Some Might Call It a Den

By Stephen Mejias • Posted: Sep 19, 2005

Not how. I mean to say: I should tell you something about the circumstances surrounding my personal act of listening.

I live in a one-bedroom apartment. The whole place is maybe 450 square feet or so. I don’t have a “listening room.” I don’t need one, really; I can hear my music, at tame levels, from anywhere in the apartment. I have a living room. Some—depending on where she grew up and how blue her eyes are—might call it a den. It measures approximately 10ft wide by 13ft long, and the ceilings are just about 8ft high. This is where the music is played.

Before I went away to college, I received as a gift a Magnavox boombox for my dorm room. I still have it, and use it everyday. It is my primary system. The tape deck reads: “AZ9345 Portable Mini System.” It utilizes Magnavox’s “Dynamic Bass Boost,” and also features high-speed dubbing. It can pick up AM and FM frequencies—though I very rarely listen to the radio, aside from the classic rock station’s “Breakfast with the Beatles” on Sunday mornings—and is also a top-loading CD player. The speakers are small, black boxes, about 10 inches tall and seem to weigh less than a pound. I guess they have a little tweeter and a woofer in there somewhere, but does it really matter? They sit directly on my pretty wood floor; no stands, feet, or spikes involved. I keep them about 17 inches away from the back wall, 30 inches from the side walls, and about 7ft from my orange Ikea couch, which is usually where I sit. The Magnavox AZ9345 Portable Mini System has never been reviewed by Stereophile, and therefore is not included in "Recommended Components."

Comments

Submitted by John Atkinson on September 18, 2005 - 9:00pm.

>The Magnavox AZ9345 Portable Mini System has>never been reviewed by Stereophile... We have to draw the line somewhere, and boomboxes are universally poor performers, sound-quality-wise. Except, as my wife points out, with a boombox you can take the music to where _you_ are rather than be tied to a specific room. When I met her 18 years ago, she had a pretty good high-end system. These days, and 1000s of CDs later (her collection is bigger than mine) she exclusively listens to her music on either a boombox or an iPod. :-(

Submitted by Jim Tavegia on September 19, 2005 - 9:00pm.

Steven,THE MAGNAVOX BOOM BOX!!!!!!!!!I respectfully suggest you march right into JA's office and demand a raise immediately! What is going on here (hear?)? I thought you were going to tell us it was a Bose Wave Radio.Call Roy Hall immedidately and get the man an industry accomodation of at least a Creek/Epos/Music Hall CD25.1 system. This must be done before his hearing is irreparably damaged. Oh, and if you like Scotch, Roy can help there as well. Somebody dial 911...there's a man down. Put the boombox on the floor and draw a chalk line around it and step back slowly. Wait for the police to arrive. They'll understand. Tell'em you had to do it!If this doesn't work JA must have something in his garage.

Submitted by Beto on September 23, 2005 - 9:00pm.

Thanks for this post Stephen. Now I don't feel so bad about my puny 200 sq.ft space that performs as home office," bedroom and -yes- listening room. The Japanese would call it a miracle.The line ""The Magnavox AZ9345 Portable Mini System has never been reviewed by Stereophile"" is pure genius writing. Sorry to say this JA", but to quote Mr.T," ""I pity da fool who don't appreciate the irony"".

Submitted by Stephen Mejias on September 28, 2005 - 9:00pm.

Hi Beto.Thanks very much for reading, and for your comment.Wow, 200 sqft?! Yikes. Believe me," I know how tough it can be. I spent a few months living in a 150 sqft basement ""apartment."" I hated it. But", it taught me patience. And agility; had to be graceful or else I'd bump into something and knock my boombox off the shelf.Yeah," the ""Recommended Components"" joke kinda cracked me up", too. Heh heh.Thanks again.

Fellow Mini-Magnavox AZ9345 Owner's picture

Submitted by Fellow Mini-Magnavox AZ9345 Owner on June 16, 2007 - 6:36am.

Hey hey heeeey, who's making fun of the Magnavox Portable CD/Radio/Dual-Cassette player Model AZ 9345? (I love those dual cassettes)! I just so happen to be the happy owner of one just like it, & I was online today looking for old specs for it as I was curious what the "wattage" is (before I buy another mini for the BR), & the AZ9345 Owner's Manual has no specs whatsoever, & neither does the Magnavox website, nor any other websites that I've been able to find. HoHum. The greedy commercial interests don't like it if we keep their gadgets too long but, hey, my AZ9345 works perfectly, never had a single problem w/it. It produces Beautiful Music, & even has graphic equalizer that lets US maneuver rather than pre-set EQs. -- I still have the receipt from when I got this AZ9345 on 12/24/1995, for $133.50 (tax incl.) @ Walmart (FLA), that's 11.5 years! ;-D ----- &, oh, I thought my apt. was small! 579 sf here, pretty bad, that includes the tiny patio I think. :-/ & I have lived

Submitted by Fellow Mini-Magnavox AZ9345 Owner on June 16, 2007 - 6:39am.

continuing...;-D ----- &, oh, I thought my apt. was small! 579 sf here, pretty bad, that includes the tiny patio I think. :-/ & I have lived in SMALLER, too. And it was exactly as you described, VERY TIGHT LIVING, not fun at'all!Oh well, couldn't resist commenting on the AZ9345, lol, great little machine, still looks new! But I am finally ready to "move up" to a 5-CD changer w/MP3 capability. ;-) Looking at the Sharp models at Circuit City online.God bless!/ag

Submitted by aaron on July 17, 2007 - 12:03am.

hey, anyone know how to record with it? it seems that every time i try and record the record button trys to bring the play button with it and jams and i cant push it?anyone know why?

Submitted by rvance on June 5, 2009 - 2:11pm.

Hey Aaron, If the write-protect notches on the cassette have their tabs busted out, you won't be able to record. You'll need to tape over each notch (near the corners on the solid edge). Hope that helps, otherwise i don't know...

Submitted by Lin on February 24, 2010 - 2:34pm.

Can anyone tell me how to duplicate a cassette on a Magnavox AZ8310 dual cassette recorder. It's a boombox with radio and CD players. I need it now. Thanks.

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