folks, as I've got 4 of those in the meantime there's one for sale on ebay: http://www.ebay.de/itm/-/162482786308? it's in excellent physical shape, working order but needs belts - anybody from this board interested please make me a decent offer, s2go- member will receive a free set of belts with it...
well, so and so - there was a UHER mini hifi-tower (tuner, preamp and if required a final-amp) wich used this deck - but they also sold it separately as reporter-type machines, such as the TCD-M5 from Sony I do have the tower as well: it shows deck, tuner and pre-amp, the final-amp looks different and includes the power-supply for all components. Those things were made with an extra-ordinary quality, like the legendary UHER Report-reel to reels (left in the pic). Well, another company that sorta disappeared completely - they were fully focused on reel to reel, made in 1971 the cassette-deck CR-124 (first ever portable with stereo, hifi and autoreverse !) and later CR-210 and this one not to loose contact to this fast developing cassette-market - but they lost due to mismanagement and high prices... Everything you find hifi- boombox- cassette or whatsoever later then 1981 is labelled japanese, corean or from Hongkong :-(
There were quite a few exceptions. My Philips Roller 2 Radio cassette from the late 1980s (I bought it new in 1989) was made in Austria. A few more on the old site (I have no idea why we can still see this unless it is cached somewhere) http://www.stereo2go.com/topic/made-in-austria.htm That isn't even a high end or quality box (or should that be spheres). Lots of boxes (e.g. Hitachi 3Ds) were made in Singapore (although that is still Far East) If you look around you will find some Japanese brand mini Hi Fis made in the UK (to avoid import duties) from around that era. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aiwa-RX-30-Stereo-Amplifier-Receiver-/262941288249 Look at the photo of the back. Move into the Audiophile type Hi Fi and their have always been equipment made in a wide variety of countries including the USA and UK.
well, not all post 1980 UHER-labelled gear was crap, they also sold the legendary AIWA mini-tower under their name, slightly changed frontplates, all orange (!) there was also a huge Technics power-amp (with those huuuge vu's) sold under the name UHER ...and don't misunderstand me, japanese, chinese, corean or whatsoever far-east made doesn't mean "junk", but 99% is extremely close to it...
There was also the Uher Mini Port http://wikiboombox.com/tiki-index.php?page=Uher+Mini-Port And even better, the Mini HIT http://wikiboombox.com/tiki-index.php?page=Uher+Mini-HIT Those two models had very good power and bass. I'm not sure where they were built, though.
Vintage UHER Products are so good looking, I wonder if it was in house or one of the avant garde European Firms. I'd even throw in that field recorders as a whole are some of the best looking tape decks, show me one that is not cool-looking.
