Maybe it isn't directly comparable, but modern bluetooth speakers perhaps are a better comparator. They always sound both fuzzy because bluetooth and strained as well. Also, built in Li-ion batteries. Once those are expired, it's all ogre. You can't easily replace the battery because it's a sealed unit. Granted you could plug it in but that precludes the portability of the unit. While with an old boombox (or a Walkman for that matter - and yes, there are original Sony Walkmans from 1979 that are still going today) you just insert a fresh sheaf of alkaline batteries and off you go. Or if you have rechargeables put those on the charger and insert your other set.
Either way, it all dovetails with my point about the throwaway nature of modern tech and society in general. Like you say, your iPhone is designed to make repair difficult. And we know that this is intentional because Apple got in hot water for retrospectively bricking all iPhones that were repaired by people other than them - which is low. I mean, I can accept that it might void the warranty to do that but bricking them out of spite? That's low. Those bluetooth earbuds? What happens to those when the Li-Ion batteries wear out? Fancy fixing those? Not gonna happen.
Alan Sugar (yes, that one) made his first successes in the 1970s selling hi-fis. He had a phrase to describe his products - the Mug's Eyeful. Basically, in the 70s the hi-fi system of choice was a big ol' stacker. You had your amp, your speakers, your tape deck, your reel to reel deck if you were into that sort of thing, your radio, and your turntable, and they were all designed to be in flat metal cases so you could pile them up and with standard plugs on the back. They sounded pretty nice and used quality components. They were expensive, but if you were at all serious about listening to music in general and not in just a wanky audiophile kind of way, they were sought after. For the more budget oriented listener there were all in one systems, like say a battery turntable, a tape and radio receiver, and suchlike. However they looked (and were) cheap, but if you were on a budget or undiscerning they were good enough. Alan Sugar's innovation, such as it was, was to make an all in one hi-fi with a turntable on the top, a twin tape deck in the middle, a radio and amp on the bottom, and two speakers thrown in, but styled to look like it was separate components all stacked up. So you had a cheap and not particularly nice sounding system, but to the untrained eye and ear it looked like you had a proper stacker hi-fi. That is the Mug's Eyeful - to a mug, it looks more impressive than it is.
Those modern Crosley Cruiser turntables that all the teenagers seem to like are a mug's eyeful. Techmoan did a video about how he imported the mechanism for it from China for ten quid. But one of those Crosleys costs seventy or eighty quid. They cost probably almost nothing make (economies of scale, using cheapshit turntable mechs and speakers and a few feet of thin gauge wiring, then podge them into a cheap looking briefcase and off you go) but are sold for way more than that. And most of the cost of manufacture is the styling. Like I said, the Mug's Eyeful.
The same applies to clothes for this matter. Marks & Spencer here in the UK used to be middle of the road clobber that was solid and well made. The suit I wore to my first job interview for a training contract was a pinstripe from M&S (I got the job, if you must know) and it lasted for three to four years. But replacement M&S suits have been shit. The fabric is like tissue paper. And they still cost the same as they used to, but they look sharp and fashionable.
I cannot afford a Savile Row jobbie, much as I'd like to (when the coof is over and we've got more money coming in I am going to save up for one) so I go to a local menswear shop near me. I spend about two to three times as much as I would on an M&S suit. It isn't quite as sharp looking or trendy and they don't have impeccably groomed male models in the posters showing it off. But it's tough and hardwearing and feels robust. Once again, the Mug's Eyeful.
Sites like Wish and Ali Express trade almost exclusively on the Mug's Eyeful.
