caution said:
This was incredible! Chris, how much do you know about the origins of Lasonic, were you ever able to hear about how Albert's grandfather started it all? What was his education background? What was his motivation to get into the boombox game? How did he develop an exclusive relationship with Yung Fu? Where did he draw his ideas from?
By the way, the third image in the thread has an Emerson MM815 sitting in the background, is that yours by any chance?
It's been awhile since him and I spoke and if Albert comes to the Vegas meet, I will bring a mic to plug into a radio so he can tell the story himself.
Lasonic was started by Albert's grandfather in I believe Taiwan. They were a small electrical company making small household appliances like table top fans, they were the Lucky Company, hence the Lucky name on the backs of the speakers.
The family moved to Los Angeles in the 1970's and their factory in Taiwan manufactured the units. I think it was Albert's dad who renamed the company LaSonic. It is a hybrid of Los Angeles and Panasonic - LA Sonic.
As far as his education, I have no idea. His motivation? I think he was a smart enough businessman to see the trend of portable music systems of the late 1970's and early 1980's and moved in that direction.
I asked Albert where these designs came from and he didn't know. Albert is young, in his late 20's maybe early 30's now. He told me he remembers seeing shipping containers filled to the top with TRC-975's, literally 100's of thousands of them. Container after container.
Albert told me how his parents would travel around Southern California in a box truck loaded with merchandise going to Swap meets and setting up a booth. I told him that's how I found my TRC-920. After him and I spoke about it, we both came to the conclusion, that I probably bought my 920 from his MOTHER in 1983.
As I have mentioned before, Lasonic and their story is very close to me, because my father and I started and ran an electronics company for 15 years. I find the Lasonic story compelling because this was a small family business going toe to toe with JVC, Sharp, Philips, Sony and the rest. They became successful through hard work, beating the streets and building radio's that HIT HARD!
I think Albert's dad really understood what part of the market he was going after. I think he understood the type of music that these radio's were playing and he built into the electronic's and pre-equalized the circuitry of these machines to HIT HARDER and create LOUD PLAYBACK based on the Hip Hop style of music. I think he spec'd longer traveling speakers, with rubber surrounds that allowed for the playback of bass heavy music right as the 808 note revolution was taking place. The design of his speakers were so good, that they are still in production today in the i931 series. I have spoke to Albert and he told me they used the exact original specs for the new speakers. In fact, the Lasonic White 8" speakers are a common "Swap in" upgrade that we use in other radio's. AND you can still buy those speakers directly from Lasonic if you call them direct. The LBS system on the Lasonic TRC-975 is probably the BIGGEST step up in bottom end than any other loudness button out there. LBS stands for "Loudness Bass System". Many radio's have a Loudness switch, but very few, if any were EQ'd this hard. Most are a subtle step up in bottom end, used for low volume boost. Not the LBS. It's meant to break things!
Lasonic also managed to define their own look in a crowded market place. The speaker crash bars are a Lasonic staple, copied and imitated. The LED runway lights with mirror set up, massive full length handle and HUGE chrome speaker caps all help build a face we recognise from across the street. The black box, multi color art scheme quickly became the big black box knock off design till the end of the era.
Probably most importantly, we are still talking about them. Good or bad, we know who they are. The Lasonic TRC-931 could possible be the most significant boombox design of all. It's square shape, big white speakers and horizontal crash bars have found their way into everything in pop culture. Everything from clothing to artwork. More times than not, when an artist wants to express "Boombox" it is with the shape of a 931.
Albert Chen has one hell of a story to tell, I wish I could speak with his father, but he doesn't do interviews. The amount of information he has on this subject and the stories he could tell would be fascinating, at least to me.
I hope we get the chance to get Albert out to Las Vegas. It would be amazing!
