New ghetto blaster/boombox thing - Digitech CS-2473

[@ralphreinhardt6020]

Yes please, let's see a vid on improving it. 🙂👍

[@AridersLifeYT]

I don’t get why a company like Sony doesn’t make a modern version of this, give it CD, cassette, Bluetooth. Dan radio, mic input and awesome speakers. Give it some custom faceplate colors and it would sell very very well

[@dinglebarrybonds]

yea i have the urge to buy a boombox form factor stereo and seen a couple options. Bumpboxx got some decent reviews, DiamondBoxx costs more but sounds like it is the best one, not quite the aesthetic tho

[@hendrx]

Because nobody would buy it

[@AridersLifeYT]

@@hendrx heaps would

[@westelaudio943]

Why Sony? Sony hasn't made a high quality boombox in years.

[@davarosmith1334]

I bought the gold one of those ghetto blasters. It's fine for me, I like playing my recorded tapes from my hi fi on it. I tried recording on it but that was a bit shit , the radio is brilliant it picks up FM clear as a bell. In the summer I will enjoy it better in the garden with a few beers!

[@TheStuffMade]

Usually I'd recommend a proper retro boom box, but actually these days for sound quality I'd say a high end Bluetooth speaker got much better sound quality than even the best boom boxes from the 80s and 90s.

[@michaelsasse8427]

I remember in the 80's when all the kids were rocking smooth jazz on their ghetto blasters!!!

[@TheRetroChannel]

Haha, I would much rather use something from my playlist

[@Stormtracker440]

Around here in midwestern USA, I got one similar to this one from ION and it works quite well. It's got 2 VU meters located above the 2 speakers. I see your VU Meters or LED Power Level Meters works as bad as mine does....does not work til the volume is turned all the way up. So it appears Digitech and the ION unit I have are basically the same boombox except for some cosmetic differences. Good video.

[@domramsey]

I think you should mod it. Fix the tape mechanism, wire the VU meters in properly, fix the buzzing, add tweeters, stencil a SONY logo on the font... 🙂 You probably think it's not worth your time, but I think it looks like it could be hackable into something fun.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Tempting...

[@jandjrandr]

I say gut it and replace each part with decent gear to see how nice it could be. That is a huge project mind you.

[@Adam-rt7lp]

Jay car is like a nerds paradise these days. I go in for a resister, and come out with a bunch of shit I don't need.

[@TRONMAGNUM2099]

Almost felt like a Techmoan video which I enjoyed. I'd love to see an upgrade video. Not too long ago I did an upgrade to a vintage but inexpensive boombox. replaced the speakers and added a bluetooth module. The tapedeck still doesn't work, but I don't own any audio tapes, so It wasn't something I was concerned with. I'm pretty happy with the sound quality, but I have seen videos where they say replacing things like Op amps make a huge difference. I'm sure you could also do some other tweaking to the audio circuit to improve sound quality. The tape mech is garbage, so I wouldn't expect miracles unless you can swap it with a high end one. You could add some real tweeters and make some crossover boards fairly cheap. I used to make my own when I first got into car audio. Sky is the limit. Worlds greatest sounding boombox would probably get a million views as a short.

[@dreamvisionary]

It would be interesting to see how far this thing could be improved, i.e. adding tweeters, fixing VU meters, removing buzz/hum etc.

[@Minitrucker231]

I agree. I think this would be perfect for modding.

[@sw6188]

It would be like putting lipstick on a pig. Why bother when you can buy a vintage boombox with all the features already, and without the cheap crappiness.

[@justingalasso1850]

Crosley has one just like it. I think they're all made from the same company and just rebadged

[@anotheruser9876]

TheRetroMoan 😂

[@andrew1977au]

Haha I had the same thing happen to me last time I was at Jaycar, except I didn't go back and buy one!

[@TheRetroChannel]

Smart move

[@BarnokRetro]

Thanks for sharing your junk with us, and maybe saving some of us a few bucks in the process! 😀 If you want to mod it, I think it will be a huge time sink, and I would only do it if you're completely bored of everything else life has to offer or strangley think it's worthy of your time. Nothing much will really improve a modern cassette mechanism enough to make you intentionally listen to it when you have a perfectly good one right over your shoulder. Still want to improve it? Gut it, put in a decent amp and bluetooth module, work over the accoustics, throw a battery pack into it and use your phone to blast all of that, well whatever you lot listened to in the 1980s.... Yes tongue firmly in cheek here, whatever you do with it, have fun and keep us posted.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Thanks mate, yeah it would take a lot of time and effort to make it sound great. But perhaps with a couple of tweaks I can at least make it sound good. Maybe...

[@tiemanowo]

Visually looks kinda nice, but overall I'm not sure if I would buy it for myself

[@abcd1239me]

Yes, you can tell just by looking at it that it is cheap and wouldn't record decent. However, this would be fine for a kids rooms to play tapes or the radio on. Or some one that just want to play their old tapes with it would be fine. It is in the quality of the suitcase record players that you can get for around $45 USD.

[@Kumimono]

That seems to be internally very similar to HS-8922 I saw a review for recently. Externally, visually different to a degree, but similar enough that I thought it was the same device.

[@TheRetroChannel]

I think they're more or less the same. I'm sure they will customise certain things if you order enough of them

[@CheshireNoir]

I'd also be curious to see what mods could be done. Could something interesting be swapped out for the caestte unit, for instance?

[@TheRetroChannel]

I have some ideas floating around. We'll see...

[@summersky77]

Underneath the fake set of tweeters that are underneath the other fake set of tweeters should be some fake mids...and fuck it, toss in another set of fake tweeters. Then it would be perfect.

[@johnlomasney]

Interesting stuff 😢

[@shawn2571]

Looks like rebrand of the riptunes i just got. I'm surprised digitech put their name on it though

[@TheBasementChannel]

You took your wife to Jaycar? Brave man.

[@TheRetroChannel]

Haha, she insisted on waiting in the car

[@ezragonzalez8936]

Digitech Harmon was a Salt lake city based company making some of the best us made guitar effects pedals processors I used to work next door to them sadly it was sold to a chinese company!

[@Androx74]

interesting video, i was thinking if it was possible to use this ghetto blaster to create some c64/ Spectrum 48k/amstrad cpc/ etc... datasette via usb or sdcard wave files. :/

[@TheRetroChannel]

Haha, yeah I wouldn't recommend it for that. If the deck had better wow and flutter figures then maybe it could work. But I imagine in its current state it will cause a lot of loading errors

[@melvinsouthern8006]

hi are you based in the uk

[@TheRetroChannel]

No, Australia

[@sw6188]

You can be sure if Jaycar are selling it then it's cheap china junk. They don't stock quality stuff, at least not in this sort of gear. I see on their website this model is still showing as available, and they have a new smaller "boombox" available now which is model # CS-2443. Dick Smith used to sell stuff under the "Digitor" brand and whenever I see either of these names I just shudder. The problem with china producing this stuff is that it's all destined for the landfill, sooner rather than later. I notice it's got one of those horrible digitally-stepped tuners in it as well. I'll stick with my vintage Sanyo M9998K boombox which was built to a spec, not to a price.

[@wiwingmargahayu6831]

wow

[@manofstarz]

Last min…..Lol

[@luanhana2100]

THEY MADE THOSE BOMBOXES WORST THAN FISHER TOYS CASSETTE PLAYERS FOR KIDS .

[@francistaylor1822]

Jaycar selling cheap shite? Colour me suprised /s

[@KaiueoKaiueo-r8i]

another very bad mechanic with the 80s era all boomboxes were made perfectly.

[@midwestguy42]

Not everything that looks pretty is gold. So goes that old saying.

[@jerryspann8713]

Just by reading the comments, it's garbage.