Ok, This test was conducted with all three radios , the CONION C100f, the JVC RC-m90LB and the AIWA CS-880K using the F.M radio tuner dialed into BBC radio 1. All in Stereo mode, all with louness or DSL in the awia's case engaged.







I can tell you , there was a clear winner. The Aiwa. Jvc second , Conion third.

The Conion was loudest by a long shot, however , both the Conion and the m90 couldn't handle any real volume with great clarity and no bass break up. The Jvc was better than the Conion though. The awia wasn't much better a high vol , but was better. It held together more.

The Conion also has unflattering frequencies coming out of it. Kinda piercing high mid / low treble that you get from a low end car system. Its hard to explain, but for sure, the quality was lower than the other two. So for me, thats the Conion out of the running.

The Aiwa won the best bass contest by a mile. Honestly, the aiwa is the only box of the three to give you real low end , and such depth , amazing really . . It could handle the bass on full , with the DSL in and still cranked better than the m90.

Switching between the m90 and the 880 (both powered up playing same station) it was clear the aiwa had the upper edge on low end.

The Jvc has marginally better tops, but to me, you could account for this on the aiwa by adding treble. They are very similar in quality.

Close between the two, but my choice is with the 880 for all round best sound.

There you have it, this is just my opinion of course, would be great to hear from other memebers who have the same boxes to give there verdict.

Summary :

Conion : Loud as hell. Good sound, but not a match for the other two.

JVC M90 : Awesome radio, great build quality, detailed high quality sound.

AIWA 880 : Best for low end , great build quality , detailed high quality sound.


Cheers

So that`s wher mastermind is filmed. Your 2 minutes on boomboxes, starts now.

hahahahahaha , nice rich

Cant take my eyes of the m90 though ! !

royal, would you the test with a tape instead of the radio/tuner/, for sure you would get different answer.

How can you be sure of that drip ?

I'm sure Tony (ahardb0dy) will enjoy your summations, Ben. He's got an all-original CS-880 with registration papers and the whole nine.

wow - royal -- looks like your 3 grails have deck doors, trims, correct knobs -- thats cool !!
__________________________--
in my most valued opinion about these models ::

1. agree with you that the conion is the loudest and harshest by far -- its by no means in the m90 or 880 league of quality --
its just GHETTO !!!!
but its the awesome king of THAT

2. the 880 does have a smooth, lovely and sweet sounding "WARM BASS"--and it does take some good volume before it distorts and colluspts (tim)
its highs or just nice to ok.

3. however --any member who thinks there is a better sounding one piecer than a good M90 --must have a bad M90
its got it All -- hard , deep base -- highs like its alive-- and the case emits an overall very FULL , pleasing depth.
there is 'just something' extra special about it ....

hope -- to hear from everybody about this interesting fun topic.

Very interesting Royal. I really liked your report. I agree with you 100% comparing the Aiwa to the Conion. The Conion is loud as hell,but he Aiwa sounds wayyyy better. I have never heard an M90 so I can't guess that one.
Thanks for the comparo,great pics BTW.....

royal that is awesome.. i had a simular feeling about the aiwa,i have had a chance to really listen to the aiwa and yes just like you said i agree with the finding. tapes would be good if a really good sound sample would be used but like i say some boxes will not sound the same when you use a tape but radio program using the right station with the less distortion and the best song and all three boxes running at the same time, another would be the line in comparison.....

Bummer i was Rootin' for The Conion of the 3 it's the only one i have!

I agree about the M90 vs. CS-880. (The Conion isn't even in the discussion as it's design intent was like neither of these two.)

The Aiwa has an advantage none here has mentioned that component boxes have. "A SEALED ENCLOSURE." Think for a second. That passive radiator isn't worth squat without one. And having it gives the Aiwa the edge because you'll have less brekaup due to the woofer movement being resricted keeping it nice nd tight. Better bass, period.

exactly oldschool . . the aiwa's chamber is so tight there are rubber seals to go round the holes for the wires where the two chassis half join together !

the m90 bass simply doesn't get near it. fact.

quote:

Originally posted by r o y a l ®:
exactly oldschool . . the aiwa's chamber is so tight there are rubber seals for to go round the holes for the wires where the two chassis half join together !

the m90 bass simply doesn't get near it. fact.

I'm glad we agree. Now get poppin' and send me that extra 880 you have there!

anyone can have that for £100 . . it's p@ssin me off ! ! !

This is were i win with my modded m90 better speakers = better bass beats my 880 and upgreaded vol pots means good bye conion so i have the best of all worlds, it sure would be nice to have a standard m90 to compare to my 880 though because it sure does have warm bass and it has another advantage it isn't as big as the rest. Great reaport ben enjoyed reading.

forgot to give the 880 big credits for sounding that good -- in a package alot smaller than the m90--

but it just does not sound as big - at all

I must admit royal used to wind me up something cronic with these reaports but now i have an 880 (thanks skip) and know whats what the trouble is i have reached the top like alot of us and am left wanting more maybe ill mod the 880 and see what happens .

Great post royal. Love the fact your photos are 'aerials up' for maximum visual impact.

Don't have an 880 but looking forward to seeing how my M90 (albeit speaker modded) compares to my Conion, when it arrives.

Thanks for taking the time to compare the boomers. I would have to agree with you Royal all the way. I have the 3 boxes too and I still prefer the smooth sound of the Aiwa 880. The Conion is waaaaaaaay louder but lacks the quality sound of the 880 and M90. Just wondering, what do you guys think a boombox of the quality of these 3 would cost today? I am figuring in the 900.00 buck range. Higher??? Everything today is throw away and not really worth even having repaired. Nice pics Royal.

Kaboom beats em all.

I could have told you the 880 sounded best with out the test, LOL, the 880 with it's sealed enclosure, I always new the 880 was special the way it was designed with all the electronics up on top and the speakers are down below, what's funny is when I took mine apart to replace the belts,during reassembly I noticed there were gaps around the woofers, at first I thought I put the woofers in wrong and even contacted Skippy about it ( the "resident Aiwa expert", as he just finished rebuilding his 880) but
after removing 1 of the woofers and looking at it closely there (on mine anyway with original surrounds intact) was no way to get the woofers to sit flush and sealed to the front half. I agree that the speaker cavity should be sealed when ever a passive radiator is used and spoke to other members at the first Florida meet about it, just don't know why it has gaps around the woofers,as nothing fell out when I took mine apart. Will have to try to seal around the speakers to see if it sounds better.

Oh man those M-90's are awesome! The boxes behind the couch seem precariously positioned to fall down the stairs! I hope they are secured!

quote:

Originally posted by Litfan:
Kaboom beats em all.

Dosent beat my modded m90 rich

You and that chuffin modded m90 tim .

hahaha , really ! ! ! stuck record.

quote:

Originally posted by r o y a l ®:
hahaha , really ! ! ! stuck record.

mod yours and see .

hey rimmer --just heard that you have a modded m90 --NO SH!!T ???
how does it sound ?
any good

Modded m90?, eh, who?

Mod off rimmer hahaha

quote:

Originally posted by redbenjoe:
hey rimmer --just heard that you have a modded m90 --NO SH!!T ???
how does it sound ?
any good

ok i get the point its all this whisky guys gotta blame it on somethin tonights the first night without in ages lol

quote:

Originally posted by r o y a l ®:
Mod off rimmer hahaha

haha next on the list is the 880, hey why not take your spair to geoff ya know he is good at what he does.

quote:

Originally posted by Litfan:
Modded m90?, eh, who?

ehh whats an m90 theres some guy keeps rantin about a mod but realy it's the best thing i ever did no realy

quote:

Originally posted by Rimmer:

quote:

Originally posted by Litfan:
Modded m90?, eh, who?

ehh whats an m90 theres some guy keeps rantin about a mod but realy it's the best thing i ever did no realy

Great comparison Ben! I was never really attracted to the CS-880 it just didn't hold much interest, up until now, but I think I have to seriously look into getting one thanks to your comparison test.

Thanks again rocker.



Rock On.

This is great stuff Royal. Your pics always make me jealous, especially that top room crammed full of mid-life crisis toys.

OK, I've never owned any of these bioxes but you can tell by looking at them that they are all very different beasts & your roadtest on sound concludes very much what their images are clearly trying to project.

Aiwa - Here you have a unit who's main plaudit has to be the bass gizmo. To squeeze extra bass out of a portable flappy plastic box must always be a challenge so Aiwa have tried the passive route. For this woofer device to work all possible ports have to be plugged, hence the gromit around the cable holes. A manufacturer will never spend extra cash on manufacturing a more solid cabinet so even if the driver is up to the task, the cabinet will fail & you'll get all kinds of horrible clipping. I guess the Aiwa's top end is standard good ol' Aiwa top end.

Conion - Big, powerful old glitzy mess. Does what it says on the tin, like a 57 Bel Air, all the sparkle, bells & whistles but a 0-60 of over 15 seconds. It amazes me that there's any of these left in the world. That said, if I was a kid & was asked to draw a boombox, this is the one I'd like to sketch. Sound quality was clearly a 'well, it works' afterthought.

JVC - Good old simple boombox technology just made bigger. JVC doing what they do best, if it aint broke etc. I'm suprised this didn't come out best for clear overall listenable sound, not bass boost or trebble highs but just good old warmth of signal.

I'm only going on looks here plus a bit of what I have assumed over the years. But still, very interesting test.

Two gripes.

1. You have to try with a cassette. As you know, a well recorder cassette can sound better than a CD. You can measure the quality of the tape reproduction capabilities of your candidates. You have to remember that the tape functionality is about 75% of the box. Transport, flywheel/drive stability, head quality, pre-amp quality etc are all importaqnt factors to how well a tape can sound. A radio signal may sound clear but it's only as good as the strength of the signal & the quality of the receiver module which is often tiny & clearly an afterthought in many of the big boxes.

2. We live in a culture of boosted bass & screechy trebble highs. Your average £100 system from Dixons will sound great because of the over active Piezo tweeters & massively folded plastic bass enclosures with prescious little in between. Take your Kaboom, why do we love it so much, well it gives your ears the signals it wants to hear but you try listening to it for any length of time, eeeeuurghh!! Maybe it's just an Agentorange groan but I wouldn't measure the sound on bass lows & trebble highs alone.

Great, great stuff.

Cheer up, yer grumpy old sod .

Oh god, do I sound grumpy? nah, not being grumpy, just offering wisdom & wide-eyed knowledge.

Grumpy, damn ! Maybe you're right.

I know. I just felt like dissing someone?