Lady72nRob71

I have Digital 8 - about 'high tech' as I care to go. The tapes at least are durable.

I got one and hate it. The buttons are so tiny and close together, my fat thumbs are making it do crap I don't want. It almost met Mr Sledge yesterday, also... I was trying to see a missed call but instead I had it taking pictures that cannot even be downloaded to the PC - tried that software mess and gave up. I have a real camera (a 35mm and 126, too!). Wish my 60's Polaroid still had film and flashbulbs available...

I have not seen those yet, but I see them as bad.
I see it will take about 5 attempts to get the fan to "medium". My aggrevated hand would probably break the display, costing 100's to fix.
How long will they last?????

Wish I was in mine...

I got stuff that old and older and it WORKS!

I have one also, but my phone line does not support it. Those things are indestructable. OH - I hammered my last sony cordless phone back 7 yeas ago!

This is where my company is making most of its money - high performance analog! Of course I question the preceding two words...

jeffreyalman

actually the old Abbey Road 8 track sounds fine listened to it at lunch

Lady72nRob71

I notice that I am not the only one who enjoys the Ray Conniff Singers!
I really like their Christmas Album - I have it on LP...

big mean

You guys might wait if you can before buying a CAS radio until I try mine out. I met a buddy I hadnt seen for a while at the starbird carshow tonight. He works for a rod and custom shop and has had 3 or 4 they had to send back. He told me good luck...lol He did say that CAS stood behind them, not sure if that is fix or replace though. Just figured you guys might like a heads up.

jeffreyalman

I do have strange musical tastes

oldsdroptop

I bought 1 of these e-books for my son for xmas (okay santa brought it, that's my story and I'm sikin to it, he's 10....ssshhhhhheeeeesssshhh) I think it is probably the most amazing piece of electronic equipment I have EVER bought and that includes about 25 computers including 10 laptops since 1999. So I am what you would calssify as a "tech geek" I have yet to be amazed as much by technology as this Kindle. 1st off you can load over 200 books on it. It is WIRELESS and absolutely FREE internet service. It even has a speech to text feature if your TOO LAZY to read it for yourself. It has almost no deadspots for wireless which by the way is sprint system. You can load anything from New York Times Best Sellers or the New York Times. There are about 25 national newspapers, about the ane anount of popular magazines avaiable through the wireless. The battery runs from 8 to 10 hours long. I use it everyday to read classic books (which are free) like about Thomas Edison, Henry Ford , Ben Franklin. My heros basically. It will accept and send e-mails very easily. I think in the next 3 to 5 years this is all we're going to use for our periodicals. I really can't anything that I don't like about the Kindle, its so well designed. I highly reccomend it to anyone who loves technology. Its about $280 and that includes the free internet service so its a good deal. I will never destroy it. It MY LIFE!!!....lol......sad.......Oldsdroptop

Jamesbo

What about"Sing along with Mitch"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ5Gw...eature=related

jeffreyalman

without even looking at that link I know that there will be lyrics with a bouncing ball at the bottom of the screen

Olds64

Big Mean, I've heard similar things about the CAS radios. Please keep us posted.

Lady72nRob71

I heard of kindles - I thought it was something to start the fireplace with... Perhaps if I got one, that would be its final fate after it falls off the table and breaks its screen.

Ouch!
280 would buy me a lifetime of books and records at "half price books". I just like the pictures anyway.
I sure hope the service stays free and available, and hopefully no ads popping up all over! I just cannot trust these companies for some reason, especially big phone companies.

My advice is if this device (or any) asks for its firmware to be 'upgraded', decline if possible. Changing any data in a flash eeprom is a risky situation, as in my ipod. If any interuption or byte hiccup occures, the eeprom is scrambled, rendering the device unusable. Recovery is difficult if not impossible without special skills and equipment.

My motto is "The software is always the problem..."


BIGMEAN, I will be awaiting your CAS radio installation thread!

70 cutlass s

This is what I would to do all high tech stuff in the world sometimes.

Red Delta

I sure hope you were joking about this. I have a small collection of 8 tracks that I acquired from a garage sale a while back. I slapped one into my giant late 70's console and was enjoying Paradise by the Dashboard light when suddenly it went silent.

Odd, I thought, I pulled the cartridge out and saw that the tape had disappeared forever inside.

No big loss, as I had that LP anyways. I threw in Rumors and just as I was waiting for the relaxing sounds of Dreams when, once again, it went silent.

I decided not to risk some of the more 'valuable' 8-tracks, until I determined what happened to the first two.

After some exploratory surgery, I discovered that these tapes ran in a loop and there is a piece of splice tape that connects the two ends. After 30 years, the tape had lost it's adhesiveness and came apart.

Now my 8-Track/record/cassette peice of mahogany (laminate) rarely ever gets used. Instead, I use my BlackBerry with internet radio (no commercials could be the greatest thing of all time) XM radio, plus my ever reliable, four year old iPod video.

I don't know what you did to yours, but mine has lived in my semi-truck since I got it. I recently purchased a new deck so the iPod connects directly to it. Now it lives in the glove box and I control it through the stereo.

I don't know. I've had good luck with various technologies. A lot of stuff that I have has a rough life since it lives in the truck with me. Lots of vibration and bumps. I only had an issue with a GPS that was garbage (bad software), but I bought it the day it came out, instead of waiting for the reviews. Now I scour Cnet and Consumer Reports, long before I show up at a store with my cash.

Here is a particularly bad photo of the console, or as my friends dubbed it, 'The Alter'. As you can see, now it has been assigned the dubious task of storing the surplus wires that come with the various electronics that I have acquired.

70 cutlass s

You never count your money when sitting at the table there will be enough time for counting on the run.

Lady72nRob71

No joke. If one section of the tape gets damaged, it can always be spliced. If a hard drive gets one damaged sector, the whole thing is a toast. Same with flash media. If the boot sector gets damaged, everything on it is gone.
The digital 8 cams also will shut off if it senses the tape being 'eaten'. 8-tracks do not have that. I know about 8 track units being unkind to the tapes. Proper climate controlled storage is a must with any tape.

Mine gets used every day, maily for radio and LPs.

No ads is awesome, but don't worry, they are on the way. Not to be pesemistic, but look at when cable tv was new - no ads! Now it is worse than broadcast tv. I do not even watch it anymore (since the govt killed it back in june...

It has one more year before it expires.
Never update its firmware, no matter how much itunes wants to. Itunes tried to do that to mine and killed it deader than dead. I heard it was because it was 'too old'. It was only 5 years old!

I haven't. I am disgusted with it all now, and I even work for a high-tech company!
I like simple stuff that is reliable and easy to use. New stuff just is not like that.

Here is one of mine - I have a collection of this old stuff...

Red Delta

Wow, that thing is nice. Mine was really nice when I paid $20 for it at a yard sale, but years of over watered plants and kids have left the exterior a little weathered.

Either way, you can't really beat the full sound those giant boxes produced.

Sometimes I plug my BlackBerry into a tape adapter and let it rock. That way I have the best of both worlds, er, times...

Lady72nRob71

Thanks... That is a Magnavox Astro Sonic solid state model from 1968. It was close to the top of their line then. This beast was in great shape when i bought it. It even came with the instruction manual and sales literature. A good cleaning and a little polish made it shine. Of course I paid over 7 times what you did... The last good examples of these units are going way up in price around here as they are dwindling in numbers.

Here it is lit up at night:


Here is another later 70s Astro Sonic. Smaller but sounds almost better than the bigger one.


Here is a RCA SHF-7 all tube Record changer - "New Orthophonic high Fidelity" system.
--jeffreyalman, the Ray Conniff Singers Christmas Album is playing!


Here's the latest addition to the collection: a Zenith M730 table radio I found in an antique shop along the Oregon coast...

It uses tubes and the reception is great. Inside is a 4x6 speaker that sounds as good as one of those silly super-expensive bose radios. All of the tubes are genuine Zenith!

Magnavox stereo extension speaker for FM26 radio. I hope to find the radio also!



I do use my mp3 player along with an FM transmitter to broadcast to the units with tuners - they sound very good. The consoles really pack a punch for their age.
I really want a 1962 Magnavox Imperial. Those huge things sold for almost $1300 when new and they weighed almost 400lbs from the tube chassis. Some even had remotes...

Red Delta

Since were posting pics of our beloved radios, this is a 1932 Stewart-Warner. It's got some bad tubes, and isn't working right now. Currently, it is sporting kid goo courtesy of my 1 year old. There are two wood pieces that go across the front of the radio that I took off since they made a great grab handle for the young-un to pull the unit down on himself.

Eventually, after the kids can control themselves from plastering mystery slop on everything, it will be going in for a full resto. I have the pleasure of living near a world class antique radio restorer. I've already got my estimate. Now I just need the dough.

Lady72nRob71

Thats a swell looking set - I would like a couple of those some day when i get a bigger house...
There are several good antique radio forums I find valuable, let me know if you need the sites.
I am fine with repairing the electronics (my career) but woodworking is always a flop when I attempt it.

I also have a 1957 Motorola console TV, but the picture tube is bad and not worth fixing. It is just a decoration in the far back bedroom.

What make and model is that console of yours?

citcapp

I used to have a large collection of radio's but hve given most of them to a local museum. Her Re two that I have out and use. I have others is storage. the cabinet radio is a Spartan. The portable is a RCA. Have to make the 7 volt battery for the RCA nobody makes them any more and they don't last long.

Jamesbo

I was sitting in the pub yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to fart.

The music was really, really loud, so I timed my farts with the beat.

After a couple of songs, I started to feel better. I finished my pint -- and then noticed that everybody was staring at me.



Then I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my iPod.

citcapp

Damn coffee all over the keyboard again and my nose hurts.

cutlassgal

Now that's funny!!!! Thanks Jamesbo!!!!