In 1989 I bought my landlady (who was younger than me) one of those triangular Philips as a leaving present when I got my own house. Despite buying my first CD player while I was living with her it was also probably when I bought the most pre-recorded cassettes. A shop just down the road from her was selling off for the previous years chart albums for about £3 each when CDs were typically over £10.
Both the Sharp QT-50 and the Philips Roller Series had enormous design press, but they're not my favorites. I tend to like more engineered-designed products from earlier boombox series. I think the lighter than most, big excessives of the mid-80's from Taiwan and Hong Kong, as gaudy as they were, actually stood the test of time much better. I was always buying or recording a ton of cassettes, I used a boombox or Walkman most of the time and I could get a nearly new used tape for a dollar. It was also neat finding 70's music from bands like Scorpions, Judas Priest and even Billy Squire before they had their big "hair-metal" breakthroughs. That was amazingly eye opening to find out they put out several albums in the 70's that were never played on the radio over here.
In the U.K. most people had a similar experience but with some American groups like Heart, the Bangles, or the GoGos. On the Top of the Pops " Story of 1987 they had Belinda Carlisle explaining that until they showed a short clip of the Heaven is a Place on Earth video during a "what's happening in the American charts feature" there had been no interest in her in the U.K. Suddenly she became one of the hottest new artists. Then the U.K. discovered she had been in a band called the GoGos before going solo. Soon Jane Wiedlin was in the charts as well. I used to listen to cassettes in my car more than anywhere else. The cars I had between 1984 and 2002 both had decent cassette based stereos in them.
My old work trucks still have cassette decks but they definately need some cleaning. There might also be a bad speaker or two, those old door speakers didn't add any weight to the vehicle.
Design Magazine 1984, the National (Panasonic) SG-J500 came in pink? I'd love to have that model! These were expensive when new, I would have guessed 1/2 that price.
Another article from Design July 1984, some insight on the design process. Some of the are really nice looking products, with plastics gaining a lot of traction, it was getting used on everything.
What was the price? These were about £100 when they were new. Enough of a bargain to persuade my Father to buy one. Most seem to be black, but I have seen red, and a light colour white / silver (maybe versions in both). I've never seen a pink one, although Sharp did some pink stereos and Toshiba did a cute pink TV with a heart at the end of the aerial. Probably aimed at the same market as Hello Kitty.
The ad shows 49,800 Yen which would be around $500 today, not adjusted for inflation or 1980's currency trade value. For me I take the last two digits off, around $500 USD in today's exchange rate.
one of panasonics worst sounding boxes, and very cheaply made,,,,someone had one in work and i shamed the hell out of it with a panasonic fd80 with vertical cd....i have one....longman is correct though they were £100 new....looks cool in white though
I have one Radio, it actually goes back to the beginning of my collection and I kind of agree. As far as a boombox with turntable, yea it's very entry-level but on the other-side, it's a nicely designed entry-level boombox that also has a TT. Someone had to have the bottom end and I can think of something a lot worse than this being put out. These are also pretty light compared to some of it's larger brothers, if you can't lift one of the big ones this might be the perfect fit for you.
nothing to do with this threadMr x but you need to simplify the pm system i need to pm someone good fellow and i can't work it out......asap please lad thanks never mind found it lad cheers back to the thread yea i'd kinda like one but there is no room for every boombox i have seen in my life haha...i must have 30 or 40 boxes again lad, at least most of them work now
