The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / King of Boomboxes Replica

**Posted by Kris Abel** November 23, 2024 2:25 pm

Anyone have a vintage radio small enough to carry around in your pocket?

Some neat nostalgia.

New Wave, makers of mini replica vintage arcade machines including cigarette, change, and pop machines, also make working replicas of the M90, known in 1981 as the “King of Boomboxes”.
Despite being shrunk down to 6” and then even smaller with a 1/6 scale mini, they offer powerful mid-range speakers, working treble/bass controls, AM/FM radio with dual telescoping antennas. It even accepts replica cassette tapes.
For modern tricks it can charge USB devices and can work as a speaker phone via bluetooth.

As you might guess, they have a “Black Light Friday” sale going on right now.

https://newwavetoys.com/

I know some of you collect radios and thought this might be of interest.

**Posted by darcyh** November 23, 2024 4:37 pm

You don't know how good you have it until its gone. I sure miss those high end boom boxes from the late 70's into the early 80's. Some of these were literally full featured mini stereos with exceptional cassette decks. They sounded great.

JVC, Panasonic, Sharp, Pioneer and a few others had some amazing units. Sadly it is hard to find one where the cassette deck is in working order due to the rubber belts and rollers that were part of the cassette mechanism. Ones that are fully functional are collectable and command a high price.

**Posted by Shorty Wave** Yesterday 9:26 am

Interesting website, maybe check it out for some unique Christmas gifts! Thanks for sharing Kris Abel.

**Posted by Tq345** Yesterday 10:40 am

darcyh wrote:
You don't know how good you have it until its gone. I sure miss those high end boom boxes from the late 70's into the early 80's. Some of these were literally full featured mini stereos with exceptional cassette decks. They sounded great.

JVC, Panasonic, Sharp, Pioneer and a few others had some amazing units. Sadly it is hard to find one where the cassette deck is in working order due to the rubber belts and rollers that were part of the cassette mechanism. Ones that are fully functional are collectable and command a high price.

I had a monster boom box that I bought in 1983. It was a JVC PC55, a behemoth of a machine that I used as my main home stereo for a number of years. It weighed about 10 pounds and took EIGHT D cell batteries so carrying it out an about was not at all practical.

It had detachable speakers, a good tuner, plenty of power and rear jacks that allowed me to connect a turntable and a CD player. The unit had an LCD information screen and the cassette deck had solenoid controls which was pretty slick back in the day. And best of all it sounded great.

I had it up until 2020 when it finally gave up the ghost.