Dear friends at Stereo2Go. Firstly, sincere apologies for the radio silence. Busy with family and work etc. So, here are a couple of new ones. As you know, it takes a very nice box to grace the shelves of AO towers these days and this pair are no exception. Firstly we have the obsurdly rare Aiwa Stereo 980, not quite sure how it escaped the 'TPR' naming convention but there were a few around this period that did. There were some older Aiwa Mono's which were TPRs. My thoughts are that because this was one of the first Aiwa stereo units that it earned itself the name 'Stereo' rather than 'TPR', any thoughts here? I know this unit went on to become the TPR-810 so well, who knows. A truly amazing unit, very heavy and stuffed with features. Twin 8cm drivers with large oval side-shooter drivers on the sides. The switches and fonts are very similar to the 950 which went on to replace this as top of the range unit in around 81. I love the fact that these early units had an on/off switch rather than a lazy tape/radio/aux switch doubling up as an on/off. The best bit about this box is it's Art Decco styling, subtle curves and exagerated louvres. But just look at it's curves on the rear. Also, check out full compliment of RCA's plus the dreaded European DIN jack. Beat that for a jack count. This is a treasured unit as it was part of the famous Litfan collection. Litfan (Ric) died a few years ago and his brother approached this community to see if there was any interest in his collection. I'd lusted after this box for years and had many numerous unsuccessful approaches for a trade/sale. So, definately a keeper. Secondly we have the unique Sanyo M788L. Another I've been after for a while, Sanyo doing what Sany are best at. Loaded mini's with quirky designs. This is a hanndsome unit from the mid-80's in a subtle piano black with blue highlights. Who wouldn't have wanted to own this as a teenager?
Welcome back AO, two beautiful units there. The Sanyo is a classic mini, good looks, nice deck and lovely styling but that Aiwa, thats unique and lovely. At first class i must admit I didn't immeadiately swoon but one look at that top panel shows there are a lot of features packed in here, then you revisit the styling and the more you look the more glorious it is, I don't know why but that rear shot really sealed it for me. Lovely lines on those side grills and damn so many connectors. I dont think i have ever seen the like on a rear panel. Good to see you post again mon capitaine.
I do like the looks of that Aiwa, has a 50's American car look to it, really stylish! The Sanyo looks pretty well-spec'd too, wouldn't mind owning either of them myself....
That Aiwa is so classy, I love the curved edges on the rear panel, which made for more comfortable carrying. A valid design philosophy ignored by most so-called "grails".
AO tells us it's "very heavy"; par for the Classical Age course of boomboxes and perhaps even more so for an early Classical model. And he's right: no shortage of connector jacks though the '7880's no hook-up slouch either. Perennial pleasers include the 980's twin VU meters and those twin, white-tipped antennae. (Uh, original, yes?)
Nice pair. I have the Sanyo, or at least I do until Nick comes and takes it from me lol Welcome back Goose
well it was edited by a mod as I understood it with the rest of the text that was before the editing by a mod, ( was there ) but now , with the rest gone - yeah it don't make too much sense, now, sad, and that is how it is in forums. My 2 bits got bumped as well, oh well. Soon or in a few months I hope to get to that Portable and un-pack it and make it work again cant say the make or model of it will get edited so you just have to guess.
Would you believe that was the edited version. I removed most of the post as it was nonsensical drivel. The reason your post was removed was because there were two reports asking for its removal. It contained nothing relevant just posting pictures of Sanyos being repaired and you telling us you had boxes being repaired. People clearly do not want their threads highjacked.
Wow!! The Aiwa is classic late 70's design & is no question absolute top quality HiFi in a box with styling to match! This wasn't unique - Aiwa music centre's of the same era were also built to a crazily high spec & standard with aesthetic delights like the microphone grilles on this one sweeping around the corner of the case - almost Art-Deco if you like! I love these things but would be very wary of working on one! - These are complex beasts & were state of the art back in the 70's! Inputs & outputs for everything, manual level controls real luxury on a portable back then with a superb (But complex) cassette mechanism providing amazing stability & dynamic range! Even Aiwa's best mono units were high spec & real performers! Sony, JVC & Sanyo etc took a back seat when these things were around! Aiwa then meant quality! Love the Sanyo too of course, very desirable for folk like me! But Si, it's the Silver SR-5000 I really want off you I have always had a thing for that model & of course I have the ultimate Silver now, just need little brother....the ST-888's can go to the rest of you!!
my, my, my!!!! I wanna, I Wanna, I WANNA this Aiwa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it looks soo "me", it hurts!, and with side-firing speakers it fulfills all my childish ideas of "surround"!!! Congratulations on such an unobtanium catch!
Beautiful boxes, I'd take either one. You'd have to choose either the beer cooler or the AIWA if you went to the beach, I have to believe it's an arm stretcher. I was only seeing AIWA TPR-810 on the Japanese Sites, the Stereo 980 was probably for foreign markets. I know over here there was nothing similar with stereo back then so they most likely had to market it more showcasing the "stereo" than the JDM which had a ton of stereo cassette players then.
I believe what he meant was How packed with features it was, and how hefty it was as well. I recall opening the case on some vintage "slim-line" VCRs and being amazed at how packed with hardware they were inside. And compared to the later "modern" models of equivalent size, they weighed a ton! It's true, you can get as much functionality out of less hardware these days... but does it really match the older stuff for performance? I wouldn't have rescued an all-original 60's Motorola cabinet stereo from someone's curb--just before the rain came--if I didn't believe that. Now I wish I had a clue about what really was wrong with a huge Grundig console I passed on.
