In case your not following some of my other threads, it looks like CROWN and Unisef are related! UCM distributes (and makes?) both of them. What is UCM, maybe Unisef Crown Manufacturing?
none of this means anything mister mr x, as far as i know there are panasonic i'cs inside the crown 970 my friend, crown and unicef made an identical boombox just different colours
Open any old electronics and you'll see Toshiba, NEC, Hitachi, etc IC chips, same with speakers, they all bought from each other even to the point where a manufacturer might "borrow" one unit from a different manufacturer, something I find extremely fascinating. Some of the ads I've posted say CROWN and Unisef are from the same manufacturer, UCM, I've never seen that before.
That happened for decades. Sony made all sorts of ICs yet all the ICs in a 1990s Korean made Sony Walkman I repaired recently were from different manufacturers. More recently in Europe Sony's video DVD recorders were made by Pioneer, even having an S/P option in the service menu to change the identity of the unit.
i think the crown unicef were the first and last big boombox i saw in my town, i wanted one as soon as i saw them, they were £99 new.....sadly though there not a patch on the early crowns like the 970...even these though are made badly when you compare something like an m90...i would still probably chose one over an m90 but that's just me
This is no surprise, since the Crown SZ-5100 and the Unisef SZ-5000 are the same box. They're both very low quality junk. I personally doubt they had any business relationship with the REAL Crown of Japan who made much better quality models.
Will put this here the crown 980, sounds superb with an executive kinda look..........also easier to wok on compared to the 970
To me the 970 is the one to get...but this one sounds even better Mr x...even a muppet like me could easily re belt this one lad lol
Yea, I wish they showed up over here more. I found ads for the USA so I know they sold them here but I think they were classic designs which means they were beat to hell doing what they were made for!
I've seen really cool stereos from the 70's doing work duty, businesses will not part with them no matter what you offer.
This one came off ebay for £250 mr x....i could of had it cheaper but honestly i just bit his hand off.....honestly i would rather use the 980 over an m90 any day...it has a warmer fatter sound, almost like a valve radio....to sum up the m90, it's a jack of all trades but a master of nothing.......sure the m90 is louder....but had the 980 on half and it was kicking which is more than enough for an oldie like me lad
Check this out! Yea it's not a boombox, more of a mini system from 1971, the Crown SHC-47F predates the Bell & Howell by a couple of years. I wonder what the controls in the 2nd speaker do?
I posted this for sale in the mega-thread but deserves to be saved here, from an Ebay Auction, shipped from Japan, Super Rare! I hate to steal the guys photos but I've never seen one of these before, maybe the first Kangaroo style players. I forgot to put the link in the ad below but it has sold. The Crown CRC-9980F maybe from the mid-70's? Busittache, printed on the case, must be the series brand name. I found a link to other Crown Brief Cases, maybe they made them as well?
I bought another Crown, I need to give it a once over before posting, sorry Radio, it isn't a big one! In the meantime here's a brochure on ebay for a sweet looking SCP-77, just like from the ad above. These suitcase boomboxes do something for me and the Crown's look much nicer than the cheap portble turntables we had as kids. Officially known as as a "Busittache" several of these have been popping up on ebay USA lately, most shipping from Japan. https://www.ebay.com/itm/164794332663?
Here in the U.K. the equivalent Sanyo models seem to be the most common. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275430429987 I have previously posted a Catalogue from high end department store Selfridge's featuring one.
