I had an Amstrad IC2000 and then replaced it with a Cambridge P50 which together with matching T55 tuner, looked stunning. At least I thought it did.
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Musical fidelity X series.
Both unusual and brutally functional.
Was a little bit sad that I didnāt have enough Ā£Ā£s to snap them up when they were briefly available.
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I tend to bang on too much about ESL57s, but they are wonderful 'speakers.
They have never been bettered, in my opinion (although Guy Lamotteās fabled FL-1 for Naim might have done so).
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So many questions about that ādomesticā photo:
- Why are they only listening to one speaker? Surely they were products of the stereo age?
- Is that the source & amplification in the left hand unit?
- How can concentrate on music with that wallpaper?
If it was a caption competition, my suggestion would be the woman saying āI donāt care how much you paid for this new television, the pictureās rubbishā
Mark
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Hello, Ebor, Iāll reply to your questions, if I may:
1 This famous advertising photo was taken for the release of the ESLs in 1957. This was before stereo records became widely available in the years immediately after 1957. (Incidentally, the official designation of the 'speakers at the time was The Quad Electrostatic Loudspeaker, and they only became known as ESL57s a few years later, to differentiate them from the later Quad ESL63 models.)
2 The cabinet contains a Quad FM3 (VHF) tuner and a Quad 33 control amp. In order to work, the system would have needed a power amp, which at the time would have been the 303. It was common at the time to hide the power amp out of sight, I donāt know why.
3 The walllpaper may look horrible to you, but remember that this photo was taken at a time of post-WW2 austerity and rationing. The function of the wallpaper was to hold the walls up, rather than to look decorative.
Incidentally, even if there were a 303 power amp hiding somewhere out of shot, the system couldnāt work, as there is no cable connecting the ESL to the (hidden) 303.
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I was a fan of the Armstrong 600 series. I even had a 621 amp for about 24 hours or so - I canāt recall what the issue was, but there was a fault fresh out of the box. I changed it for a Technics amp instead, which lasted until 1986, when I started buying Salisbury made products.
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There is a cafe somewhere in North London which I went into a few years ago (pre-Covid), which has an audio equipment repair shop attached. I recall seeing several Armstrong units there for repair, but I donāt know if they serviced only Armstrong units.
It made an impression on me because my first amplifier was an Armstrong (model 625 perhaps?). They were well thought of in the mid-Seventies, but are long gone now.
Nice to show it, sorry to read of itās fate
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The external design (appearance) of the ESL57 was largely down to Christopher Heal (a family member of the family who own Heals department store in London).
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Vintage - my first pioneer, and slightly later the cd1.
Does this make me vintage also or merely old?
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The Nakamichi CD1 playerā¦ I once had one. Nice unit, smooth sounding. A little too smooth perhapsā¦?
regards
H.
I think CD1 here refers to the Cassette Deck 1. A fine deck indeed! I had a Cassette Deck 1.5 that sounded really good (maybe a little bit too good to be true, as it seemed to have a rather nice little bass lift on most tapes). I ended up selling it around 2002 on eBay and was rather disappointed that despite being totally mint (even the box, packaging, manuals, recipe etcā¦) it struggled to make Ā£100. Iād imagine it would make 4 times that nowadays.
I also had a Nakamichi CD1 - the CD player, which was their late '80s entry level unit. I got thrown in to the deal when I bought a pair of Heybrook HB3s and an amplifier that I now forget. It was quite a nice sounding thing although the Marantz that replaced it was superior in most ways.
Indeed Richard that is the cassette Deck 1. My Nak CD player of similar vintage is connected to the Study 252/250 system - the OMS1.
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Thank you Bruss - that was the one, the OMS-1E
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Sugden A48 and tuner.
Tried to upload the tuner pic but accidentally uploaded picture of vintage hifi enthusiast (Me)
with rather more gorgeous partner.
Well at least we werenāt naked! 
A fairly brutal looking thing but quite cute in its own way. The tuner that is, not me.
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Oh, I see. Now that I think of it, mine was the CD2.
Thanks, @graham55 - I didnāt realise ESLs were (just) pre-stereo.
However, Iām not sure I can accept your wallpaper summary! The patterning on the wallpaper and on the carpet plus the flowery picture adds up in my eyes to a clearly aesthetically intended whole. If the wallpaper and carpet were solely pragmatic, why would they be so busily patterned? But thatās irrelevant to the matter of vintage hifiā¦
Mark
Ah, that explains quite a lot in terms of their visual appeal.
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The kit looks like Quad 22 with matching FM tuner, this was valve/tube based equipment and was matched with one Quad II valve power āchassisā amplifier for single channel (mono) use or two Quad IIās if you were decedent and could afford two for stereo.
The preamp was stereo but I doubt if the tuner was, as stereo FM radio broadcasts didnāt start until the mid 70ās in the UK. (I remember watching the red āstereoā LED coming on on my DIY FM tuner for the first time.)
Single channel use was quite accepted in the 50ās, in my system this was the case right up until the mid 70ās refer to exciting LED incident above, even I can remember record sleeves proclaiming āstereoā like it was a grand statement or a novelty. We are spoilt.
The chassis amps would of course have been hidden in any civilized 50ās household and would be today if we were as civilized!
As for the wallpaper, Iāve seen worse 1950ās patterns, just close your eyes.
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