The Ultimate Marantz, Superscope, UNIX Boombox Thread

So, today I opened Superscope CRS-152 which I bought because of reading too much off this awesome thread... and I am mightily impressed!!! No monkey-business with multipins, everything hardwired and packed so tight that it hurts my eyes! But, unlike my post about the "ugliest Discman" from Craig here, the layout is neat, no ugliness from overhanging caps anywhere. Wish Someone tells me how much this Beast cost at the time: a Lot of efforts just to put it together went there... To sum up: the unfortunate wait for Dolby chip and JVC pinchroller which got stuck in Chinese and Slovakia customs had pushed me into the depths of this daddy of bboxes, now I have to buy its SM to learn more... Beautiful Beast!!!

 

And quality wires too.....Not thin brittle wires used by mid-80s Taiwanese rubbish (Lasonic, Helix, Nippon, etc.)

 

Jorge can you find the amp chip and read its code number?

 

no such thing in here!!!
here is its amp: four transistors on a huge heat-sink, two coupling and two output transformers:


part of the magic, myguess, why it sounded so sweet and so unlike all my other bboxes

 

Wow, strange they put such high quality into something that only has about 2 watts per channel, ha ha. It sounds OK, but somewhat limited in range since there are only 2 speakers. I added some felt over the speaker vents to increase the bass, but it didn't help much.

 

Nah, mate, never had such high level speakers yet.
Sorry if I was unclear - I meant the owner was asking..

Have no time nor space for a decent HiFi home system, only kinda of simple one
and portable digital Hi-Fi.

 

As they say in hi-end crowd: its the first Watt that counts!
CRS-152 is in one piece again, without multipin/flex connectors it was a full-tine job to get to its cassette mechanism and to DeOxit all the pots! Time to get me some beer for yet another photo for Beer'n'Boomboxes thread!!!

 

I am not surprised here: I used to plug the ports of my vented speakers (when I had such horrors) to tame the bass, not to pump it up! It comes with age methinks, this mindset of not caring about windows-shattering bass... but lamely enjoying instead the nuances of Beethoven's quartets and some Dead Can Dance/Lisa Gerrard singing... ((Says the guy who did the unthinkable and added ProAc subwoofer to his Naim SBL speakers... My only excuse was that I wanted to check if I can reproduce pipe organ works of Bach/Liszt in my room: I failed!!!!!!!!! but ProAc subwoofer got stuck in my system, on some Klaus Schulze tracks it scares the S&^# out of me!))

 

Hmm, well you might be talking about bass ports.

I've found you can increase the bass of cheap 1-piece ghettoblasters by covering some of the vents. It's the same principle as putting them against a wall. It pumps up the bass a little, from simple reflection. There are too many vents on some of those ghettoblasters, which allows the bass to just dissipate into nothingness. That's OK if you're using it at a picnic where people will be walking around all sides of it, but not when you're simply standing in front of it.

 

Looks like they used the center section of a PMS-7000.

 

yes, you are absolutely right, box with vents instead of bass port is totally different beast, practically an open baffle design. Sealing the box should give more bass, but CRS-152 does not have those few extra Watts needed to drive acoustic suspension.

 

No wonder it sounds sweet but wimpy: all this volume for just a 3.5" driver... begging for an upgrade!!! Or should I stay kosher and leave it as-is?

 

Upgrade definitely. Try dropping down to 6 or 4 ohms. I haven't seen any boombox amp that couldn't handle 4 ohms.

 

Done for now, everything up to specs (which are pretty low) but midrange is pretty sweet... As the first mod-step I will try "ambience" driver firing backwards thru the vents, better/bigger driver and plastic surgery next




My first Marantz, ever!!!