It was in one of my local charity shops, with a paper tag wrapped round the handle with £3 written on it. I had to have it.

I've just done a search here for the C3 but it's only been mentioned a couple of times and I can't find any pictures of one. Who else on this forum has one, and what do you think of yours?

It's a great looking three-piece boombox with a great LED level meter, but unfortunately it only has a tone control, not separate bass and treble. I plugged it in to test it and it soon became apparent the logic deck's motors move the heads up and down, but the rollers aren't turning. An excuse to get inside it, then. As for the sound, it's 'warm' and pleasant with 'audible' bass output and decent highs, so lacking bass and treble controls is a setback I can live with on this occasion. Just looking at the machine before I bought it, I hoped it was it's bigger brother, the C5, as I know that one has separate bass and treble (a must IMO). Oh well.

I paid for it, but left it there to collect at a later time, as I was half way through a 'hunting trip'. On my travels I spotted a Philips Super Tandem, of which I've seen pictures on here a couple of times. I like the warm sound from my much smaller Philips D8112 (a box I may be 'disposing of' pretty soon to create more space [if anyone wants it, say so]), so I had to try this 'monster' out. As I'd expected, it had just a tone control, and the sound was very clear and quite bassy. The unit itself was in fair condition, not particularly dirty, but had plenty of marks around it. The guy wanted £10 for it, so I told him it was too expensive for it's condition and walked away. I didn't really want it anyway, because I'd already bought a much better quality, and better looking box (the C3) for a much lower price.

Once I've retrieved the C3 and given it some restoration treatment and a full cleanup, I'll write a little review and maybe post a pic or two.

cool some of the sanyo c stuff was reaaly good!! I think bryann has one or 3 of them lol

I take it from the low number of responses that the Sanyo C3 isn't very highly regarded around here.

Okay, the review (if anyone's interested ).

Firstly, it's all important looks. Well, what a handsome machine it is. It's a silver 3-piece which is a great shape, and the cassette door is very classic looking with a metallic looking 'strip' at the bottom. It's small so the whole unit looks bigger than it really is. The speaker grilles look very big, but house much smaller speakers. I particularly like the horizontal shaped tweeter grilles which extend right to the edges of the detachable speaker housings. These grilles have chrome paint strips top and bottom which reflect light rather like little mirrors. The 5-LED level meter which is located in it's own 'window' to the right-hand side of the tape deck is very attractive, with it's aluminium backing. The tuner window has an aluminium backing onto which the numbers etc, are printed. For first impressions, a pretty good start. The tuning knob is big, and protrudes slightly over part of the tuner window. It's plastic but has a brushed-aluminium type finish, and the circular edge has a highly polished chrome look, quite posh actually. The same goes of the rest of the knobs. The handle is a bit short for my liking, but it has nice 'polishable' chrome ends.

As for build quality, the C3 feels pretty weighty and well made when being held by the handle; it doesn't creak unlike some 3-piece units, although one notable 'cheap feeling' at this point is the handle itself. The chrome ends aren't cold compared with some on handles of other boomboxes, so I reckon the ends are plastic painted to look like chrome (an excellent disguise has been created here if they are indeed 'fake'). The handle also feels light-weight and is very easy to raise. When the outsides of the box (the detachable speakers in this case) are knocked, a very hollow plasticky noise is made... not much insulation in there, then. The cassette door is solid, it opens and very smoothly and closes with a nice 'clunk'. The tape deck is a logic motor deck, and it's very quiet so I suppose this adds to the high quality factor. The battery cover is tight fitting and makes no rattling sounds when touched. The 'clips' which the loose speaker cables are wrapped round on the rear of the speaker housings are flimsy.

Now, the sound. What a disappointment. The sound does have a bit of bass, but the unit always seems to emit this awful hollow sound with whatever it might be playing. The same sort of cheap sound is made when the sides of the speaker housings are knocked as mentioned above - those hollow plastic housings aren't helping the tiny speakers. To top this, the unit only has a tone control, no loudness switch, nothing. The sound is lacking in a big way, embarrasingly in fact. It lacks clarity and bass. It's probably the worst sounding box I own. Horrible.

For features, it's reasonable. I know, it has no bass and treble or a graphic equalizer... and no loudness switch. What it does have though is the essentials of course (balance, function selector, blah blah), Dolby NR, line in, 4 radio bands, and a tape type selector. It has a record volume knob too.

So, to sum up. It's an excellent looking box, well made, with some decent features, but with incredibly poor sound. I like it, but I've gotta improve that sound!

The C3's bigger 'brother', the C5. Apologies to whoever's this picture is.


Thanks for reading.

YAY!

That is a nice radio!, I think that picture os from Litfan!

Where is Litfan by the way?

Gotta be. Those placemats...

Do you have any doubts.
Who else owns these place mats.
Litfan.
Yes.

Hey Retro! Nice review! I actually will start doing these myself. I always wanted to but had to figure out the format I'd like to use.

I actually replaced the speakers in my C-9. This seems to be the greatest weakness across the series. I will post photos of what is in there and what was in there this weekend since I'm away from home during the week.

I think a few people on here have said the C7 is one of the best sounding in the C series.

I have heard the c4 before and I thought it didnt sound bad at all.

quote:

Originally posted by oldskool69:
I actually replaced the speakers in my C-9. This seems to be the greatest weakness across the series. I will post photos of what is in there and what was in there this weekend since I'm away from home during the week.

Thanks oldskool. I look forward to seeing them. I was considering cutting away the speaker surrounds inside the housings, so the holes are the same size as the grilles. Then I may be able to fit some 'big' six inchers in there.

Hey Retro! Sorry I took so long to post. This is what it (My Sanyo C9) looked like before the change:


And After:


These are the original speaker in the C9's:



The original speakers are 5.25" and made of a thin, flimsy paper material. It had a hollow sound and was really weak for the power this system has. I got these polypropelenes from a set of KLH speakers I got from the thrift store for five bucks. These are six inch drivers and realy add some punch. I want to replace the tweeters also. I didn't have time to show the back of the speaker cabinets. I installed bass reflex ports and conventional push/pull clips (It had wires just feeding from the speaker box.) so that I don't have to worry about the wires. I'm pretty happy with the mod so far and as soon as I find the proper tweeters I'm going to put those in.

Hey oldskool, I didn't think you were going to reply.

Those new speakers look MEAN!! I can only guess they sound mean too.

Wow, that C9 is feature-LADEN compared to my C3! Thanks for the reply.

...nice suede shoes.

I've got a C3,C5 and a C7.Although the C3 is the lower end its still a cool little box.There has been a thread on the "c" range.The 5,7 and 9 are a very underated box.My fave is my C5,the sound is amazing,you can still pick them up cheap and they knock spots off many of their much more expensive rivals.

quote:

Originally posted by Retro Addict:
Hey oldskool, I didn't think you were going to reply.

Those new speakers look MEAN!! I can only guess they sound mean too.

Wow, that C9 is feature-LADEN compared to my C3! Thanks for the reply.

...nice suede shoes.

Yeah right! Suede shoes! You got a good view of my work boots! (I'm a construction project manager.) It does sound mean but the tweeters can't keep up so I'm going to replace those too. They were just as sorry as the orginal woofers.

Also notice on the pic of the original woofers that the speakers were smaller than the grilles. You can see the cross hatches where the seal meshed against the grilles.

quote:

Originally posted by oldskool69:
You can see the cross hatches where the seal meshed against the grilles.

I don't know what you mean. Sorry.

quote:

Originally posted by Retro Addict:

quote:

Originally posted by oldskool69:
You can see the cross hatches where the seal meshed against the grilles.

I don't know what you mean. Sorry.

If you look at the edge of the old speaker there's a foam seal on the frame. You can see where it was mashed against the grill by the marks in it.

quote:

Originally posted by oldskool69:
If you look at the edge of the old speaker there's a foam seal on the frame. You can see where it was mashed against the grill by the marks in it.

Ah, get ya. I was looking at the old speakers in the Stereo, not out. My mistake. I thought that was a nice frilly 'design' when I saw it first! The woofer's been pushed in REALLY hard to make that mark!