What is the difference between all the AIWA Compo Boxes?

Erm.....good question! When I'm next at my storage container I'll try and find out!

 

For anyone feeling flush, there is a Carryin' Compo on eBay at the moment for £550, item number 202702835354

 

Hi everyone!

I recently bought an Aiwa MiniCompo Series 22 for 50€, around 45£. C22, L22, P22 and R22, with the original rack. An authenthic bargain!

 

Yes, makes cosy atmosphere.

 

Cool!

What is the difference between the sets? For example SD-L22U, SD-L22BH, SD-L22K (like mine).

 

I have that cassette deck!!

 

Wow, a pinnacle of Micro's format!

 

I am very curious how Aiwa with that MDX-1000 has managed to get three heads and two capstans in the tiny space of a microcassette. A microcassette has only one hole for a capstan, the one in the middle; a standard compact cassette has one on each side so it is easier to create dual-capstan drive.

 

I think it's doable, although it all has to be pretty tiny.

I'm guessing: Aiwa must have used the two holes left and right for the capstans, these are normally used to hold the cassette into position. The space where normally a pinchroller sits against the capstan can now be used for extra heads. The dual-capstan pinchrollers must be pretty small if you see the amount of space in a microcassette.

I would love to see the Aiwa deck but I think it was only a demonstration of the capabilities of the engineers and has not gone into production., alas!

 

I said before - Such a golden age with staggering development especially home tape formats! As a cassette crazy teenager I really can't foresee a time like this ever happening again........
Yes I love digital too, but in 1980 the cassette deck was really all we had & the ideas we saw & heard were extraordinary! Add the beautiful silver brushed ally fronted cassette decks with their led/vfd displays were from a time I will never forget!!

 

Back from the days when music had value. Even a type zero cassette recorded from the Top 40 chart show had value requiring money for the tape, and effort to record it. I wonder how many teenagers in the 80s were there with their fingers on play and record waiting for their latest favourite song to be played during the Top 40, and hoping the DJ didn't talk over it too much.

Recently a friends daughter, who was runner up on "The Voice" released a single. Although it is on iTunes I couldn't even buy the download from there. I did manage to buy her songs on Amazon, so hopefully she will get a few pence from that. What a college mate did in the 80s, going into a cheap studio, then getting 100 tapes duplicated was probably far more lucrative/

Since reading Nick's post I was thinking how things have changed since the 80s or even the 90s. Back then, in the UK, water was unmetered - use and waste as much as you like - while buying a chart single on Vinyl or Cassette had significant cost. Now most peoples water is metered while the model for music is play as much as you like for a fixed monthly fee. I suspect that what the artists get per play is minimal.

It also explains why gig tickets just keep going up and up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42982769

At least CDs are still being made. After Marie Fredriksson's untimely death I discovered Roxette's first album Pearls of Passion and decided to buy it. Many other people must have decided to do the same thing as it was on back order on Amazon.

 

During the 1970s when I was still at school I remember doing exactly that for a friend, using the microphone of my Mum's Sanyo radio cassette in front of the families Dansette record player. Then try to quietly close the lounge door and hope the milk lorry didn't go up the road outside .
Thinking about it his family didn't even own a record player despite his Father having expensive cars like a DS23 and a Bristol.

At around the same time as the recordings above I remember being taken to an open day at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station. The Electricity board had a stand showing all the latest products they sold including a top of the line Music Centre where you could see the woofers moving in time to the bass line which impressed me. Just a couple of years later I would go into Lasky's which was a UK chain of Hi Fi shops. The area where they displayed all the Hi Fi separates had subdued lighting in order to show off all the lights on the equipment. Back then the myth was that the slower and softer the eject on a cassette deck the higher the quality.