Large mono boxes: National 5410 & Telesonic CA-8000

Just got this 2 babies into my collection this month. I'm quite picky about boomboxes, as they take up a lot of space, but these 2 has been on my wishlist for a while: National Panasonic 5410 & Telesonic CA-8000



The 5410 just arrived today and is still dead. But the physical condition is quite good. Its build quality seems better than I thought when looking at pictures. The speaker grille is actually metal.



I don't know if any of you are aware of Telesonic. It's a local Indonesian brand that's quite prominent in the 70's. Documentation on the company is very obscure, but from what I've seen, the CA-8000 seems to be one of their biggest boombox.



Size as compared to my M-90

 

Wow, I've never seen the Telesonic! Where was it made?

 

That's the big question! I'm guessing this was locally made (Indonesia), but there aren't any marking indicating that on this particular model. The speakers does say Telesonic - Taiwan, which actually raises more questions than answers.

Telesonic does have a large local factory (now defunct) that produces radios, cassette recorders and televisions. Looking up "Telesonic Taiwan" there actually appears to be an actual Telesonic company in Taiwan, but they make clocks instead of audio products. Perhaps they import speakers, then add some markings here in the manufacturing process? As far as I know, Telesonic is a manufacturer, and this stuff is not a side product, so I'm 90% sure that this is made in Indonesia.

 

If you search Google images for Telesonic boombox, they certainly had some unique designs.

 

Yeah. Some of the can be quite flashy indeed. Not really my cup of tea, actually. This CA-8000 is one of rather few that I like. In terms of build quality, they're mostly on the lower end.

 

Great scores are both - 5410 is a sort of legendary Mono, Telesonic is very interesting.
Does it sport 3 speakers?

 

And how big is the woofer?

 

Yes, the Telesonic does have 3 speakers. The woofer is 8"

 

Cool - and midrange and tweeter seem to be different also.

 

Wow, 8 inch speaker in a mono box!
Can you read the code on the amp chip(s)?

 

I'm very happy that you guys find this unit interesting! I know next to nothing about the electronic side of things, so I'm very keen to learn anything about how this thing really is.

Yup. One's made in Japan and the other 2 are made in Japan, and the other 2 are made in Taiwan. Here are pictures of their markings

:

There seem to be only 3 ICs inside the whole machine. 2 in the main board and 1 in the LED board. Overall, I think the board seems very sparse? The amp IC is an AN7145M. I didn't get a pic of the other ICs. I certainly will take some when get back in again.



If you're wondering about the condition, it's has gone thorough A LOT of cleaning and is now partly restored. The sound is loud and good apart from it a lot of wow and flutter. I still need some work on the mechanism. What I find interesting/weird is that there is no way to control the motor speed. The only variable resistor inside is one for controlling the levels for the LED meter. The motor is a common 12V DC motor. Is this something normal?

 

That is a Panasonic amp. I'm assuming it has a heat sink?
Your woofer is 8 ohms. Panasonic says the amp is safe at 4 ohms, so you could get more volume and bass by replacing that woofer with a 4 ohm unit.

 

looks like you you have an older (?bigger?) brother to my National RQ-568:

For some reason RQ-568 is not even listed at wikiboombox, but it is still beautiful!!
Now after reading all the nice things @Reli has to say about RF-5410, I am also on a mission to get me one

 

Greta machine, mate!
back in 2015 one, a boxed NOS, went for 265$.

 

RQ-568, I haven't seen this, looks nice! How many speakers?

 

three speakers:


Not to hijack this thread I will post my restoration efforts separately.

Right now I am in the process of negotiating RF-5410 from a seller in Bosnia: wish me luck! @Longman was right, I must have "a thing" for mono bboxes, have no idea how it happened I must have been "turned" when restoring JVC RC-550 "El Diablo"

 

Yeah, it does have heat sink which does get quite hot. As for the speakers, that's an interesting suggestion, but I think I'll keep it his way. It's plenty loud enough for me.

@Jorge I'll probaby create a separate thread too about the Telesonic once I'm 100% done with it.

 

Have you had a good look at the motor ? Some have an internal potentiometer which can be adjusted through a small hole, usually in the back of the motor. After adjustment it might have been covered by a sticker.

A NOS box will always fetch a big premium because there aren't that many left.

 

National RF-5410 is coming my way from Bosnia!!!