Akihabara pre-gaming

Scanned from "JAPAN" magazine, published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan. Vol. XI, No. 2, 1973. Article about Hi-Fi Audio fans.







Audio fans at home:


This guy never got laid.


Unlike this guy. I love photos like this.

 

That is fucking groovy.

If anyone cares, Akihabara became what it is today mainly b/c it was one of the few places in Tokyo that wasn't completely ass-fucked by the firebombs. Naturally, merchants met their to peddle wares. Main thing then was it was most likely necessities for survival that were sold. Now, it's luxury goods that most certainly nobody needs to survive.

EDIT:
Holy shit. Technics was around back then?

 

Too bad most people today, only care about mp3's / digital content.

Anyone here is like Rob Gordon from High Fidelity? =]

 

That second to last picture demonstrates how gulible many audiophiles are. Curtains all around, daft speaker set up, loads of equipment.

Great pictures though!

 

today those same guys are the ultimate home cinema freaks

great pix. much teh like.

 

I've been trying to track down a reel-to-reel for recording purposes. The old camera store I worked at has a bunch in their back room full of junk, I just need to find a way to get one...

 

Effing quality stuff there. My parents still have the old technic hi-fi (from early 80s). As a kid I always loved messing with the large volume knob. Brushed aluminum and it just moved so smoothly. I wonder if they'll let me have it lol.

 

My kid fucking twists the volume knob on my (somewhat cheesy) Pinoeer receiver. Of course, it's off when he does it, and when I turn it on, I blow the windows off the neighborhood (starting with myself).

 

yeah, theres a few shops in the back streets that look EXACTLY like these shots!

i had a load of stuff to dump, including some of my father in laws old equipment - owner look, sneered, and told me to get out lol.

 

These photos reveal to me why Panasonic (Technics) dominates the turntable market. Not to go off subject, but why didn't Panasonic just use their name on their turntables instead of Technics?

 

Sounds way more underground, and that was the force they used to dominate the turntable market. I think now that CD turntables are more prevelent, they've got shitloads more competition. Pioneer have a more prevelent presence in the shops, and defintiely have shitloads of features... almost all of which are unnecessary since I'm sure they hide the fact that most people are shit DJs. I lament for the vinyl days for some reason.

 

i loved those drilled aluminum knobs to no end when i was a child. i could already feel the quality of those products they made off, through those knobs when i was just a few years old.

 

I want one real bad. My dad used to have one when I was younger, but who knows where it is today.... :shrug:

Wait... it might be in the garage...

 

Because Technics at the time were meant to be the higher end of the audio spectrum market. Even now as Technics is seem as the brand leader in turntable and some other audio equipment, Panasonic have decided to keep the brand name for the time being.

I should go out and take some pictures of buidlings covered in National logos as the brand is being phased out in Japan. So Matsushita are now Panasonic Corporation and have ditched Matsushita completely and will drop National completely, have Technics as a sub brand, they are buying Sanyo, so it's likely that name will disappear too so everything will be Panasonic.

It's hard to find any images from Akihabara from the 80s, esp with computers, so here is one... Can you name all the computers? My one regret in life is not being able to see Japan during the early to mid 80s.



Talking about Panasonic, during the 80s they did make MSX machines under both the National and Panasonic brands...

 

I second the aluminum knobs, especially the radio tuners that were heavy flywheel beasts. Give it a whirl and watch the needle fly across the unit.

 

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing

 

Since you guys liked the reel-to-reel photos so much, here's one more from the same article. The caption reads: The hall of a "recording concert" is packed with tape-recorders, microphones and other electronic equipment.

I've never heard of such a thing before :lol:

 

The pics are awesome, especially the last one, Tokyo Cuban Boys :lol:

 

Yeah, I like seeing "old Tokyo" pics...especially of places I know now. I've seen pictures (aerial even) of Shibuya in the 50's and 60's. It's nothing like it is now -- meaning, some of the roads weren't even there. Center-gai, for one. Apparently Shibuya had a cable car for a while.