Bring Me The Mini's...The Quintessential Collection!

They aren't the bottom of the barrel, there were much worse. Plus both those companies made significant contributions to the culture of vintage audio.
My very first mini portable tape cassette radio was a YORX and it served it's purpose quite well.

 

That Sanyo M7880K !!!
What a wonderful little unit, look at all the features packed into it !! Wow
Metal Tape & CrO2 , EQ preset boost and cut, Music Search, Dual headphones, Mic Mixer, VU meter ....
Just Awesome. I got to get me one.

 

MIC mixing is usually to related to the Japanese enthusiasm for Karaoke.

 

Three from my stash .....
First up, MTC MS-2800G ...








Second Up, ULTRA RARE ! Yorx K3688
My Very First Portable Radio .... XD







Last up, A Panasonic RX-C50

 

That MTC one looks very Sanyo-ish!

 

My Panasonic RX-C50 sounds wonderful for a mini compo. Very refined and full sounding in my opinion.

 

Never should have sold this Grundig, it was quite pretty. Manual FM presets too!

 

There are a couple for sale in Germany at the moment. This one even comes with a period correct cassette.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274875244146?hash=item3fffd75e72:g:6oMAAOSwiKtg-B-A
The model also comes in black which makes it look like a boring 90s box.

 

Ya, that GRUNDIG is a cool little unit, not a fan of the pastel coloring but nice features for the size, the one on eBay looks
a little rough but I noticed that it also has RCA inputs and outputs that the YouTube video failed to show us.
I like units like this, that pack in the extras. XD

 

At least it gave the designers something to think about and do, Can you imagine the people doing the styling at an electronics company these days "for the latest phone the engineers have worked out how to make the notch 1mm smaller and the camera lens 1mm bigger so we want you to restyle the case to accommodate those changes".

These shortwave sets were aimed at international travellers, as were the many international transmissions like the Voice of America and BBC World Service. When they came out the only way a traveller could find out what was going on in their own country was to tune into the appropriate station or, if they were somewhere like London pay a lot of money for two day old newspaper from their own country.

 

What features? Four FM presets? Does it actually have four separate LC circuits? Otherwise, no tape type selector, no Dolby. Yep, it does have line in, I suppose this was customary for European boomboxes (and for every Russian boombox, because it could be just the ONLY tape recorder in a house). My Sanyo M7750 and M7770 have a full complement of inputs and outputs, which I think is a rare feature for a small Japanese boombox. They also have tape type selector. Too bad, they don't have Dolby. And of course, they have automatic recording level control.

I don't mind pastel color by itself, but the overall combination of button colors makes it look like a cheap toy. I did not expect this from Grundig. At least it is not all made from the same matte black plastic, like cheap stuff from mid-1990s onwards.

Here is a more, um, traditional style. I like it!

 

The Grundig has inputs and outputs, and 4 speakers with some rather soft-edged woofers that provide better low-volume bass than the vast majority of minis. As for Dolby and a tape type selector, I don't think those features are worth it unless the tape deck is VERY good quality, which this isn't.

 

Just arrived last week!!

Paid £3 for it too! What a beauty & built like a tank!

In pristine condition - I never saw one of these before either.....

 

Good to see you are still collecting Nick.

when I see an expensive looking radio without LW it makes me think it wasn't intended for the European market. That would explain not seeing one before.