Sanyo
Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd.; Moriguchi (Osaka)I'm not a fan of Sanyo products. When I was a young teenager in the 1970s I bought a Sanyo two band AM/SW radio on Lay-Buy from Pattersons in Greensbough. My father was not happy when he found out! When I brought it home many weeks later, it worked well for about 3 months, but the dial cord was so tight that the plastic holding the dial drum/knob wore out and broke. We took it back, but because warrantees were only 90 days from the original date of purchase, they argued the radio was already 6 months old. So they natuarally declined to do anything. I guess it was a learning experience for a 13 year old with his first job. (A paper round.) Today I would have taken them to Consumer Affairs because the radio hadn't been used and was in their posession for 3 months until I made the final payment.
| Coq d'Or - 7CW-P20 1963 - 1964 |  |
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RP-2710
c. 1968
M2402
This is the ultmate cheap Radio Cassette. It was the was the basis for later (better) models.
There were at least 3 versions. This one was made in Japan around 1973-74. It has good brand Rubycon and Nippon ChemiCon capacitors, however they all needed replacing.
Later versions were made in Singapore and had less good components and cosmetic changes.
Interestingly, the early version, that was in for repair has an early Integrated Circuit chip. It had failed rendering the cassette portion (which is very well built) inoperable. Suffice to say it is unobainable.
Radio performance is OK, with FM being quite good. AM didn't perform all that well.
Sound wise, it has NO tone control, it's acceptable.
Sanyo
Sanyo was founded in 1947 following a disagreement between Konosuke Matsushita, founder of National/Panasonic/Technics etc. and his brother in law Toshio Iue.
The companys first product wás bicycle light generators that were sold to the U.S. armed forces. This was an area that Matsushita were moving away from.
By the 1950s Sanyo was making consumer electronics such as radios both under their own brand name, and as an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). Whilst Sony ended up making high end equipment, Matsushita middle to upper grade equipment, Sanyo followed the lower end of the market.
Their equipment was still pretty good compared to later Hong Kong and Singaporean makers who often used components rejected by the Japanese market leaders. However, it had a slightly cheap feel in most cases.
Nonetheless, some of their designs were very nice such as this little clock radio. Their 909/919/929 series of tape records wern't to bad either.
Eventualy, with the demise of CRT televisions, cheap audio equipment from China, and 0% interest rates in Japan, Sanyo was taken over by it's orginal rival Panasonic. Legacy products such as the excellent Eneloop battery cells were continued by Panasonic, but the company has faded away into obsurity.
Click image below for details on this radio.
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