Many moons ago an impetuous Gluecifer was browsing eBay and came across a radio he fell in love with in a flash. Oh, she was so beautiful. An Hitachi TRK-8180, no less. A rare bird indeed. She had a beautiful range of features and a stunning design that screamed 'bid on me, bid on me HARD!'.
So this fervent chap, watched and waited. Checking her progress daily. Interest wasn't high, and every day that passed gave him more and more confidence that she would soon be his to love and cherish. The fateful day came, for the auction to end and with as much money put away as he could afford he placed his bid in the last ten seconds of the auction. He committed the bid. He refreshed the page. Eons seemed to pass for the second it took for the page to load. When it finally did it greeted him with the horror we've all seen so many times before. Sorry, you lost. A wave of loss and grief swept over Gluecifer as bidding bereavement set in. He couldn't have gone any higher.. and could only hope she went to a good home.
Gluecifer eventually got over this terrible loss and moved on... hoping to one day have an 8180 of his own.
A few months later a spritely young collector named Alfie posted in the Boomboxes For Sale section. To Gluecifer's amazement it was the 8180 he dearly wished for and Alfie was looking to trade her! Excitement hit Gluecifer instantly and after a great deal of soul searching and deliberation offered Alfie his one and only GF-9696. Communications between the two carried on as pictures of each unit were shared. In a further stroke of confidence crippling disappointment, Alfie decided that Gluecifer's 9696 wasn't in good enough condition to trade. He took this hard.. he scrounged for other radios to offer, but it was for naught. It just wasn't meant to be.....
No more than a few weeks later Gluecifer did his usually boomboxery check after work and he was surprised to see a new PM from none other thant his TRK Nemesis himself: Alfie. The message told a new story. A wonderous story. One involving a local contact Alfie had discovered who had in his possession numerous ghettoblasters of great quality. And then the blasterkarma hit home: his new contact had a TRK-8180!! And Alfie in his supreme generosity offered her to none other than Gluecifer himself! Such excitement ensued! This news awoke the passion and fervour he thought he'd lost and continued to build until the day a package turned up at his door from Alfie.
Cardboard was ripped, torn, sliced and ravaged. Bubblewrap was sheared, cut and destroyed. Inside he found his lost love. A delectable TRK-8180. She was so beautiful. The years of dirt and neglect were transparent to Gluecifer's eyes as he knew he could bring her back up to her glorious youth. And now, with a day spent fixing her up and detailling and cleaning, he finally has a TRK-8180 of his own. Fully functional and sounding as sweet as could be. A fulfillment and satisfaction of finally owning this model has filled Gluecifer with hope and confidence for the future. He knows, now more than ever, that patience, positive thinking and kind acts are the bringers of true reward.
Yes, Virginia. There is blasterkarma. I hope you get as much of it as I have been lucky to experience.
She was WELL worth the wait!! LOVE this blaster to bits. Really classic design, but the top button array and angled tuner scale just add beautifully to the overall aesthetic. When she turned up she was pretty filthy and in need of some attention. The deck tried to play but the take up wasn't happening, and of more concern was a seemingly dead right channel in stereo and wide modes. I spent most of today on her and got everything all working, much to my elation and genuine surprise! Hitachi's aren't exactly renowned for their ease-of-service, but the problems were all fixable. A good switch cleaning fixed up the missing channel and a full rebelting got the deck working beautifully, including the AWESOME DRPS feature.
She's an odd one inside, the screws that hold the back of the case on also hold the entire internal chassis together. Taking the back off means reasonably easy access once the necessary wires and plugs have been disconnected from the main board. There are some odd choices for switches too, the band and function selectors work on a system like a record switch. Moving the selector moves two pieces of plastic connected to each other which then connects to a long positional switch, much like an M70. Never seen this for functions and bands on a radio though. One of these had broken which required a pretty easy hack job to get back in place thankfully, and is now more resilient than the original one was.
Features are really packed in, she's not massive, but has all the things you'd expect to find in a flagship model. The sound is reallllly lovely too. SUPER clean and the separation in wide mode is awesome. Very detailed highs and mids and enough bass to keep me happy.
My TRK-8180 odyssey has come to close! And I'm very, very happy with her. Thank-yous out the ying yang to Alfie, really appreciate this one brother!!! I hope I can return the favour soon!
I HIGHLY recommend this superb Hitachi to anyone collecting, she delivers massive features, killer design and excellent sound. She really ticks all the boxes for true classic ghettoblaster.
Rock On.
So this fervent chap, watched and waited. Checking her progress daily. Interest wasn't high, and every day that passed gave him more and more confidence that she would soon be his to love and cherish. The fateful day came, for the auction to end and with as much money put away as he could afford he placed his bid in the last ten seconds of the auction. He committed the bid. He refreshed the page. Eons seemed to pass for the second it took for the page to load. When it finally did it greeted him with the horror we've all seen so many times before. Sorry, you lost. A wave of loss and grief swept over Gluecifer as bidding bereavement set in. He couldn't have gone any higher.. and could only hope she went to a good home.
Gluecifer eventually got over this terrible loss and moved on... hoping to one day have an 8180 of his own.
A few months later a spritely young collector named Alfie posted in the Boomboxes For Sale section. To Gluecifer's amazement it was the 8180 he dearly wished for and Alfie was looking to trade her! Excitement hit Gluecifer instantly and after a great deal of soul searching and deliberation offered Alfie his one and only GF-9696. Communications between the two carried on as pictures of each unit were shared. In a further stroke of confidence crippling disappointment, Alfie decided that Gluecifer's 9696 wasn't in good enough condition to trade. He took this hard.. he scrounged for other radios to offer, but it was for naught. It just wasn't meant to be.....
No more than a few weeks later Gluecifer did his usually boomboxery check after work and he was surprised to see a new PM from none other thant his TRK Nemesis himself: Alfie. The message told a new story. A wonderous story. One involving a local contact Alfie had discovered who had in his possession numerous ghettoblasters of great quality. And then the blasterkarma hit home: his new contact had a TRK-8180!! And Alfie in his supreme generosity offered her to none other than Gluecifer himself! Such excitement ensued! This news awoke the passion and fervour he thought he'd lost and continued to build until the day a package turned up at his door from Alfie.
Cardboard was ripped, torn, sliced and ravaged. Bubblewrap was sheared, cut and destroyed. Inside he found his lost love. A delectable TRK-8180. She was so beautiful. The years of dirt and neglect were transparent to Gluecifer's eyes as he knew he could bring her back up to her glorious youth. And now, with a day spent fixing her up and detailling and cleaning, he finally has a TRK-8180 of his own. Fully functional and sounding as sweet as could be. A fulfillment and satisfaction of finally owning this model has filled Gluecifer with hope and confidence for the future. He knows, now more than ever, that patience, positive thinking and kind acts are the bringers of true reward.
Yes, Virginia. There is blasterkarma. I hope you get as much of it as I have been lucky to experience.
She was WELL worth the wait!! LOVE this blaster to bits. Really classic design, but the top button array and angled tuner scale just add beautifully to the overall aesthetic. When she turned up she was pretty filthy and in need of some attention. The deck tried to play but the take up wasn't happening, and of more concern was a seemingly dead right channel in stereo and wide modes. I spent most of today on her and got everything all working, much to my elation and genuine surprise! Hitachi's aren't exactly renowned for their ease-of-service, but the problems were all fixable. A good switch cleaning fixed up the missing channel and a full rebelting got the deck working beautifully, including the AWESOME DRPS feature.
She's an odd one inside, the screws that hold the back of the case on also hold the entire internal chassis together. Taking the back off means reasonably easy access once the necessary wires and plugs have been disconnected from the main board. There are some odd choices for switches too, the band and function selectors work on a system like a record switch. Moving the selector moves two pieces of plastic connected to each other which then connects to a long positional switch, much like an M70. Never seen this for functions and bands on a radio though. One of these had broken which required a pretty easy hack job to get back in place thankfully, and is now more resilient than the original one was.
Features are really packed in, she's not massive, but has all the things you'd expect to find in a flagship model. The sound is reallllly lovely too. SUPER clean and the separation in wide mode is awesome. Very detailed highs and mids and enough bass to keep me happy.
My TRK-8180 odyssey has come to close! And I'm very, very happy with her. Thank-yous out the ying yang to Alfie, really appreciate this one brother!!! I hope I can return the favour soon!
I HIGHLY recommend this superb Hitachi to anyone collecting, she delivers massive features, killer design and excellent sound. She really ticks all the boxes for true classic ghettoblaster.
Rock On.
and might I add she is an awesome looking bbx 
. Must rebelt my 8180 
. Really happy for you dude 
.
Beautiful 
