A blast from the 1980s...

[Catkins]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

And here for your enjoyment/amusement is more festive W.H.Smith advertising from the 80s, this time focusing on their own-brand range of cassette recorders/players/portables....

There's four cassette players shown in that advert. Two examples have survived long enough for a contemporary photo. Does anyone still have one of the other two? I get the feeling the other two (stereo and mono versions) would have been less popular?

[nickdoofah]

The player in the 1st image is completely Mickey Mouse - total crap with no rewind or indeed a supply spindle, just a plastic post for the cassette tape to use it as a hub! Really nasty machines sprang up everywhere all using the same awful mech, no FF just play & FF achieved by retracting the pinch roller from the capstan so the tape freewheeled forward at a crawl! The beginning of the end of the golden age of boomboxes & walkmans.....All heavily cloned & sold under umpteen names sometimes with a horrid tuner section thrown in for a few quid! Try listening to some piano music on one of these especially the sustained notes, you will cringe they really are that bad! The early one I posted is all metal with a metal cassette mech & all tape transport controls! Metal flywheel instead of plastic!! I could go on about how rubbish they were all those later generic stereo's I hate them! All the other machines in the other advert are OK, all generic & above average build quality! Note the model I have is still on sale in the other advert..........

Here is mine working (Before I learnt how to capture the audio better) and poor lighting too!! We live & learn that is never ending!

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AtEYKw-3GKK-gbhp...cD3Mw?e=FAo6zg

[locknut]

Originally Posted by hamid_1

I'm surprised at the 16k ZX Spectrum being advertised in 1984. The Spectrum+ had come out in that year and I'm pretty sure the 16k rubber key machine would have been discontinued by then. Perhaps the advert was from Christmas 1983?

The Spectrum+ wasn't actually on the shelves until late 1984, so it could be either year. The original rubber key model also soldiered on alongside until early 1985, but I'm pretty sure any advertising would have been for the new model.

Certainly Summer 1983 or later, as that's when the retail prices dropped to £99.95/£129.95

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by nickdoofah

The player in the 1st image is completely Mickey Mouse - total crap with no rewind or indeed a supply spindle, just a plastic post for the cassette tape to use it as a hub! Really nasty machines sprang up everywhere all using the same awful mech, no FF just play & FF achieved by retracting the pinch roller from the capstan so the tape freewheeled forward at a crawl! The beginning of the end of the golden age of boomboxes & walkmans.....All heavily cloned & sold under umpteen names sometimes with a horrid tuner section thrown in for a few quid! Try listening to some piano music on one of these especially the sustained notes, you will cringe they really are that bad! The early one I posted is all metal with a metal cassette mech & all tape transport controls! Metal flywheel instead of plastic!! I could go on about how rubbish they were all those later generic stereo's I hate them! All the other machines in the other advert are OK, all generic & above average build quality! Note the model I have is still on sale in the other advert..........

Here is mine working (Before I learnt how to capture the audio better) and poor lighting too!! We live & learn that is never ending!

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AtEYKw-3GKK-gbhp...cD3Mw?e=FAo6zg

My first personal stereo was like that, which was a Saisho from Dixons, though it seemed to play OK with decent batteries.