...my clone-collection part I: WESTMAN JC-8119 - I managed to find a boxed one, this is the only one NOT marked as Westman on the unit itselfe - checkout those nice headphones !! Heru Walky III - this is a "lower quality" one ITT Jogger 810 - no. one of the "bigger" names that used this unit oem Stereo Cassette Player P-002 - sorry, this is a poor one, found a nicer one in another box after taking those pics Schmid WM-130 - yeah, there's a volume-knob missing, but who cares ;-) Calypso 688 - now what a name for a portable stereo !!! generally one of the nicer made units Grundig BeatBoy 100 - nice quality, now this is a well known brand (got a few of those...) Royal RS-2 - another "lower quality" unit Universum City-Bummler - oem for mail-order warehouse Quelle - they had some seriously nice boomboxes made under this name, too Unimex HPS-310 - now this is one out of two I have from this species featuring recording ! see compared to a Goldstar the similarity in the mechanical departement ! TEC soundman 1 - one out of a few more TEC's to come... Hanimex HSP 2200 - very, very similar to the BeatBoy... JS & A ACP 328 - with nice leatherette Luma "Boogie" - I quite like it for the name Kisho MCR-201 - featuring fm-stereo - what a brick !!! Silk Sound AW-201 - sadly in poor condition... ....more to come sooon !!!
CTX 6600 - a no-name-brick also featuring fm radio Unitech Dual Pack IS-115F with a tunerpack, as we know it from Toshiba KT-AS2 Trump TWF-802 - the POTUS- player, also featuring fm-tunerpack (exactly the same as in the Unitech !) TEC Soundman AFX-5 - featuring am/fm radio Watson Model 310 - no comment Schmid WM-120 - like the other Schmid I have, also only one volume-knob, but on this one it's enough ! classy design !!! Sound Aid TE 2 - now this is the lowest budget kinda crap money could buy - doesn't look in the first view like a derivate, but look closer and nd you spec the family's relation Fujino F 2 - another funny one, I think they were trying to copy Panasonic's design... UHER Tramp - well made one nder the name of legendary reel-to-reel-maker Uher, with this unit they also wanted to play in the big Walkman-game - in a very german, professional looking outfit TEC Soundman 3S - as I wrote before, another one under this great (?) name Mac Donald code 06.33.02 - got at least as much value as a BigMac, but a far nicer name: Stereo-on-the-go ! Universum CT 3121 Music Man Junior (...now we know: the other one was for the senior !). Love the writing on it ...well, batteries of my camera was running flat, here some quick pics of some boxed ones: Easy Sound and general mom/dad GOLDSTAR TSM-22 ...more to come !!!
part III ...at 1st. a nice update to the boxed Easy Sound - checkout that nice box-design on the back, very "Sony-inspired " !!! SoundTripper III Arrow - also a boxed one, nice old Yamaha ! makes me wonder what is a SoundTripper I or II, and is there a IV ??? Grundig BeatBoy 200 - what a helluva BRICK !!! well, and there's those ESCO- booster (active speaker), as you can see on the box - especially made for the Westman- clone- species !!! ...and a little impression of my desk after taking those photos ;-) ...well, I have besides the Binatone from "deech" at least 4 or five other ones, pics coming soon, I need a break !!!
Super-Fidelity Walking Stereo MS-007 - this is one of my favourites, have a look to those stunning buttons ! ROTEL RWM-800 - another big name in this family !!! Goldstat TSM-33 - as you can see actually all derivates base even with design completely either on the Goldstar TSM-22 or 33 Binatone hipfi mk2 ...and a total with those last ones As I wrote before, it is sort of proofed that the Goldstar-models were the first, TSM-22 launched in december 1979, shortly after the TPS-L2 The mechanics are almost identical with minor change, so is the mainboard - what an effort to create all those different ones !!! I do own at least three more but can't find'em right now, one of them is also still boxed and features recording... If you ever come across one of those and you don't know what to do with it - if it's not on this gallery - offer it to me, I'll trade !!!
Only bloody brilliant. To me, this is 100% what this hobby is all about. An unashamed 360 degree focus on a single point at the lower end of the market. Just look at how these curious brands try to re-invent the category 'Studio Walker', 'Sound Aid', 'Jogger'. I like the Tec Soundman 2, was there ever a Soundman 1? My favourite too is the Super-Fidelity Walking Stereo MS-007, not only is it a mouthfull but just look at those Art deco curves. Auto and I have discussed these units at great length over the years and one thing has always evaded us. Where were these made? The eagle-eyed amongst you can tell that they pretty much all share the same platform, so our guess is that they were being made to order from a single location. A bit like the VW Sharan, Vauxhall Zafira, Ford Galaxy, Seat Alahambra MPV's of a few years ago. But where, where were these units made? Somebody must know and did the factory have their own branded unit? If they did, was it one of these? Auto and I collectively refer to these as the 'Westman' clones but which one was the VW? I fear also that I owned one of these. Was it the Kisho? I forget. Sir, here is your legacy and it's a credit to you. Always keep these.
Lol cool collection. It's very obvious they have no separate ff rew buttons. The guy with the moustache, is he really a consumer target? Well, I can imagine truckdrivers getting bored of radio channels. Does look like a smokes add.
I love the Hanimex and the CTX 6600 but i think the Tec is my favorite. This was a brilliant and interesting thread, it's hard to believe there are so many clones of the same base. I agree AO there had to be a factory somewhere knocking these out in the various guises. I guess tooling for something like this was very expensive back in the day so perhaps they made as many as possible on the same lines with minor changes cosmetically etc. It's strange because there are enough differences that some change to assembly would of had to be made. My wifes mother used to work for Philips in the uk on an assembly line, nothing fancy she just arranged the components on the boards ready for soldering and she said they used to make equipment for other brands quite freqently, she only dealt with assembling mainboards however and these were either the same or very similar between models. I'd question her more but she's older now and mad as a bucket of spiders. Thats a great collection Auto, must of taken some time to amass. Whats your fave then eh?
It's interesting how much interest you put on to TPS-L2 clones. I had never interest on low end models, but your collection is worth to be shown permanently for future generations...
Wooow ! I feel so happy for making a very small contribution for this wonderful collection Let me say my thoughts on where those are made, Judging by the Binatone that reads Made in Taiwan My guess is that those are made in this Country. In the 80s Taiwan was like todays China. Nike uses Chinese factories to make their shoes nowadays. Low Quality shoes like the most succesful of this Company Nike Air Max '97 has countless colour variations and are made at the same factories and this is a fact. I dont see Why not in the 80s an electronics Assembly line not to use the same methods.
Hugo, if you put it this way: 80'ies were NOT "Madonna", but she was 80'ies ! Talk about 80'ies cars: Merc 560 ? BMW 7 series ? Ferrari Testarossa ? Hm, those were the cars EVERYBODY wanted, but what did the mass drive ? Renault 5, Volkswagen Golf, Fiat Uno, Opel Corsa, Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 208, Talbot Samba & Solara, Daihatsu Charade etc.etc., but where are they ? gone, or run down in a way that they're not worth repairing. Same happened with those players. If you had money - you bought the best. Afterwards either you had enough money to just throw it away, or (better) you allways kept your high-end-f***ing-expensive portable stereo nicely in the drawer (those are the ones we like to find), means: the chances of surviving was/is high for an expensive player. What did they do with a cheap player once out of fashion/baggered ? Sure. Bin... That's what I think makes them rarer than DC2's, D6C's etc. But anyway - believe me or not: A well serviced Goldstar 33 can easily hold sound-standards with most high-cost players, it's just a headphone-question. A good recording (no Dolby) done on my RX-505 does NOT sound any better on a TPS-L2, WM-3, Aiwa HS-F1 etc.etc. Promise !
I agree with the above completely, I actually have a boxed as new Binatone HipFi, in 1980 this was the UK's biggest selling player by a long way, as you say where are they all now. I think my boxed Binatone HipFi is actually very rare indeed!
This Was this the big battleship blue one with transport keys at the front? I actually had this one too.
Let's face it, based on the tiny amount of sonic range needed for a 'full' sound from the 'headphone next to ear' format it was difficult for a walkman not to sound good. A cheap simple stereo playback circuit is easy to produce. As Auto says, headphones and possibly playback stability were key. It's worth remembering, these TPS clones were far from rubbish, I'd say crude rather than poor quality. Think Russian cameras or Lada cars rather than Peugeot 208 (what a flap of s**t that was). Each one came with a fully steel transport and chassis and most had steel pannels.
The first hipFi was black and silver, there was a mark II and mark III not sure if these came in blue though, they did have two other models that were blue one was smaller front view but much deeper the other was huge and the cassette was inserted through a flap like a car stereo, I have both of these but I couldn't find them. The HipFi was easy to find as it was in one of my cupboards full of boxed units, the others are in boxes somewhere? I think I actually have more of these clones than I realise, have find them all! Anyway here's the pictures of the HipFi, I love the box art and the demo tape the track 'sex bus' what a title, the instruction manual is actually hilarious I should scan it and post it.
Like the photo's they used on the hipfi box , especially the one with the guy on the square posing like "oh yeah, I'm the man".
