In a frenetic digital era, he's helping Angelenos rediscover the classic cassette player

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Stepping into Jr. Market boutique successful Highland Park is similar entering a 1980s clip warp. Built into a refurbished shipping container, it’s filled with everything from tiny Walkman-style portables to colorful, number-flip timepiece radios and, naturally, boomboxes of each sizes. Few are much imposing than the TV the Searcher, a Sharp boombox from the aboriginal ‘80s that features a built-in, 5-inch colour television.

“Try lifting it, it’s truly heavy,” warns Spencer Richardson, the shop’s owner. Indeed, the instrumentality is astatine slightest 15 pounds without the 10 D batteries that powerfulness the unit. He adds, “I don’t deliberation you’re taking this to the formation truthful you could ticker TV portion you perceive to music.”

An affable, hyper-knowledgeable proprietor successful his aboriginal 30s, Richardson repairs and resells analog euphony exertion from the 1980s oregon earlier. In bringing these rehabbed players backmost into circulation, he’s helping others rediscover a philharmonic format erstwhile near for dead. While his hobby-turned-side hustle started arsenic “a gateway to observe sounds” that helium different would not person heard, it present attracts funny customers consenting to driblet $100-plus for a vintage Technics RS-M2 oregon My First Sony Walkman. His customers see older babe boomers and Gen X‑ers nostalgic for the players of their childhood, but astir person been millennials similar himself, drawn to thing tactile and analog successful an epoch erstwhile everything other disappears into the integer ether.

A uncommon Technics RS-M2 stereo vigor portion deck.

Unlike turntables, which person go progressively high-tech acknowledgment to the “vinyl revival” of the past 20 years, astir each cassette players successful existent accumulation trust connected the same, basal portion mechanics from Taiwan, Richardson explains. Though cassette civilization is enjoying its ain play of rediscovery — albeit connected a acold smaller standard — helium hasn’t seen a marketplace look for recently engineered portion decks. And he’s good with that.

“I’m not 1 of those radical that’s like, ‘Why don’t they marque bully caller portion players?’” helium says. “No 1 needs to marque it better. You’re inactive amended disconnected buying a refurbished 1 from the clip erstwhile they made them.”

That’s wherever helium steps in.

Richardson works connected a Nakamichi portion platform retired of his repair workplace successful downtown L.A.

It’s casual to hide that erstwhile cassettes debuted successful the mid-1960s, the exertion was groundbreaking. Not lone were the players acold much portable than turntables but dissimilar records, tapes were resilient to being tossed about. Even much profoundly, cassettes democratized entree to the enactment of signaling itself since cassette exertion required minimal infrastructure and cost.

“I deliberation astir however unthinkable it indispensable person been for radical to recognize they could conscionable enactment immoderate they wanted onto a tape, dub it, springiness it to a friend,” says Richardson.

Entire genres of music, particularly successful the processing world, became acold much accessible crossed borders. In immoderate countries, large records are inactive released connected cassette. “I person a Filipino merchandise of Kanye West’s ‘College Dropout’ connected tape,” Richardson says.

The constraints of the exertion guided the listening experience. Because skipping songs connected a subordinate was a hassle, astir radical sat with cassette albums arsenic a track-by-track, linear journey, the antithesis to the algorithmic, shuffle-centric playlists ubiquitous connected today’s streaming platforms. It’s a gait that Richardson appreciates.

“I privation things to beryllium intentional and slow,” helium says. “I don’t request them to beryllium optimized.”

He learned however to repair cogwheel by watching YouTube videos, perusing aged manuals and done proceedings and error.

Born successful the aboriginal 1990s, Richardson grew up successful Santa Monica and the Pacific Palisades, wherever his mother’s location was mislaid successful the L.A. wildfires past year. He’s conscionable aged capable to retrieve cassettes arsenic a child: “My ma had books connected portion similar ‘Winnie the Pooh,’ but I wasn’t retired buying tapes.” Fast guardant to the mid-2010s and helium was moving astatine the now-defunct Touch Vinyl successful West L.A. “Back successful 2014, we started this small in-store portion label,” helium explained. “Bands would travel to play, and we’d duplicate 10 tapes and springiness them distant oregon merchantability them.” Richardson dilatory began collecting cassettes but aft the store closed a fewer years later, helium realized however hard it was to find radical to work his portion players.

Finally, erstwhile the pandemic deed successful 2020 and everyone was stuck astatine home, helium decided to larn however to repair his cogwheel by watching YouTube.“I was conscionable fascinated by the videos, absorbing soldering techniques and tools you mightiness need,” helium said. With nary ceremonial engineering background, Richardson began collecting accusation online, perusing aged manuals, learning done proceedings and error. “You conscionable request to get your hands successful determination and beryllium like, ‘Oh, OK, I spot however this works,’ oregon possibly I don’t spot however this works, and I’m conscionable going to bang my caput against the wall, and past a twelvemonth later, effort again.” His archetypal palmy repair was for his Teac CX-311, a compact stereo cassette player/recorder that helium inactive owns. “It has immoderate quirks but runs well.”

A fewer years later, Richardson’s girlfriend, Faith, suggested helium commencement selling his players online via an Instagram relationship — jrmarket.radio — primitively created for a short-lived net station. Tim Mahoney, his puerility person and a nonrecreational photographer, changeable the units against a plain achromatic backdrop, arsenic if for an creation catalog. A assemblage of enthusiasts rapidly recovered his relationship and Richardson began selling pieces online and via pop-ups. In 2024, the owners of vintage covering store the Bearded Beagle invited him to instrumentality implicit the parking batch abstraction down their caller determination connected Figueroa St. Opening a brick-and-mortar store hadn’t been his ambition but Richardson accepted the opportunity: “I ne'er envisioned opening my ain carnal store. It’s hard capable to person a retail abstraction successful Los Angeles to merchantability thing that’s precise niche.”

Jr. Market operates arsenic a store Thursday done Saturday successful Highland Park.

Jr. Market — whose sanction is inspired by Japanese convenience stores known arsenic “junior markets” — isn’t trying to entreaty to audiophiles though Richardson does banal studio-quality signaling decks. He chiefly looks for players with appealing ocular design, astir of them made successful Japan wherever Richardson has been traveling to since graduating precocious school. Through those trips, he’s learned wherever to root pristinely-kept gear, including his best-selling Corocasse: a agleam reddish integrative cube of a radio/tape player, introduced by National successful 1983. He besides keeps an oculus retired for the unsocial Sanyo MR-QF4 from 1979, an elongated boombox with 4 speakers, designed to play either horizontally oregon flipped into a vertical tower.

The store besides stocks a tiny enactment of portable grounds players, including a Viktor PK-2, a whimsical, plastic-bodied three-in-one turntable, portion subordinate and AM vigor that looks similar thing designed by a modernist creator for Fisher-Price. That went to section writer and historiographer Sam Sweet, who visited the store with nary volition of buying thing and near with the Viktor, which present sits connected his penning desk. “Spencer’s portion of a expansive contented of store tinkerers and specialty mechanics,” Sweet says. “The refurbished devices helium sells are arsenic overmuch a reflection of his ethos and expertise arsenic they are treasures of the past.”

Last year, Imma Almourzaeva, an Echo Park creation director, came to the store and purchased a monolithic 1979 Sony “Zilba’p” boombox, which is astir 2 feet wide and implicit a ft tall, with wood veneer panels to boot. Almourzaeva, who grew up successful Russia successful the ‘90s, wanted a subordinate that offered “the tactile consciousness of my puerility and bringing it backmost into my regular routine, thing familiar, thing warm.” The Zilba’p is the largest boombox Richardson has carried and Almourzaeva said, “It’s aesthetically a showstopper. Maybe I person a Napoleon analyzable due to the fact that I’m beauteous tiny too. It’s similar ‘go large oregon spell home’ for me.” She shared that she precocious bought a Soviet-era boombox from Richardson for her member for Christmas. “It turned retired my ma grew up utilizing the aforesaid marque of stereo,” Almourzaeva says. Richardson had told her that Soviet boomboxes are “very DIY, much funky and finicky.”

Refurbishment is 1 of Richardson’s specialties, including repairing lawsuit units, each of them a puzzle helium enjoys solving. No substance if a subordinate is sparse oregon feature-packed, the elemental enactment of playing a cassette creates a consciousness of calm and absorption for him. “You’re not distracted, due to the fact that it doesn’t bash thing else,” helium says. In a clip wherever each “smart” instrumentality is marketed with dizzying arrays of features, that simplicity tin consciousness downright revolutionary.

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