Sometimes love comes from our differences and not how much we want to be the same. One day when I left my office, I came back and found my Sony FH-100W, yes that Sony FH, the king of the hill Sony Boombox, coverting with one of my ultra-mini boomboxes, the Panasonic RN-500, maybe the smallest boombox ever. Love was in the air as Panasonic admired the awesome build of the Sony FH, plastic but presented in a high-class way, lots of buttons, lights, and maybe the coolest ever dual tapedeck ever seen. Heavy, but portable with a handle that meant business. Sony was smitten with our little boombox, elegant, petite but beautiful in her own little way, while she was mono, her AM/FM dial pushed all of Sony's Buttons and her polished, chromed sides really made Sony's Antenna rise for any reception. Yes love was in the air until Panasonic's Twin Sister showed up, National RN-Z500 is here and she doesn't look happy (to be continued).......
That little Panny absolutely encapsulates the early years of the golden age 1980 - 1985 when really exciting & amazing techologies were shown to us consumers!! That feeling of excitement that I remember so well comes flooding back to me even today! I think that also choice was a factor we simply do not have today (Unless we include our own machines!!) In 1980/81 there was a staggeringly wide choice of radio recorders from generic el cheapo models up to the kings we still worship today both tiny & huge!! I recall so well being wide eyed & drooling over little silver metal cased walkmans & the many imitators as well as the slimline mono brigade that came out of Japan!! We had no idea how mundane today's offerings would be!! I wish I could go back & live it all over again......
The handles, for lack of a better word, are very cute, they are sooo small. Most of my minis have lackluster handles or even straps but this one has a true handle and I'm pretty sure the sides are metal. The only exposure I had of these fringe units was Popular Mechanics or a trip to one of our three electronics discount stores. Other than that we had a few car audio and the really high-end component stores but they stayed away from portables. It's too bad phones didn't follow the same template with more creative designs instead of them pretty much all looking exactly the same. Unfortunately creativity has taken a big hit in all areas of life, cars look the same, electronics look the same, movies are all the same, critical thinking is all the same. I'm not sure where it's all leading but I think we left the golden age of a lot of things years ago.
Yeah, tell me about it... Feels like there's no point in going into an electronics store anymore, even for cables.
We have a couple "vintage" electronics stores here, one get's surplus stuff, so much old cool vintage equipment it's unreal, it's just fun to look around, a bag full of capacitors for around $10.00. The other guys do something with big audio in town but they also have a sort of vintage Radio Shack thing going but you can find stacks of gently used equipment for dollars, who knows what it's for but it's fun to check it out.
