Been a while since I did a nice little update of the scores and roars that have come my way. I think I've picked up all of these since about November last year, so not a bad haul for 3 months, especially as I was mostly box-money poor over the festive season. On that subject, none of these cost me more than $60. Most were off ebay too. Been having a good spell of luck which I hope continues.
First up is this dinky little Akai AJ-490, I didn't want to pass her up as it was listed in an adjacent suburb to me and I eventually would like to have all the upside down Akais. I believe this is the smallest one. Still got some good little features and doesn't sound awful. This one is also like brand new -she's definitely been well cared for over the years.
This gorgeous Crown CSC-850 came courtesy of Brother Terry. It was listed in a suburb close to him and the seller on ebay accepted my BIN offer. So Terry traipsed across the countryside and picked her up for me. I've always wanted this model, it's a real classic design. Terry shipped her off to me and I cleaned off the substantial filth that had accumulated on her and gave her a good service. Now all fully working and booming proud! Thanks again Terry! I'd liken the 850's sound very close the RISING 20/20, ironically they both run off 9 D's too. They're a joy to work on and deliver rawkus blasting goodness!
I made a decision last year to only collect high-end hifi branded threepiecers or component boxes. So far I've got Marantz, Technics, Sansui, Denon, Pioneer and now a beautiful Yamaha PC-8! This is one hell of a beefy box. Solid, heavy and packs a mighty punch. The speakers needed refoaming which proved a far less stressful task than the first few times I've had to do it. Aside from that she came all working. The auto-reverse deck runs beautifully as does everything else. Like I say, I'm not a big threepiece fan, but when they're such a high quality model like the PC-8 they're well worth taking the time to enjoy.
This National RX-5600 was a nice surprise. Last time I saw one on ebay it went for over $350 and I thought I'd be forced to eventually get one off yahoo.jp as they're much less costly and in plentiful supply in the land of their origin. This little gem cost me about $60+delivery off ebay and I couldn't believe it when I won her. I'm not a massive National Panasonic fan, I must say. For every model I like theres another I get that disappoints. But I should've put more weight to the 5600 after SINISTER told me it was his favourite carry around box. I can see why! Beautiful design, LIGHT for her size and has exceptional sound. Some really nice clarity in this box. Not as high end as the wonderful RX-7000 but easily eclipses the (what I found) frankly disappointing RX-5500.
A nice little bonus of this little beauty still had her point of sale sticker on her. Rockin!
One of my favourite scores of recent times is this hot little AWA. I LOVE this radio. She's by no means big, a small midsize at best, but the features they crammed in are just awesome. This also has to be the smallest blaster I've seen thus far with C100/931 style slip deck. The LED meter is HUGE for a box this size and she's even got a dial light! It's a shame she sounds thoroughly awful, but really, it doesn't bother me. There's something wonderfully wacky about a box with so many 'expensive' features that sounds so bad. I love the irony! Really killer unit this, and I'm sure theres a billion AKA's around of her too.
The last score has been the japanese domestic model of the VZ-2500, the VZ-V20. My friend in Japan bought this originally as some of the boombox-fever rubbed off on him and he planned to fix this up while he was over there. He attempted it a few times but never really got far. When he bought her I was first to say I'll take her when he's ready to move her on. This was always my personal grail VZ. I love this design to bits. The grid graphics, the orange detail and the horizontal-line design are just gorgeous. Surprising it's missing a VU meter of any description and a couple of other little features. Also she's a good deal lighter than the VZ-2000. Still is very heavy compared to most boxes and is markedly heavier than an M90. As my friend had worked on it there was a fair bit of guess work to get things going. I successfully rebelted the deck and gave her a good clean. The record portion has become a real burden (as you can see in the Tech Talk section) but I'm hopeful that I can get her back to 100%. My friend only paid about $50 for her on yahoo.jp, so that's what I got her for. Unfortunately the postage was around $250.... but I'm still very pleased with landing one for $300 considering a domestic VZ-2000 in average condition usually goes for $250-300 down here.
Well, that's my collection update for the first bit of 2011, hope you guys like em at least half as much as I do!
Rock On.
First up is this dinky little Akai AJ-490, I didn't want to pass her up as it was listed in an adjacent suburb to me and I eventually would like to have all the upside down Akais. I believe this is the smallest one. Still got some good little features and doesn't sound awful. This one is also like brand new -she's definitely been well cared for over the years.
This gorgeous Crown CSC-850 came courtesy of Brother Terry. It was listed in a suburb close to him and the seller on ebay accepted my BIN offer. So Terry traipsed across the countryside and picked her up for me. I've always wanted this model, it's a real classic design. Terry shipped her off to me and I cleaned off the substantial filth that had accumulated on her and gave her a good service. Now all fully working and booming proud! Thanks again Terry! I'd liken the 850's sound very close the RISING 20/20, ironically they both run off 9 D's too. They're a joy to work on and deliver rawkus blasting goodness!
I made a decision last year to only collect high-end hifi branded threepiecers or component boxes. So far I've got Marantz, Technics, Sansui, Denon, Pioneer and now a beautiful Yamaha PC-8! This is one hell of a beefy box. Solid, heavy and packs a mighty punch. The speakers needed refoaming which proved a far less stressful task than the first few times I've had to do it. Aside from that she came all working. The auto-reverse deck runs beautifully as does everything else. Like I say, I'm not a big threepiece fan, but when they're such a high quality model like the PC-8 they're well worth taking the time to enjoy.
This National RX-5600 was a nice surprise. Last time I saw one on ebay it went for over $350 and I thought I'd be forced to eventually get one off yahoo.jp as they're much less costly and in plentiful supply in the land of their origin. This little gem cost me about $60+delivery off ebay and I couldn't believe it when I won her. I'm not a massive National Panasonic fan, I must say. For every model I like theres another I get that disappoints. But I should've put more weight to the 5600 after SINISTER told me it was his favourite carry around box. I can see why! Beautiful design, LIGHT for her size and has exceptional sound. Some really nice clarity in this box. Not as high end as the wonderful RX-7000 but easily eclipses the (what I found) frankly disappointing RX-5500.
A nice little bonus of this little beauty still had her point of sale sticker on her. Rockin!
One of my favourite scores of recent times is this hot little AWA. I LOVE this radio. She's by no means big, a small midsize at best, but the features they crammed in are just awesome. This also has to be the smallest blaster I've seen thus far with C100/931 style slip deck. The LED meter is HUGE for a box this size and she's even got a dial light! It's a shame she sounds thoroughly awful, but really, it doesn't bother me. There's something wonderfully wacky about a box with so many 'expensive' features that sounds so bad. I love the irony! Really killer unit this, and I'm sure theres a billion AKA's around of her too.
The last score has been the japanese domestic model of the VZ-2500, the VZ-V20. My friend in Japan bought this originally as some of the boombox-fever rubbed off on him and he planned to fix this up while he was over there. He attempted it a few times but never really got far. When he bought her I was first to say I'll take her when he's ready to move her on. This was always my personal grail VZ. I love this design to bits. The grid graphics, the orange detail and the horizontal-line design are just gorgeous. Surprising it's missing a VU meter of any description and a couple of other little features. Also she's a good deal lighter than the VZ-2000. Still is very heavy compared to most boxes and is markedly heavier than an M90. As my friend had worked on it there was a fair bit of guess work to get things going. I successfully rebelted the deck and gave her a good clean. The record portion has become a real burden (as you can see in the Tech Talk section) but I'm hopeful that I can get her back to 100%. My friend only paid about $50 for her on yahoo.jp, so that's what I got her for. Unfortunately the postage was around $250.... but I'm still very pleased with landing one for $300 considering a domestic VZ-2000 in average condition usually goes for $250-300 down here.
Well, that's my collection update for the first bit of 2011, hope you guys like em at least half as much as I do!
Rock On.
:'-( 
