Realistic is a brand produced by

RadioShack RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921. At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Austra ...

, a division of

Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, ...

, to market audio and video products for home use. The brand name was phased out in the mid 1990s and discontinued in 2000, then returned briefly in 2016.

History

The brand began in 1954 under the name ''realist'', but was subsequently changed due to a prior camera trademark,

Stereo Realist The Stereo Realist is a stereo camera that was manufactured by the David White Company from 1947 to 1971. It was the most popular 35 mm stereo camera ever manufactured ''Amazing 3-D'', pages 32 and 51. and started the era of popular stereo p ...

. The company's most notable products under the Realistic brand included the extensive line of TRC series

Citizens Band radio Citizens band radio (also known as CB radio), used in many countries, is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance person-to-many persons bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two way radios operating on ...

transceiver In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. The ...

s, which dominated the

CB Radio Citizens band radio (also known as CB radio), used in many countries, is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance person-to-many persons bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two way radios operating on ...

market during the 1970s, and included the Navaho series of CB

base station Base station (or base radio station) is – according to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR) – a "land station in the land mobile service." The term is used in the context of mobile telephony, wireless com ...

units. A 1977 motion picture entitled ''

Handle with Care A handle is a part of, or attachment to, an object that allows it to be grasped and object manipulation, manipulated by hand. The design of each type of handle involves substantial ergonomics, ergonomic issues, even where these are dealt wit ...

'' was sponsored at the time by Tandy Corporation, in part to showcase the line. Also notable were their

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, wh ...

recorders under the TR- model line and their compact cassette decks under the SCT- model line. They are also the company responsible for the Realistic Mach speaker line. A very wide range of products was marketed under the Realistic brand. These included

record players A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

stereo receiver In radio communications, a radio receiver, also known as a receiver, a wireless, or simply a radio, is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information carried by them to a usable form. It is used with an antenna. T ...

cassette deck A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio cassettes that does not have a built-in power amplifier or speakers, and serves primarily as a transport. It can be a part of an automotive entertainment system, a part of a ...

ham radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

s, musical synthesizers and a few

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

receivers and

shortwave radios Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (10 ...

Optimus

In the early 1990s, the Realistic brand began to change its name to Optimus, a brand of speakers RadioShack had been offering since the 1970s. Both Realistic and Optimus brand names were retired in 2000 after RadioShack entered an agreement with

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

to market their products."Tandy to Replace House Brands With RCA," ''The Associated Press'', Friday, May 14, 1999.
/ref> Realistic Quatravox

Realistic enjoyed a short-lived return to RadioShack's stores in 2016 with a line of wireless bluetooth speakers and wireless noise-canceling bluetooth headphones.

Quatravox

Quatravox was the name of Realistic's synthesized four-channel output version of

quadraphonic sound Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

, which used Hafler circuitry to reproduce ambient sounds recorded by the microphones 180° out-of-phase with the intended recording (sounds recorded from opposite the microphone from the performers, i.e., studio echo, audience noise, etc.) and play them back through the rear

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or " ...

s out-of-phase with the main loudspeakers. The effect is a greater degree of separation that stereo sound, as the listener is able to hear echoes, applause, and other ambient sounds from ''behind'' (as opposed to in-front and thus out-of-phase with the main speakers and inaudible), even with stereo recordings. However, this degree of separation is not as great or as flexible as that of truly discrete quadraphonic sound.

Models

The Realistic DX-60 is a multiband radio. The radio receives 3 MHz to 27 MHz AM shortwave in three bands, 26.965 MHz through 27.405 MHz HF CB in one band, 540 kHz to 1620 kHz standard

AM broadcast AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmis ...

in one band, and 87 MHz to 108 MHz

monaural Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...

standard broadcast FM. The DX-60 existed in two versions, model 12-764 and a nearly identical but production-cost-reduced 12-764A. The Realistic Patrolman SW-60 and the Realistic CB-60 are similar in overall appearance but cover different sets of bands. File:Vintage Realistic 8 Leather-Cased Transistor Radio, Made By Toshiba, 8 Transistors, Made In Japan, Circa 1959 (14201354714).jpg, Realistic 8 Transistor Radio, Circa 1959 File:Nikko TRM-800 amp & Realistic STA-240 receiver.jpg, Realistic STA-240 receiver with a Nikko

TRM-800 The TRM-800 was a high-end solid state integrated stereo amplifier made in Japan, using NEC power transistors, by Nikko. It was the top-of-the-line model in the Nikko amplifier range of TRM's series; housed in a wooden walnut-finished cabinet an ...

amplifier File:Realistic stereo mixing console - Sir Theo, Belgaum, India (2011-11-23 08.39.23 by julian correa).jpg, Realistic stereo mixing console File:Shure 588SD.jpg, Shure 588SD microphone, branded as Realistic Highball, circa 1970 File:Realistic Nova 40 Headphones.jpg, Realistic Nova 40 Headphones. File:Realistic FM Cordless Room Monitor.jpg, Realistic FM cordless room monitor. File:Realistic TRC-206.jpg, Realistic TRC-206 CB, 3 channels. File:Realistic TRC-207.jpg, Realistic TRC-207 CB, 4 channels. File:Realistic and RadioShack TRC-222.jpg, (From left to right) Realistic and RadioShack model TRC-222 File:Realistic desk microphone stand.jpg, Desk miccrophone stand with box

References

External links

RadioShack / Realistic Catalog Archive (1939-2005)
* Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States Defunct brands RadioShack American companies established in 1954 Manufacturing companies established in 1954 Radio manufacturers {{Sound-tech-stub