE are selected. The Line-in is direct and always active, so none of the buttons have to be selected. You can even 'mix' signals together by pushing one in with a line-in source present. You get a lot of hum if you select the Phono input, which I did at first thinking that was the Line-In button. It's designed for a magnetic cartridge so has a very high gain, and needs to be grounded. That's why if you ground the jacks with your finger the hum goes away.
Hope that was entertaining if nothing else, all the best!
Bellarmine
Thought I'd introduce myself and my (small) vintage boombox collection here.
I've uploaded pictures of my nice huge Clairtone 7979, looks pretty good considering it's a dumpster find....
Another find is a nice mint Realistic 14-771, rebadging of a Sony CF-515S, see the pics of that too. Makes a lot of noise for it's size, used it down at the lake all summer last year while I was repairing my dock.
Yet another one I got at the dump many years ago is a Panasonic RX-5250 (LS??). AM/FM bands only, no SW, worked well after I cleaned the speaker plug, even the tape deck too. It's still in pieces after I took it apart to clean it up, was a filthy mess. I should look into putting it back together, seems the value has appreciated since I got it lol!
I also have the following two:
http://www.stereo2go.com/clip/501105804sears20204
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sony_cfs_w505lcfsw505.html
The Sears 20204 one was the first one I ever got, my first venture into the world of 'HiFi' (after my walkman at least lol, this one had some power!). Wasn't much left of it when I got it, was already more than half wrecked, but it still works, hanging on by the teeth so to speak. The Sony I don't think you'd call a full-fledged boombox on here, they were getting small by then. However if anyone's interested I'll take pics of them.
Obviously my pride and joy is the Clairtone - boy does it sound good! Pretty good cosmetic shape, not perfect but not too shabby either, have all the buttons except one, amplifier works perfect. I'm going to print myself a cardboard copy of the applique around the cassette door, then it'll look a whole lot better - you can see a rough draft in the 2nd pic, still working on it.
>>UPDATE: Since starting this thread I've managed to repair the tape deck 100%, works great! Also printed myself a cardboard copy of the aplique around the tape door, looks so much better. See below for pics of both.
<<Tuner is a bit intermittent, going to look for a bad solder joint - AM and SW work fine, but the FM keeps cutting in and out if I push or pull on the selector knob, tuning keeps drifting all over the place, and the microphones keep cutting in and out of the signal - weird. Also going to debug the tape circuit today, motor ran perfect at first then stopped. I've got it down to a couple parts on the PCB, wrote myself a mini-schematic of the motor power circuit, proud I was able to figure it out for myself. Bought a few components on eBay, I'll keep you updated here how the repairs go.
I really like the full complement of controls inputs outputs etc, and he digital clock with alarm is a nice touch. The touch-sensitive tuner knob is a very novel feature, took me a little while to figure it out, and the power plug polarity affecting it too. I was amazed to find it's actually worth several hundred dollars, hard to believe!
To close, here's a tip I learned about the Line-In: I learned if you want to select the line input, make sure all 3 selector buttons (Radio,Tape,Phone) are popped OUT, so NONE are selected. The Line-in is direct and always active, so none of the buttons have to be selected. You can even 'mix' signals together by pushing one in with a line-in source present. You get a lot of hum if you select the Phono input, which I did at first thinking that was the Line-In button. It's designed for a magnetic cartridge so has a very high gain, and needs to be grounded. That's why if you ground the jacks with your finger the hum goes away.
Hope that was entertaining if nothing else, all the best!
Bellarmine
