after about a year and a half of pointless posts on the most disparate subjects, and even more trivial comments on other people's topics, i believe the time has come to share my collection 

after careful thought, i decided to do it in installments. the aim is twofold: i'll organize the installments into thematic posts which encourages contributions of all sorts, especially pics. as a result, at the end of each thread, everybody will be under the (illusory) impression that my collection dwarfs stereo mad's. everybody will be happy --with the possible exception of Lee oc course. but he's a good sport and i'm sure he won't mind (also because by the time he reads this thread he will probably have already posted the photogallery that ends all other people's collections!) 

anyway, having recently posted on baby cats and miniboxes, it's logical to start from those beautiful little gems that for their very nature provide a bridge between the walkman people and the ghettoblaster tribe. i have only a few, and almost all --did you doubt it?-- are Sanyos. let's start from the one that makes my kittens happy: the well-known, but still amazing...

Sanyo M-S350 LE

Every possible detail of this unit has been taken care of in a unique way. Such a nice touch as the digital alarm clock, which let you choose between a buzzing sound and the radio, is located where a VU meter would be in an older model; it is not by accident, then, that it looks like one. The miniature rev counter to its right is shaped in like fashion, as well as the elongated tape door, the sliding radio control area and that were the commands of the clock are located. Each rectangle is in fact a replica of the other; all of them expand in the third dimension with the parallelepiped-shaped

Let's discuss primary forms now. Both clock and counter are rectangular, and both rectangles are replicas of the wider area where the commands of the clock are located.

In between, the rectangular sliding radio control; below, the elongated rectangle of the tape deck. Should I point out that the parallelipipedal deck commands are but the projection of a rectangle in the 3D? The other main archetypal form of the box is the circle: see the speakers, the buttons and the knobs, which again  .

Technically, i am particularly impressed by the way the 4-band radio works: it never loses tune, also thanks to the micro knob for fine tuning located on the side of the right speaker. one exit for the mic and another for the headphones complete the features of what has easily become one of my all-time favorite boxes. it comes also in other colors, and so far i have been able to double the pleasure by grabbing also the red version. i a "note the differences" challenge, you would have already observed that here the clock is on. why? because whereas the white unit has been hijacked by the cats, the red one sits regularly on my bedside table so that i can wake up every day to her alarm clock

even with my limited experience with minis, i have come to the conclusion that the M-S series is among the most wonderful and yet underrated of Sanyo's. so far i have found only another unit belonging to it, but what a unit it is! with exactlly the same features as the 350 and almost the same dimensions --it is only slightly more slim--, it too comes in colors. last spring at the flea market i found the following:

Sanyo M-S300 K