I'm sorry. It was kind of a clickbait. If my boring question was in the title you never would have clicked on this. And what is an honest question really, anyway? I don't know. Anyway here I go with the question: Was Sanyo Canada's most popular brand in the 80's?... ... Very boring subject I know. I tried to talk about it to the family at Christmas but nobody cared. But, you know... almost half of my radios are Sanyos... Is this a reality for fellow collectors from coast to coast? I was wondering.
My Mum's first Radio Cassette bought in 1973 was a Sanyo. My first Personal Stereo, and my first Personal CD Player were both Sanyos (although I will admit the CD player was a bit of a disappointment). Sanyo were always about 1/2 to 2/3rd the price of Sony while giving decent enough performance which was why they were so popular. I guess the famous £29.99 WM22 was Sony trying to respond to that.
I'm reading a lot of retailer's magazines from the 70-80's right now pulling ads and articles. Sanyo was actually in financial difficulty in the early-mid 80's but turned it around (along with changing their logo). Sanyo had some great first generation boomboxes and portables but seemed to go mass-market around 82. With portable sales dropping from everyone, the entry-level market exploded and Sanyo had a lot of boomboxes and portables in the $35-$125 USD range. Like Longman said, they were priced right and they had several so your weren't buying what your friend had. I've got a big box full of old Sportster Models, they were inexpensive back then and a great bang for your buck. The big "C" Series Boomboxes also seem to be everywhere, while most are pretty light, they also looked pretty good for the price point. I don't have much made after 85 but I remember Sanyo, Sony and AIWA were still pumping out a ton of equipment.
