Boombox Revival For 2011
The Ghetto Blaster
Nostalgia is powerful. Idealized visions of what once was may pop in to our heads. A classic car rolls by as you're having lunch. A vision of you cruising down a stretch of blacktop not a care in the world. What you aren't imagining are the horrible safety standards of that classic car. Or the fact it doesn't have air conditioning. Did I mention no power stearing?
There are of course occasions where nostalgia isn't a white washing of former memories. Enter the boombox. Before the iPod took over the world most people were using a portable CD player. Before that a walkman. But before anyone could disappear in to their own person wall of sound there was the boombox. Today there are forums of enthusiasts who share a common passion. That of the classic ghetto blaster. Simultaneously a pejorative descriptor and comical descriptor, the boomboxes that one conjures in their mind when 'ghettoblaster' is uttered are large, loud, and impressively engineered portable boomboxes that could deliever incredible sound.
At the height of the boomboxes power, impressive sounding and looking units were easy to find. But as the popularity of personal music players like the Sony Walkman continued to grow the boomboxes popularity faded. Soon cheaper (in both looks and sound) boomboxes came to dominate the market and by the late 90's the only types of portable boomboxes available were cheap inferior models. Lucky for us there has always been a strong community of enthusiasts who never lost their love for the classic boomboxes that are often thought of when the words ghetto blaster get dropped.
In recent years a few companies seem to have realized that there are people out there who love the bombastic looking blasters of yesterday. Call it a case of hipster nostalgia porn if you wish, but the truth is there is a market for these things. There is a boombox from Laisonic that offers what some may be looking for. It has all the markings of a classic ghetto blaster but in place of a cassette deck is an iPod dock. While former models were very narrowly compatible with only select iPod models, the latest editions seem to be fully compatible with the iPhones, iPod's, iPod Nano's, and so on. This is all second hand as I've not gotten my hands on one personally but I have heard/read that the build design does leave something to be desired which is unfortunate. Especially because those models from over twenty years ago were solid as rocks. They're also pretty damn expensive. But then again, can you really put a price on cool?
With that mind TDK has a somewhat more contemporary looking model. Sleek and far from ostentaious, you may not turn as many heads with this thing but you can still have a good time. Just don't forget your cardboard mat.
