Sears AM/FM Stereo I got this almost-new -- the unit shows some use (bent record button, cracked front, some damage to rear right corner), but other than that it appears to have been unused. The protective cover/shipping instructions for the record player was still there, and it still had it's manual plus a short informational pamphlet on proper use of electrical equipment. It even had they "artifical wood case" stickers! I bought this at a thrift shop, including two speakers. The reason I bought it was because it has fast forward, auto-stop, and it RECORDS 8-tracks! It works very well, and I think I got a really good deal on it. Now, my plan is to convert as many CDs as possible into 8-track format! Electrophonic Quad system I got this system for $8 at a thrift shop, not completely realizing what the 4-channel designmation meant; more than just a normal 8-track stereo system, this can play quadrophonic 8-track tapes. Not only can it play them, but it has quad tape outputs on the back for recording your 8-trakcs on to cassette, reel-to-reel, etc. I originally bought this for the kitch value -- the front of it looks sort of like an airplane cockpit. The 4-way fader is a joystick, which represents the "sweet spot" of the fader as a green light on a little radar-like round window. Unfortunately, that little light has burned out since I bought it. The radio dial is equally dashboard-ish; I think it looks like a speedometer, with MPH (actually FM station) around the outside ring in green and KmPH (actually AM bands) on the inside ring in white, with a red pointer. Another perk of this system is that it handles the quad sound in a couple ways; there's the standard 4-speakers for 4 channels, then there's something called "Sq Matrix" (for playing quad records on a standard player, fed through this sq matrix thingy for true quad?), and these same buttons correspond to true stereo and "ambient" stereo augmentation, thich adds and subtracts two stereo channels to produce a poor-mans surround sound (which works surprisingly well). Of course, it has jacks on the front in order to connect quadrophonic headphones (!), but unfortunately the rear left channel has a problem. Something isn't working right, so it doesn't work to it's full potential, and the "ambient" option causes strange crosstalk between the good channels and the bad channels. If those problems weren't present, I would still be using this system for my main home stereo. Lake under-dash cassette/8-track player This appears to have also been marketed under different manufacturer names, because I've found pictures of my tape deck with other company's logos on it. Either way, by installnig this in my car I can play 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs (through a cassette-deck adapter). It isn't installed yet, so I don't know if it even works, but it is in good shape and the previous owner said it worked well when he removed it from his 1978 Aspen. One annoying characteristic is that it requires 8-ohm speakers which use a common ground -- a setup that is incompatible with most modern car audio equipment.
Lake under-dash cassette/8-track player This appears to have also been marketed under different manufacturer names, because I've found pictures of my tape deck with other company's logos on it. Either way, by installnig this in my car I can play 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs (through a cassette-deck adapter). It isn't installed yet, so I don't know if it even works, but it is in good shape and the previous owner said it worked well when he removed it from his 1978 Aspen. One annoying characteristic is that it requires 8-ohm speakers which use a common ground -- a setup that is incompatible with most modern car audio equipment.
