i had that akai, its huge and the loudest they made, sadly the speaker design was awful and they used to fall off
I can't tell how big it is but the speakers are 14 cm so it must be larger than it looks, it's also pushing 14 watts a channel, pretty impressive.
Very nice! It's cool to see some different designs out there. While the LED may look dated, that was a big deal back then but we've seen only a handful of boxes with it; I have to believe the designers didn't want to change one of the iconic features.
I just saw one of those on a job site, it looked like it was unloved for a years, maybe I'll have to make an offer.
Toshiba RT-8000S from March 1980 Electronics Australia, that's not a bad looking radio, looks a lot like the smaller Pioneer.
Enhancing Stereo Sound from Electronics Australia 1994, an interesting article about boombox sound enhancement.
Not a boombox but it's close and it's the coolest portable receiver ever, the National/Panasonic RF-9000! I didn't realize how large it was, it looks massive in the photo.
Electronics Australia really like the Sanyo's but I'd take any of these! It's interesting that they missed a lot of other great boxes. The Sanyo M9998K from June 1980
Toshiba RT-8340S, June 1979 According to the inflation calculator it would be like $544.00 USD, yes these early boxes were super expensive.
Philips D8883 from October 1987 While these may look a little goofy now, having early egg-shaped design cues, these tiny CD players were pretty amazing when they came out, just look at the price. I do like the front-loading CD players where you can watch the CD spin but even CDs were out of reach for me back then and most of the music I listened to wasn't being widely released yet. This is Philips smallest portable CD boombox, that's a topic I don't ever think I remember seeing on here.
I just realised why the D8883 price looks high. It is Aus$ and there were 3.6 to the £ in 1988 so taking that into account it was £180 or US$220. That ties up with the very similar looking D8892 which appeared in the 1988/89 Argos catalogue at £150. It was actually the first CD portable they sold, and the only one in the catalogue that year I friend of mine bought one around then but I was always too busy chatting to hear it. £150 actually seems like a bargain for the time. In 1989 when I decided to buy a CD player the cheapest one I could find new, of any kind, was a Philips top loader for £100.
My calculator came up with $436 USD Longman, which would be more of what I remember, component CD Players bottomed out around $600 USD back then. I just found an early Sony in my stacks that I'd forgotten about, now I know why vertical CD players didn't last, the CD doesn't securely mount initially, I'm sure buyers didn't like this on these expensive systems and discs.
Hopefully you guys are enjoying this look through the decades of our favorite portables, this helps get my mind off of my high stress workload. I really enjoy going through these old magazines not only for the portables but all of the other neat things they have. I really don't remember many boombox, portable ads or reviews so most of this is new to me. From Popular Mechanics 1977, this is when small portable radios and TVs were getting popular and as a young boy the thought of carrying around a radio or TV seem like the coolest thing ever.
