I always like working with radio shack vintage (system, volume, channel)
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The speakers and stereos were REAL wood or REAL wood veneer. No contact paper.
These MC-1200's are 42 years old and got touched with 220 on a makita pad sander and then stained, rested and wiped with varthane special walnut to darken them up...
Likely wood veneer. Making a speaker enclosure out of boards would be the mark of someone who didn't understand acoustics at all. A speaker enclosure was one of the first legitimate and smart uses for MDF.
Likely wood veneer. Making a speaker enclosure out of boards would be the mark of someone who didn't understand acoustics at all. A speaker enclosure was one of the first legitimate and smart uses for MDF.
Right.
MDF is much denser. More mass = better sound, especially bass.
Right.
MDF is much denser. More mass = better sound, especially bass.
and relatively new. Its a fairly RECENT invention, most of the classics I restore are wood. and we are talking just the enclosures. the stereos themselves had more wood like optional enclosures for marantz, akai, scott etc.
Its just that radio shack for occupying the lower rungs of the pecking order - had the best looking stuff.
heck im doing a lloyds 8 track box that has veneered plywood and lloyds is always considered near bottom of the barrel - heck all the ECs inside are nichion...
Sure it's walnut veneer; no one's going to make speaker cabinets out of solid walnut; but even so, that's several steps up from the dreaded genuine imitation vinyl woodgrain contact paper usually used on low-end stuff like this. What was under it would have varied through the years, from plywood to particleboard to MDF.
Of course Tandy didn't MAKE any of this stuff, they contracted with other manufacturers to private-label it. Just like Sears. So you often had pretty good equipment hidden under the "Realistic" name.
The real thing to note here is that even inexpensive speakers can sound a whole lot better than those wee little ones they're pushing nowadays, that give you all highs and simulated lows. When I listen to actual musicians I don't sit with one ear an inch above the guitar's strings and the other one stuffed into the bass speaker of the PA. Why do modern stereo systems try to make everything sound like that? To get a good, rich, satisfying sound that's not tiring to listen to, you need to move a bigger volume of air, which means bigger speakers. Put inexpensive drivers in a decent-sized enclosure of reasonable design and it'll sound a lot better than expensive teeny speakers.
Whoa, I believe those are the same model of stereo speakers I used to have! Must have bought them in the late 70s, and had them until maybe 2000, when the speaker cones started falling apart. The cabinets were still in great shape. I should have just replaced the speakers. Those pictures sure bring back great memories!
Whoa, I believe those are the same model of stereo speakers I used to have! Must have bought them in the late 70s, and had them until maybe 2000, when the speaker cones started falling apart. The cabinets were still in great shape. I should have just replaced the speakers. Those pictures sure bring back great memories!
we re-foam now. its more of an enduser task as the cost of the foams and glues and the time makes it a money loser. You can re-drive non ported enclosures but its so damn hard...all the 8 inch-ish drivers are so low efficiency you have to port to get any response, else you are just wasting power and it sounds akin to a band member pinching a cymbal.
when I give up and scrap out a set, if the cabs are any good I do a good biz selling them off to recoup some $$
One of the best multi-band Radio Shack radios I have ever known was the very old analog Trooper series. The one I am referring to had about 6 bands, including a weather channel, was OD-green color (military green), and had two antennas. It was small in size, somewhere around 8" tall x maybe 10" horizontal (across) x 4-5" deep. Incredible reception and sound clarity, plus the C batteries would last for months. The new digital radios, even the ones from C Crane "eat" battery power like there is no tomorrow. The more digital bells and whistles, the more power they consume.
Not Radio Shack speakers but the best speakers I've ever own I bought from now defunct electronic store Silo way back in the early 90s. They were Cerwin Vega speakers almost the size of a dishwasher. AMAZING sound.
Think I sold them for some of those tiny Bose surround sound home theater speakers in the late 90s. But, as far as blasting music, nothing comes close to those Cerwin Vegas.
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