Celebrity System
Bob Seger
Bob Seger is a rock and roll musician with a career spanning more than 60 years. He has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling musicians of all time. He has won Grammy awards, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012.
He also has great taste in Hi-Fi equipment. Here’s a photo of a young Bob Seger with his home system. The photo was likely taken around 1980, which means he would have been around 35 years old when the picture was taken.
Bob Seger’s System
Bob Seger’s Hi-Fi system consists of:
- Sony TC-880 Reel-to-Reel tape deck
- Nakamichi 1000 “Tri-Tracer” cassette deck
- Pioneer SX-1980 receiver
- Unidentified turntable
The Sony TC-880-2 is a half-track tape recorder/player. Capable of tape speeds of 19 cm (7.5 inches) and 38 cm (15 inches) per second, it boasts four Ferrite and Ferrite heads, precision Direct Drive motors, and a sophisticated Closed-Loop/Dual-Capstan system.
The Nakamichi 1000 cassette deck was introduced in the early 1970s and significantly raised the bar for cassette deck performance. Celebrated for its exceptional engineering and audio performance, renowned for its unique three head design, the Nakamichi 1000 allows users to monitor recordings in real-time, enabling precise adjustments for optimal sound quality.
The SX-1980 is a powerhouse of an AM/FM radio receiver that Pioneer introduced in 1978. It was rated at 270 watts RMS per channel into 8 ohms with both channels driven.
If you look carefully at the photo, it seems that Bob has been playing the Clash’s “London Calling” album, which was released in the United States in January 1980. Bridging a traditional punk rock sound and a new wave aesthetic, London Calling reflected the band’s growing interest in styles beyond their punk roots, including reggae, rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock. Lyrical themes included social displacement, unemployment, racial conflict, drug use, and the responsibilities of adulthood. It was met with widespread critical acclaim and has often been named one of the greatest albums of all time.
