HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: ChrisSmolinski on February 12, 2018, 2032 UTC
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http://www.bclnews.it/2018/02/11/sony-shortwave-receivers-will-to-an-end/
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Sad news.. I wonder how many units they sold per year that they decided to drop the line
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It probably won't be long before they get out of radios altogether.
One of these days I'll drop the big bucks (comparatively) for an EX5MK2. Some day....
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Look at the bright side; we live in the makers generation. There may come a day were, like once upon a time, we have to build our own radios.
...And its never been easier to do that.
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Never was fond of the 2010s but the 7600, that there is a radio. Antenna collapsed and stowed it would pick up just about any hfbc, and let me listen to the gang on 3898 lsb back in the day. Amazing little rig, stable too.
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There was a ICF-2010 Yahoo group, with a database of serials, and I had literally one of the very last ones ever made. I bought it from Universal around 2003 or 2004. I bought it when they posted that they had received their last shipment of them. I kept it in the original box. Then I stupidly sold it about 5 years ago on eBay. I have regretted that almost since the day I sent it off.
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ICF-2010's have their issues, but mine is still kicking & getting the job done 30 years on. Maybe I got lucky? There are some irritating quirks in her old age, like losing the stored frequencies every other day (I know, I have to tear it apart for an easy repair). The synch is quite good and she still pulls in amazing catches with wire attached.
The 2010 was a freak experiment that will never be again (all those preset buttons, a labor of love from Sony's founder I believe). I agree with RedHat. Tecsun PL-880 is a great radio for the $ and I bet with Shenzhen (?) sources you could build something way better for next to nothing. (?)
IMO Sony threw in the towel decades ago (long before Passport went AWOL), they went into music licensing and other mega corporate stuff that may in the end be more losing propositions than SW in this era, imagine that. Anyhow there are still fairly well made mass-produced radios out there making noise like mine, happily. (Yeah, I'm a little defensive, I did make mine travel to the boonies back in the day, where a 2010 can really shine). I applaud Sony for making such an in-your-face oddity so well in the 1980's.
edit: 7600 (and predecessor) was indeed excellent, but I wore mine out well before I reached drinking age.
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My Sony Walkmen -- which I got at a thrift store -- all work well and are good DXers on AM with a loop...
My Sony ICF-38 is the around-the-house and yard radio. Excellent on AM, very good on FM, works for several months on a set of batteries.
Sony's peak was the 1980's, when the Walkman was king and they had all these cool Walkmen and boomboxes, and their home stereo equipment was good and popular also.
Now they still make stuff -- mostly in China. And aside from a game box, I can't really tell ya off the top of my head what they actually make anymore.
Pretty sad.
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Boombox, once upon a time I had a Walkman you could record on, with a pretty decent mic! Built like a tank. After many years of use I discreetly recorded Neil Young at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark in 1996 with it, nothing until the Zoom-style digi recorders of today came close back then.
In the 90's -- most consumer CD players and even worse DVD and worst of all DAT players were really poorly made. It didn't seem like there was much difference in them when you opened them up, 90's cassette decks too. I never did have a CD or DVD player that lasted more than a few years. My cassettes get a lot more attention these days because you have to go all stereophile (sadly) to get a robust CD player, CD collection is collecting dust!
Those recording Walkmans were great, I could use one now!
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In the 90's -- most consumer CD players and even worse DVD and worst of all DAT players were really poorly made. It didn't seem like there was much difference in them when you opened them up, 90's cassette decks too. I never did have a CD or DVD player that lasted more than a few years. My cassettes get a lot more attention these days because you have to go all stereophile (sadly) to get a robust CD player, CD collection is collecting dust!
Those recording Walkmans were great, I could use one now!
What usually went first in the CD players of that era were the laser pickup. Even Pioneer CD players (which were a standard in radio for a while) had a certain lifetime -- and the weak part was that laser pickup. They lasted longer than a stylus on a turntable, but whether they lasted longer than the head on a cassette deck is a good question. I think a lot of the CD players in the late 80's and early 90's were made in the same handful of Japanese and Korean factories, before everything moved to China and other Asian countries.
The CD technology overall was excellent, but the weakest part was the laser pickup (and bad scratches, of course). I had a Korean made, black CD boombox that played CD's from 1991 until well into the 2000's. Got it at a KMart, if memory serves. Then I had a "professional" CD player I got at a guitar / sound store that barely lasted a year. Sometimes you'd get a good one.... and then....
Of course, now CD players are getting as rare as hen's teeth.
RE: Sony: they definitely will be missed here... Luckily the Sonys I have work well, except an ICF5900W which only works on MW and FM. The other Sony items work like champs.