TINY Vintage AIWA Stereo Components: SA-C22U, SA-P22U, ST-R22U & SD-L22U

Gentle reader,

Where once I thought nothing about FaceBook, couldn't understand why or how anyone could possibly spend so much time looking at what OTHER people were showing what they had for lunch and their selfies and all that nonsense.

Here's the story: My wife joined FaceBook years ago to, "See what our kids are up to." And you probably already know that they, like many, many younger people put absolutely e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g they did, saw or thought about on FaceBook.

So, in time I too joined a while after she did, you know  to "See what our kids are up to." And see, I did. Well, thanks to FaceBook, I've been able to hook up, from a distance, with people I hadn't seen in years. And in the case of a girl I knew fifty-some years ago, she tracked me down. How weird it was to come home to a message on the answering machine, don't judge, we still have a landline, from a woman I had last seen in second grade in 1966!

Well, I started joining all these groups and the number of groups kept climbing. I finally decided to just join a select number of groups that are interested in stereo and audio equipment. The rest I unfollowed.

So, back to the title of this, my 192nd post: TINY Vintage AIWA Stereo Components: SA-C22U, SA-P22U, ST-R22U & SD-L22U.

I was looking through my list of posts and saw nothing about these tiny components that I spied at my barber's in his back room. That tells you how long ago it was. Not enough hair left to need a barber now!

They are nice and clean now, that barber was in his seventies then and a lifelong smoker. They were a mess! Below shows a now clean cassette deck and the rest still filthy.

They were all in this wooden case that Aiwa made for them. And the entire thing was quite heavy! They all have tiny handles on them, just like real rack-mountable equipment!

As you can see, they are, top-to-bottom: Tuner, Preamplifier, Cassette deck and Power Amplifier. All tiny.
Below is the rear view of them all still dirty. I found these "before" photos the day after writing this blog post.

Above is a closer before and after shot. 

Those little cars are Hot Wheels and their ilk. Nominally they are all 1/64th scale. In fact, they vary all around that scale. But I digress. Getting the picture? These components like 1/4th the normal size ones. 

You remember when one could actually replace their stock car stereo with an aftermarket unit? That is about the size of these things. What are referred in car audio as: DIN.
First photo above is the tuner. ST-R22U is the model number. Made from 1980 to 1985. Retail price was $200. That's $630 in today's money. For a tiny little thing! Below is the rear with standard AM antenna and terminals for external antenna plus the left/right RCA out plugs.

Next in the stack is the SA-C22U preamplifier: SA-C22U. Made from 1979 to 1983. Retailed for $140. Which is $502 in today's money.

ISN'T that such a pretty little thing? All the controls one could wish for are there. You can even hook a turntable up to it.

The rear has four pairs of RCA left/right inputs plus tape in and out and the output to the power amplifier. 

Next is the SD-L22U cassette deck. This is the only one I could not get to work. Incredibly crowded inside that case. Made from 1979 to 1982 and retailed for $260. Which is $933 in today's money. For a cassette deck!

Aside from the standard RCA left/right inputs and outputs, there are also microphone inputs.

And now, the heaviest unit, the SA-P22U power amplifier. It was made from 1979 to 1983 and retailed for $210. Which is $753 in today's money. All told, in today's money you'd be spending over $2,500 for this kit!

It puts out 30 watts-per-channel and could supply up to four speakers.

After all the cleaning up these went through, they looked spectacular! Oh, did I mention that he GAVE them to me? Yep. 

I enjoyed them for a while and then, of course decided to pass them on to a new owner. Don't recall what they went for on eBay, but they weren't cheap.

So, there you have it, AIWA decided to see if they could make tiny, yet full featured separate components. And they succeeded.

Thanks for looking!

Scott