Toshiba was one of the world's largest consumer electronics firms in the 70's and they had some really cool cassette players that could stand with the best of them. During the 70's anything goes days there were some very innovative designs including my little Toshiba RT-55oF considered to be the first mini-boombox. Yes this little guy is mono but for some of these tiny units, mono is all you need. This early model is feature-laden with AM-FM Radio (there's a speaker on the back of the unit), tape counter, battery indicator, tape door lock slide, and it will also record. I have to believe that this thing was quite a head-turner when new, I was still using a full-size mono, crummy portable tape deck, holding it next to the radio to record songs when this came out, I would have been in bliss with this. Construction is all plastic with a very large radio band and dial tuner that looks great with the 70's control buttons. There's a 6v connection for power and it takes four AA batteries. The most odd thing is the AM/FM switch is on the back. I've found some Japanese links giving a 1970 date for this unit making it one of the first boomboxes but without cracking it open and finding a date that might be hard to prove. This one works pretty good but needs belts and a DeOxit Bath, other than that it's a really cool 70's box. I'm going to enjoy my avocado Kit-Kats and listen to it more......
http://www.geocities.jp/yumesawanachi/radio/toshiba-rt550f.html "At that time it was a phenomenal small, compact, radio cassette. A round and rounded design is comfortable just by watching it. The location of the radio scale and the tuning dial is also unique. Among them, the point that it is designed to operate "play", "fast forward", "rewind" and "stop" with one button. By utilizing the advantage of being compact and easy to carry, ON-AIR mechanism was installed and it was possible to enjoy it as a transceiver feeling. MW, FM. Frequency response: 100 to 8,000 Hz. Width 170 × height 110 × depth 72 (unit · mm). 重さ1.0kg。 Weight 1.0 kg. Fixed price 34,800 yen" Wow, that's close to $350 USD in the 70's! I didn't think of the vertical tuning dial, 99% of the radios I open up have the dial mounted next to the "scale" so the cord that pulls the tuning needle is moved by the pulley attached to the back of the tuning knob, everything is linear. This photo is from a Japanese Boombox Exhibit showing a 1970 date.
That is very common for small 1960s and 1970s radios. It allowed them to use a simple slide switch soldered directly to the back of the PCB. Regarding the price what exchange rate were you using ? This shows 300Yen to the dollar making the RT501F about $68. https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/b...rical-spot-exchange-rates/usd/USD-to-JPY-1975 That sounds about right to me - about 3 days wages for the average American back then. https://www.google.co.uk/search?sou...131k1j0i10k1j0i13k1j0i8i13i30k1.0.GvCKW-mWLz0 I like the leaflet, especially the wood cased RT550F. I expect most British teenagers who were lucky enough to have a cassette recorder in the 1970s ended up with something like the KT-205 at the bottom right
Longman, I usually do 5000 yen to 1 USD, it's a little more but it's easy to keep track of. The brochure looks like a Japanese Market Price of $183.00 USD and the listing in the Japanese Blog is $310.00 USD. This is today's exchange rate and not 1975.
