.

Awesome!

 

That skyline looks familiar...... Beautiful pics! I'd love to see a thread with member's boomboxes and their city/ monuments/ waterfronts etc. as a background. It would be an inetresting thread

On the home audio front I have the same Marantz 2226B. Wonderful tuner, weighted dial and rock solid construction.

 

WOW HOLY MOLY an impressive collection indeed. Thank u so much for sharing man.

 

FLEA MARKET FIND: PROTOTYPE BOOMBOX DISCOVERY: DID MADMAN MUNTZ INVENT THE GHETTO BLASTER?

Hi, Deech, Mystic Traveller, Brutus442 & MikeBoombox; thanks for the positive comments.

I've never scored any interesting vintage electronics or boomboxes at garage sales or antique malls or thrift stores or flea markets.
With one notable exception.
At a booth at Mizener's Antiques & Flea Market, about a 40 minute drive west of downtown Toronto,
I discovered the Muntz Stereo 4 track Stereo Pak cartridge player pictured below.
It was in pristine condition and came with a heap of Muntz Stereo-Pak 4 Track tapes in their original slip cover packaging, some with great music and collectible value.
It worked flawlessly (amazingly the belt wasn't melted) and sounded much better than you'd think something so fugly & primitive looking would sound.
The seller said he'd had it on display for a while and I was the first person to show any interest in it,
so he was happy taking $40 CDN for everything you see.

DIMENSIONS:
22 inches long.
13.5 inches to the top of the case, 16.5 inches to the top of the handle
7 inches deep and 13.5 inches deep when the front is folded out.
25 pounds.

Model number "HW-1A"
can be found on the back of the 4 track player when it is removed from the wooden housing.
There is no model number on the black wooden housing with the speakers.
I can find no information or photos online of this complete unit, so maybe it's a prototype that never went in to production?
Or just produced in such low numbers that no others exist online.

This got me to thinking about the (Wikipedia) definition of a boombox:

Boombox is a common term for a portable transistorized cassette tape recorder/player and AM/FM radio (and, beginning in the 1980s, a CD player[contradictory]) with an amplifier, two or more loudspeakers and a carrying handle.

Because this unit doesn't have an AM/FM tuner, it can't really be considered a boombox.
It also doesn't have a battery compartment or antennas or AUX IN like most ghetto blasters.
The wood construction of the outer housing probably disqualifies it as well.
But it does play a form of cassette (4 track tape) with an amplifier, two (detachable) loudspeakers AND a carrying handle.
Plus it's made in Japan like almost all the best boomboxes and it has the dimensions and weight of a classic mid size ghetto blaster.
I believe the detachable speakers were also ahead of their time in that they would allow about 12 feet of stereo sound when fully extended.

Also from Wikipedia:

The first boombox was developed by the inventor of the audio compact cassette, Philips of the Netherlands. Their first 'Radiorecorder' was released in 1966.

From the research I've done on Madman Muntz and his invention of the Muntz Stereo-Pak 4-track cartridge, the Wikepedia page on "Stereo-Pak" says Muntz produced 4-Track Stereo Tape Cartridges & Systems from 1962 until late 1970.

Assuming this player is from the same years that some of the 4 track stereo paks that were included with it were released, this player could definitely be from around 1965.

Which begs the question:

Does this flea market find suggest that Madman Muntz invented the prototypical "ghetto blaster" BEFORE Philips in 1966?

Is this the world's first "boombox", well over a decade before the boombox golden age of the late 1970's to early 1980's?

View attachment 4760

View attachment 4758

 

amazing collection, I love those turntables specially Braun Audio 1

 

Hi, Boodokhan:
Thanks for commenting; I'm glad you enjoy the collection.

Two things happened in the last 48 hours that inspired this post.

First, I scored the below three ghetto blasters a few hours after spotting them newly listed on Kijiji from Bill
(a Boomboxery member) in a suburb of Toronto.

JVC RC 550JW--JAPAN
ZENITH R99--TAIWAN
SONY CFS-85S--ZILBA'P--JAPAN

I paid $500 Canadian for the trio ($300 for the grail JVC & $100 each for the Sony & minty Zenith)
Thanks Bill! I plan to return for a few more of the unique & reasonably priced boxes you are parting with.

The second thing that happened is that I gained access to the rooftop of a downtown Toronto condominium that had been closed for the past 5 months and just re-opened this glorious, sunny morning.

If anybody on STEREO2GO has any shots of ghetto blasters & skyscrapers from their city (good idea Brutus442) , please add them to this thread.
Or any cool outdoor background if you don't have access to a skyline.

Photos taken on a Samsung Galaxy S7.

 

Nice boxes nice views

 

agree with dave, very nice

 

Great pics!

Can summer be finally here in the Big Smoke?? Fingers crossed!

 

Great!!

 

Great boxes and great views! Tallest building around here is probably only 4 stories lol

 

GHETTOBLASTERS & SKYSCRAPERS--BOOMBOX TORONTO SKYLINE--JVC RC 550JW & CONION C-126F & SUPER JUMBO

Hi, mrp32Dave, Brutus442, Radio Raheem, Northerner & Mystic Traveller,
thanks for commenting on the boxes & views.

The Toronto skyline is spectacular at night, so I chose the:

Conion C-126F--JAPAN
Supertech J-747S Super Jumbo--KOREA

Because they complement a nighttime skyline best with their exceptionally flashy light shows on their massive black box chassis.

 

Awesome pics .

 

Saved a beautiful picture of a 20/20 (not mine) to my hard drive a couple of years ago.
I think its maybe the same skyline(Toronto Canada) as the one you take pics WCB.


A pic with a bus painted as a Sanyo M-7830 from Paris France.



and a Pic with a Lasonic TRC-920 with Parthenon from Acropolis.
(Athens Greece).

 

I think that might be Tokyo, in the top pic Deech. Not sure but I know that's not Toronto.

The other two pics are fantastic though. I believe the bottom one is yours is it not?

 

@WCB... I have to say that the Hypersound sounds incredible. I was amazed to hear it in person and I was impressed to say the least!

 

WOW, what a bus!!

 

GHETTOBLASTERS & SKYSCRAPERS--BOOMBOX TORONTO SKYLINE

BLOCKBUSTER BIG BEN & LOUDMOUTH EL DIABLO EGG SNOW WHITE'S COFFIN
THEN BOMBEAT/TNT SUPER JUMBO THE ELEPHANT'S TOOT-A-LOOP---DYN-O-MITE!

Hi, Deech:

Thanks for posting those great pics.

Some pieces of vintage electronics are lucky enough to have nicknames:

GENERAL ELECTRIC 3-5259A "THE BLOCKBUSTER":


SANYO M-X960K "BIG BEN":


GENERAL ELECTRIC POWER SOUND "THE LOUDMOUTH":


JVC RC 550 JW "EL DIABLO":


AQUATRON VX-33 "THE EGG":


BRAUN SK 61-C "SNOW WHITE'S COFFIN":


PANASONIC RQ-830S "TNT":


TOSHIBA RT-8980 SM "BOMBEAT NEW 8":


SUPERTECH J-747S SUPER JUMBO:


MAGNAVOX D8803 "THE ELEPHANT":


PANASONIC R-72 "TOOT-A-LOOP":

 

I really enjoy looking at your pictures specifically this one



Where can i find one like this?