Well I'm Back After A Disastrous Last Week Everything went wrong that could go wrong - Ended up damaging 2 wirelesses that now need much more work than they did & I was ready to throw in the towel & stop repairing/restoring for good! This week saw the arrival of 3 more machines, one I have been after forever in mint condition, also a Toshiba RT-S782 which is in bits awaiting new belts........& this one!! Now those who know me from the forums know that anything from the early 80's in silver & with pretty led's are something I usually have to save & here is one I used to want as a kid but was way overpriced (Everything was in Tandy) & no one wanted to buy me one Paid little more than postage for this one & always wondered what the build quality was like......... I was very surprised to find that it was a delight to work on, everything unplugs & tape deck was removed in a few minutes to replace belts etc! All switches & pots sprayed while apart - Both front & back come off these giving excellent access to everything Cleaning as I reassembled it didn't take long & condition is stunning considering it's nearly 40 years old!! Motor speed & azimuth were both way out as is often the case with budget stereo's of the time, both easy fixes while still apart! All that was left was to re-purpose a spare antenna to fit & look right as original had been broken - this took around 20 mins to achieve & after a really good test in all modes, it was time to close her up & start playing music again It's what you expect from such a tiny stereo with small magnets on the speakers - I have lots of spare drivers & am tempted to change them - We will see................ It looks & sounds brand new & I am thinking maybe I'll stay doing this for the time being..............last week really put me off what with this fucking illness I live with every day, it can be easy to want to give up!! My friends tell me it won't be possible to give up so watch out for the repaired Tosh & a really special arrival of 1 I already own but this latest arrival is pretty much mint & I am delighted with it although it needs a tricky repair so that will be interesting!! For Now: Et Viola!!
bad days they come in batches: a few months ago I totaled the car and made an absolutely unforgivable-horrible mistake at work, all in one week! Nice mini I do not know much about boomboxes, but at least in my hobby of collecting Discmans all early Realistic and Optimus models were designed and made by Toshiba (CD-3350 by Denon). This info is not on any label, but once you compare parts and schematics, it becomes pretty much evident. Maybe the same here? Being able to adjust motor speed is sooo nice! The original motor or schematics on the mighty RC-550 I am reviving now did not provide this option
What you have to remember is that many things in Tandy were prices to allow them to sell them at half price when they had one of their regular sales e.g in January. Anyway, which other shop would give you a free battery just for visiting them or a super long 5 D cell torch for pennies when you bought the batteries ? Memories of Tandy (Radio Shack) in the UK who were bought out by Carphone Warehouse, who just wanted the shops as opposed to the business,in the late 1990s
I loved Tandy, spent a lot of time in the shops & browsing their catalogues - but they were overpriced when it came to stereos!
Nickeccles, it's always nice to read about your work before heading out for a long hot day of manual labor. Over here Tandy was called Radio Shack and Longman nailed it...you could go in and get one FREE battery, once a month with your punch card. Of course us little kids would just get a new card every time we were there. What I liked best about the store was the cool Lista Cabinet full of electronic parts, I'd check out everything they had and dream about the day I'd get a soldering iron and multimeter. Whenever my friends built stereo speakers, they'd get the drivers from Radio Shack since they had a huge selection. The Realistic Line of Boomboxes are nice, a little understated but the three or four I have are all fairly well built so it wouldn't surprise me that Toshiba built them.
