Need help searching stereos

[masqueraded]

Hi guys. First time posting in this section. Mainly stay in the Carpenters thread. I recently got a good sony sports yellow walkman. Great working condition. Love it! Yes, its vintage with both ff and rr buttons. I do have a cheap little stereo to record tapes from walmart. However, I remember having an all in one stereo as a teen (I'm 35 now) that I adored. Believe it was an Emerson (phono, dual tape deck, cd changer, fm/am). Tho i cant seem to find much if at all in working good condition. I wont touch Jensen or Trextonic. Hope you guys can help me.

 

[Rudy]

Those were not very durable, so few of them survived the decades. That goes for any all-in-one unit, not a particular brand, and goes back to the days of the record players with radio and tape (8-track or cassette). Even my Sony boom box with CD player (the first one available in the US), which wasn't inexpensive, only works as an amplifier now in the garage--the tape and CD player sections died decades ago.

Any remaining units are probably found in thrift stores, or you sometimes find those listed on eBay for an order of magnitude more than they are worth. Even if you did find a used one (especially in a thrift store), chances are that some of the mechanical parts have failed, or the electrical contacts have gotten oxidized which would make the controls erratic. To pay a technician these days to go through one and sort it out would cost far more than it's worth, which is why they are discarded rather than repaired or refurbished (unless a hobbyist does it, in which case it's possible to fix unless certain parts are no longer available).