Did you have a boom box or portable stereo that you thought sounded good

Just wanted to hear if anyone had a good sounding boom box or portable stereo they thought sounded good. Just about anyone who was alive in the 80s probably had one or knew someone who did. Got the idea as I just brought my old original JVC Kaboom out of hibernation after sitting idle for almost 15 years and was amazed at how good it actually sounds for something you could put batteries in.

In the early 80s I also had a Magnavox portable that I used as a stereo that I remember sounded decent. It had detachable speakers and actually had a phono input that had a switchable preamp for a moving magnet phono cartridge. It also had a pretty decent single cassette deck in it. Actually had adjustable record levels, Dolby NR and could play and record CRO2 and Metal tapes. It was fairly heavy and took 9D batteries which would last just long enough to play a 90 minute cassette. Don’t have it anymore.

 

I tried a couple and let's just say they weren't "musical"...

 

I don’t think very many were audiophile quality but some did sound fairly good for something you could put batteries in.

 

The 80's boom boxes were plastic pieces of garbage. I make this broad sweeping opinionated statement, because I have never heard a good sounding boom box. They are as advertised, boomy, and nasal sounding, pinched upper harmonics.

It seems that portable sound regressed during the 80's. Good sound could be had in small packages going back to the 60's early 70's such as a Norelco AM/FM/SW radio, (takes batteries) with high fidelity sound. Others noteworthy of good sound are German table radios such as Grundig, Saba, Telefunken, Bernau, Graetz, etc. I am not a fan of the Bose wave radio, not bad, but really not that good sounding.

 

Yes, the Sharp GF8585; 5 wpc, 2-way. It sounded ace :

 

No

 

Yes and I am on the lookout for another one;



I almost bought this one but funds were slim that month.

 

I had a decent one that was mid-sized... can't remember what happened to it. I wish I'd also bought stock in D-size batteries in the 80's...man that thing ate them!

 

I had a Panasonic radio-cassette one in the early 90s.

I also found that, in general, Panasonic products sounded far better than their Sony counterparts because Panasonic went with 2-way speakers instead of less-than-full-range single drivers.

YMMV.

 

I did. Not 100% sure, but I believe it was a Sanyo and to a 13 year old me it sounded pretty good.

 

I had forgotten I posted this in an old boom box thread...

I have a Hitachi TRK 8270. I got it for Christmas back in 82 & I truly wore that thing out. It features sep. B/T w/loudness button, front mic input, SW tuner, speaker out & a cool looking red level meter on the front. It also featured the DRPS (Digital Random Program Selector) for up to 19 tracks on the cassette. I recall it making decent sounding recordings esp. on Metal ones.
What makes it unique is that it has a rear RCA in that is switchable between line level & MM phono - yes, w/gnd connection

Mine still works & I'd love to find another minty one, but I consider that next to impossible.

In 1996 I bought a Panasonic "Platinum series" RX-DT690. This was a battery hogging beast requiring 10 D's + 4 AA's. Featuring CD & dual cassette along with a decent tuner and a nice little remote. This had a really nice sound given it's size with 3 way bi-amped speakers & a subtle, yet effective low bass enhancement. It still works, but the cassette mechanism was rather cheap. Sadly, no line in or out or ext. speaker outs like the old Hitachi.

The Hitachi was $200 back then & the Panny was around $250.

 

I had a Panasonic radio/cassette. Can't recall the model, but it was whataver was the top of the line circa 1982. It sounded nice. I wish I could recall the brand my buddy had - it was not Panny or Sony or anything you ever heard of, but that thing sounded incredible! Loud and clear. I recall he bought it from a store in Passaic, NJ that sold boomboxes and DJ gear. They used to display it in the window.

Come to think of it, my Aiwa Exos 9 can qualify as a "boom box" and that thing cranks!

 

I used to have a JVC that sounded pretty good. It even had Dolby B.

 

I just bought a Boombox for use on my boat and for long hotel visits.
I wouldn't want anybody to know how great this thing sounds and how LOUD it can play as it is like taking a really powerful Stereo along with you everywhere.
My idea of hell would be somebody in the next motel room has one of these.
What can you do?
I am a responsible boombox owner and have extensive traininng in safe handling...
Oh, it's made by JBL :

 

I still have this one (or a model very similar to it). It sounds great and made a great music source for parties on an outside deck. The CD drive died but that's OK as it has 2 AUX jacks to plug in a CD or phone or whatever.
Google Image Result for https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/oIAAAOSwiJZcNtu8/s-l300.jpg

 

This looks awesome. Can you provide any information on it? I’m curious about it.

 

Sure.
It has twin two and a half way speakers running one inch soft dome tweeters with four inch woofers plus four inch passive radiators on the sides.
It's waterproof as in you can throw it in the pool waterproof.
Response SEEMS to be about mid 30s on up.
Lots of power in the amp sections---NOT a radio!
JBL says 30 watts RMS.
About as loud as a 100 watt RMS home stereo with a pair of large bookshelf speakers running 10 inch woofers.
It CRANKS!
Vocals and midrange has none of the plastic "in-a-box" sound of a portable radio---I'm an audiophile and could live with it in a pinch if I couldn't afford a real setup.
Bass is extremely tight. Put it in the right spot in a room and you will NOT think it possible how much clarity and power this thing has.
It gets a signal either plugged in using mini phone plug OR Bluetooth.
Battery takes up a lot of space inside it as it can run close to full volume for 24 hours straight.
Battery size is 20,000 MAH
Quality wise it is about what the average person could buy in a home stereo for a grand or two.
It could EASILY replace an entire home stereo or power up a home theater room IF you were doing it on the cheap.
A hard shell carry case is available for it (I use it on trips or as carry on luggage).
You can BUY TWO and run them as Stereo!
It is a dangerous piece of gear that can play so loud you simply will NOT believe it.
It has two EQ curves---one for outdoors in open air and one for indoors with wall re-inforcement and a button switches between the two curves.

Negatives: It doesn't have much of a soundstage as the speakers are REAL close together---hence you might want to consider buying TWO of these for use as a home stereo so you can separate them.
I do NOT want anyone else to buy one of these as they are so loud and powerful it would be annoying to have to listen to the crud somebody else wants to play on them...I prefer Beethoven, not RAP!
Oh well.
Too late.
Now I've done it.
PLEASE don't buy one!
The more people find out about these the worse it will be for peace and quiet lovers!

JBL Boombox | Portable Bluetooth Speaker

 

I had this monster back in the '80s, or one virtually identical to it:



I don't know if it sounded great, but the amazing bass from its built-in subwoofer was head-turning at the time. Also handled high bias tape and had Dolby (though both for playback only, if memory serves). The stereo speakers were your usual hollow-sounding plastic jobbies - well, a little better than average actually in that regard as well. They could also be detached, so you could get decent imaging. If they'd improved those just a little this thing would have been a real superstar.

The main unit could also drive sensitive freestanding speakers to fairly high volumes with its built-in amp. I actually used it as my amp and CD player for a few months while I was waiting for an insurance settlement to come thru.



Had a shortwave tuner as well - the only one I've ever owned. Unfortunately the CD player was garbage and broke after just a few years. I gave it away to a friend who said he'd take it apart and replace the CD mechanism. I suspect it would have just broken again, though. Still, at the time this came out boomboxes had pretty much gone completely to ****, and the PC-V2 really stood out. I don't think I'd see another boombox I thought matched it in terms of sound and features until fairly recently, like that JBL number upthread which is just astounding.

 

Around '96 I had a Sony cassette/CD/radio boombox. Compared to what a lot of people listen to music on now (e.g. cheap earbuds and BT speakers) it sounded pretty good.

 

1983 .... Pioneer SK-550 (pic from web)
Purchased it with my girlfriend .... and now bride of 35 years

Sounded pretty good for what it was.....still have it!

 

Had this model for many years in my office and always enjoyed it:

 

Had a few, mostly Panasonic. My brother had a Sanyo w/coaxial speakers which sounded great but could eat 8 D batteries a day.

My fave was the last one I had, the Panasonic RX-5030. Somehow any cassette played back on it sounded properly aligned regardless of what it was recorded on. Nice HF extension. Think it only cost $150 new.

 

Had a similar Panasonic model to the one in the video in the mid '80's. The Ambience switch gave a very realistic 3D sound stage and presence but you had to be in the sweet spot to hear it. I could actually point to quadrants in the room where the instruments were spread out. Haven't heard anything close to it.

 

Did I mention it had an unusual (for boomboxes)PHONO input in the back, that allowed me to hook up my first TT, a Sansui P50 ? This of course made me want to get an amp and speakers, which I got one year later Kenwood KA300+ Technics SB50s. Soon a Technics cassette deck followed, and all hell broke loose ! My neighbors adored me. Punk rock blasting out of my window 24/7.

 

Yeah I can attest to it. It's unbelievable something that small can sound that big. It has to be the ultimate boombox. Now mid 30s is a tad optimistic, dear Dr Fine (55 Hz–20 kHz). There's prolly a huge boost around 100 hz for oomph, but that's desirable and does trick the ear into feeling more extension. But sure, a nice thing to have in a mini home or flat, or on the move, where a stereo is impractical. I'd own one.