Best looking vintage Hifi gear

I had the one top left. Walked with it to school every day and, at the time, thought it was tiny.

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I heard the current Transcriptors turntable (cartridge unknown) at Gig Harbor Audio and found it spellbinding in all ways. Really excellent. Playing through a NAC72 > Line Magnetic tube amp > Rogers LS3/5a speakers.

Nick

The Walkman II - such a classic! I remember when it first appeared. A friend had one and I borrowed it for a day’s skiing trip to Waterville Valley. I took a cassette of The Police’s latest album, Ghost In The Machine. The conditions and the weather was ideal - a perfect day, and with music in my head in the great outdoors. It really was marvellous, and afterwards I ached to have a Walkman II of my own.

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Haha :rofl:
We should call it the vintage classic or 500 series

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and they’ve just announced a new Walkman… to me it looks like an mp3 player. Hardly a new product…

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Not sure this counts as HiFi but it’s all I had for a year as a student. With built in speakers it was pretty unusual at the time. I first saw one at a cricket match (Trent bridge, England vs West Indies 1 day) and was determined to own one. Mine had a pretty cool looking blue case. I still keep an eye out on eBay every now and again.


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ISTR Saisho was Dixons own brand name that they made up because the UK buyer perceived Japanese goods as higher quality.

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I particularly valued the instructions on what to do if the product malfunctioned. :joy:

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I had a similar Saisho unit as a child, but double casssette with rapid copy! The thinest sound on the planet. Also the Dixons experience… I used to love going into Dixons as a kid, I’d to program all the timers to go off after 10 mins with my mates, turn the volume up, then wait outside the store for the chaos to start! Staff running round like crazy!

Nearly every unit used to have missing buttons and then the discount basket was laughable. Everything smashed with parts missing.

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Just sold the Planet CD player last week with its matching Mira amplifier

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And at $1,400, not an inexpensive one either…

Nice looking piece, though.

Walkman II was the pinnacle of design. I love the look… too bad Sony did not continue with the design language.

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Sony ps-f9 - the flamingo…with a pair of powered speakers

Stretching the Walkman concept a little, but I would certainly like one, but they are now £££…

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In 1979, when I was still at school, I bought my first piece of hifi for my bedroom, the Hitachi TRK8000-E radio/cassette recorder. It cost £72 and I had to save up my Saturday job money for months to buy it! I used to sit in my bedroom listening to John Peel, hovering over the record button waiting to record tunes I liked. It lasted me well into the 1980s.

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Thanks, that reminds me that I had my Sony Walkman set on Record and Pause during the one hour of Mike Harding Folkweave and as you did, record the songs and tunes I liked. I still have the collection of tapes, and I did record them onto the pc with Goldwave as I thought the tapes might not last. The Walkman has not been used for years, though I replaced the rubber bands a few years ago. A picture would satisfy the theme of the topic so this will do I suppose, just a snapshot picture.

Thanks for the opportunity to add to this…

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Best looking it definitely was not - but lord did I love listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (among others) on my true first set during those endless summers.

Thorens TD 150 MKII

Pioneer SA-600

Marantz 7-G

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Is that an Aiwa AD-F350? Although something different about that lower central panel :thinking:

Edit: Actually an R450 I now think?

Love those old Thorens TT’s!
I wish I had one and that it looked as good as that one.
Definitely on my list of TT’s I wish I’d owned and one day may buy just because I always wanted one. MY friend and neighbour when I was at college had one and I loved listening to Animals & DSOTM on it whilst playing him at chess and drinking “REAL ALE” on many an evening :blush:

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My first real amp looked like that Marantz amp I bought it in the 70s and replaced with an NAD amp (like just about everyone) in the 80s.

This system is on the Kenwood Facebook page.
You need a high ceiling !

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