My new old stereo system with incredible sound: Philips FW332

Recently I purchased a Philips FW332 mini system from 1996 second hand. It’s not a particularly great system; it’s a low quality set and was never really desirable. It’s not completely terrible either though. It has a CD-player, an FM/AM radio with digital tuning, and a dual tape deck. The remote can adjust the volume and the amp has these presets for audio ‘profiles’ for jazz, pop and rock that typically all sound nasty. It even has a dedicated button called “Incredible Sound”. Now, who doesn’t want incredible sound from their system?

It was advertised as ‘in working condition’. When I picked it up, the sellers family was just having dinner. They explained they just tested the device that morning and confirmed again that it was working. So I handed them the money and left.

When I came home and tried the system, the tape deck did not work and it makes horrible mechanical noises if you press any of the buttons. The CD tray also does not want to come out on its own. Only if you help the tray, it will open or close. It then does play though. It also comes with an AM/FM radio, where the radio has RDS, which I think was a relatively ‘nice’ feature to have for a radio of the era. The VFD display is a bit dim. It came with its original speakers, with a remote with batteries that seemed to not have leaked.

I guess for sets of the era, it would be the exception if there were no issues with it. A couple of months ago TechMoan posted a video on his channel where he tries to show a ‘micro’ system from 2002 which turned out to be completely broken. However, because the seller explicitly mentioned it was working I assumed it would be. I contacted the seller and mentioned that the system was not really in working condition, that only the radio seemed to work. They refunded my money, which I did not ask for but was a nice gesture. However later on I found out they also gave me a four star review on the second hand website!

In the last year I picked up multiple CD players, tape decks and amplifiers. Some I fixed up, some I sold on, and some I kept. Those were all separate units though, this is the first ‘set’, and I guess of the bunch it is the lowest quality one. It was really filthy inside. I’ll see if I can fix it up a little, it would be nice to get it in a little better shape.