New boombox in 80's retro style with radio, cassette, cd, usb, bluetooth, line in, mic in.

[beansmaynard]

Overall, I'm really impressed. DAB and FM sounds great, CDs working great. Box has some nice weight to it and I'm happy with the bass. The cassette deck lets it down with the lack of features and the recording ability is awful but I knew it would be like this going in, as we have one tape mech these days and we're stuck with it.

They've done a good job and would recommend it to my mates. I suppose we have Sharp to thank for the iconic design of the GF-575 which this box takes its design from.

 

[goodman]

Congratulations on your purchase.
This version is all black, without any details. It seems a bit gloomy to me.
You are officially part of the group of owners of the new "retro" boombox.

Unable to get any of my flash drives working, tried exfat and fat32.
Not a feature I'd ever use anyway but would be nice if I could confirm if it shows the file names, although, I suspect it won't.

Hmm, that's pretty strange.
No one has reported that the USB option doesn't work. Apparently there's some kind of problem...

Regarding the display - besides the clock, there are 2 more lines.
They display information in DAB radio mode. In USB mode, only the song time is displayed.

The cassette deck lets it down with the lack of featuresand the recording ability is awful
but I knew it would be like this going in, as we have one tape mech these days and we're stuck with it.

We have already discussed the cassette mechanism.
I just want to show an old cassette player that also uses this tanashin mechanism with a magnetic eraser head.
This is a 1987 model, but even then manufacturers used such budget solutions, leading to a compromise in recordings.

Hitachi 3D2 tape mechanism

Hi there, I am currently working on a Hitachi 3D2. After doing some service (cleaning, painting the red ring, new woofer chassis, new piezo tweeters it performs better than expected. I have a question regarding the tape mechanism. All functions work OK, however I had a scratching noise coming...

www.boomboxery.com

 

[beansmaynard]

Congratulations on your purchase.
This version is all black, without any details. It seems a bit gloomy to me.
You are officially part of the group of owners of the new "retro" boombox.

Hitachi 3D2 tape mechanism

Hi there, I am currently working on a Hitachi 3D2. After doing some service (cleaning, painting the red ring, new woofer chassis, new piezo tweeters it performs better than expected. I have a question regarding the tape mechanism. All functions work OK, however I had a scratching noise coming...

www.boomboxery.com

Thank you! It's definitely a bit gloomy, I didn'tt own a blacked out boombox before this, so it's been nice adding this to my collection and it looks good next to my hifi.

Hmm, that's pretty strange.
No one has reported that the USB option doesn't work. Apparently there's some kind of problem...

Hitachi 3D2 tape mechanism

Hi there, I am currently working on a Hitachi 3D2. After doing some service (cleaning, painting the red ring, new woofer chassis, new piezo tweeters it performs better than expected. I have a question regarding the tape mechanism. All functions work OK, however I had a scratching noise coming...

www.boomboxery.com

I've tried 5 flash drives now and I can not get it to jump into usb mode. It just stays trying to pair on bluetooth. The port has power as I tested with my phone.

Hitachi 3D2 tape mechanism

Hi there, I am currently working on a Hitachi 3D2. After doing some service (cleaning, painting the red ring, new woofer chassis, new piezo tweeters it performs better than expected. I have a question regarding the tape mechanism. All functions work OK, however I had a scratching noise coming...

www.boomboxery.com

Show me? I own a variant of that boombox. I know that many 80s models came with low spec cassette decks and permanent erase magnets. I wouldn't use a boombox (vintage or moder) to record anyway.

Glad to be part of our small club.

 

[goodman]

I've tried 5 flash drives now and I can not get it to jump into usb mode.
It just stays trying to pair on bluetooth. The port has power as I tested with my phone.

Hmm, maybe you don't read the user manual carefully:

1 - function mode into aux/usb/bt possition.
2 - insert usb stick
3 - select usb mode with pressing mode button (situated under Right VU meter).
4 - use buttons for playback (just the same as for CD playback)

For more info read user manual. Good luck.

 

[beansmaynard]

Hmm, maybe you don't read the user manual carefully:

1 - function mode into aux/usb/bt possition.
2 - insert usb stick
3 - select usb mode with pressing mode button (situated under Right VU meter).
4 - use buttons for playback (just the same as for CD playback)

For more info read user manual. Good luck.

Yeah I read the manual, once USB stick is in, I click mode and it will not move out of bluetooth mode. tried exfat and fat32.

 

[goodman]

I'm on work now. If I have time at evening, I will check how work my boombox.

 

[Transistorized]

@beansmaynard
Can you tell us what the sizes and brand of your USB/microSD card are? I have had trouble with specific sizes and brands. This may be helpful to determine the issue.

I am currently using 4 and 8GB drives at the moment formatted to FAT32 and it seems to like those. Also, check the format of your files. Make sure they are MP3 around 128, 192 or 320kbps

 

[beansmaynard]

@beansmaynard
Can you tell us what the sizes and brand of your USB/microSD card are? I have had trouble with specific sizes and brands. This may be helpful to determine the issue.

I am currently using 4 and 8GB drives at the moment formatted to FAT32 and it seems to like those. Also, check the format of your files. Make sure they are MP3 around 128, 192 or 320kbps

To be fair, I don't have any drives smaller than 64gb these days and I've formatted them to FAT32 and used 320kbps files. I will try to find a smaller drive and try again but USB support isn't really a feature I'd ever use, so I'm not missing out.

 

[goodman]

Sorry for my late reply.
Yes, I completely agree with Transistorized. For listening to music I use 4, 8, 16 GB flash drives, USB2, FAT32.
If you want, look for old unused ones, because they are of better quality and have an LED for the operating mode.

 

[Reli]

Yeah 64gb is going to be too big for most boomboxes (I don't know why)

Plus most boomboxes don't offer folder support anyway. Does this one?

 

[goodman]

Plus most boomboxes don't offer folder support anyway. Does this one?

There is folder navigation buttons (+ , -) situated under Left VU meter.
Тhis is good for finding individual albums.

 

[Reli]

There is folder navigation buttons (+ , -) situated under Left VU meter.
Тhis is good for finding individual albums.

But does it actually display your albums and allow you to pick one?

 

[goodman]

If there are folders/albums, playback starts from the first album, first song.
When you press FOLD(+), the screen displays FOLD2 for 3 seconds and playback starts from the second album, first song.
When you press FOLD(+) again, the screen displays FOLD3 for 3 seconds and playback starts from the third album, first song.
When you press FOLD(+) again, the screen displays FOLD4 for 3 seconds and playback starts from the fourth album, first song.
If you playback folder 4, xx song:
When you press FOLD(-), the screen displays FOLD3 for 3 seconds and playback starts from the third album, first song.
When you press FOLD(-) again, the screen displays FOLD2 for 3 seconds and playback starts from the second album, first song.
When you press FOLD(-) again, the screen displays FOLD1 for 3 seconds and playback starts from the first album, first song.

 

[Reli]

Ok thanks. So it can navigate through the folders, but it doesn't display the actual folder name or song name.

I know most of you probably just stream instead, but I personally find that Bluetooth is usually lower quality than USB or CD.

 

[beansmaynard]

I genuinely only use physical media on boomboxes. Anything I listen to digitally is from my plexamp server and even that is all my CDs ripped into FLAC and listened to on my computer or DAP.

 

[beansmaynard]

The left VU barely moves on my unit when playing tapes. Weird.

 

[goodman]

With some cassette tapes, there may be a difference in the signal level of the two channels - one may be louder than the other.
When listening to this cassette, did you feel that the left channel was quieter?
If so, then it is normal for the level of the VU meter to be lower. What is the situation with radio or CD?

 

[beansmaynard]

With some cassette tapes, there may be a difference in the signal level of the two channels - one may be louder than the other.
When listening to this cassette, did you feel that the left channel was quieter?
If so, then it is normal for the level of the VU meter to be lower. What is the situation with radio or CD?

I've spent the morning doing some testing. Some of my homemade cassettes show on both VUs but some don't. I've checked them in other boomboxes and they're showing on both channels but on the Camden they're not. Unless, I'm missing something. I record all my cassettes in audacity, in stereo, using the same settings I've always done. My prerecorded cassettes always show on both VUs.

Is it the Camden or something else? I'll have to report back.

Both the radio and CD always show on both VUs.

 

[Altin godo]

Good morning.ive a question i like so much aiwa for the colours .i use to leave in uk .can i use with 220 ? Or ive to buy step down? If is yes can someone play suggest one . Thanks

 

[Altin godo]

I’m asking because I bought aiwa yellow one but it’s working just with battery. I tried with step down socket but still isn’t working