Mini Stereos and Cool Car Compo Ads

AKAI from 1983, wow this is interesting!

 

From the Genex Katalog 1987, not sure what the brand is, I love the EQ. It kind of looks like a Sanyo but I don't know for sure.

 

1979 Toshiba

 

Panasonic SC-CH9, big money and very nice, some of these are also branded Technics.

 

1992 Yamaha, check out the stand!

 

Korting from 1979, the digital/analog tuner would have been cutting edge in 79. I love the anodized look of the front, it looks to be pretty substantial, anybody have one of these? The oval buttons are very AIWA, wonder if they were the builder? If there's interest I'll start a mini-stereo review thread, these are pretty much kissing cousins to boomboxes.

 

1979, sorry if this is a repost, this thread is getting long!

 

1995 Sony MHC, it looks pretty nice, I'm wondering about those speakers they look pretty "hi-tech?"

 

Goldstar 1996

 

1996, I thought this was neat, James Bond Co-Branding

 

It's so hard to tell sometimes where the stereo pricing is positioned, especially when they went egg shaped because most look lower quality (same with cars). I don't think I have any electrostatic or even have heard them making it hard to say if it's a Hell Yea! moment.

 

Sony 1999

 

1986 Nakamichi

 

1986, I never knew Carver had a car stereo! I bet these are super-rare, none sold or listed on ebay right now.

 

1986 Kenwood, wow what a brute but still beautiful. None on the bay for sale but this must have been a statement piece a the time. 16K rom, I wonder how that figures into performance.

 

I was too young to get into technical depth but my older wiser neighbor always said Nakamichi thought one direction was the best sonically. I don't know who coined unidirectional but the cool Nak Decks that physically turned the tapes were known as UDAR, "Unidirectional Auto Reverse." The famous RX-202, 303, and 505 Models. It wouldn't surprise me if the 80's cassette world geeks used "unidirectional" to mean Nak Products.

I've been really close to getting a Nak Car Deck but even a few years ago they were going for over $200 USD, people really love them. I'm going to go out on a limb and say 1986 was around peak car deck, these units are so cool and they were limited by the universal dash opening so they had to be small. Unfortunately over here the car makers got smart and started putting in non-standard openings and selling stereo option packages.

 

I could see a commercial where the girl is looking at the dude funny in the car while he hand turns the tape. "It's a Nak baby"

There's no apologizing with a Nakamichi....