Sometimes luck hits you without remorse. I was searching for the Aiwa 950 quite sometime now.Everything i saw or found was beaten up and overpriced. Today it just happened,a collector wanted to get rid of it and i snatched it at a ridiculous price considering this box.The surreal of it all,today yet again there was a demonstration in city center combined with a strike of all public transport services.In this chaos i decide to make a crazy drive from one part of Athens to the other. 16 km drive of stuck in traffic hell to reach the guy.I enter a house full with ghettoblasters mostly decks and amplifiers.Being in shock i see the gem in full working condition,near mint i sit down after the long drive we drink a coffee chat a little an earthquake happens,ready to jump out then silence music and a story of his and one of mine.And here it is!I am amazed and now i start to comprehend why Athens remains a hidden jem of Ghettoblasters.Not to praise the city i grew up in,but serious collectors do exist and they are many and they do not want your cash just some understanding that the box they give lands in good hands! Unfortunately i did not want to make any pics of the place and was polite enough not to ask and not to expose this person because we live in difficult and troubled times! The box definitely needs some cleaning but who cares,its mine now hahahahahhaha!(yes i am acting like a kid....) Enjoy,another one is in safe hands!
4,4 Richter 22.24 local time the earthquake,so i read!But very close to Athens and i was wondering why the floor is moving and the windows shaking..
One of the best looking boxes of all-time! I've been lucky with my work to see some major hoarders of equipment, mostly stereo components. I see boxes once in a while but usually a small mid-line models and not larger collections. Those are the guys you need to stay in touch with, they'll call you back at some point wanting to unload more, and take what ever they offer even if it's a Nippon Double Cassette Unit, otherwise they might not call back a second time....
Very true he gave me an idea when he told me that he won't call me but i should call him from time to time.............
Well i do not know that because i never owned an m70 but it has a very good and clear sound if you have some tech info about the speakers etc please inform the rookie!
Well done Risingsunproject! What I have learned from this site is Athens is THE place for boomboxes. Your lovely AIWA is simple proof of that! I hope with your new shelves at home, that you secure your boxes so they don't tumble if another tremor happens. Better safe than sorry!
Between Athens and where Arkay used to hunt it seems like all the awesome high end boxes all gravited over to those two areas. Just finding boxes in the wild here I have average success and I think I get in a lot of places other people don't see. The only guys finding more seem to be the estate sale guys that do it almost professionally. I've ramped up my local searching after reading Clairtone's Thread but it's a lot of work, not the garage sales, flea market easy route....
This TPR was sold all over the world, it's not rare.........but I have seen many other boxes from Greece that I've never seen before. I wonder if they were originally sold in Albania or Bulgaria and just gradually "migrated" to Greece over time.
I am not so sure about that just because Albania and Bulgaria are even poorer countries.In the 80s Greece was suffering under economic depression very similar to what we are facing today. A Greek in the 80s could not afford to buy a high end machine from a store since it could cost him a 2 years paycheck(an Albanian or Bulgarian could not afford shoes at that time or had to go to a shop that stated "shoe sales on Friday" and choose between the red one or the black one,i am certain people from ex communist countries can back up this).Please do remember that countries like those mentioned had by regime closed markets and only the elite of the party could have such luxuries.Red curtain speaking. Many Greek were working on ships and with the biggest fleet in the world of commercial ships a box could find easily the way to Piraeus harbor and for half the money asked at that time and maybe directly from Japan. Another way are the immigrants mostly to Germany,USA,Canada and Australia who could bring back such devices.90s in Greece was a golden era so many devices have landed there just because there was an increasing demand on high end or expensive hi-fi equipment. The last reason maybe its a close to 5 million city so you can find pretty much anything.
I do not think the Aiwa is ashamed about those other boxes.It shouts more like: Look at me m@@$$%$^ers!
I always wonder if tourists might have left them as well, maybe they could bring them in but the airline wouldn't let them bring them back home. I know I left a Walkman in the train seat pocket between Rome and Barcelona one night many years ago....
