GE 3-5268A

The 3-5268A was a 3-piece boombox from General Electric. It's quite rare, and I've never seen a service manual or even just an advertisement for it. It was part of GE's "Superadio" model series, which supposedly means the tuner is capable of superior reception. It has a 5-band equalizer and a soft-touch deck with Dolby and "MLS" 3-track song search. It also has traditional analog VU meters, lit by 2 lamps.

It was made in Singapore, but we don't know when. Most likely early 80s. I don't know who manufactured it, but it's built very well. Both the tuning capacitor and the ferrite bar antenna are more than twice as big as they are in other boomboxes. And the tuning capacitor is direct-drive, so it's connected directly to the tuning knob, eliminating the need for a string and pulley system.

According to the writing on top, the output power is only 5 watts per channel, but don't let that discourage you. To my ears, it sounds like it makes twice that much. The frequency response is nice and broad, with warm bass, very accurate high notes, and excellent stereo separation. The speakers are ported 3-ways which include 5-inch Onkyo woofers with big magnets and cloth surrounds.

To disassemble this boombox, remove 6 long screws from the back (one of them is hidden behind the lower right battery spring). Then remove a small screw from the upper right side, 90 degrees away from the FM stereo light. Then just pull it apart. You don't need to remove any of the control knobs.

Dimensions: 63 cm long, 19 cm deep, and 24 cm tall (not including the handle).
Weight: 8.3 kg (18.3 lbs) without batteries.
Power requirements: 120 volts AC, or ten D-cell batteries.