tecsonic/torec J-1, phonia S-150, clairtone 7985, & intersound J-7475 graphics

i'm trying to illustrate a "J-1" based on terrible quality photographs, mostly using a phonia S-150 as a reference. i've already done a rough test illustration, trying mostly to re-draw the tweeter grid pattern without it causing a "moire pattern", a resolution distortion that turned the original highlights i added to the squares into something like plaid and have redrawn the area from scratch as well as totally squaring my painting instead of trying to match the angles from the reference photo which causes a bunch of annoying problems, especially when getting to re-painting highlights.

there are a few questions about J-1s i can't answer based on the blurry, noisy, lofi pics i could find.

i've already done a test redrawing all of the graphics and finally found out that the font for all of the functions is helvetica. it took a while to find that font after arial was way too light and different to work well and a couple dozen sans serif fonts i downloaded didn't work either. if the boombox doesn't use helvetica, it's something too close to quibble over as small as the text will be. that's also one of the problems i'm having, reading all of the text.

the best i can make out is that the EQ frequencies are:
80Hz, 150Hz, 300Hz, 600Hz, 800Hz, 1.5kHz, 4.5kHz 7kHz, 13kHz, & 16kHz

is that right? if so, it doesn't follow the "octave steps" of most other EQs eg. 1.2kHz instead of 1.5kHz as that's an octave up from 600Hz. i want the illustration to be REASONABLY accurate, but i'll probably be combining elements from different variants. the brand i'll be illustrating will be a tecsonic because i like that name and the logo style best, but i'll be using the red trimmed alarm on the phonia and others instead of the goofy sounding "super jumbo" logo. (sounds like a hamburger combo meal. LOL) i'll also be using the FM, SW1, SW2 & AM band graphics instead of calling AM "MW" & stereo / I (?) mono / II & tape formulation buttons instead of the "disco LED" & beat 1,2, & 3 buttons that the tecsonic uses. i can't quite make the band descrptions, but frequency modulation, short & long wave, and amplitude modulation should be right.

does the function button say AUX/CD? i'm betting that's what it says, but it looks like "CO" in every picture.
the text that's REALLY troubling me is what the white arrows on the left side of the of the radio dial say. the best i can make out is they all read MEGA MULTI 2 (??) i'd appreciate clarification on that.

finally, ONLY on one of the two tecsonic pics i found can i clearly see that the radio dial is set back where it looks 2D on all of the other pics, but if it IS beveled in as seen on the phonia pic, it makes no sense that the dial is "flush" with the top of the window. it'd have to be way in front of the "tuner display". i'm guessing that maybe the poor quality of the pic and terrible reflections on the radio bezel are just obscuring the top of the display with a shadow. the J-1 pic looks like the inside sides go straight back, instead of being angled like my second guess in the pic shown, and that only the bottom edge is angled upwards and the top goes straight back too, or the top & sides are at shallow angles.

and clarication on that and the legends under the tuner would be appreciated. it looks like they read:
POWER, TAPE (something) B & A (standing for "backwards alphabetically" LOL), HIGH SPEED, FM ST, TAPE, STEREO & MONO

finally, i'm guessing that the power & FM LEDs light up red when the power is on. i haven't seen that in ANY pics. the legends & LEDs look obscured by the black trim around the radio dial on a pic of an intersound that's on, so they wouldn't be visible when the radio is viewed straight on as i'm illustrating it. the intersound dial also looks like it goes all the way to the top of the window in front of a top bevel.
sadly, all the pics of the JVC RC-M90 i'd rather use (i turned buying a J-1 variant down to replace my lasonic TRC-935 that was stolen down because it showed poor quality control, namely the droopy B deck as seen on EVERY box, and the sloppy bottom row of the tweeter pod squares that stick out like a sore thum to these artist eyes... i'll be "upgrading" my illustrion with "perfect uniform squares") are even worse quality. that, and it's be a nightmare to draw the VU meter graphics and knob markings because of all of the angles.
any clarification you can give on the details i can't make out in any of the low quality pics i could find would be greatly appreciated.

the silence was deafening. i've resolved just about every question i had except what the white arrows say on the dial. for what it's worth, here are the latest TESTs i've done, except for the "super sound" badge which is at the scale i'm doing the re-draw from. here's that, my first dial test from a lofi pic i turned the color saturation down on and worked the brightness and contrast to better see what's going on at the top of the dial. AFTER i did the test draw, i figured out that the shadow line going all the way across the dial without "bending" around the sides is that they're REFLECTING the shadow across the dial face while they aren't showing their own shadows.

i'd say, here's the pics if anyone's interested, but after nearly a week, i guess no-one is.

for some reason, i didn't see any option to attach files the first time i tried and the editor only accepts URLs

i know i need to make the grid lines on the dial thinner which will be easier at the 5k resolution i'm working with, and the EQ lines too will ALL be redrawn instead of the lofi 1st draft i up-sized to the illustration i'm doing. i just wanted to test helvetica bold. it's much better than regular arial bold.

Looks impressive, but just to clarify, are these drawings intended to be used as replacement decals for the J1?

Reli said:

So just to clarify, are these drawings intended to be used as replacement decals for the J1?

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I think he's painting a picture of the j1 but he has problems with the details on the front of the box because his reference pictures are not clear enough ?.

I don't know. The post was too long to read lol

Just buy one. Lol

I can post some close up photos tomorrow...to busy eating turkey today...

i'm illustrating a J1. i don't want one. i didn't want a NEW one after all the GOOD (japanese) boomboxes disappeared after (REAL, as in ANTI-gangsta) hip-hop was killed by corporate america. even then, as in ALL the pics i've seen, the box was poorly made with the A deck's door being crooked. i wasn't a fan of all the tacky paint jobs and gobs of fake chrome or gold (HAHAHAHA!) on the new jack boxes either. they all looked like cheap toy robots to me. the J-1 though was the least tacky box on the showroom with the laughably toy looking gold plated crown, the REALLY toy looking "disco box" with its eye offending randomly spaced red, yellow, green & while LEDS or the "super giant" with 10" woofers and a FAKE RTA analyzer. as an ARTIST, i find cheap theatrics silly. japanese boomboxes were MOSTLY business though some of those were tacky too.

i was looking to replace my TACKY lasonic TRC-935 that got stolen. i hated it's tacky looks so much, i tore it apart and gave it the "duck rock" treatment to hide the hideous graphics and chrome. the crome trim around the woofers was REAL though.



i bought the lasonic because it was the best sounding unit out of over a dozen and had the best bass. the EQ was a nice bonus, but those BUSY graphics (red & yellow? *CRINGE*) are really bad art to me. i imagine what i did painting mine "duck rock" pink with rainbow colored highlights would be even MORE tacky, but duck rock, especially "buffalo gals" represented the playful cartoony "stupid fresh" branch of hip-hop i gravitated towards. i NEVER really liked rap

if i was going to BUY a boombox (i wouldn't. i'd use my JBL northridge II speakers and nonsound TPA 3116 class D amp). it would be what i consider to be the true holy grail, the "LL cool J" aka JVC


never was a fan of the asymmetrical buttons over the left woofer though, i would have moved them under the VU meters myself

THAT is a boombox that means business and is nice an minimalist like real hifi gear should be, but there's ZERO quality reference art to illustrate one from to be found online.

i don't know the model number, but i used to lust after a big sharp that was in a store window that was a nice subtle japanese design that had what i consider to be the one thing that separates "hi-fi" boomboxes from toys... VU meters.

really, i don't need ANY boombox as my bicycle system would DESTROY any boombox with high efficiency 8" proel 2 ways and a sealed 15" JBL sub and a planet audio 4 channel amp with 2 channels bridged for the sub. when i get some work so i have "spendin' money" i will build a sound activated LED lightshow around everything.

to ME, boomboxes aren't "collector's items" as they are for pretty much everyone here. to me, they are CULTURAL ICONS and symbolic of the B-boy culture i still embrace even if corporate america turned it against itself with gangsta crap as "crack 2.0" to poison the hood. REAL hip-hop was a beautiful thing if you weren't there in the 80s. it brought people from ALL cultures together. that's why the white devil had to destroy it.

i'm white myself, before you think i'm a black racist. i still embrace the "peace, unity, love & having fun" (unity - james brown & afrika baambaata) message of REAL hip-hop and even after it was already dead in the early 90s and all of a sudden clubs started needing metal detectors (WTF?!!!), i could be the ONLY white boy in a club, but no-one ever messed with me because i got down on the dance floor and represented.

boomboxes are cultural icons that say "THIS B-boy NEVER sold out!"

somebody find melly! he seeMS to have gotten lost in a time vortex! HAHAHAHA!

I didn't want to be the one to break the news to you but we love them tacky boxes.

I don't think there was any conspiracy to destroy cultures, they just knew gangsta rap would sell and that's why they made it. Plus beginning in the late 80's, the people buying it shifted from mostly black to mostly non-black.

Artists and studios knew it would sell because 1) boys like guns and violence and dream of being gangsters (why do you think Sopranos and Godfather are popular), and 2) it reinforced stereotypes about black people, which allowed non-blacks to laugh and say to themselves "see, what we thought about black people was correct"

The TRC-935 is a great Lasonic. I think you would have enjoyed it better if you had removed the foam covering the beautiful white woofers.

Oh and there's no shortage of motherf**king Real G's here.

JVC Floyd said:

I didn't want to be the one to break the news to you but we love them tacky boxes.

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Got that right.

JVC Floyd said:

Oh and there's no shortage of motherf**king Real G's here.

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Got that right.

The TRC-935 is a great Lasonic. I think you would have enjoyed it better if you had removed the foam covering the beautiful white woofers.

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i DID, along with the cross bracing. i didn't like the chrome dustcap, and i think it actually sounded better (damped?) with the foam. it seemed like it had more bass that way.

I didn't want to be the one to break the news to you but we love them tacky boxes.

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yes, i AM aware of this. in fact, some thin skinned snowflakes take ANY criticism of their favorites personally and form troll gangs "demanding respect" hey, i demand respect because if it wasn't for MY hip-hop culture, none of you would have ANY grail boxes. that's what made them popular!

everybody's entitled to their opinions, and if you can't take that, you're a fascist. i don't yield to fascists ever.

I don't think there was any conspiracy to destroy cultures, they just knew gangsta rap would sell and that's why they made it. Plus beginning in the late 80's, the people buying it shifted from mostly black to mostly non-black.

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oh yes there was! right after pump up the volume, you couldn't buy new hip-hop ANYWHERE, even at local record shops that specialized in it. it just vanished overnight to be replaced by godawful technotronic and house music.

watch the documentary "the freshest kids" to get the b-boy perspective