Alternatives to Antique Radios: Crosley Vintage-Style Radios

There is something nice about a radio that looks like furniture and fits into the overall decor of a living room or bedroom.  Many people want music to contribute to a soothing ambience of a living space and find that the typical black plastic stereo with dancing LED lights doesn't fit their tastes.

Old Radio Set at the museum Terug in de Tijd, Horn, The Netherlands - Photo By Alf van Beem (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Serious radio hobbyists hunt down vintage radios and restore them.  However, that takes a familiarity with electronics and the safe restoration of vintage electronics.  Unfortunately, it's not for the faint of heart.  It's also another hobby that is really best conducted with access to a garage, a work bench, and a well ventilated area.

An alternative to restoring an old radio is to by a new radio with retro styling.  Over the years, I've found that the Crosley company makes some really nice retro radios.  I've listened to many of them at Target and my father has a nice Crosley retro unit with a CD and a record player built in.  Modern users will be glad to note that it does have an auxiliary input jack to allow music streaming devices to be attached.


The Crosley CR31-WA has a traditional cathedral cabinet and a powerful speaker.  It consistently gets 4 out of 5 stars in over 180 Amazon reviews.


The radio stands about 11 inches high and is 9 inches wide.  The cabinet is five inches deep.  That makes it ideal for use on a bookshelf or on top of a dresser or night stand.  However, modern users may be put off by the lack of a external input jack for connections to external devices such as cell phones, tablets, laptops and other streaming music sources.





Either of these radios might make a great Father's Day gift. 

Pioneer SX-60 Computer Controlled Stereo Receiver

Pioneer Thrift Store Find

I recently came across this old Pioneer SX-60 Stereo receiver at a local Goodwill for just $6.  It powered up, but I didn't have speakers, wires, headphones, or any other means of testing it.  One push button for "Subsonic" was missing from the front as well.  That being said, I really should have bought this neat looking little unit.

Pioneer SX-60 Receiver

Pioneer SX-60 Receiver Specs

According to HiFiEngine, this was an 80 watt per channel, 8-ohm speaker, receiver.  According to the backplate, it can handle speakers with impedance from 6 Ohms to 16 Ohms.  The front controls are super simple with buttons for Video, CD/Aux, AM, FM, and Phono.

Pioneer SX-60 Receiver Reviews

While the audiophiles over on AudioKarma.org derisively refer to the SX-60 as an example of "Pioneer Plastic" from the 1980s, there are no complaints about sound quality at all.  Actual owners seem happy with the sound and the super low bargain price. 

Pioneer SX-60 Backplate

If you are looking for an inexpensive entry into dirt cheap audio, a Pioneer SX-60 might be an attractive option. At least, you'd get a nice silver face.

Pioneer SX-60 Receiver Manuals

If you are looking for a Pioneer SX-60 service manual, elektrotanya.com has one here.  The HiFiEngine has the user manual.

Vintage Speaker Encounter: Scott SP1412 Floor Standing Speakers

Once you decide to be a sane human being, a responsible married man, and good neighbor in an apartment complex, huge speakers show up everywhere. For example, I recently ran into these big Scott SP1412 Floor Standing Speakers.

 

They were a tad ratty and would need new surrounds and new grill cloth for sure.  But, they might not have been a bad buy for the $20 or $30 that Goodwill was asking.  Fortunately, speaker grill cloth isn't too expensive for hobbyists to buy on Amazon.



Pardon the dust, but people back the grills we must.  These Scott speakers do look bad ass in a very vintage way.

These speakers also need new surround foam.  Generally speaker refoam kits are also not too expensive on Amazon. It's just a matter of patiently giving the old speakers the TLC that they need.  Since they are 8-ohm impedance speakers, they should easily work with one of my stereo receivers.

My Thrifty Stereo: Evolving A Small Stereo System

With our recent move, my stereo setup has evolved significantly.  It's shrinking.  We're down to just two components:  a receiver and a DVD player.  

 

Stereo Components That Disappeared

 

Where did it all go? We donated the vinyl, the record player, the tape deck, and our super huge speakers before the move.  Our CD player simply  disappeared.  We suspect that our movers stole it.  My Insignia multi-CD changer was one of the few components that I bought new.  My big Technics receiver didn't take the move well and started acting up.  Crazy huh?

 

Current Stereo Configuration

 

But, new technologies and configurations are now in play.  Our stereo now sits in our office between two computers.  We've also discovered streaming audio from Amazon Prime on my smartphone.  My wife prefers to watch music videos on Youtube.  All of this can be piped into the receiver via a simple Y-cable.

The humble Technics SA-160 receiver works very well in a small space.  I have it connected to a pair of JBL N24 Northridge bookshelf speakers.  An aging DVD player serves as a CD player.  Playing CD's one at a time seems sufficient for now.

 

The Future of Our Stereo

 

What's next?  I do want to get a newer CD player at some point.  However, other components can wait.  I don't see getting back into vinyl any time soon.  We're thinking compact.  I would like to get a streamlined compact antenna and avoid the messy wire T antenna.  I would also like to get a component that is dedicated to streaming music well.  It should be an interesting evolution.

Vintage Speaker Encounter: BSR DR-1550R Five-Way Floorstanding Speakers

Do I want to undertake a restoration project?  It's the question I asked myself when I found a set of big BSR DR-1550R Five-Way Floor Standing Stereo Speakers at Goodwill.

These 150 watt monsters needed some new surrounds.  But the cabinets and grills looked good.  With a little TLC, they might turn out to be great speakers, but they aren't particularly practical for apartment life.

According to this thread on Audiokarma.org, these speakers aren't really audiophile models, but they are loud.  With up firing tweeters, they are an interesting design for sure.  While audiophiles might scoff at them, plenty of regular folks have been pleased by these sorts of speakers.  Plus, 15-inch woofers don't grow on trees.

Ultimately, I left these for someone else to find, chrerish and restore.  For those about to rock, we salute you.

Tiny House Home Audio: Stereo Speaker Options for Small Spaces

A tiny house offers some interesting options for home audio. In a traditional house a stereo could be set up in any of several rooms with many different acoustic qualities.  In such a case, the flexibility of floor-standing speakers and a moveable stereo cabinets makes sense.  However, in a tiny house, designers and architects can know exactly which rooms will be listening spaces before the house is built.  Since floor space is at a premium, a traditional stereo cabinet and floor-standing speakers would be intrusive.  Since the stereo will be entertaining in a small space, speakers don't have to be huge or super powerful.

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

In a tiny house, it makes sense to plan for home audio in the design phase of the project.  For example, in a tiny house, it is easy to envision three distinct listening spaces:  the living room, the sleeping loft, and the outside.  Speakers can be built into the tiny house during construction to optimize the listening experience and minimize space requirements.

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

In-Wall Speakers for Tiny Houses

There are many options for speakers that would work well in a tiny house.  One of the most practical options has to be in-wall speakers. These speakers typically have white grills and are made to be built right into walls.  On Amazon, they range in price with low cost makers like Pyle and Micca leading the way and well-respected higher cost brands like Polk Audio being well represented in the mix.  If you don't have white walls, you may be able to spray paint the speaker grills in a color that is more suitable to your tiny home's pallet. These Micca M-6S 2-way In-wall Speakers and grills that are designed to be painted. As of November 2025, you can get these Micca M-6S Speakers (shown below) here from Amazon.

Bookshelf Speakers for Tiny Houses

Alternatively, many book shelf speakers are also mountable on walls or on beams within a tiny home.   Most bookshelf speakers are actually small enough to fit unobtrusively on bookshelves or even fireplace mantles. The key is to get speakers that provide sound quality that will be pleasant and that will enrich your life. You can almost always find dirt cheap bookshelf speakers at your local thrift store. However, if you want new and dust free, there are some inexpensive options on Amazon.

Outdoor Speakers for Tiny Houses

When you commit to the tiny house lifestyle, you are committing to spending much of your actual living time outside.  When the weather is pleasant, there is no reason not to cook outdoors, enjoy the front porch, or dine at a nearby picnic table.  When you do, there is no reason that music can't be part of your experience.  Weatherproof speakers could be mounted on the exterior of a home to provide music on a porch or adjacent picnic area.  Some varieties of all weather speakers can be pointed to provide the sound stage where outdoor listeners will enjoy it most.

Bluetooth Speakers for Tiny Houses

Finally, don't forget bluetooth wireless stereo speakers While many audiophiles turn their noses up at wireless speakers, they are improving all the time.  In transitioning to a small space, it's quite likely that you will already have digitized your music library into MP3 files or that you will use a streaming audio service.  Records, CDs, and cassettes take up valuable space.  Streaming audio and bluetooth connectivity may be the perfect combination for a tiny home.

Amazon Tap

Finally, when it comes to music, tiny house dwellers may be able to go without a full-sized stereo, without a laptop, and without a tablet.  Intelligent new devices like Amazon Echo combine a nice sounding speaker and a voice-enabled device.  By simply typing the device and asking via voice, listeners can get music from Amazon Prime Music, Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or TuneIn.  It uses Amazon's Alexa technology in a very small package.

It's fun to imagine how life will change, improve, and simplify in a tiny house.  When you downsize to a small space, lots of big options open up.

Audio Product Review: AmazonBasics Speaker Wire from Amazon

I was having issues with one of my vintage Technics stereo receivers and was hearing a bit of scratchiness coming from one speaker.  Since my speaker wires were in sad shape, I opted to get some new speaker wire from Amazon.  I chose a 50-foot spool of AmazonBasics 16 gauge speaker wire.  If you really want to go to town a 100-foot spool is also available.

AmazonBasics 16 gauge Speaker Wire

My Amazon Ordering Experience

I hadn't ordered speaker wire from Amazon before.  However, since I didn't want to trek over to Best Buy or Walmart, I figured that I would give it a shot.  Since we have an Amazon Prime membership, I thought I would get free shipping. I did. I got amazingly fast free shipping.  I placed my order on the evening of February 22nd and I it was delivered on February 24th. 

Amazon Speaker Wire Installation

The 16 gauge speaker wire was a little thicker than the wire I was replacing.  Even though one of the two wires has a white stripe in the case, I found it somewhat difficult to distinguish between which was the red wire and which was the white.  However, I have that trouble with almost all speaker wires.  Since I was only using a short length of wire for each speaker, I managed.  The wires fit into the back of my receiver without any issue and I confirmed that the receiver had an issue.  Fortunately, I still had my Technics SA-160 on hand.  So, I simply switched out to this more compact receiver.  I still had no problem attaching my new speaker wires to it.

Amazon Speaker Wire Performance

When it comes to speaker wires and other stereo wiring, there is a lot of hocus pocus in the audiophile world.  AmazonBasics products are just basic electronics commodity products and no astounding claims are made.  As far as my ears can tell, my JBL Northridge speakers sound just fine with the 16 gauge AmazonBasics speaker wire installed.