VINTAGE GEAR

There’s something magical about the majestic stereo receivers of yesteryear. Apart from being magnificent examples of industrial design, they’re dead simple to operate while offering a full complement of features to ensure a great, though decidedly old-school, music listening experience.

Nakamichi made a name for itself in the 1970s building high-end cassette decks that eked every last ounce of performance out of the tape format but the company also made CD players and changers for the home and car in the ’80s and ’90s.

If you were an audiophile in the late 1970s or early 1980s-or just a teenager with a fresh driver's license-the Compact Cassette was integral to your life. While reel-to-reel magnetic tape introduced the concept of the “mixtape” decades earlier, it was not until the cassette's launch by Philips in 1963 and its later adoption in automobile decks and portables in the 1970s that music lovers got the ability to create personal playlists and take them to-go in a convenient, pocket-friendly format.