Sony CFD-750S Boombox

That’s a good-looking sound system you have there, David: the Sony CFD-750S. I don’t think that I’ve ever handled one of those large, three-piece, digital-tuner stereos that typically have a twin-cassette-deck layout, though I kept thinking about buying one in the last couple of years. As I suspected, the “-S” suffix of the model number indicates that it is a shortwave-tuning boombox. That’s good, from my perspective; I tend to prefer the ability to tune shortwave in my radio-tuner electronics, even though anyone can fault DX’ing (listening to long-distance radio broadcasts) for any number of reasons:



the often-inconvenient listening times (due to significant time zone differences, the programming you might want to listen to is probably broadcasting only when you are or should be asleep – or busy with some activity that does not permit DX’ing);



the possibility of bad weather affecting shortwave broadcasting (though I seem to remember another S2Ger replying to me some years ago that bad weather is less likely to affect SW broadcasting than it is likely to affect FM broadcasting);



the audio quality (quite limited unless you have high-end, presumably very expensive electronics, such as those found in better tabletop-style world band receivers);



the expense of the equipment for a serious chance at tuning between, say, 2300 kHz (2.3 MHz) and 25000 kHz (25 MHz): the expense spread out between the tuner or receiver equipment and the connected antennae (then again, living in smaller European countries, maybe the distance that the SW broadcast waves have to travel to reach your tuner or receiver isn’t so great, so maybe the equipment quality can be relaxed and less expensive); and



the limitations of SW broadcasting content that will likely satisfy you. For instance, in the United States, much of the SW broadcasting is done by evangelical Christian broadcasters, and not everyone will follow along with their views of Christianity using the New King James version of The Bible. Also, as a Monitoring Times writer wrote around 1996: To the audiophile, the mere idea of listening to music via shortwave is enough to set the teeth on edge [in anger]. So not many will try listening to the latest Top 40 hit songs or to 1970s soft rock broadcast in, say, 7450 kHz (7.45 MHz). And, with that profit potential not there (for advertisers), few broadcasters will bother spending piles of money to run a SW station year after year that has far too small a listener base to be profitable. And, of course, people can say: The Internet has everything you need, even obscure stuff that never was or no longer is in broadcast media. So there’s no point in spending all that money and time maintaining a radio station that offers stuff that you can get more conveniently online – anytime you want it, anywhere in the world that you are.

It was unexpectedly difficult to find a YouTube video showing the uploader (or whoever is in the video) demoing a CFD-700-series Sony playing or trying to play audiocassettes. But, minutes ago, I finished watching a nearly 14-minute-long video, uploaded earlier in 2021 by AvidRetro, in which both cassette decks of a Sony CFD-770 were demoed, though rather briefly; the uploader cut off the black home-dubbed mixtape after a frustratingly few seconds of playing the tape on either deck, claiming he didn’t want to be “flagged,” so to speak, for violating “copyright” rules from the extended playing of music. As I suspected would be the case, during their use, neither cassette deck showed a tape counter or a timer (displaying minutes and seconds) that can stand in for a three- or four-digit tape counter. The very brief manner in which the tape decks were used wouldn’t explain why no tape counter or timer showed in the display. As I started suspecting a couple of years ago, I doubt that Sony chose to build tape counters into their CFD-700-series boomboxes, despite their commanding size, their array of features and their respected sound quality and despite what I suspect is the flagship status of the Sony CFD-770 – though the one in the AvidRetro video doesn’t have shortwave. (Aww! Then again, that unit also had a faulty FM tuner that could tune no stations …)




Ah, well, now that I’ve produced another “Wall Of Text” LOL, young man: thanks for posting this image.