The state of my hifi system as of August 2024! While it's ever changing, some of the main hits are shown here - including my Samsung TV, top-load cassette deck, Aiwa linear-tracking/track search turntable, Kenwood amplifier (which is really cool!) and my reel to reel! There are a few other fullsize components I have kicking around that aren't part of the main system for various reasons, and there's an ARRAY of portable devices also not shown here, all of which I intend to catalogue within this section of the site!
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Grundig TK-747 Open reel tape recorder
A very interestingly styled and featured European tape recorder - obtained on Facebook Marketplace for about $30, in need of some work, this will be my next repair project once I finish up with the Hitachi TRQ-701S that I'm currently working on. 3-head, semi-solenoid operated (weird hybrid electromechanical design!) stereo recorder with a wealth of inputs and outputs - despite looking cheap and plasticky, its actually from right near the top of Grundig's lineup, just 2 models outclassed it at the time (from a catalogue of easily 20!)
The His Master's Voice (HMV) A40 model stereo amplifier
Gorgeous albeit not particularly high-end solid state stereo amplifier from the early 70s (probably) - stainless steel face, solid wood case, inputs for tape, tuner, crystal-cartridge turntable and moving-magnet cartridge turntable, and with a remarkably serviceable design. Got it for only $30aud, albeit in need of work! Full writeup here!
AWA CD-700 stereo cassette deck
A solidly built and rather pretty albeit budget 1970s stereo cassette deck wearing the badge of Almagamated Wireless Australasia. Quite good looking, but not necessarily a high quality model - robust, built in Japan, but built to a cost, with no Dolby, and released in various other countries under a number of badges and model numbers. Likely an off the shelf design, probably by Orion Electronics of Japan, that any small hifi company could order with their badge put on. No longer in my collection but served me well as my first cassette deck - full writeup here!
Panasonic RQ-S1 portable stereo cassette player
An absolutely gorgeous and incredibly slim cassette player, the first entry in what would become Panasonic's flagship line of portable cassette players. Auto reverse, Dolby noise reduction, gumstick batteries and extra-base, auto tape type selection - and absolutely beautiful looks, all in a package that is almost identical in dimensions to the case a cassette comes in. Impressively small, impressively high end - but currently non-functional. Stay tuned for repairs! Full writeup to follow.
Aiwa LX-70 linear tracking direct drive random access turntable/record player
A cool techy 1980s turntable that has all the features of any CD player - on vinyl records! A light sensor in the tip of the tonearm lets it detect tracks on your records, allowing you to hit the skip track or back-track button, press whichever song numbers you want to listen in any order you please, plus linear tracking, repeat, and a neat little intro play feature! Absolutely thrilled to own it, the delight of my hifi. Full writeup to follow!
Kenwood KVA-502 audio-visual stereo amplifier
1982 stereo amplifier that may be amongst the first to have video capabilities out of the box too - with inputs and outputs for 2 VCRs, a video-disc player, along with your usual tape, tuner and phono inputs - plus an impressive array of dubbing features, and incredibly unique styling! I had to have it for the looks alone, but the wealth of inputs and outputs have proved indispensable. Occupies an interesting place in history as an ancient ancestor of modern AV amps, which are very different beasts indeed!
Hitachi TRQ-701S open reel tape recorder
A basic but surprisingly well built open reel recorder I got at a garage sale, with matching speakers! Wasn't working at all when I got it, but simply powering it on and engaging play for a little while got it going again - currently dismantled for electrical work though. Shockingly solid device despite being an absolute budget unit, very well built and robust, it was also sold as the Realistic 999B, and the mechanism in it was used in various other machines including the Ampex AX-50, which was built by Hitachi! More about this one here!
Olympus SR11 stereo metal microcassette player
Pride of my portable devices, though currently nonfunctional! Microcassettes were originally designed for dictation, and didn't have sound quality for music, but Olympus wanted in on that sweet sweet portable stereo money that Sony had been raking in with their walkmans. The line of thinking went that cassette players were successful for their compact size, so more small = more success, if we can get them to sound good! In practice what resulted was a range of devices that cost high-end prices for mid-range performance, couldn't play your existing tapes, and often weren't actually that much smaller either. They didn't sell, and are resultantly very rare (and interesting to me!). Full writeup and eventual repair attempt to follow.
Teac V-210 stereo cassette deck
My first successful repair attempt! Bought it, fixed it, on-sold it, so its no longer in my collection. A fairly solid cassette deck, Teac's entry-level unit, but still well built and well featured- soft-touch solenoid operated controls, electromagnetic erase head, a fairly hefty metal flywheel means it still offers pretty good performance, especially compared to some of the all-plastic monstrosities of a similar vintage. Lots of lock-tight on the screws so fixing it was a pain and I ended up using tweezers to replace the belt without actually disassembling the mechanism after I failed to do so. Repeatedly.
Sherwood S-2640CP stereo receiver/amplifier
Through no fault of the designers, absolutely miserable. I bought it on ebay at rock-bottom prices because I just needed an amplifier, any amplifier. Unfortunately for me, what arrived was unexpectedly rusted - the photo here is after repeated sanding and rust removal - and a completely nonfunctional radio section - that lovely VFD never powered on. So, just an amplifier, no radio, and it performs... not great, but given my unit looks to have been stored at the bottom of a lake, I suspect that they sounded fine when new. Buttons are a bit cheap feeling, and swapping it out for the Kenwood amplifier was an improvement in sound quality akin to taking the cotton buds out of your ears.