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Why does one really begin to collect old 70īs radios? Well, the real cause is of course nostalgia. I started collecting - mildly - when I found one of those radios I dreamed about in the early 70īs on a fleamarket. That was sometime in the mid 80īs and the radio that caught my eye was the Philips 702. When it appeared on the the market in 1972, with its magic yellow indicators running up and down inside the scale showing the volume, balance, bass, trebble and FM-presets, I was sold. But the 702 wasnīt, my dad didnīt need one, he said! But I did! At the age of 14 in 1973 I started working in a big radiostore across the street after school, but never managed to save money enough for that 702. The 702 was the radio I dreamed of, but itīs bigger brother, the 720, was the one didnīt even dare to dream of. I bought the 702 for Ģ2 and brought it home with a big smile on my nostalgic face. Soon I found the matching speakers - the little 422īs.
And then things slowly got out of hand! At the end of the 80īs I had a little collection of Philips-stuff, even got myself a 720-receiver! I had the beauties on a few shelves over my desk in the bedroom, and enjoyed playing old LPīs and cassettes on them, loved to turn a few buttons now and then, and having a complete feeling of happiness doing it. Sounds familiar? Probably yes, because if not, you wouldnīt have come to these pages after all, would you? Into the 90īs I put up more shelves (my wife is the dearest girl!) and bought more radios for them. And cassettes. And speakers. And Turntables.....! Other brands than Philips have managed to sneak into the collection during the years, but this has only been "allowed" if the specific product was part of my stereophonic upbringing, or perhaps quite rare, or I just found it worth to look at! Some of the none-Philips products are simply there, because I owned them myself as a youngster back in those carefree 70īs, and I therefore have a special nostalgic feeling about them or just simply couldnīt help buying them at the fleamarket or whereever I dig these things up. Isnīt that what a museum is all about?
Iīve even left the magic 70īs - just a little bit.... I also have a few items older than the 70īs in my collection, including two danish Arena-receivers (T1900 and T2500) from the mid-sixties and a Tandberg 62X reel-to-reel taperecorder from 1966. Those are models we owned at home, and started this stereo-circus inside my sorry head. Recently I bought myself the only television in the collection, the Sony KV-1310E 13" colour-TV from 1968, which was Sonyīs first model in Denmark then. How I wanted that one for my room then, but my dad again said no! It cost Ģ700 then, so no wonder he said no. There are also a couple of newer misfits in the collection, a CD-player from ADC from around 1986 and a rare Philips Linear Tracking Turntable from the late 80īs. The newest product in the collection is the Philips DCC 380 Digital Compact Cassette, which was build in 1996. This was Philipsī very sad mistake, trying to kick the MiniDisc out of the market.
Will it ever stop? It has kind of already stopped, since I now have managed to find ALMOST all the audio-gadgets I need. Or longed for. But as one can see on my Most Wanted-page, thereīs still a few things needed for the shelves. But these years I find the most pleasure in just closing the door to the "museum" (have my own room for it now) and stretch out on the sofa and lay there - preferably in the dark - and watch all those illuminated beauties up there, while Slade, Sweet or some other 1970īs glamming act reaches my nostalgic ears from those old speakers.
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