Longman asked this, not sure but I do love the early ones. Is the Sony CF-550 from 1972 the first one piece stereo boombox?
i seem to remember a boombox made in 1969 but can't remember anything other than that lads i also seem to remember one made in the mid 60's as member jens posted one on the beach donkeys years ago
i used to own a National Matsushita SG-7xx (?) can‘t find a pic right now, i allways thought, it was 1969
That is because it wasn't made to a low price. A bit like comparing a nine year old Tesla Model S to a new Dacia Spring.
Well in terms of sound quality, the first one with decent bass was the Sharp GF-9090 from 1976, followed by the GF-9191 shortly after. Those two boxes were copied by JVC when they made the M70.
Here's an older National Panasonic SG-740 but Radio Museum says 1974. Cool box and TT, I'd grab it if was priced better. https://www.etsy.com/listing/675331550/national-panasonic-sg-740-panasonic-s
Aiwa had one just like this, not surprising since they were basically the same company, if i remember correctly the aiwa had an oval speaker on the back along with speakers on the sides plus tweeters making a total of 7 speakers
There was an early AIWA Catalog floating around the internet, I can't find it now that I want to look over the dates. Sony definately had the marketing muscle, they had ads everywhere.
I can just imagine the conversation at the Sony planning meeting "Why don't we make a one piece Stereo Boombox" "Don't be silly. No one will ever be able to hear stereo with the speakers so close together" "What if we put extra speakers in the side with a fancy Matrix Sound circuit to expand the stereo image" "You know that might just work and sell" Even in the late seventies there were people (JVC RC-550 fans?) who said that stereo boomboxes were completely pointless.
I feel like boomboxes started out as three-piece, to spread out the separation, but the 1-piece quickly over-sold it and held onto the top spot until the early 80's when the the 3-piece came back with a vengence. There were some great units in the 80's but most were thrift store plastic fantastic. For me personally it's really hard to find an ideal spot to play a stereo boombox, I'm usually moving around or it's a really small room like a bathroom or laundry room and it's pointed across at another wall.
And then there is this, a Soviet portable from 1977, it came with two additional speakers. It used a standard for many Soviet models mechanism; the keys meant for "horizontal" orientation look weird on the upright design. Well, standardization and cost-cutting. Now we see a similar approach on Chinese models that use a Tanashin-derived mecha on everything from personal stereo to component decks. Which is why I think an elongated "banana" or "duffel bag" style with speakers at the far ends is the best. My Sanyo 7750 has a switch between mono, stereo and "expanded" stereo, and I can hear the difference between all the three modes. I wonder, did they include the mono mode just to demonstrate that stereo in a small box actually works? Nowadays kids don't mind listening through a single bluetooth speaker or even through smartphone speaker, although there are some BT speakers that can be paired for stereo.
Great post CDV! We rarely see those models and that one even has extra speakers. I don't think anyone bought the boombox accessories, the boomboxes were expensive and you'd buy the best one with your budget. It's too bad the VU meters are on the top, people liked the visual of dancing meters and the front would have been a better location.
Hello Guys, I have a Jcpenny's boombox made by Panasonic I think it is 1969 it has AM/FM Phono . Sincerely Richard
A practical purpose for being able to select mono on an FM stereo radio is for when you are listening to weak stations. Double the bandwidth means double the noise. If a signal is so weak it keeps switching between stereo and mono it can be even more annoying.
Hello Everyone, Here is A Photo of my J. C. Penny Penncrest 4375 Am FM Radio Turntable Phono ! this was built by National Panasonic .
That is so nice! What a neat little unit, I've never run across something like that. Is it stereo? Rim drive or belt drive? I feel like it only does 45's?
