I'm in! Found some crusty but cute Crowns, the big one locally. Here's the Crown CSC-950F and CSC-110, both in great shape but coated with lot's of basement grime. The little one is much more impressive in person than in photos, a nice quality build that should shine up like new.
nickeccles, I always think of your outstanding detailing abilities when I get boxes like these, it's just that gross Coke Cola and dirt but luckily it usually cleans up nicely.
Congrats on the crowns Mr x keep an eye out for one of the big guys preferably a 970, I'm not into minis but that one looks cool not sure i have seen that one before lad
Unfortunately I'm running out of room for the big ones but I do love the mini's, it's amazing how much they stuffed some of them with electronics and if you need a little desk stereo, they're perfect. The issue here is 10 nice boxes will come up for sale locally at the same time, then 2.5 years of nothing.
Here's some more early Crowns from 1972 including the CSC-505SW, the big three-piecer is very similar to the other brands that all came out with the same style but what we know as the traditional boombox was starting to take the world by storm. Crown was definately one of the grand dads of boomboxes.
just bought one csc 505 sw mr x because of you're post....must be one really early boombox lad https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402363451146?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
That does look to be old. Radio Museum claims 1972, https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/crown_csc_505fw.html but I think that was just when it was still in a catalogue. It wouldn't surprise me if it cost more in £s back then than you paid for it this week. Argos wasn't even going back then.
good evening longman, i wasn't planning to buy it just another impulse buy due to this thread but if correct that means i was aged 2 lol it seems to be one of the earliest with cassette, there is another one but only with record player and records are not my cup of tea
Here is a challenge for @Mister X. Which came first the 3 piece box or the stereo one piece? Of course around the same time Sanyo made stereo boxes which looked like a Mono one but with a second speaker that could hinge out or detach. @Radio Raheem we already knew you are a youngster. I was ten. For some reason the Crown looks to me like something a school would have, probably because they were the only people who could afford such equipment back then. In the 1970s any kids who had a cassette recorder had a Mono shoebox type.
i'm not sure longman but i seem to remember 3 piece being first, i don't count monos as boomboxes unless we are talking about the jvc 550 but that is just me lad
You dog Radio, I just ordered one as well, mine's not here yet..... Mine is slightly different with with AM/FM. You'd have to go through the newspaper ads to find the first "boombox" if I had to guess I'd say AIWA or Sony. We do need a what's your oldest boombox thread....
Congrats triple xxx lol great minds think alike....lets see you're auction pics lad......there is one crown that i would love now, that is the rx 9800 it looks so cool bud, also looks to be very early
According to the ad from http://www.hifi-archiv.info/Radio-Werbung/Crown/index.html the Crown Crowncorder CSC-9350M comes from 1968. This is a 3-piece stereo radio-cassette. Judging by the looks the CSC-505 could be about the same age, is it a one piece system? It doesn't have the lock-buttons on top of the speakers that the CSC-9350M has. /edit: Answering my own question, the CSC-505 is also a 3-piece system: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/crown_csc_505fw.html
I was just on that site looking at the old Sony Brochures, great information. They do have the two Crowns mixed up, there's Crown USA in Elkhart Indiana and Crown of Japan, the boombox maker. I'll have to look for more information on the CSC-9350M, that's a really early stereo model.
I just fed $190 and 1968 into a US inflation calculator and got $1,497 These sort of units really were for the type of people who buy a top of the range iPhone these days.
The Crown CSC-505FW, just like Radio's except for the radio bands. Fortunately this is 120 volts and the radio dial is full scale. This is a pretty big boomer and not for everyone, while basic it's actually nicer looking in person and the tuning section is really good although I forgot to put it on a stereo station so you could see it's fully operational. The speakers have nice sonics for their size but it bottoms out about 1/2 way up on the volume. It has those antennas that I love that retract into the body, it's too bad they didn't have more graphics on the tape deck side to liven it up a little.
