Shaw Manor · Down the Cellar Stairs, Follow the Bass

The Radio Room

Where the manor keeps its stereos, its turntable, its Walkman, and every phone that ever rang in somebody’s pocket.

from the Tape Vault →

Every manor has a room where the wires go. This one has a tower of decks taller than a kid, a turntable mid-spin, a yellow Sports Walkman, and a booth of old phones, from a Motorola brick to the rabbit r1. Captions come only from what’s printed on the gear. Click any photo to look closer, and press Press play to spin a random song from the Tape Vault.

Corner I

The Tower

Seven machines stacked on a Pioneer subwoofer, read top to bottom. A Run-D.M.C. tape sits on the summit.

A tall stack of black hi-fi components on a Pioneer subwoofer: a Pioneer double cassette deck, a Pioneer DVD player, an APEX DVD player, a Panasonic VHS and Blu-ray combo, a Pioneer LaserDisc player, a Pioneer 101-disc CD changer and a Pioneer THX receiver, with a Run-D.M.C. tape on top.
The Tower

Top to bottom

  1. PIONEER STEREO DOUBLE CASSETTE DECK CT-W701RDOLBY B·C NR · HX PRO · AUTO REVERSE
  2. Pioneer DVD PLAYER DV-52596kHz 24bit D/A Converter
  3. APEX MODEL AD-500WDVD
  4. Panasonic DMP-BD70VVHS · Blu-ray Disc
  5. PIONEER CD CDV LD PLAYER CLD-D604LaserDisc · KARAOKE
  6. Pioneer FILE-TYPE COMPACT DISC PLAYER PD-F908101-DISC CD FILE · 1-BIT
  7. Pioneer AUDIO/VIDEO MULTI-CHANNEL RECEIVER VSX-84TXSiTHX · display reads DOPLIIx MV +THX
ON TOP: RUN-D.M.C. · RAISING HELL
A second stack of components: a TEAC CD player and reverse cassette deck, a Toshiba DVD recorder, a Panasonic Omnivision VCR, an AIWA cassette deck, an NEC four-head VCR, a Pioneer Elite DVD player and a Pioneer Elite receiver, with round numbered stickers on several.
The Second Stack

Round stickers read 34, 40 and 33. The bottom receiver’s model number couldn’t be read.

READS: TEAC AD-800 · TOSHIBA DVD-RW/+RW · Panasonic Omnivision PV-2501 · AIWA AD-WX707 · NEC DIGITAL ExacTrac 4-HEAD HiFi · Pioneer ELITE DV-37 · Pioneer ELITE
Corner II

The Listening Post

The whole rig at once: wood-grain speakers with red woofers, a Pac-Man rug, a Pepsi-Cola cooler and a clapperboard by the big screen.

see also the Pac-Man rug’s cousins in the Game Room arcade →

The full listening corner: the Pioneer tower on its subwoofer between two wood-grain floor speakers with red-ringed woofers, small black speakers on top, a big TV showing a jet, a red portable TV, a clapperboard, a Pepsi-Cola cooler and a Pac-Man style rug.
The Whole Rig

The subwoofer’s model number isn’t readable.

READS: SURROUND SOUND ACTIVE SUBWOOFER SYSTEM · Pioneer · PEPSI-COLA
A wood-grain floor speaker with a tweeter above a large woofer with a bright red surround and a round bass port below.
Stealth Series

The brand name isn’t printed on the badge, so we don’t guess.

READS: STEALTH SERIES
Corner III

The Turntable & the Hidden Multimedia Closet

Vinyl, mid-play and on deck, and the Hidden Multimedia Closet, the glass-shelved cabinet where the JVC lives on the bottom shelf.

A JVC turntable with a record on the platter, a Quiet Riot Metal Health album leaning beside it, and a receiver and wood-grain speaker behind.
JVC, Mid-Spin

The turntable’s model number is too small to read.

READS: JVC · QUIET RIOT · METAL HEALTH · receiver reads 96k+DOPLIIx MV
The soundtrack LP for 2001: A Space Odyssey, a space station floating over the title.
2001: A Space Odyssey
READS: MGM Records · Deutsche Grammophon · Music from the Motion Picture Sound Track · 2001 a space odyssey · A STANLEY KUBRICK PRODUCTION · CINERAMA · S1E-13 ST · STEREO
A tall black cabinet with glass shelves holding a Pioneer CD changer, a TEAC CD and cassette deck, a Sony DVD recorder, a Panasonic Blu-ray and VHS combo, an HP EliteDesk computer, a Pioneer LaserDisc player, an Onkyo receiver and a JVC turntable.
The Hidden Multimedia Closet

Model numbers on the Pioneer changer, the Sony recorder and the Onkyo receiver couldn’t be read.

READS: PIONEER · TEAC AD-800 · SONY · Panasonic DMP-BD70V · hp EliteDesk · PIONEER CLD-D604 · ONKYO · JVC
Corner IV

The Walkman

Before phones played music, this did.

A bright yellow Sony Sports Walkman cassette player with a clear window over the tape and yellow earbuds coiled beside it.
Sony Sports Walkman

Sony Sports Walkman

Bright yellow, with a clear window over the tape, an FM/AM radio, and yellow earbuds coiled beside it. No model number is visible, so it stays just “the Sports Walkman.”

READS: SONY · SPORTS · WALKMAN · FM/AM · OPR/BATT
Manor lore · unverified

Rumor says the tape inside is the same one it left the shop with.

Corner V

The Phone Booth

Old cell phones Shaggy actually carried, ending with the newest gadget on the shelf, each lifted onto a dark backdrop. Names come from what’s printed on them; where only “MOTOROLA” shows, that’s all we call it.

A grey Motorola flip phone with a pull-up antenna, a small green display and a fold-down mouthpiece flap.
Motorola Flip Phone

Only the name is printed, so that’s all we call it.

READS: MOTOROLA
A black Motorola Talkabout two-way pager flipped open, with a wide display above a full QWERTY keyboard.
Motorola Talkabout
READS: MOTOROLA · TALKABOUT
A red Nokia candybar phone with a grey screen and a curved keypad, a Cingular logo below the keys.
Nokia in Red
READS: NOKIA · cingular
A slim silver Motorola flip phone, opened, beside an older iPhone with a home button in a black case.
Motorola Flip & an iPhone

The iPhone’s model isn’t printed anywhere we can see.

READS: MOTOROLA
A square orange rabbit r1 with a screen showing a rabbit mascot, 1:35 and 88 percent battery, and a scroll wheel on the right.
Newestrabbit r1

The newest gadget in the booth. Its name isn’t printed on the case.

READS: 88% · 1:35

Overheard in the Radio Room

Manor lore · unverified
  • They say the LaserDisc player spins up on its own at midnight, just to check the discs are still there.
  • Rumor has it the 101-disc changer has never once played disc 101.
  • If a flip phone rings in the booth, don’t answer. Nobody has had that number in years.
  • The tape on top of the tower has been on side A for as long as anyone remembers.

Pinned up by the night staff. None of it checks out, and that’s the point.

Down the Hall

Elsewhere in the Manor

The televisions moved across the hall to their own room, and two more gadgets from this shelf live with the cameras.

Across the hall to the TV Room →The three-screen Sony console, the Now Showing set, the LaserDiscs and the General Electric portable. See it in the Camera Obscura →The Fisher-Price PXL2000 camcorder and the action camera on its gimbal are filed with the cameras. Over to the Game Room →Arcade cabinets, pinball and board games, one door down.