Found another one of these a while ago! And look, it's made in Indonesia! Here are pics fresh for the hunt, without cleaning. The radio and line-in was partially working, while tape was off. Now I'm kinda curious about licensed examples of these beasts. Browsing online, i seem to only be able to find Japanese-made units. I know that manufacturers sometime licensed other companies abroad, even at the "golden age" of cassettes, like the case with the Spanish Sony TPS-L2 and WM-3. But it looks like a rare practice and they're quite picky in choosing licensee countries? Panggung, by the way, was also the same company (or at least the same group) and the ones making the Maxell cassettes. The name basically means "Stage"
Great find! Facinating information, I wonder if it was made locally due to import restrictions? Did they get a kit from Japan and assemble it or did they make some of the components? https://www.scmp.com/presented/busi...ountry-report-2016/article/1980015/indonesias https://www.panggung.com/
Hmm, well there was a version of the Goldstar TSR-580 that was assembled in Nigeria by Daddybond Industries. It was called the President TSR-585, and it's identical except for the brand name.
That is the most likely explanation. I would expect most if not all of the components were from the same factories as the Japanese ones. I have a Panasonic Shortwave Radio which is made in Iran. It dates from the mid 1970s back when relations were different and the USA was selling them F14 fighter jets.
That's an interesting explanation. Something I didn't thought of before. I don't know about the components inside, though. Since I didn't open it up. This was went straight to a friend who's much more experienced in working with boomboxes. In this case this was a JVC branded unit. Panggung themselves, other than being a licensed manufacturer of JVC (and many other brands) is official distributor for audio brands likes Maxell, Teac, Casio (Casiotone), and JBL. What do you guys think of licensed unit like these? In particular of the legendary M90? Said friend of mine was going to sell one of his and almost reached a deal with a collector from abroad. But the deal fell through when the would-be buyer realized it was not made in Japan. Personally, being Indonesian myself, I'm rather proud of owning one made here. And I'm guessing this is a lot rarer than the usual Japanese ones.
The country of origin is interesting and I'd guess the Japanese Units would get the higher price, just like the 777 Chinese Models don't seem to get the higher Japanese Pricing. I run into the same issue with tools, is the Makita, made in China, the same quality as the exact same tool, made in Japan 7 years ago?
People noticed the difference in quality between Ford gearboxes made in Japan and those made (to the same design) in the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming
That's quite interesting, Reli. Perhaps you also know that the Sharp GF-666 -- the "-Z" version, at any rate -- was also assembled in Nigeria. In this case, though, it was put together by Three Aces (N) Ltd, located in Port Harcourt. That's the capital city of Rivers State, in south-central Nigeria. (Well, "south-central" to me, though some southern Nigerians might say it's in southeastern Nigeria, I shrug.) The ShizAudio.ru website has the one image that I know of clearly showing that somewhat favoured model's rear data plate. ("Somewhat favoured," I say, because while some collectors -- perhaps such as Fatdog, the BoomBoxery administrator -- might think it's got a respectable, enduring build quality and sound, perhaps others think it's got a slightly militaristic uncomeliness to it.)
