Conion City Boy

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Fatdog

Well-Known Member
Staff member
The journey began at the beginning of May. I was trying to find the model number for the Conion City Boy mini boombox on Google. The only thing I saw was a link to an auction for a really dirty, green City Boy. I discovered that the auction site was based in Hungary and the City Boy was being sold by a seller in Budapest.

Well, I realized that my chances of actually getting it were almost nil, but I contacted Roman (Vienna Sound) to ask for help. He accepted the challenge and enlisted the help of David (17 years old at the time), one of his friends who just happened to have parents living in Budapest! Roman made a deal with David that involved trading some rare tram items in exchange for David's help.

Now, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Even though David speaks Hungarian and was able to navigate the registration process, the auction site required a Hungary CELL phone number! Luckily, David's grandmother was able to help with that. So, with the account created, the seller was contacted and agreed to ship the City Boy to Vienna if Roman won the auction. It was just a matter of waiting for the auction to end, which was almost 16 days.

After an agonizingly long time, the City Boy was won!! However, the seller waited almost two weeks before shipping it to Roman. Then, on the day that it was to be deliverd to Roman, the delivery driver forgot the parcel was in his van and returned with it to the depot at Guntramsdorf! That didn't stop Roman though. He jumped on his Vespa and went to rescue the mini. When he took possession of the parcel, he noted that it "looked quite 'cheap'" and something was rattling inside (more on that later). Oh, no. Luckily, it survived the trip, but the amount of dust and dirt was incredible. Roman gave it a good, initial cleaning and tested a few of the functions: AC didn't work, batteries worked, radio seems to work but no receiption, tape belts nearly dead, LED meters work, no parts missing, aerials okay.

I was really getting excited about the City Boy now. It seemed to be in good condition and it was halfway to it's new home and just needed someone to really love it. Oh, Roman took plenty of pictures for his scrapbook too.

The City Boy finally arrived towards the end of July and sat on my dresser since then. Today, I finally got around to cleaning it and working on it. I began taking it apart and came across a few dust bunnies that Roman missed and a little bit of greasy type grime (maybe nicotine). There was enough dust between the grille and the speaker to knit an entire sweater! Disassembly of the City Boy is quite easy compared to some other boomboxes I've worked on. Rebelting was a friggin' breeze! NOTHING had to be unscrewed / disassembled to change the belts. Why can't they all be that way?!? I found that the rattling was caused by a loose transformer, but this was a transformer type I've never seen. It didn't have any wires coming out of it or into it. The transformer unit had female connectors that slid over four male posts on the PCB. I finally figured out what it needed - I kept looking for wires - and reattached to the board. I still can't test it because it is 220V only.

The City Boy I have is an Eastern European version that has the OIRT FM band. Hungary shut down its OIRT transmitters in 2007, so it is a wonder that this City Boy wasn't trashed by its owner.

It will not work with the US FM band, but strangely, I was able to pick up very faint broadcasts from higher frequencies like 90.3 and 97.1. The cassette works now even though the motor still sounds a little slow. The main belt I used was a FSB-9.0 and the tape counter belt was just one I had lying around - maybe a SBS-5.0.

The speakers are 3.2ohms rated at 4W and manufactured in Korea - branded Foster's. The sound is mediocre at best. Don't expect quality sound out of the City Boy even though it is a Conion.

Okay, let's get on with the pictures!!

Here are the ones that Roman made:

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Here are the most recent ones from today:

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stormsven

Member (SA)
Wow, super green :thumbsup: . I knew the auction and Roman PMd me thats is goin for you Bobby. Was thinking for this beauty as well :-D . Great box. Love it. And Roman rocks :thumbsup: . Great story. Congrats.
 
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