I’m watching locally for a working first gen style boombox - silver, two main speakers (and a pair of tweeters perhaps…), single cassette deck is fine, AM/FM radio etc. and have come across a Pye 3820 ‘Expanded Stereo’ ‘box from the very early ‘80s. I can’t find out anything much about it on forums, but there are various YouTube videos of the multiple differently branded versions. Amongst others it appears as a Philips 508, Magnavox 506, Loewe TR3820, Dux TR-3820, Schneider 3820 - all manufactured in Singapore. There are repair schematics available but they don’t mean much to me! So I assume these are all Philips owned brands made in one factory in Singapore. Can anyone tell me anything more about it? Is it worth chasing up?
I usually get on the wikiboombox.com and check the stats (it seems to be down for the weekend). We didn't have any of those brands over here except for the Magnavox Version. I'm not a fan of most of Philips Offerings but they do have some gems that are highly collectable. This unit looks like a solid mid-level unit, I wouldn't pay a fortune for it but it would make a nice addition to the collection. It does have line in but they look like 1/8" jacks so you'd have to buy some stuff to hook up something like bluetooth. I've found that units made in Singapore have the least amount of documentation, the sellers were buying parts a-la-carte from different factories and slapping them all together. Who knows who originally made it, I used to see catalogs where they would put any name on the boombox and packaging, just as long as you bought a few hundred of them.
Yes Pye was controlled by Philips from 1967 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pye_(electronics_company) I have read that in the 1970s the brands were used to distinguish more upmarket Philips dealers from the general ones but by the 1980s most electronics were being sold on price (with the exception of brands like faux antique styled Dynatron - also owned by Philips). I associate Schneider with Amstrad but maybe that was only in computers. The fact that they sold rebadged Amstrad computers (which were really good value compared to the likes of Oliveti) shows they were willing to shop around for stuff to sell.
Looks like Wikiboombox is back - and the Magnavox version has a page! Thanks for the pointer. So only two 10cm speakers, but that means relatively compact. The Pye version I’ve found also has a LW/MW/FM tuner rather than AM/FM - a European thing no doubt! - and the ‘back off’ pic shows very separate boards allowing different radio specs to be swapped easily. Hitachi TBA810SH amplifier chips which seem decent quality, but only a single tone control. As pointed out, line in and out would be useful. I guess I need to get in gear and go have a listen to see how the ‘Expanded Stereo’ sounds in real life!
A lot of the late 70's manufacturers had some sort of "Expanded Stereo" with different brand names. I've read a little on the phasing tricks they use but it's always in the ears of the listener at the end of the day. This was all new and exciting back then, I'm sure the buyers were loving it.
Having just struggled through resuscitation of a Sony CF550, I would like to add in Philips's defence that at least their boxes are pretty easy to work on. With Sony's densely-packed early gear the choice seems to be (1) unsolder as you go, or (2) figure out later where that wire went that came adrift while you were ever-so-carefully balancing a PCB and the tape mechanism in one hand - the wrong hand - while trying to undo the last stubborn machine screw with the other - also wrong - hand. 'Twill be the last Sony I work on for a long time!
