Beer and Boomboxes!

There's so much love in that photo, hopefully that poor little guy could keep up with the festivities!

 

After a hiatus from the holiday festivities I found a little bundle of joy at my door step. I must have been enjoying Saint Paul's Tin Whiskers Wheat Stone Bridge because I completely forgot this was coming. I'm sure most guys on the forum will know what a tin whisker is and the guys that started the brewery are self-proclaimed engineering geeks and thus take the same approach with their beers as any manufacturing project. I like this one because it is kind of light and refreshing.

The box is the world famous Panasonic RX-C20, 1984's finest list price of close to $550.00 USD! I just about fell over when I saw it for sale and double-checked it several times because the photos made it look huge. It lives up to the hype, very deep, heavy and AIWA Style Controls (I love those AIWA's with the small controls). The speakers seem to throw the sound at you in a good way. I've got a 34 year old Triumph Tape I'm auditioning, so if you see this box, follow your heart!

 

For the first time in over 10 years the weather guys were right, we got close to 16" of beautiful snow. I finally got free for the day and headed out to the shed to see if my 1993 Yamaha Snowblower would still fire up after a couple years of sitting. These blowers (or throwers for the Canucks) are really rare around here and almost like boomboxes, they deliver when asked and tonight was no exception, a little starting fluid and some good gas and it fired right up. I'm out of stash so I really had to dig into the shelves to find something drinkable and lo and behold, this one goes out to Risingsunproject, I'm not sure if anybody else gets this but it's one of two from the legendary Iron Maiden Band, The Trooper, Red 'N' Black Porter! Bomber size and full of rock and roll flavor! Our local bar had Trooper on tap when Maiden was here this summer, not bad for fly-over country...

My box is a founder's boombox, the Centrex "by Pioneer" RX-113 I think these are 1973 vintage? Perfect for cranking out a little Whitesnake "Slow N Easy." It's on the radio right now but there's no lights on the display, I'm not sure if that is normal. I can't help but compare the otherworldly 4' antenna to Whitesnake, you really have to see it to believe it but I think it is the longest antenna I've ever seen. Centrex was Pioneer's low cost brand, usually associated with all-in-one record/tape/radio units and nothing really special. This guy is bad-ass, it's really heavy and not too big. sound is what you would expect from a little guy but it's pleasurable to listen to on the desk. I'm also loving the three power sources, battery, 6V wall wart and 120V direct wall connection. Pioneer really had it together before they really hit their stride a few years later.

 

Cool bottle! and do you mean CS-M1? I need one of both of those!

 

I'll have to look for some Wolf-Bier! Never heard of Trans-Am, when I get the chance I'll have to get some on and crank it up.

 

Now I know it, Miss Universe only liked me for my boomboxes, let me know if you see her with a little Sharp QT and a Bobbie Brown Tape....

 

I love that box Jorge, I'm hoping the restoration thread is right around the corner. I'm nursing some wounds watching my hockey team get out-muscled so I thought I'd throw out a little guy that can scrap with the rest of them. Almost an underdog but it should be the cornerstone of any collection, the Pioneer SK-31 is what I'd consider as the definition of boombox. It's more of the late 70's size, around 12" high by 16" wide which seems to be pretty standard until the monster boxes came out.

The first impression is that it's heavy but when you hear the handle "click" into it's down detent you know you have real quality. Two meters dance with stereo output and it has a ton of features including a very early music search system. I've been told that the mystery switches labeled BFC-1 and BFC-2 will actually order pizza for you if you have the mics hooked up. I've paired it with New Belgium's Trippel, a Belgian Style Ale. Nice and crisp in the Belgium Tradition, it's killing the pain of watching my team lose in the playoffs.