1st Philips box

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jimmyjimmy19702010

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Hi Guys,

Well today is the day I could quite possibly be adding a Philips Boombox to my collection!! I was never really that fussed with Philips gear in the past but a local seller (who is the original owner) has one for sale relatively cheap so.......

Pick up time: 8.00am today - 2 hours, 5 minutes to go and counting :lol:

Any guesses what model it is??

Hint: It's a one piece. :-)

Update soon......
 
J

jimmyjimmy19702010

Member (SA)
Well I got it!!! :-)

Filthy, paint stains, dead right channel and deck, crusty knobs and antenna - yep, your typical Gumtree.com.au Boombox :lol:

Turns out the seller was a Philips employee from the 70s and 80s. He said he bought this Boombox in 1980 at staff rates. He also mentioned this model was a huge seller for Philips at the time.

After looking at the state of this box and the weak sound output, I was wondering what all the fuss was about!
As found:
IMG_4126.JPG
Yep, it's a very poor looking but cheap $60 local example of the famous Philips D-8623. :-)

IMG_4132.JPG
I honestly looked at the right hand side of the FM tuner window and saw the number 88 and thought this Philips was some weird JDM model. :lol:

The volume pot was scratchy, the left channel was flat sounding and the right channel was whisper quiet - hmmmm....... not a good sign.
Warranty card still inside the unused battery compartment!
IMG_4127.JPG

After cracking and I mean 'cracking' the rear case screws loose, I pulled the back cover to reveal some drivers with ultra small magnets, plastic deck, very thin speaker wires, piezo tweeters but a beafy looking amp board heatsink.

IMG_4129.JPGIMG_4131.JPGIMG_4130.JPG
After cleaning the control pots, I discovered the spacial stereo pot was the cause of the dropped out right channel and flat sounding left channel. All is well with speaker output now.
This pot was also extremely stiff to turn as were the balance, treble and bass pots to a leser degree.

The tuner worked fine on all bands with a solid FM stereo lock on too. :-)

I just wanted to get it sounding right so after doing the basics, I replaced the rear cover and fired her up again for a proper test drive.

WTF???????? With loudness off and the tone controls set to flat, I can hear a rumbling bass line already! Loudness on and the bass and treble knobs set to the 3 o'clock position and all of a sudden, the M75 just got stomped on for mid volume level performance - particularly bass!!!

Time to test the RCA line in. Select a track on my old IPhone 5S and no ****, the stupid smile on my face must have been visable from the moon! :lol: A line in with a perfect sensitivity level is always welcome on a vintage Boombox.

The thing that really amazed me was how high you can crank the volume with the bass maxed before it craps out. The performance really reminds me of the Crown 850 and M9994. Except despite the specs, this thing spanks both models for volume levels with the bass pumped.

It's feather light even with 8 Ds loaded too so I can see this thing getting some solid outdoor time.

I've always taken note of the positive comments regarding this model and now I'm a true believer.

Astoundingly good.

I'll give her a proper experior clean up to get her looking right.

This will be no shelf queen, this thing has been sitting in a wardrobe for 25 years and it's time she saw some sunshine!

Hats off to Philips for this effort - unbelievable! :-)
 
MyOhMy

MyOhMy

Member (SA)
At first glance I thought this was the fantastic sounding D8614 but it's the D8623 which I've not come across before. Good acquisition. :yes: :thumbsup:
 
im_alan_partridge

im_alan_partridge

Member (SA)
MyOhMy said:
At first glance I thought this was the fantastic sounding D8614 but it's the D8623 which I've not come across before. Good acquisition. :yes: :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
Yes, I thought exactly the same thing. Different model numbers for different continents perhaps?

None the less, glad you got it fired up. It looks like a great resto project.
 
floyd

floyd

Boomus Fidelis
That box reminds me of some of my lasonics, basically all amplifier lol. But that's great especially if it sounds good.
And the light weight makes it a heavy hitter .
Awesome!.

There's a Magnavox version of that box that has square grills over the speakers.
 
Reli

Reli

Boomus Fidelis
Yeah, those models are very easy to find.....Philips must have sold a ton of them!

I have one too, and it's just "OK" IMO. :lol: The knobs feel cheap, the handle feels cheap. The bass is pretty good for its size, but the piezo tweeters produce no detectable sound. Maybe they did years ago, but not anymore. Or maybe the frequencies they produce are too high --- I'm not young anymore, so I can only hear up to 14-15K (but most music is far below that anyway).

Proper cone tweeters are so much better because they're louder and they can go lower.

The only thing I really like about these boxes is the tape deck, it is a 3-motor design that works very smoothly. Plus you can insert a blank tape, press Record, and watch the LED's dance to the music. But one of the nylon gears inside often breaks, and you must replace it.

Mine gets blown away by an M70. There's two TDA1011A amp chips in the Philips, and according to Philips, each of them only makes about 5 watts on AC (but less on batteries). The service manual agrees too. The M70 makes a lot more (a minimum of 2x7W between 100 and 15,000 Hz, and that's only the minimum).
 
J

jimmyjimmy19702010

Member (SA)
Reli said:
Yeah, those models are very easy to find.....Philips must have sold a ton of them!

I have one too, and it's just "OK" IMO. :lol: The knobs feel cheap, the handle feels cheap. The bass is pretty good for its size, but the piezo tweeters produce no detectable sound. Maybe they did years ago, but not anymore. Or maybe the frequencies they produce are too high --- I'm not young anymore, so I can only hear up to 14-15K (but most music is far below that anyway).

Proper cone tweeters are so much better because they're louder and they can go lower.

The only thing I really like about these boxes is the tape deck, it is a 3-motor design that works very smoothly. Plus you can insert a blank tape, press Record, and watch the LED's dance to the music. But one of the nylon gears inside often breaks, and you must replace it.

Mine gets blown away by an M70. There's two TDA1011A amp chips in the Philips, and according to Philips, each of them only makes about 5 watts on AC (but less on batteries). The service manual agrees too. The M70 makes a lot more (a minimum of 2x7W between 100 and 15,000 Hz, and that's only the minimum).
Click to expand...
Yep, the Philips is cheaply built for sure but it's still amazing how much of the power output Philips gave over for bass production. Especially when compared with some of the Panasonics and Sharps of the era that favoured mids more so than bass.

The piezo tweeters on this Philips are working for sure on both channels.

Do I wish it was built like a GF-9696? Yep!!! But it is what it is and it'll make a great knock about outdoor box for times when you don't want your high end boomer to get knocked around.

James.... :-)
 
S

Scotty_M

Member (SA)
Saw that one on gumtree James...good pick up. I've been curious of how they sound...heard nothing but good things.

Love the schematic diagram on top...à la the 9998.
 
T-STER

T-STER

Member (SA)
Great score, these are really popular over here and come up frequently but i have never paid them much attention, i will keep my eye out now.
 
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