circa 1959 Aiwa AR-630
Shirt pocket radio, thermoplastic cabinet
4 13/16 x 2 7/8 x 1 5/16 inches / 122 x 73 x 33 mm
Six transistors (Toshiba, 2S49, 2S52, 2S53, 2S54, 2x 2S56, + 1N60 diode)
Superheterodyne circuit
Three 1.5-volt AA cells
Manufactured by Aiwa Co., Ltd., Japan
A gorgeous Japanese shirt pocket radio with a cabinet face that (to me) seems to be at the same time both extremely "stylish" and really well designed. Yes, the two gold chevrons pointing to the dial window and dial knob are purely decorative — is there really anything wrong with that? What I'd say is the good design here is the left-to-right opposing placements of the speaker grille and the reverse-painted plastic tuning dial plate on the cabinet’s face: the grille hugs the left side of the cabinet while the dial plate hugs the right — besides giving the cabinet face a balanced asymmetric look, this also somehow manages to give the illusion that the radio’s cabinet tapers a bit from top to bottom, even though the width is the same.
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