the culmination of the so-called ‘ghettoblaster’ in its best form after decades of refinement. This particular example had a few faults. The CD player didn’t read discs, the tape deck warbled hopelessly off key and FM radio reception wasn’t as good as I thought it should be.
A Sony CFS-W318 radio cassette boombox from the turn of the millennium. Scrapped due to brittle plastic in the tape mechanisms, but an interesting electronic design and a useful source of parts including a nice tuner module.
4 Whether cassette will see the same resurgence as vinyl, only time will tell. But while there are still plenty of these in the wild, it’s a fine deck for the money.
4 I had every intention of starting a small MiniDisc collection, but ultimately it’s not going to happen. The MiniDisc technology was cutting edge on its introduction and something that few if any home computers could replicate. These days however the MiniDisc is easily outshines by the most basic digital players. While it’s a nice format, it’s not difficult to see why it has faded into obsolescence.