HUGE AIWA ghettoblaster 770a DSL CS-770A repair VINTAGE

For auction is this Aiwa stereo radio cassette recorder.
It is a classic 1980's model with tape deck, 4 band radio and twin speakers.

It is quite large at almost two feet long and just over a foot high

The metal tape compatible cassette deck has a soft touch mechanical logic controls.
There are the usual play, pause, forward, reverse, stop and eject buttons.
There is a selector switch for metal/chrome/normal tape types and dolby noise reduction.
There is also a tape counter with reset button.

The radio has 4 wavebands - long, medium, short and FM.
The FM band has a mono stereo switch and there is a tuning lock LED on the tuning dial.

The amplifier section has volume, bass, treble and balance controls and an input selector for tape, radio and line in.
There is also a red LED bargraph power level display.
The speaker system is two-way with huge (for ghettoblaster) bass drivers that are approx 6inches in diameter.
The tweeters are behind louvred grills that are over the bass driver metal grills
The system also has a DSL dynamic super loudness control.
When turned on a slider allows the amount of loudness boost to be adjusted.

On the rear are a set of stereo phono sockets for Line in.
They have a switch to allow selection between line in or phono. This means that a line in signal can be connected, such as an ipod, or a record deck.
There is also a pair of microphone jacks and a turntable ground connection.
There ae also a pair of line out connectors and a set of external speaker jacks.
It has a large carry handle attached to the top.

The unit is powered from the mains (cable included), but can also run from 9 'D' sized batteries or a AC adaptor providing 13.5 volts DC.
The mains is selctable between 120 and 230 volts AC.

This is a good quality vintage ghettoblaster from a well renowned manufacturer.
The sound quality is excellent for a portable unit with good bass especially with the DSL control turned up.
It sounds great and really looks the part.


It does however have some issues:

1. The tape deck is currently not working. (This may be as simple as a snapped drive belt) The pinch roller drive appears to work but the spool take up doesn't.
2. There are some dents and scratching to the brushed aluminium front panel.
3. The clear perspex tuningdial has some severe scratching to part of the scale.
4. There are marks and scratches acroess the top surface of the plastic case.
5. It appears that someone has, in the past, tried spraying the top of the plastic case to cover some previous marks but managed to get some silver paint onto the grey back cover.
6. Part of the plastic trim around the power button has been broken away.
7. The original telescopic antenna is missing. There are however a set of external antenna connections on the top.
8. The front panel and case have general wear and tear marks and scratching.
9. On occasion the function selector switch needs a tiny jiggle to get the radio selected.

Having said all that, the unit is still impressive. It looks and sounds good and with a little care, elbow grease and perseverance could be tidied up enough for its former glory to show through.
The radio, amplifier and speaker sections all appear to be in good working order with good quality, distortion free sound from both channels. The controls all operate smoothly and without crackle.


It will be well packaged for despatch but local pick-up is more than welcome.
Please email with any questions.

Have Fun - Happy Bidding  :) :) :)