Posted by Ground State "Four out of Five Odds" is an awesome shot. The definite winner of the set, for me. That dubbing deck is the same one that my father bought for a few hundred dollars when I was about seven. Even after the cheaper replacements started hitting the market, I always went back to that one. The sound quality was far superior to any of the 'improved' decks that followed for a decade.
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Thank you, I liked that one too. On the right evening you can catch the sun setting in a blaze of orange, making for some nice photographs.
It was always a sense of fascination walking through Radio Shack and admiring their amplifiers, tuners and decks. I used to read their catalogue like it was the Sear's Christmas Wishbook. The free "battery of the month" club was a big deal as was sitting down in front of their TRS-80 to play with it.
Music at home was provided with a Realistic tuner/amp connected to a record player (Motorhead on a 33 rpm vinyl and a free poster) and a standalone tape player.
It was exciting to watch the VU meter bounce to the music and the "magic tuner" capability - by merely putting your finger against the tuning dial, the display changed colour (light blue, I think) and would fine-tune the FM station.
And of course when the parent's were away, these would go up in the window so that the entire surrounding neighbourhood could hear Motorhead as we played outside.
I loved the smell of vinyl records, or more likely the cardboard covers that held them. I'd go through by parent's old records and smell the different scents from the covers. I guess it explains a lot hmm.
And when we managed to purchase two more speakers, well connecting them to the amplifier and having an A and B output was a big deal. Now we could hear music on 2 or 4 speakers.
Edit: One of those huge speakers ended up in the back of my first car, connected to a computer amp and subwoofer and powered by a power inverter. The amplifier I left outside my door, intent to throw it out. A few days later I saw it in my neighbours apartment where they'd hooked it up.
And then things went all digital and now you can hold 200 songs on a tiny piece of metal a little larger than an SD card. Boring as hell.
I've hijacked my own thread but it was worth it. Great memories the 70's and 80's are.