Is it any good? I just found one for $15.00. Works 100% and is 100% original. Looks nearly new. If I don't take my typical luck into account, I'd think the belts had been changed. Did I get the bear or did the bear get me? ; - )
They're ok, mostly plastic but the added XBS portion makes them look really wide. A nice score for 15 bones, they were heavily advertised when they came out and there always seems to be several for sale at 3-8x what you paid.
I cleaned it up and lubed it. It sounds deceptively good. It's likely better than the other half of my boombox collection, A Sony CFD-565. The original owner had the speakers wired backward from Sony's instructions (on the back of the unit) so the (legitimate, actually active XBS drivers) did very little. Sony's wires were "marked wire" negative, not "marked wired" positive. The difference was noticeable, and since you can vary the output, was a definite improvement. I can't make any sense out of where it fell in their model line or the exact date of production. I'm going to guesstimate ca. 1986-88. That's my next job. I've downloaded the SM but the OM seems to be Internet MIA. Its tweeter is real and appears to have an output-limited feature, which explains why they're still working. If you pull the 10K boost down, they stay active right up until the rest of the unit begins to run out of headroom. The tape feature's output is terrific, but I'm not certain about that erase head, could just be a passive. I'll look at the SM again. Overall, the tape transport is impressive. Higher similarly designated model numbers feature fewer features and not more, so I'm still trying to do forensics on it. Here's a couple of photos...
I'm sure it's not in the Pantheon of all-time great boomboxes, but it's better than I expected it to be. It's at least as solidly built as my later, CD-era, electronic tuner (but also employing an active tweeter), remote-equipped Sony CFD-565. I did have to re-cone the 565 woofer-lets. I'm following the forums, but the last couple of years have been "avocation hostile". Hopefully, moving forward I'll have more about which to post. Best wishes to everyone!
You got lucky that looks like it did shelve duty most of it's life! Here's the front page of the service manual, I always like to check out the specs.
Thanks, Mister X! Is the entire manual in the documents section? I'd need to get a copy for a potential "someday"...
Here's a link to the Service Manual: https://archive.org/details/manual_RXC38_SM_PANASONIC_EN I suspected something was up with this lil' (but apparently needs a wide-angle lens) guy. Unless I'm mistaken, it appears to have a gear drive. Cool beans! But no tape counter. I guess while I'm at it I could wish for Dolby B and off tape monitoring and a dBf signal strength meter. But then it wouldn't really a portable anymore, lol. ; - )
