GE 3-5286A

The 3-5286 is a mid-sized, 4-speaker boombox manufactured by General Electric in 1981 and 1982. It has a classic, old-school appearance, with great-looking knobs and toggle switches. Also, the paint on the metal faceplate has a nice metallic flake in it. But the best thing about this boombox is the beautiful green-edge acrylic used on the tuner and tape window.

It is a very well-built unit, with a 3-piece chassis and plug-in connectors. It is powered by a Rohm BA536 amplifier chip. It is approximately 18.5 inches long and weighs 12.4 lbs (5.6 kg) without batteries. GE decided to upgrade the woofers midway through the production run. Boomboxes with a date code of 1148 and later got the better woofers.

There were several AKA's, including the Universum CTR-2312M, the Salora Sky 820, the Zenith R99, the Realistic SCR-6, and the Ferguson 3T18.

It has a toggle switch that allows you to choose one of 3 settings for the LED meter:

1. Recording level
2. Tuning strength and battery power
3. Off

Here is a video showing one in action:

GE General Electric 3-5286 ghettoblaster boombox radio radiorecorder stereo cassette tape player