A Sanyo 920’s bigger roided older brother. (Aimor)

[Hisrudeness]

This is my Aimor ST808 FS that I got recently. It’s details are here on the wikiboombox page.

http://wikiboombox.com/Aimor%20ST-808

This has been on my list for a while so pleased to get it. What’s not so cool were the sparkly things that were glued inside the tuner window! Did I say glue? I meant superglued! I’ve managed to pick them off but its left a mess!

As for the box, well it’s very big and cranks up very loud. It’s got 20cm drivers and a snazzy deck. It does without sophisticated things like a music search function, Dolby or a loundness button but has stereowide and metal/chrome.
It’s quite a bit more powerful and larger than the 920 but clearly styled by the same design team.

https://youtu.be/kwhce3-Llo4

 

[Reli]

Smokes ths 920 in overall volume.......But, the 920 sounds cleaner

 

[T-STER]

In love. Will have to keep my eyes peeled for one of these. I like it almost as much as the 920, great score.

 

[Van Presence]

Pretty sparkles. They actually took it apart just to get them glued inside? Annoying
I've seen NZBoom version and yeah they are seriously cool.

 

[Superduper]

I'm sure it is not the same designer. Rather Aimor copied Sanyo's cool looks. I did have a look at Redbenjoe's when I visited him and I personally wasn't too impressed with it. Loud, yes. Good sounding... eh. Build quality? Sanyo is better. If the 920 didn't exist, I might view it differently. But the original is always the standard to compare to. One last thing, while the general appearance is similar, the Sanyo is very well proportioned. The knob sizes, everything meshes together perfectly. But on the Aimor, the proportions are wrong. Because the boombox is bigger, the knobs and buttons look too small, and too much gaps between them. And usually larger boomboxes have more features than less, which further compounds the proportion issue. Well, that's my take anyhow.

 

[Hisrudeness]

Well having both side by side I think I like the Aimor better albeit with a ropey tuner display.
I’ve had a couple of Sanyo 920 over the years and have been pretty underwhelmed by the performance of them although when they’re in good condition they are nice to look at. Out of the big Sanyos from that era I tend to reach for the 720 or Big Ben when using them on rotation.
So I’m glad to get a box of that style that punches it’s weight soundwise even if it’s less sophisticated.

Since both boxes were made in Japan Aimor (Tokyo) must of got into a shitload of trouble for producing something that so closely resembles the Sanyo legally back then? I’d understand if it was a Chinese copy or Taiwanese or something but both firms Japanese?

Are we sure there wasn’t some sort of co operation between the two brands on the styling and switches?

 

[floyd]

I prefer the aimor as well, looks almost the same but bigger and louder is better lol.

 

[Superduper]

I looked inside the small Aimor & it didn’t resemble anything Sanyo, & the 60 something (or was it 90-something) input watts was pure bs. 15 might be more like it.

I guess to find the answer, look inside that big aimor & compare it to the Sanyo. If the innards are similar & they share some components & design, then you might have something there. However I’m not so sure you can patent a look. If that were the case, cars would have been in hot water long ago.

 

[Reli]

Mine actually says 150 watts consumption. Pretty funny.

But I wouldn't be surprised if it puts out more power than the 920. Because not only is it louder than the 920, it has more bass too.

Gotta remember, 920 has the same amps as the M9998, so it's not really a powerhouse. Above average, yes, but not a powerhouse.

A box as heavy as the 920 should perform better. I would never carry one outside. Not worth it for how heavy it is. An M70 would be lighter AND louder.

 

[Superduper]

Well the M70 has 4 amps & all the Sanyos have 2 amps.

 

[floyd]

The mx920 is it sweet sounding box but it is just grossly under powered.

 

[koleloi]

To me the Aimor looks better as it is more square-shapped. I've always found the look of the 920 strange/ugly, mostly regarding of its height/length ratio.

 

[metalhandbag]

A nice score the look is good .

 

[PostEnder]

The May 12, 2018 posting here of Super Duper states that the Aimor ST-808FS2 has too much spacing between the controls for it to be consistently pleasing for truly "classic" looks of a large boombox, compared to the slightly smaller but long-famed (and presumably better-built) Sanyo M-X920K (that is, the personally preferred, shortwave-tuning version).

Perhaps one can agree. There seems to be a bit of that engaging, "gadgety" appearance lost with the larger façade that doesn't add extra function controls.

Having never owned or handled either boombox -- and not yet finding good photos of the rear data panels of each stereo online -- I take the word of boomboxers who state that the '920 is "under powered," as JVC Floyd put it, compared to the '808. But then again, Sanyo's engineers were probably trying to avoid lower-quality sound that would have resulted from mating more powerful amplifiers to loudspeakers that weren't more highly power-rated than was the case.

Sound-quality concerns probably worried the Aimor engineers less, seeing that the bigger ST-808FS2 is probably an AKA of the smaller M-X920 (the AM/FM version of which member HR displays here). The Aimor's manufacturing was perhaps not much more than a revisiting of the blueprints and schematics of the Sanyo, with cabinet enlarging.

By the way, I was going to comment that the Aimor engineers seem to have given more thought to turning the tuner plate of the '808 into a gallery of gemstones. But another scan of HR's comments in his May 12 uploading of the '808's YouTube clip suggests that those bits of amber, emerald, ruby and tanzanite (or whatever they are LOL) were owner-added, not embedded by the manufacturing in the Eighties. HR certainly seems displeased with their presence. I suppose he doesn't need that extra sparkle with his dialing in, say, BBC on 9410 kHz, atypical* shortwave band layout and all.

And, Rudey: would that you would have actually played the Reel Cleer reel-to-reel cassette in the tape-deck well of the Aimor, with no RADIO or LINE IN audio masking anything ...

 

[Hisrudeness]

Mods,
Is there a way to get Postender/ Easthelp blocked from posting on mine or anyone else’s thread with his meaningless drivel?

 

[Reli]

Mods,
Is there a way to get Postender/ Easthelp blocked from posting on mine or anyone else’s thread with his meanless drivel?

Lol I don't think he has any intent to disrupt............he just has a more detailed writing style

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

Mods,
Is there a way to get Postender/ Easthelp blocked from posting on mine or anyone else’s thread with his meanless drivel?

Lol I don't think he has any intent to disrupt............he just has a more detailed writing style

Postender’s posts are like a dog biscuit that’s fallen into a glass of water. Sure, it’s still a dog biscuit but it’s now completely filling the entire glass!

 

[Superduper]

The username postender was strategically selected.

 

[Reli]

Having never owned or handled either boombox -- and not yet finding good photos of the rear data panels of each stereo online -- I take the word of boomboxers who state that the '920 is "under powered,".

By the way, those rear labels are meaningless. Not only is power consumption not equal to power output, they could have just made up the number anyway. Nobody is forcing them to tell the truth. For example: 150 watts consumption for the Aimor? Yeah, right.

 

[Superduper]

I once bought a small aimor because I saw the high consumption and immediately thought powerhouse. Imagine my disappointment and also imagine how quickly I resold that thing.