First bootsale of the year yesterday for me, didn't find much but did grab this for £1 Image stolen from Google! I can't get it to work though. Had the original batteries in it which surprisingly, hadn't leaked at all! Cleaned the terminals up and put some fresh batteries in, still dead. Changed the belt as that was obviously broken and it still won't fire up. Has a cassette in it too, would love to know what's on it!
With a little motivation from Simon I hit a few garage sales last weekend, I was very late, there's was about 50+ going on at a local neighborhood and I went out close to closing time. I did find this bad boy, it's a little lighter than I'm used to but it looks pretty cool on the desk with it's red LED's and it doesn't sound half bad. It's mostly dirty and should clean up great, the JVC PC-X200 was priced right at $5.00 USD!
`these dont sound half bad, what do you mean lol they flippin growl lol if only they were twice the power, great score
I had it in the garage and could hear it outside about sixty feet away, it was very clear and loud but you have to have the "3D" on otherwise it sounds horrible, but that might have to do with the age and dirty EQ.
I was actually selling (model cars and collectable tins) at the last one I attending so only had about 15 minutes to look around. Someone had a stall with a couple of hundred cassettes; mainly pre-recorded. While I recognised many of the albums I didn't recognise the record labels. I guess they were the cheap ones you used to see in places like Majorca. My only purchase wasn't cassette related but is a Sony dating from around 1976 I can imagine a product meeting in which they promised a bottle of Saki for anyone who could think of another feature to include as it has: Bass, Treble and Loudness Controls Pop up antenna which a button to release it Sleep Timer (operated by a very quiet clockwork timer !) Sockets for both power and multiplex out to go to and external Stereo decoder Styling wise I think they were going for the "Aircraft Cockpit" look. It does work but not very well at the moment.
I either have that unit or another almost exactly like it Longman! Those, to me, are the pinnicle of transistor radio design, such a great find hopefully you can sort the issues out.
Actually its Charity Shop finds today, and nothing vintage. After spending £13 on a haircut I went in the local charity shop, and for £12 came out with these two, which both look like new. The photo isn't rotated on my computer. I have had this problem before and couldn't resolve it. The Roberts (probably made by Sangean) is a small AM (MW and LW) and FM radio with FM stereo on headphones. That cost £5. The small floral radio "By Sainsburys" a large UK Supermarket (who incidentally now own Argos) is FM and DAB, and from the stying aimed at housewives. I wasn't expecting much from it, but the tone is actually quite pleasant, probably due to the comparatively deep case. Something that struck me is that with the way the control panel is inset into the case it might be easy to transplant the inside into a classic boombox. if you are unlucky enough to live in Norway, where DAB is now the only broadcasting. I'm not sure if it is DAB+ though. It isn't marked as such.
Hi all, an unusual car boot find and I can find nothing on the Internet about this company or this CD player. Does anyone know of the brand Sentra? What I can tell you from the labels on the player is that it was a British company from Yorkshire but this unit is made in Japan. This CD player appears extremely well made, solid metal, weighs a lot, and has a big heat-sink in tbe back. It's covered in dust but I managed to get it playing though it's jumping around. I think it needs a good clean and it'll probably be ok and I have booked it into a technician to do this as I like it too much to mess it up! It has the same proportions and looks quite similar to the Philips CD104 except a diffent button layout. It may be a unit based on the Philips general shell but I actually think this could be better quality rather a lesser brand name clone. I will get feedback from the technician who is a Philips specialist. The open /close button is on the front of the CD tray itself which alone is a more complicated function than on the Philips104. And the best part is on the inside is has twin TDA1540 DACS! Hopefully someone here knows a bit more about this as I can find nothing at all on the Internet! It doesn't help that there is now a Nissan car with the same name as the company that made this so that doesn't help in an Internet search!
Mystery solved Sentra equipment was sold mainly in Macro https://www.google.co.uk/search?sa=...kAhVKQ8AKHVj6AE4QsAR6BAgFEAE&biw=1024&bih=581 Digging into the depths of Rewind Museum "There are two of these Sentra TVs in the museum. They were purchased new from the Makro store in Washington UK. After reading an article by Roger Bunney in "Television" magazine when he commented - these televisions are multistandard, PAL, SECAM and NTSC (with all NTSC variants) and at a good price (about £160 each) - they were purchased. Sentra were a British company but they badged many products. These TVs were made in Turkey. We do have another Sentra TV in the museum and that is below."
Thanks for the research Longman. So now I need to find out what it's a rebadge of. I have looked through some old Philips and Marantz models but no joy yet. It still looks closest to Philips CD104 in terms of external layout but the internals are different though don't seem inferior to the Philips. I will keep looking when I have the time. Hopefully taking it to a technician later today who hasn't heard of Sentra but may recognise the units origins when he sees it.
Looking at the laser pickup mechanism might give you a clue. Every modern CD player uses a linear sled that travels in a straight line. Philips (and their associated companies like Marantz) had to be different and used a swing arm mechanism in their early players like the CD104 you mention. https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/cl...philips-cdm-range-of-swing-arm-cd-mechanisms/ and scroll down past about two pages of adverts for "magic" cables. For people outside the UK who might not be familiar with Makro, they are similar to Costco, needing a membership card and mainly selling things in bulk, being aimed at small businesses like hotels.
I have found the origins of the Sentra CD player. It's the Universum AD2000 which itself was largly based on the Kyocera DA-910 internals, see this link: http://vintage-audio-laser.com/Universum-AD-2000 Here is the Universum And my Sentra Another branded version is the Clairtone 2704
+1 to what @Longman said: a photo of its laser mech might give a better clue about its quality: swing-arm in early Philips transports guarantees a bit of extra punch... but more often than not asks for a careful re-cap!!
The transport is Toshiba OPH-31 sled transport rather than swing-arm. The laser is HLPL030010. I hope with some lubrication it will solve the playing issue as it starts playing then jumping around, up a minute, down a minute. But it is not easily accessible so I will have to work to get to it....and find my grease. I've been trying to tidy up and I've tidied it away somewhere!
So to a couple of today's finds. I have more in the car to bring up. Firstly a Walkman! I think this is only the second one I have found this year. The first was a better one, a DD30 with broken door hinges and disconnected battery wires, but this is a great condition WM-EX508 with case, remote/headphones, and battery charger. Probably needs a belt I've not tried it yet. Next up is a Sony TC-U2 Cassette Deck. Fast Forward and Rewind are both working well but on Play, the supply reel is moving but the take up reel isn't. Could just need a belt I've not opened it up yet. Facia looks very good condition....under the dirt. Also got a nice 80's looking AKAI EA-A22 Graphic Equalizer (Equaliser). This is full length hifi component size though it really reminds me of those little ones for car stereo's which you had to attach under the dashboard in the car.
I grabbed some gems, the robots are mine but I found the Everyready Battery Tester, Nikon Coolpix S80 and the Edwards Industrial Clock this weekend, all for dirt cheap. The Coolpix is a fun working camera, nice and small it takes decent photos. I love 40s-60s industrial items and these old school/factory/office clocks are really cool. IBM pretty much owned the market so its nice to see a different brand. A lot of these were master-slave units with the master being in the office and when you changed the time, all of the clocks in the building updated as well. Heavy metal construction with a real glass face, I'm not familar with Edwards but that's ok. The Everyready Battery Tester is a very basic unit but very industrial, Everyready is a world-wide battery maker that's still in business.
Some more bootsale finds. A ROSS cassette head cleaner. A HLLY TAMP-20 amp. And a few cassettes. I only have time for cassettes when it is quiet at the car boot and there are no electronics to buy. Still, I now have a few hundred of them. I particularly like the idea of the Chas and Dave Xmas Carol's but I've not actually tried it yet as I'd forgotten until just now that I'd bough it. Should be a laugh. For the non UK readers, Chas and Dave were an East London duo, one on piano and one on guitar who sang some amusing songs in the 80's in East London Cockney accents.
