Amstrad 8090 NIB for a first purchase?

[Andy G]

Hello everyone.
New to collecting and I'm looking to buy my first box.
I've seen an Amstrad 8090 thats NIB and complete, auction format with no bids so far, starting at £189. Not sure if £200-300 would get something of better quality to start my collection?

 

[Reli]

Welcome! I've never had that particular model, but I do know that Amstrad was never known for build quality.

 

[Eavb]

If this is the model with the two removable personal cassette players (Walkman style), a friend of mine had one when we were kids, we thought it was amazing at the time but the build and sound quality was terrible really. I had a different model (8060) and that was pretty poor too, I still loved it at the time though.

 

[Northerner]

Everything Amstrad was pretty low quality…you’d definitely get something better for that money

 

[Andy G]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I thought that might be the case with the build quality, I'll keep looking.

 

[caution]

Unless it's your personal grail, yeah, that's too much. It does seem to be a decently built box though, according to this video. Other owners have commented on its weight and sound quality.

The video mentions how the 8090's had muffled audio on the lower deck from unaligned playback heads, even though the upper (detachable) deck was fine. He suspects it's because a different company made that deck, and Amstrad never bothered aligning theirs.