Silver – one of the best cassette players of the 1980s
The Japanese company Shin-Shirasuna produced a large number of cassette players in the seventies and eighties of the twentieth century under its own Silver brand, and also acted as an OEM manufacturer – the boomboxes it made were sold under the brands Harman Kardon, Montgomery Ward, Prosonic and others. Some of the Silver models can be safely attributed to the “golden fund” of vintage cassette recorders.
Contents:
Silver ST-858
The large and popular boombox released in 1980, was a one-piece design with two-way speakers and one cassette pocket. The cassette deck worked with all types of tape, including the fourth, and was equipped with a track search system. A special feature is the huge tuning scale of the tuner, where each band has its own ruler. Speaker systems include 160mm woofers and 5cm tweeters, the declared maximum power of the built-in amplifier on the Panasonic AN7145H chip is 10 watts per channel. In the upper right corner there are LED indicators of the output signal level.
Silver ST-858 Specifications
- 522 x 331 x 147 mm
- 16cm woofers (4 ohm), 5cm tweeters (8 ohm)
- Weight 16.8 lbs (not including batteries)
- Tape deck frequency response: 60 – 15,000Hz normal tape, 60 – 16,000Hz chrome and metal
- Aux input sensitivity: 90 mV @ 680 k ohms
- Amplifier chip: Panasonic AN7145H
- Power output: 7 watts per channel RMS maximum, and a minimum of 4 watts per channel from 80Hz to 16KHz at 10% distortion.
Silver SR-5000
This mid-1980s miniature cassette player features an aluminum faceplate and a beautiful LED signal strength indicator. The cassette deck with logic control can work with the tape of the fourth type (Metal), and the removable speaker systems are built on broadband radiators. It is curious that the speakers are connected to RCA connectors. There are also line-in and line-outs on the rear panel.
Silver SR-6000
A rather rare cassette player with a power of 4.5 watts per channel. The cassette deck is equipped with an APQS track search system, and there is a fairly large output LED indicator on the front panel. Functional equipment also includes a three-band graphic equalizer. Detachable speakers have a two-way design, 130mm woofers are complemented by horn high-frequency driver.
Silver SR-8000L
Huge three-block boombox, when assembled, having a width of 79cm. This giant weighs 10.3 kilograms, removable speakers are built on 160mm full-range speakers supported by 50mm tweeters. The built-in amplifiers are made on Fujitsu MB3730 microcircuits, each channel has 24 watts, that is, the real figures are much more modest. The Silver SR-8000L has a universal power supply from the mains, in standalone mode it needs 10 D-type batteries. The cassette deck supports any type of tape and is equipped with a Dolby NR system, there is also a five-band graphic equalizer.
Silver SR-8800
An improved version of the Silver SR-8000 model, its main difference is the presence of a second cassette pocket with a slot-loading mechanism that allows you to overwrite. The woofers in the acoustic systems are also different, otherwise the technical characteristics of the two models are almost identical – a power of 24 watts per channel, a five-band equalizer, a four-band tuner with a double antenna.
Silver ST 888 Space Master 11
Incredible boombox, designed to conquer not only fans of recorded music, but also radio amateurs. The tuner worked immediately in 11(!) bands and was equipped with three antennas! The tuning scale occupies almost half of the front panel, and when used in the evening, its illumination looks stunning. At the top of the huge window are arrow indicators. The cassette deck has a fully logical control and works with any type of tape. For autonomous operation, the radio requires 9 D-type batteries. Speaker systems are built on the basis of broadband radiators supported from below by low-frequency speakers, each of which is powered by a separate amplifier.
All models of the famous Z1 series by Pioneer you can see here.
