New member who's old and has old equipment. : )

[Rallyguy]

Glad to have found a collective of folks who share the passion for old boom boxes. I'm a long-time audiophile and drummer who's starting to collect some key pieces, mainly things that have sentimental value. First up was a Panasonic RX-DT680, which to this day amazes me with its deep, tight bass capabilities. Next was a crazy grail acquisition, the one I'd lusted after since I was a kid, the monster Technics SA-CO7. And today - I got a blast from my past, the VERY Canadian Candle JTR-1287, the box I got as a teenager, in the mid-80's. It's mechanically near perfect, everything works. I've spend a wonderful afternoon doing a deep clean while listening to a non-stop parade of old cassettes. Much fun.

 

[Brutus442]

Welcome to club! I too lusted after that box after seeing it in the Consumers Distributing catalogue as a young teen. My mom ended up buying the Candle JTR 1249 which I still covet today. I used to listen to the Jays and Leafs games on it when I was doing homework and used the cassette deck more than I'd like to admit.
Cheers from another box nut from T.O.

 

[Northerner]

Welcome from another old guy lol. Nice boombox

 

[Reli]

Welcome. That Technics is high quality!

 

[Rallyguy]

Thanks guys! I cannot believe the joy this thing is giving me! Spent the last two whole days refurbishing it and listening to old cassettes. SO much fun! I have tons of high end gear, but I can't stop listening to this thing! And I'm amazed by the range of features; from the pretty-darn-accurate "AMPS" circuit (allowing you to skip up to three songs forward on a tape) to the dual function meters (Batt and FM tuning OR VU) and even the hokey "wide" function that seems to play some mystical phase inversion trickery to create a crazy wide soundstage (while sucking all the bass out of the signal!). I even made my first cassette recording in about 30 years, using the line in and "downloading" some youtube tunes to tape. : ) (Take that DRM!)

I haven't opened it up yet - just having too much fun. But when I do - any threads on what caps etc to replace to bring it back to life as much as possible? (I'm handy electronically, but don't know my way around boom box circuitry all that much and can't find a service manual for this unit.)

Thanks!

RK

 

[Netsurfer_x1]

Welcome to club! I too lusted after that box after seeing it in the Consumers Distributing catalogue as a young teen. My mom ended up buying the Candle JTR 1249 which I still covet today. I used to listen to the Jays and Leafs games on it when I was doing homework and used the cassette deck more than I'd like to admit.
Cheers from another box nut from T.O.View attachment 56916

Bet that Candle runs absolute rings around the ION clone.

Prove me wrong...I'll wait.

 

[Brutus442]

Can't speak for the ION the Candle is a "no frills" boombox that doesn't have any redeeming features beyond the nostalgia factor and personal connection. I'm sure there are hundreds of boxes that sound both better/ worse than this but when I received this as a Christmas present from my mom, I was in heaven. My world revolved around this radio....and so began my infatuation with boomboxes