Awesome Boomboxes

Liked the looks of TDK’s retro-mod boombox? Their Sound Cube is equally cool, with dual 5-1/4″ coax drivers and two passive reflectors on the sides, filling rooms with sound from the inside out.

TDK will release two sweet retro-futuristic blasters in 2011. Both speakers have USB, 3.5mm and RCA ports, touch-sensitive buttons and analog knobs. In addition, the three speaker model has a subwoofer.

It’s far from being comprehensive, but if you’re into music – especially hip hop – NPR’s short documentary about the origin and legacy of the attention-grabbing gadget is a fascinating watch.

This 80’s-style boombox fits iPod devices, lets you record from the FM tuner to MP3 and save directly to an SD card or USB. Bonus: “D” batteries let you take it on the subway for a delightfully retro ride.

It may look like a ghetto blaster, but upon closer inspection you’ll see it’s made from fabric. Handsewn by Blythe Church, this felt boombox even has a removable plush cassette tape.

The boombox goes modern with Altec Lansing’s MIX: powered by eight D batteries or AC adapter, it features an iPod/iPhone dock, 7-band equalizer, two 5.25″ subs and two 3.5 mm jacks.

Drop beats, not TIE Bombers: this AT AT Boombox is a repurposed JVC mini audio system with a matte black, white and red color scheme that recalls Darth Vader’s chest panel.

Boomboxes are alive and well with Sony’s “Muteki” LBT-ZX66i; made for iPods, it features two three-way bass reflex speakers with a 7″ sub and 1″ tweeter, good for 560 watts.

Old school/80s fanatics will love Lasonic’s iPod boombox, usurping the cassette player with an iPod dock. It also has an SD/MMC card reader, AV output and runs on 10 D-sized batteries.