My new but old Universum

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T-STER

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Jul 14, 2014
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So many years ago when i was a newbie, I asked on the forums for a good box under £100 to get me started after buying a couple of low end boxes, the voices suggested a Universum Supersound 1600.

I purchased said box from Germany, non working tape deck, radio working fine. Well it came and needed more than a rebelt and i couldn't fix it. As i can't generally live without the deck working (with a couple of rare exceptions) i bunged it in the loft and thought no more of it.

So recently i started to clear out the loft, sell off all the stuff i didnt need or want including tapes, boomboxes, old tech, computer bits etc and i started to sort my old boxes into ones i was parting, ones i was selling for spares and boxes i wanted to attempt repair on. The Universum fell into the latter camp.

Well my skills have improved a lot and after an hour i had power to the deck, another hour i had the deck fully working and sounding spot on. Still don't have rewind and i cannot for the life of me figure it but every other function works and as i was out of time that had to do. Speakers repainted, tuner glass cleaned, minor clean and here she is:

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Reli

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Dec 24, 2010
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These sound better than a whole host of other boxes, including GF8989, GF9191, GF9494, GF9000, SCR8, CS-770, RC838, RX5150, etc.
 

Reli

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And the tape motor doesn't need to run for the DIN to work. All you need to do is insert a blank tape and press Record. You don't need to press Play.
 

samovar

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Jun 7, 2014
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The 1600 Supersound (and its Telefunken version) is one of the great underrated ones. Btw I might have been one of the "voices" back in the day. I just love its look and ba(da)ssy sound. Great restoration job T-Ster, now your new old box looks gorgeous!
 

Reli

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Dec 24, 2010
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Philips is Dutch (but some of them were made in Austria)
Grundig and Telefunken are German
Universum wasn't a real manufacturer, it was a fake brand created by one of the big German department store chains.
 
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