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Portable Cassette Newspaper Ads!

Discussion in 'Brochures, advertising, data & specs...' started by Mister X, Jul 17, 2019.

  1. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Some Sony ICF's from 1997 Australian Dollars. People ask why I didn't buy more of this equipment back then, the good stuff was expensive!


    Sony ICF Electronics Australia Magazine 1997.png
     
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  2. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    I have both the ICF-SW7600GR (an updated version of the same radio in silver with more memories) and the ICF-SW100E, both bought used. The latter was a memorable purchase. A friend was asking £120 for it at a radio rally but made the mistake of leaving his fiancee running his table. As soon as I picked it up to look at it she said "you can have it for £80". I still got an invite to their wedding :ok.

    As for things being expensive, yesterday I watched a BBC review of "cheap mobile phones" of which the most expensive was £379. I suppose nowadays people will say that if you want to find out the news in a different country can just look it up on your phone. Because of that there are far less shortwave broadcasts to listen to. A massive shortwave transmitting station about 50 miles from here has now been demolished https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampisham_Down

    I have just thought of a major difference though. Sony made the ICF-7600GR for at least ten years. In fact it was the last high performance shortwave radio they made. Of the phones reviewed, the longest any manufacturer said they would support their phone was until 2023. In the mobile phone business a four year old phone is considered to be obsolete.
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2020
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  3. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    That's cool that you have both of those models, I hadn't seen them before but I love those little radios and grab them if they pop up. Most of the Sony's seem to be pretty nice, Grundig, with the Yacht Boy, put in a good effort but the only ones I find are the entry-level versions.
     
  4. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    I can't put my hands on the ICF-SW100E at the moment but here is the ICF-SW7600GR together with the ICF-SW2001D (known as the ICF-SW2010 in the USA.
    Sony2001D.JPG
    The latter is still thought by some people to be the best book size Shortwave receiver ever made https://radiojayallen.com/sony-icf-2010-an-all-time-classic/
    It was manufactured by Sony for 17 years I did have the ICF-SW77 that was supposed to replace it but I didn't like the ergonomics and they have a reputation for leaking capacitors so I sold it while it was still working. I still have quite a few other Sony shortwave radios including a 7600DS bought new in 1989. At one point I was considering trying to collect the whole range but stopped when I got this mint boxed ICF-SW2001D.
     
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  5. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Beautiful! So what's the deal with shortwave? Can you still get a signal? I go through my multi-band and short-wave and can't find anything. I think you guys sold off that bandwith but I don't know if we can still tune into it.
     
  6. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    I is actually quite a while since I tuned around to see what is still on. Certainly not as much as there used to be. Shortwave hasn't been sold off and is very unlikely to be, being an international resource. A growing problem is interference from things that aren't supposed to transmit like ADSL internet and LED bulbs.

    Here is the ICF_SW77 I sold in action,

    I'm surprised the video has that many views. I only made it to prove the radio still worked.

    As for what the deal with shortwave is, that is a bit like asking a Walkman enthusiast what the deal with cassettes is. Back in 1978 I spent my first weeks wages on an RCA Shortwave receiver (which just 33 years earlier had been made to fit in a B17 aircraft). On Sunday mornings I would go to the Air Training Corp where we took part in a country wide Shortwave net. Around the same time someone I went to school with spent what must have been two months of his wages on a Yaesu FRG7. In the early 1980s a friend at college, who was obsessed with pirate radio, which at the time was mainly on shortwave, bought a Sony ICF2001 (not to be confused with the later D model) which was their very first keypad entry shortwave receiver https://swling.com/blog/2015/03/my-new-to-me-sony-icf-2001-shortwave-radio/

    As I was explaining to my wife the other day, up until the 1990s, if you wanted to hear music you either had to buy a recording, or listen to the radio where there were far fewer stations available than today.

    There must still be a market for upmarket Shortwave Radios as although Sony have stopped making them, companies like C Crane, https://ccrane.com/ Eton, https://etoncorp.com/collections/all/products/elite750 and a load of obscure Chinese manufacturers like Tecsun who actually make the radios still sell them
    This is the latest one Shortwave Enthusiasts are talking about https://radiojayallen.com/tecsun-pl-990x-am-sw-lw-mp-bluetooth-mp3-player/
    They might not beat the old Sonys overall but they do in some areas.
     
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  7. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    1981, there's some cool units on here and look at the price of cassettes, about 1/2 what an LP went for. The JVC M60 is really expensive and this is a sale flier, in the same issue a brand new VW Rabbit is $5850.00, I would go with a 3-4x price multiplier.

    The Times News (Idaho Newspaper) 1981-10-21.png
     
  8. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Walkman-2 from July 1981 with my favorite tapes! $179.95 USD, minimum wage was $3.35 an hour at the time.

    Walkman-2 The Times News (Idaho Newspaper) 1981-07-19.png
     
  9. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    The original reason I joined Stereo2Go was to answer someone's question "Why are vintage boomboxes so expensive?". The first US inflation calculator I found shows a multiplier of 2.8 https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ So even using that low Multiplier that JVC M60 was over $1000 in 2020 money. Now look at the price of that Onkyo system !

    I don't know about US prices but in the UK the official Bank of England inflation calculator seems to be way out for some major purchases like houses. In 1986 I bought my first house. The people I bought it from had a £600 Panasonic HiFi VCR in their £24000 house. Using the Land Registry data I discovered that the house was sold in September for £217000. The Bank of England inflation calculator shows a multiplier of 2.95. I suppose if you took the average of the VCR (using the £280 DVD recorder they currently sell) and the House you might be close.

    p.s. Thinking about my original post in which I compared the price of my new Boombox to my new Motorbike I just found this


    After ten minutes searching I challenge Mister X to find a price for the US equivalent
    https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/273241902371120002/
    I have found about six US adverts but none quotes a price.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
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  10. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    I found a Canadian Ad, this is in Canadian Loonies! Holy cow, 130 MPG, I had a Yamaha U7E (70cc) back in the mid 80's, found it in a field, got it runnning and loved it.

    The Daily Colonist (1980-06-01) Honda.png
     
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  11. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    I knew you would find it.
    https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/b...rical-spot-exchange-rates/usd/USD-to-CAD-1981 gives the exchange rate as about 1.2 in 1981 giving a US$ price of about $707. So for the price of two JVC M60s you could buy a Honda Passport.
    My sister had two Honda C90s but they both got stolen the second being found a few days later burnt out.:thumbsdown:
    A friend had a Yamaha that looked very similar to the Honda but had the distinction of being shaft drive rather than using a chain.

    I thought the prices in that 1981 advert looked low but the US$ to £ exchange rate was around 2 back then compared to 1.33 today.

    In the past I posted some UK prices from the same era.
    http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/cassette-boombox-bargains-back-in-1980.4337/
    The Sharp GF9595 was more expensive than the M60
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
  12. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    I don't remember many step-throughs but in the early 80's everyone had those little Hondas, Yamahas and Suzukis, I think they capped out at 49cc so they were classified as a scooter and not motorcycle. Back then they were around $350 but there were slightly bigger pocket rockets that went for $600. You would walk by the bike rack on campus and there's be 20-30 locked up, those were fun times.
     
  13. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    A picture of college AKA the set of Casualty back from my last day there in 1983
    Polytechnic_Bikes.jpg
    If I had turned 180 degrees there would have been another 50 or more bikes down the edge of the car park.

    There were similar rules here in the UK. You could have a 49cc "Moped" at 16, but at 17 you could ride a bike of up to 250cc all without any kind of training.
    Once the Japanese manufacturers got them going over 100MPH the law was changed and new "learners" could only have 125CC.
    I just found this video of a fully restored 100MPH Yamaha "Learner" bike from 1981 on Youtube.
    A bloke at college had one of the first in the UK.
     
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  14. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    From 1993, The Times News (Idaho), a very rare sighting for Lasonic, but which one? This is where I'd expect to see the brand, Woolworth's was like a mini-department store with a lunch counter, they still have them in Europe but I don't know the connection. The Game Boy was pretty new and everybody love it.

    Lasonic Boombox 1993-02-02 The Iowa Times.png
     
  15. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    I think this is in Finnish, found on archive.org, C=Lehti 1990, a cool ad for Panasonics

    C=Lehti 1990 6 Erikoislehdet Oy.jpg
     
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  16. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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  17. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Toshiba RT-V300 and Bose Roommate Speakers. I've discussed the Bose Roomate Speakers in another thread, they had a cool Sony Branded Version for a short time to go with the Walkman. The Toshiba RT-V300 is a nice little unit, I would have had something like this as a very poor college student. A little above entry level, they'd work great and then when you dropped and broke it after a year, it wasn't that big of an expense. The .39 cent tapes would have been a killer deal as long as they weren't somthing crappy like 3M Scotch or Memorex's.
    From 1985

    Toshiba RT-V300  Bay Area Reporter, Volume 15, Number 47, 21 November 1985.png
     
  18. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Cibot (France) 1980, lot's of cool boomers on here, check out the Sencor 4800, I'm getting something like $1300 USD today! Big money, and that's why I didn't own the cool ones in the 80's. The Silver was even more money but they rarely show up for sale in the USA.

    cibot 1980.jpg
     
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  19. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Tech HiFi in Michigan from 1982 with an AIWA CS-440 sighting! The other AIWA looks nice but there's no pricing for it. It looks like there was more than one version of the 440, I don't think the one pictured is one. Time for a new thread!

    Tech HiFi 1982.jpg
     
  20. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Sony WM-4 from 1983

    1983 wm-4 2.jpg
     

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