Cheap Headphones Review: Live. Love. Music. Vanquish Stereo Headphones

One great source of dirt cheap audio gear like earbuds, headphones, and mini speakers is the 5 Below store.  Each location is jam packed with fun products that cost less than $5.  On one visit, I made an impulse purchase of a set of  Vanquish Stereo Headphones for $5.  These headphones are marketed under the "Live. Love. Music." brand name.

Vanquish Headphones from 5 Below

Construction.  The headphones are made from plastic.  The plastic seems to be softer than the hard plastics used in more expensive headphones.  The earcups and connecting arch are covered with fake leather.  However, these earphones have held up fairly well.  I've fallen asleep on them and treated them fairly roughly without any problems.

Specs from box for Vanquish headphones

Sound.  The sound from these headphones is acceptable.  The dynamic range for these headphones is 20hz to 20khz.  They have 40 millimeter drivers.  In terms of specs, they seem to be decent.  However, these headphones don't seem to be quite a loud as entry-level name brand headphones.  This might make them a good choice for children and teens.

Imitation Leather on Ear Cups

Overall, these earphones are worth the $5 price tag.  But, if you are serious about sound quality, you can do better with just a little more money.

Audio Review: Grundig 960 Classic AM/FM/SW Radio

One of the nicest looking pieces of audio gear in our humble abode is a Grundig 960 Classic Radio.  It's reproduction of their classic antique Grundig 960 using modern components.  It's a retro radio with an RCA input to allow modern inputs to be used.  The reviews on Amazon for this radio are mixed so let me share my impressions and experience.

Style.  The Grundig 960 is rather large for a radio.  It has analog dials that are reminiscent of a 1960's car radio.  It has a sturdy wooden chassis and internal speakers that fire to the sides.  Since the dials didn't have markings, I initially had trouble making sure they were centered when adjusting left-right balance.  To fix this I added a small arrow shaped sticker to each dial.

Sound.  I found the sound quite good for a radio.  It could provide sound in stereo. To me, it sounded better than most comparably sized boomboxes but it wasn't as good as a far more expensive Bose Wave Radio.

Reception.  Living in a large city, I had no trouble pulling in FM radio stations. While some reviewers have said that the radio could drift, in my experience, the FM stations held just fine.  I have not honestly tried the Shortwave reception.   However, I think that the long lost the manual said there was an internal antenna for AM/FM and that shortwave might require a long external wire antenna to work well.

Specifications.  These are the specifications for the radio according to the back panel.  I do not believe that the speakers are 12 watts, but they are strong enough to sound quite good within a bedroom or office.

Overall.  This had been a nice radio for me.  It looks nice in a bedroom setting and it sounds good.  Reviews on Amazon for this set were mixed, but I found it to be a nice radio.  Of course, I paid about $50 for this radio at a thrift store.

Realistic Minimus Speakers - Perfect Pair for a Mini Amp

If you are putting together a cheap stereo experiment for a bedroom or office, inexpensive Realistic Minimus speakers may be your cheapest choice.  I've read glowing posts from audiophiles about vintage Realistic Minimus 7 speakers.

From time to time, I come across various Minimus speakers at thrift stores and they are very inexpensive.  For example, I found these little Minimus 21 speakers at a local thrift store for $6.26 a pair. 

However, these are only 10-watt speakers.  However, when paired with a stereo mini amplifier, they could be perfect for a desktop or bedroom system.

Something like this Lepai Mini Amplifier might be perfect!  With luck the resulting stereo could even be built for less than $50!

Vintage Console Stereo - An Idea that could rise again!

I recently came across this old console stereo system in a thrift store.  I didn't have room for it in our new place and I didn't have the inclination to start a new project.

However, I wish I would have.  I think a console stereo would solve a lot of problems.

Don't like to see unsightly stereo cables?  The console stereo solves the problem.

Don't want a living room dominated by electronics?  Problem solved.  A console stereo looks like the rest of your furniture.

Of course, you would either have to invest heavily to restore the old components or gut the console and replace everything with new stereo components.  It's a tough call.  No one really wants to throw out history.  However, you also want to be cool about fire safety!

This particular example has solid state electronics with an AM/FM stereo and a record player.  With vinyl being in, if this thing worked, that would be really cool.

The price of this model was only $10.91.  That's a good deal for the cabinet alone.  But, without a garage, a major restoration might not be easy!  I don't know much about the history of this stereo.  Garrard was once a famous British maker of turntables.  The Symphonic brand is currently owned by Funai electronics.

Believe it or not, there are companies out there that specialize in the restoration and resale of old console stereos.   You can visit this one here:  Audio Archeology.

Tiny Stereo for Tiny Houses

If I was going to build a tiny house, I would want it to be a sanctuary that I could fill with just a few fine things that were comfortable and soothing. In the audio arena, I would want to equip my tiny house with a tiny sound system.

Tiny House in Oregon - Photo By Tammy (Weekend with Dee) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

If I were operating on a budget that allowed room for a few fine things, I would strongly consider this Orb speaker system and mini Amp. It comes with a small mini subwoofer that would be unobtrusive in even the smallest of homes and I would place the spherical Orb speakers where they could cover the house well.


If the tiny home had a sleeping loft, I'd place an additional QuickPack of two Orb speakers for the upstairs sleeping space. They would look good and sound great!


Now, if I had to equip my tiny house on an even tinier budget, I'd have to get creative.  But, that would be the subject of another post!

Alternatives to the Bose Wave Radio System

Every year, someone in America thinks that getting an aging parent a nice radio is a great gift idea.  If that someone has plenty of money, they simply buy a Bose Wave radio system off of a television shopping network and call it a day. But, as of 2025, we're too late. Bose has discontinued them. Fortunately, there are alternatives.

Bose Wave Radio - photo by Guide22, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons

Now that they are rare, the Bose Wave Music System has become even more expensive. While it sounds great, it isn't affordable for most of us. That's where this Dirt Cheap Audio blog comes in. There has to be an alternative.

The Aiwa Exos Home Sound System (Amazon Photo)

As of this November 2025 update, one premium alternative that replicates the Bose Wave Radio functionality is this Aiwa Exos Home Speaker, 30W RMS Sound System system (shown above). It has Bluetooth, a CD Player, and FM radio in form factor that comes quite close to the Bose systems that we've seen so often. The system is compared to the old Bose by many reviewers and gets 4.2 stars overall. It is praised for its sound quality and simplicity. However, some reviewers note that you shouldn't lose the remote. You can get it here at my Amazon affiliate link!

Vintage Receiver Review: Technics SA-160

For the last few months, I have used a Technics SA-160 receiver as a bedroom unit.  I found it for less than $20 at Goodwill.  I snatched it up because the balance was slightly off and a couple of LEDs were burnt out on my Sony unit.

The Technics SA-160  is less powerful than the Sony.  But, certainly does well as a secondary unit. 

 

Serious audiophiles will probably scoff at this receiver.  For example, this poster on Head-Fi pronounced it black plastic crap. 

However, in the dirt cheap audio space, working trumps all specifications.  Since space is at a premium in our new space, I'll probably re-donate this unit and use a micro system or radio instead.  I have a couple that work really well.