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bill

bill

Member (SA)
Hello. It's been quite sometime. I've had amazingly poor luck finding in the wild stuff the way I once did. The thrift stores all have been watching storage wars and thrift hunters jacking thier prices to ebay levels here. It'd been the better part of year and a half since seeing anything worthwhile in a thrift . Well yesterday was a break in that long long long drought. The canadian dollar isn't as strong as it was last year but yesterday six of them took this beauty home. It ain't no high bass ten d grail but it's a effen nice blaster. Warm and Tight sound. People sometimes hate on these grills but I kinda like them. Nothing says 80s design like squares and rectangles . Well to me it does. Salutations all its been a while hope your all well and good. Jvc 656 DSC02513.JPG
 
floyd

floyd

Boomus Fidelis
welcome back bill nice to see you man , love that jvc i got to get another before the prices go up.
 
bill

bill

Member (SA)
Thanks guys. This box is pretty nice . I was shocked at the shape it's in too. It is heavy for its size . The overall vibe is it wasn't cheap when it was new and was meant for a older consumer . The sound is quite surprising for a 8 d cell box.DSC02517.JPGDSC02517.JPGDSC02518.JPG
 
Ken

Ken

Member (SA)
Damn, bill, right on cue!

I was searching for some info in a topic here on Boomboxery last week when I ran across a post of yours that gave me the info I needed. At the bottom in your siggy was a link to your Facebook page, still active. Checked it out and saw you were still alive, kicking, and ornry as ever. Didn't have the stones to write "wtf bill" on there but here you are now.

Don't be a stranger and how's the music thang going?
 
bill

bill

Member (SA)
In short I've been to hell and most of the way back I still got facebook but don't really use it much . My family manages to be a constant thorn in my side when I'm on there. Don't see many blasters in the wild anymore. Gave a ton away to people as gifts over the last couple years. This 656 was a shock . I mean you just never see them in the thrifts here anymore. I also sold of most of my Walkmans for a tidy profit . Don't see those anymore either. I've been collecting digital cameras . I have a pretty amazing Instagram account now with a lot of my photos. It's under user name winslowhansen. I'm still doing music but it's slow going . Hope all is well for you folks .
 
blu_fuz

blu_fuz

Well-Known Member
Staff member
It's nice to see that a score can bring that feeling back for you! Nice to hear from you again.
 
Lasonic TRC-920

Lasonic TRC-920

Moderator
Hi Bill, nice find...

I have read all the comments over the years on these style grills, but this JVC has made a real come back here on the boards and it has really grown on me. If it has JVC build quality, how could you go wrong :-D I think there may have to be one of these in my future down the line!

Welcome Back!
 
bill

bill

Member (SA)
It's a really nice radio and arguably one of the best decks on a boombox. I pulled it open last night and despite being filled with electronic boards the belts should be a cinch to swap out when the time comes. Sound is really nice balanced and well warm .
 
Beosystem10

Beosystem10

Member (SA)
bill said:
It's a really nice radio and arguably one of the best decks on a boombox. I pulled it open last night and despite being filled with electronic boards the belts should be a cinch to swap out when the time comes. Sound is really nice balanced and well warm .
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No arguments from me about the merits of the 656! I have two at the moment but as they can still sell on eBay here at well under £10, I'm often found fixing up broken ones to fund other boxes. Every example I've ever met has had a working deck though one did have scores to the r/p head which were too deep to reface, so that deck went into storage, "just in case.."
You're right: Few belt jobs are this simple to do. 1.1 hours is the Newnes charge scale time for the job and for once, I can match that easily. They're great on battery too, eight Ds in one of mine were last replaced in 2012 and still the battery light shows at full intensity, even when a tape is playing.

Here in the UK, there's a Ferguson A.K.A. Ferguson are a Thorn Group company and the other names they owned were Marconiphone and Ultra, their take on the 656 is essentially the same but with minor detail changes such as a single VHF aerial, full range speaker drivers, no bass control, only a treble -/+ one and, well here's what the Fergie AKA looks like:

$_57.JPG



$_57.JPG


Notice how the set has a car aerial socket that's missing on the JVC version? That's there because here, we used to need a radio licence for a car as well as a home one unless the car radio was removeable, so although only one licence was needed for every radio including car ones by the time this was built, it still had the socket as a portable could be used in a car and its socket hooked up to the car aerial, so saving the cost of the extra radio licence.

Sound quality of the Fergie isn't as good but it's no disgrace by comparison, just not exceptional which I feel the 656 is.
Ironically, the Fergies tend to sell for more than the 656s. :huh:
 
Beosystem10

Beosystem10

Member (SA)
bill said:
That uk version is swank
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I had to look that word up. :blush: It's OK, UK members, it doesn't mean what it looks like it means! :lol:

Yeah, the Fergie's ok, but just not quite as good as the JVC. For some reason, the Fergie doesn't have the option to use auto record level which is odd, because apart from the bass being preset, its internals are the same and most parts are totally transferable between the two radios.

There's also a later version of the 656 that has mesh grilles in place of the moulded "waffle" ones. Must get myself one of those some day, a person can't have too many 656s.
 
bill

bill

Member (SA)
Beosystem10 said:
I had to look that word up. :blush: It's OK, UK members, it doesn't mean what it looks like it means! :lol:

Yeah, the Fergie's ok, but just not quite as good as the JVC. For some reason, the Fergie doesn't have the option to use auto record level which is odd, because apart from the bass being preset, its internals are the same and most parts are totally transferable between the two radios.

There's also a later version of the 656 that has mesh grilles in place of the moulded "waffle" ones. Must get myself one of those some day, a person can't have too many 656s.
Click to expand...

I must be getting old lol I kinda thought swank was a uk colloquialism . Where's my cane and Ben gay
 
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