Broken eBay 1980s RARE ROBERTS RSR100 BOOMBOX - Trying to FIX 

Spoiler Saver & Riddle What do these words have in common... civic, eye, level and madam?

Nothing is more 80s like holding a boombox over your shoulder blasting rock right into your ear. Great vid Vince 👍

It's a Hitachi TRK 8110E underneath, the 'auto' setting is the tape only feature, good quick fix. 70's & 80's Japanese made products are a PLEASURE to work on!

This is the kind of thing Techmoan would probably like.

The AUTO setting on the power switch is used in combination with the clock to facilitate waking up to music or timed recording etc.

What a lovely looking boombox! 😍 I'm very jealous! The 2 way audio refers to the frequencies being split two ways (low and high) to each speaker channel. So, you have a woofer (low) and a tweeter (high) for left channel and another set for the right channel. Apologies if you already know this since filming, but I love all things audio and it's one thing I actually know a bit about! 😁

Hey there Vince, thank you so much for the shout out, caught me completely offguard on that one

I know Vince creates great content but credit must be given for his editing and quality production. Good work Vince 👍

That was entertaining thanks! Hardly any manufacturer explained what the A-B switch was for. The tape deck has a bias oscillator for recording. The switch was to change its frequency slightly if it was causing interference on the radio station you were trying to listen to.

Another enjoyable repair =D The way you fixed the clock screen was a touch of genius! I wouldn't have thought of doing that!

Great video Vince. I had a Sony Zilbap that my sister brought me back from the Middle East. It was an amazing piece of kit.

What a cool video Watching this brought me back to my youth I used to buy those things quite cheap from garage sales and I was always taking them apart when I was a kid. Sometimes I fixed them most times. I didn’t know what I was doing, but it was sure a lot of fun. Those old boom boxes are really hard to find nowadays good on you for fixing it bringing it back to life👍

I watched this video when it was new, and I'm watching it again now as you've inspired me, Vince, and I just bought a faulty one for myself because I wanted to give fixing one a go. So, thank you for the inspiration, the entertainment and, I hope the information and ideas in the video which I'll likely be watching repeatedly over the next week. Cheers 😁👍

The videos on this channel make a great showcase of how basic logic and practice (and lots of elbow grease) lead to the desired results. And special thanks for filming in the process, i know it's not easy. Two thumbs up!

I find it amazing that you almost witout exception manage to repair things without breaking them permanently. We are cut from different cloth, we are :D

Exactly like the amstrad nc200 from 1993 one week there's like 2 of them for sale and then none and they are expensive think my nc200 was £90. 00 Great to have another trying to fix video

Seen alot of your videos, I know nothing of electronics but love watching you fix things. Once it was opened it became apparent it was one of your more complex items. Well done, it looks as good as new and sounds a treat. Very inspiring, keep up the good work 👍

I don't know if you know that the Roberts is clearly made in Japan by Hitachi. I have a very similar one and the buttons and the switches are the same, so is the clock. Great to see someone with the passion to have a go at repairs. Keep it up!

Just lovely Vince! Well done, night and day.

I really enjoyed watching this and love how you manhandle the internals, it gives me confidence 👍

Wasn't sure at first but it looked amazing in the end

Once again, Vince works his magic. Great video. Keep em coming.

Nice one Vince, remember repairing similar models, when working for Mastercare, whilst a student during the 80's. Just brilliant, well done.

I LOVE this series and you channel. Keep it up 👍

Ahhhh it's so deeply satisfying if you manage to clean up something really grimy and dirty into such a nice shape. I often have that with handheld devices.

Fantastic restore Sir, great work to revive this bit of old kit👍🏻

Nice job. I love they way you tackle the problems. Being that old.. maybe a recap is required and then an alignment.

Great job and fantastic content, loved every minute of it! 👍🏻

I love how as time passes, you become more and more successful in your fixes!

Great love seeing vintage tech getting fixed

Wish you didn't skip the cleaning process. Really enjoy seeing it get cleaned up!!

I remember these from the 80's, Boombox on the shoulder and a roll of lino under the other arm. I thought you was going to end the fix with a spot of breakdancing Vince!

I always find watching your videos therapeutic 😌

I can imagine Vince bouncing about his workshop screaming "ALIVE! ITS ALIIIVE!!!!"🤣😊👍❤️

A very nice piece and lovely to see it running again so well done. The label on the side reminds me of the early days of PAT testing if the item was running on a business premises, as you say with the oil residue then possibly in a garage set up. We used to have them in our work place when i was making F1 bodies in the early 80's. We had a smaller Waltham and i personally ran a Phillips 'Spatial' 5 speaker boom box. That was one big heavy beast.

I'm new to your channel and I like so far what i have watched! Nice job on this boombox! You can't find these things always in good working condition unless someone went to the trouble of fixing them and cleaning like you did!

Wow thanks mate, a blast from the past!

My 70 year old dad owns a boombox similar to that one. He's still using it almost daily! It's great to see one being restored like that.

I like that you keep the label, it makes box look like an antique and it is!

Wow! well done. I really enjoyed watching you restore this unique machine. Cheers :D

Brilliant fix and a beautiful boombox!! Enjoyed watching 👀 this. 👌

I had one of these, it was about 1980 because I used the alarm to get up for my Saturday job whilst at school. My one was Silver. Used to record new songs from Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg before their uk release

I fixed an identical unit (not marked Roberts) some while back. The tape belt had completely converted itself into thick black greasy oil. Unlike your example, the plastic mechanical arms for changing channels had broken off. I did not plug it into the mains but used my bench psu from the outset, because it is so easy to make a mistake with mains. Also, the clock on my unit did not work at all, even after I put two AAs in the relevant slots. Great video. Thanks Vince

Great job man! Your reaction when it worked, the satisfaction 😀. 🍻

I had one of these and used it at work at a noisy metalworking shop a plater was furious because his expensive and huge boombox had loads of Watts but the sounds were lost not very far from where it was playing but mine was so clear with such a range you could hear it all over the factory... Only problem was it was so good someone else liked it and it went missing one day.😢 Thanks for the video great memories

Excellent work ,job well done sir ! 😎👍

This clearly become one of my favorite fix , so nice boombox . Vince, ace of fix

This has an equivalent hitachi of the same style from the same period Had that roberts a few years back and it was a superb little machine.great video!

AFC = automatic frequency control. Supposedly stops FM drift when moving about.

Brilliant Vince!!!

Ah! I too love the Blitz kitchen paper 😝 another nice vid Vince 👌🏼

Excellent video Vince! Really love the color of that boombox!

The boombox was made like in the year 2. :) Just like we had in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s

Thank you for sharing, nice Receiver!

Great video! Had the same stereo. Just the Canadian version. Added some phono jacks on the side for some extra speakers. Was my main stereo forever. Sold it because someone thought the added speakers was cool.

Yes, always bridge broken tracks with wire because just a solder bridge will fracture and fail over time. Good one Vince.

Nice simple project, cheers !!!

Roberts radios were the best, my mom always has them, the last one I brought her though was utter garbage, plastic cases buzzing rubbish.

work in the repair shop and that was one duty I would do when cleaning cassette decks

Nicely done, it came out great!

What a beautiful Boombox. I really like it.

Thank you soooooo much for the big shout out, finally got to watch this fully 🤣. Thanks Vince.

Awesome fix of an awesome stereo

I believe the auto is used for setting an alarm (say to wake up from the radio) - I've seen other radios of the time also have a feature to set a time and then begin to record at that time (say for a radio show/program that starts at 7:00pm) - I had a timer component as part of my "hi-fi" setup in the mid 80's so I could record concerts that were scheduled to be "simulcast" - I recorded on to cassette and later played them back in the car during my weekly commute...

That moste have taken hours and hours to clean up that mutsh oil and dirt! Normally it dose not come out in the camera if you don't zoom in like you use to, this time it did even in my small mobile :) Thank you for your hard work!

Wao looks brand new now, am sure a lot of collectors would like to buy it.

You saved this beautiful old boom box well done!...., sir 😁

Ive got a 10 year old Roberts ecologic 4 stereo DAB/Fm stereo radio and it picks up digital perfectly in my home where other makes have failed miserably. I was so impressed with it I bought my son one. a later model with Bluetooth. The quality surpasses a lot of other radios out there. The sound is amazing with proper dial bass and treble knobs they also have RDS, it could do with a little servisol switch cleaner sprayed into the volume control potentiometer as it can crackle a little, its begining to show its age now but thats all really. I used to have a Solavox Boom box in the 1980s and Ive never seen another one like it, it had a 250 watt RMS amplifier, it was left by a customer for repair at Comet and was put up for sale after he ddnt collect it, apparently he was an american serving in the Navy and was staying at Portsmouth dockyard, Id love to find another one if I could, I think the Boombox was available on the British market as it had a UK power supply inside it, pity ive forgotten the model number.

Nice fix vince. I've got myself one of these that's just as filthy! Shortly my hands will be red-raw too, lol. Enjoyed the video mate, thanks :)

That cracked board is right on the inside of a sharp corner. That's why metal workers often radius corners when possible to avoid stress cracks at sharp edges. I surmise this is what lead to the cracking.

Vince getting excited over little intricacies like a baby? Sign me up. :)

Thank you so much ... You are truly blessed ... Your patience is to be given much credit and im so glad someone took the time to bring color into my world ... I love these types of radio cassette players much love and respect to you ... Maybe next time you can test the recording capability ... Still you are excellent in your trade ... Blessings to you and your family ... Thank you ... Ps ... Can i have it ? ...

Really nice nostalgic radio

It is a rebranded Hitachi if memory serves me right, Hitachi was quite a high quality brand in its own right so no demerits it being a rebadge imho and I quite like the idea of something uniquely named for us Brits outside the mega mass produced stuff the world outside got to use. Might be worth checking for machine schematics as audio machines there seems to be a half hearted attempt with some to produce schematics for high quality audio machines.

It's identical to the Hitachi TRK-8130. I had one of those in the 80's, in fact I've still got it but only the radio works now. The AUTO does indeed allow it to make unattended timer recordings from the radio as I used that function many times, or it can be used to control the SLEEP timer, basically any of the automatic functions controlled by the clock section. One button on the clock will allow you to set the start time for a recording, set it to radio and tune in the station, then put the switch to AUTO then finally press REC & PLAY buttons. When the set time is reached it will switch on and record until the tape runs out, as there was no stop timer it would remain powered up. It came with an external FM aerial for that socket around the back. It was a sort of ribbon that formed a T-shape with plastic tabs that you could stick to a window with blu-tack to improve stereo reception. Other accessories it came with was a cable for that 12 volt socket and a C-60 cassette. If I remember correctly it cost just over £100 around 1981/82, it was definitely bought before 1983, so an early 80's model.

Would love to have piece like this at home. Good find and good job finding (and fixing) the crack. (edit: typos fix)

It works a damned fine better than when ye started out with I'll tell ye. Well done. Keep em coming My Jammy Mate Vince👍🏻

"2-way" means separate tweeter and woofer for highs and mids/bass. Proper 2-way will have a high/low pass filter/crossover, otherwise they just stick a resistor in the tweeter circuit.

Auto is for the alarm function - well thats what I'd assume - put in your favourite tunes, set the volume appropriatly, set the alarm and at the time the alarm sounds, the machine turns on, and plays whats in the cassette, or the station you are tuned to on the radio.

Great Video Vince I watched a couple of your Rolls Royce videos and became a subscriber . My uncle Ray used to work for Thorn -EMI and my dad had a neat Ferguson Stereo Component system my uncle got him in the '70s . The way that Roberts unit was engineered and assembled reminded me of that. A good subject for a future video may also be repairing a '60's jukebox as my dad and I would fix them in Cafes back then (valve amplifiers , contacts and mechanical mechanisms ) WB

I like it with very nice teaching.

Thanks for your update

Nice video, Too stop the crack in the PCB drill a small hole on the end of the crack it will stop the crack from going any further. 👍👍👍👍

Good job vince

2way means woofer+tweeter" For example I have a set of KRK studio monitor speakers actually right in front of me right now. Each one is a 2way speaker. I had a set of nice infinity mini floor speakers that were 3-way. That ment they had the woofer, a midrange speaker to help bring out the vocals and a dome tweeter. The other term is a full-range speaker, the most simple and usually low end hifi, 1 driver per cabinet

2 way means set of speakers, not full range , like these days, they have their own range of frequencies, high, and middle ish + low.

Best boombox to have today. Wish we could go "Back To The Future" (1985) like 👍 the movie 🎥. This was probably from somewhere around that era. Could be late 1970's. Your friend, Jeff.

Auto power switch is for timer. You set the alarm for whatever time and the radio or tape will play to wake you up! At least that's how my dad's tape deck used to work!

Vince, An unashamed fan of Roberts, I currently have two of their modern offerings. The build quality is still excellent. Incidentally, the AFC is for automatic frequency controol. I loved this when I first got a Roberts in 1972. If you're slightly off station, and you press this, it'll tune you in automatically. Give it a try. I'll be amazed if it still works...

Great fix👌

The, 'auto', might be to do with making automatic recordings from radio via a timer set by the clock. I've never heard of a Roberts machine before, but this one looks like a good one. I would have loved to have had this, back in the early 80's, so I could record off the radio, TV and record player in my bedroom.

Looks to have a lot in common with the GE (General Electric) Boom Boxes of the same era here in the USA. I wish I'd kept mine - I still have the manual and cardboard box but sold the radio years ago at a yard sale.

Such a nice 80s looking item.

I used to have one of these in the 80's,in Australia they were bright silver and sold as Toshiba

I never knew that Roberts made “Boomboxes” & loved the segment at : 14:28 where you discover the Battery compartment also takes 2 x AA Batteries for the LCD Clock / Timer functions, I own 2 x Big Panasonic Boombox’s & they take 10 x D Cell & 4 x AA Batteries a piece, I need to dismantle them both as one of the Cassette decks on the one needs maintenance and both of the Cassette decks & the CD Player on my Big Cobra top one need looking at as well, I do have a smaller one as well and that one takes 8 x D Cells & 4 x AA batteries and that one works perfectly fine! 😂

I recall seen a very similiar Hitachi machine in a local site here. During the 80s, rebadge was pretty common. But the typical scenario was taking a product from an OEM manufacurer, like Samsung, made in Korea / Taiwan / Hong Kong. Rebranding models from bigger brands but not as common. I have seen Rebranded Panasonics and Toshibas. Some boomboxes can have 5 or even more different brands. Here some recorders from PANASONIC were sold under a very popular local brand that paid the licensing. But during mid 70s, Panasonic was taking off, probably they didnt bother too much appart from the cashflow.

Hi it should be working after all your hard work well done

I reckon that red LED goes out when it's powered up, seen that kind of thing before

AFC automatic frequency control on the vhf fm band. It pulles the stations in on the fm band so they are tuned in correctly.

A very satisfying video. Have you considered restoring one of those really gorgeous old valve based radios?