Bring Me The Mini's...The Quintessential Collection!

Sanyo had some nice little mono boxes, the Sanyo M6400 is a really handsome little guy and it's a heavy one, while small I'm sure people complained about lugging them around. The panel next to the cassette window is polished chrome but it has a weird yellow reflection.

 

General Electric 3-5226A, I think T-ster said these were also made by Sanyo, I think there's an identical model. I bought this randomly, but it's a nice one, also very heavy, I always check to make sure I didn't leave batteries in it. The plastic capped controls, the needle dial indicator, the metal trimmed mic are all nice touches for this one, check out the recording level LED! I can see someone pulling this out at a park for some music, back then these were pretty new and exciting, both a radio and tape player that sounded half-way decent.

 

The Sony Soundabout "Brick" Series, The WA-55, WA-100 and WA-33. The Sony M-80 Microcassette Player is also shown in ads for this series, all of these have AM/FM radios and built in speakers. I call them bricks because they came out when Sony was putting out some really compact equipment. They blended older design and took some boombox cues to come up with these gems. It would be interesting if there were multi-band models available.

 

The Panasonic RX-F9

I was cleaning up around the pad when I found this old blast from the past, I remember being pretty happy picking it up for $3.99 USD around 2008. Another heavier than expected model but look at the speakers, they clock in around 3.5" diameter. There's some really nice features including line input, metal tape, auto reverse (recording and playback) and a funky four button EQ that can do 10 different combinations. As expected the bass is minimal but this is a loud player that doesn't distort. I haven't plugged it in in years but is sounds really nice, perfect for a deck or out working in the garage.

I'm not aware of any recorders, besides microcassette, that auto-reverse when recording, were there others? This is part of the "F" Series, I have a few others but I think this might be one of the higher end models. The others have big F's on the front, this is tagged on the removable door card.

 

Believe it or not, JVC was a mini-boombox powerhouse, they had a ton of them including some from the late 70's. I never saw these as a kid, so finding them is always a nice adventure. This is the JVC RC-S2JW, one of the smallest but there's one that's just a fraction smaller. The build quality on this one is top notch and while it's not stereo, I'm sure Sony was looking at these for inspiration on the Walkman. You won't find any information on this one, I've tried, it's also not listed on Wikiboombox. So what's cool about this one? The AM/FM band is seen on the front panel, the clear window wraps around the top and this unit also has the SW band with another dial pointer (it's the same one but it's also exposed on the top, another cool feature I haven't seen on another box. The cassette door has that cool bridge later seen in most Marantz Gold Boomboxes.

 

1978, I would have loved to hear the conversation around the design table. JVC was releasing some boombox classics, the Walkman was still two years away and micro TVs were HOT. The MR-200 Mini Radio Cassette Recorder was released with it's 2" companion the Twinch Micro TV. I'm not sure if this was the second mini released after the Toshiba I posted above, but there's not a lot of other minis from the 70's. Radios like this really helped put JVC on the map, they didn't do entry-level equipment but more high mid-level until the late 80's when most audio was struggling. This is a little beast, very heavy, exceptional JVC Build with an LED level indicator and a very nice antenna that collapses into the unit. This is another one that hasn't made the cut on the Wikiboombox

 

The JVC PC-100 is a beast! One of my favorites, another high-qulity build but your right, it's just a tiny one. For some reason in any photo it looks like a monster box but it's only a few inches high.

 

The good news is the Japanese have the most beautiful packaging in the world but shipping costs can be extravagant. I've had a few smaller, Walkman Size Items, shipped for cheap with no problems, once you get into larger equipment like these mini-boomboxes there may be issues, especially with the shipping costs. You might win the bidding for dirt cheap but the shipping may be hundreds of dollars. I think one of our members also had an issue with one of the companies not wanting to ship radios. I'd expect most of your transactions to go smoothly but there will be one that doesn't.

Their equipment also runs on 100 volts, the plug ends are the same as here in the US and it will work, with both tolerances, there's some matching voltages. I still run my JDM Equipment with a 120v to 100v "wall-wart", the good ones are around $50 (and made in Japan). Most audio equipment in Japan seems to be either well used or hardly used. They do not have space for "stuff" so if they're not using it, it gets tossed, my buddy in Tokyo tells me about curb finds all of the time, one of the most common is empty luggage containers, which is how I get mine shipped. Most homes have a TV and a radio, but some of the radios sit for years without use, they don't have a lot of stations and most have gone to a talk format or the signal is so compressed, it's hard to listen to, when they listen to music they like to use that nice equipment and not the portable radios.

 

The Sanyo M1950AF, I bet there's a General Electric Version out there. Another one of my favorites with super nice looking controls at the top. This was back when LCD clocks were still pretty expensive and kind of rare on boomboxes.

 

Sony CFS-6 in beautiful silver, Sony made so many portables and a lot are just lumps of plastic but they do have some gems but they can be difficult to find. I love that this look like they threw in Walkman Mechanicals and added a few speakers and amplifier.