...A Saisho.

Now, before you click off elsewhere, thinking "damn, he's really lost it now - first with the 3D obsession, now it's cr4p like Saisho", hang on a sec.
This is one Saisho that isn't cr4p at all.
I only knew this because my brother owned one, after his Bush 7070 & before his Panasonic RX-DT610... he liked his b-boxes detatchable.

Saisho was the in-house brand for the "Dixons" UK high-street electrical retailers (like "Realistic" was for Tandy / Radio Shack). Ther was plenty of truly awful, cheap & nasty gear branded Saisho - have a look at the Saisho stuff in the BBDB... dear oh dear, what a shower of sh1te.
All Saisho stuff was rebranded "black-box" stuff, so amongst the grimness, believe it or not there was some decent stuff. I've no idea who originally made this one, but I've seen versions of it from across the pond branded JCPenny & Silver (dreem has one - I wonder where he is now?).
Anyway, here it is, in all it's 80s graphics-laden glory:


If still sceptical (can't say I blame you), the feature-count might convince:
- real tweeters
- Dolby on both decks
- separate motors for each deck
- 5 band EQ
- loudness
- stereo wide (which sounds nice, for a change)
- proper metal & CrO2 switches for each deck (work for playback & record)
- power (not VU) level meters which switch to battery power/tuning level
- phono in
...& IMHO, the clincher (for an audio system): it actually sounds good. Sure, it's no match for equivalently specced gear with a decent brand (JVC, Aiwa), but that stuff was all twice the price & more - I remember that much.
It's very loud with a decent amount of bass too. When I had it apart, there was a big heatsink & evidence of BTL amplification.

Those graphics are 100% Saisho 80s cheese - you might even like them...? The high/lo-light for me is the "Continuous Play" graphic (bottom left) made to look like auto-reverse...

Here's why I'm indebted to Retro:
RA put me onto an eBay auction for it, listed as "working condition unknown". First one I've ever seen on eBay, so I was all over it. When it arrived, sure enough - DOA. Not a sausage.
Took it apart & couldn't see any failures or damage. Not good. I ploughed on with all the usual air duster, switch cleaner in there, & slowly, things started working. Oh, joy when that happens! Anyone who repairs will know what I mean. I persevered & by 1am it all works. Well, a couple of the meter LEDs don't light, but I'm no miracle worker. I just wanted to hear it again.

...the wife hated it on sight, of course.

That's brilliant to read, and it looks really clean! I'm happy to be of service. Glad to hear you got it all working, and yeah, I know how that feels too - I've 'resurrected' a couple of mine that were like that.

BTW, I love cheesy '80s graphics, especially grid designs!

Thanks for the mention, and enjoy that box!

Hey iso,nice saisho,these boxes get a bad press,rightly so for most of them,BUT,saisho made some decent boxes,i've got a few,aswell as some matsui's,and they aint bad at all.

hi iso
i was the other bidder and would have gone big time for it but saw a thread here and deceided to leave it as i thought you was the other bidder and was right,they are great machines
i had one a few years ago now but not the speakers,mine had many bad solder joints i would imagine thats what is up with the level meter,they do look great my ptv880 has similar graphics and look sooo eighties.

Off beat stuff has great potential to be great finds!

I too dig the TRON graphics!

my first as a kid was saisho ! loved it

Cheers for the responses guys.
Good to hear that arguably the worst UK brand isn't universally hated. Tandy's "Realistic" had more kudos than Saisho back then

quote:

Originally posted by hanksey72:
hi iso
i was the other bidder and would have gone big time for it but saw a thread here and deceided to leave it as i thought you was the other bidder and was right...

thanks mate, that's good of you.
Considering it was a dead & dirty Saisho, you'd be shocked if you knew what my highest bid was. I've been on the lookout for a couple of years & this was the only one I've seen. Even then I had to be pointed towards it by good ol' RA, as it didn't even have "Saisho", "boombox" or "ghetto blaster" in either the title or the description.

i would imagine it was a hefty bid iso
i would hope i will come across another on my travels at some time in the future.