Those must be some of the fugliest pieces of equipment that I’ve ever seen.
I had one of these Sharp tape decks back in the day. Was pretty decent from what I remember. I think I only changed it to get a dual deck.
The Primare look great, specially the pre
Thank goodness we had a picture or two of the MF X series. For me this ( just about) last century product line was where they peaked.
I had everything in those pictures except the X Pre. Always great value, those cases must have accounted for half their ex factory cost.
The real star of these pictures i have as my power amp( s) driven by my naim source and nac 282. An unusual combination perhaps, but still not bettered to my ears by an power amp naim make. Which sort of disapoints me, but my wallet is happy.
My nu-vista 300s are not exactly factory though. 1300va transformers for each channel, bigger caps and all the power output transistors fitted. ( this was not the case ex factory). Which might be why the two boxes weigh in at over 60kg.
Hope you’re talking about the Sugden amp and tuner , not the rather fetching photo of us on holiday which I momentarily uploaded in error
we had pretty much an identical setup at home when i was a kid, my Dad started out as per the photo with one speaker and after a year or two stereo was next big thing so he bought another - both driven by the Quad 22 Pre (as in photo) and dual mono 11 amps - presumably in the photo the amp was stashed in the cabinet out of sight, we even had the same tuner - mono unfortunately, I still have it all and if I got a windfall I’d get it all refurbed in a flash.
It’s Armstrong Audio in Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow. It’s still there according to my web search.
Blimey, I just looked it up on Maps. I can’t recall it, despite having been past it tons of times when I worked for the Council ( and I live nearish too ).
Nice shot of Armstrong ads/poster in the café:
Think I’ll pop in for a coffee!
If the picture was 1957, the visible equipment has rounded corners, would it not be 22 pre amp, FM2 tuner and hidden away a Quad II power amp?
Of course in those days, speakers would be connected with bell wire hidden under the carpet?
I was indeed. referring to the loathsome Sugden stuff.
I couldn’t see any holiday snaps.
You were saved that torture at least!
I think this picture shows four well designed pieces of hi-fi. The Marantz CD63/Philips CD100, and Quad 34/FM4/405/ESL63. All are visually simple and clear and no larger than they need to be.
I think this may be the place I got my Luxman L81 amplifier repaired at in the 1980’s. Whether it was "Armstrong " then, I can’t remember.
IIRC it’s quite near the junction where the Standard used to be so if you were driving you had to keep your eyes on the road, so it would be easy to miss.
I wonder if vintage Quad tubes amps were similar sonically to the Ear Yoshino amps, because they were both designed by Tim de Paravicini.
Today Quad is made in China. Probably sounding different.
You mean that’s changed?
No-one tells me nuffink any more!
It is very near the junction where The Standard was.
I must have walked past Armstrong’s loads of times…and never saw it. Duh. Usually I’d be on my way to or from meetings so in a bit of a rush, but even so. I don’t know my own backyard as well as I thought!
I’m sure vintage as in original 22 and II designs were Peter Walker, Tim de Paravicini worked on the Quad II Classic in about 2010. Do a search for the Stereophile Art Dudley review and it gives a lot of detail about the circuits and the changes made to the original design.
Nice looking Pioneer. What era was this? When did they go away from the blue face and go to the more silver yellow back light? That’s the era I remember more, and that was the 70’s.
So which of the five products shown is the one that’s, by definition, NOT well-designed?
Back at the beginning of the 1970s when I’d just built my first system, incorporating the Sinclair Project 60 modular amp components, I had my eye on Sinclair’s Neoteric amp as a possible upgrade when I could afford it:
Then a few years later I recall looking into this - Strathearn SMA2 belt drive TT
I thought it looked very modern, and specs were good, but when I tried to find out more it seemed it wasn’t available - apparently the manufacturer was having difficulties (more on this can be found on the internet).
Finally, not hifi but in tge mid 1980s I had a pair of these (not quite the same - mine came without the additional horn on top, so added a box with upper midrange and treble horns. Fantastically efficient (105dB/W), great when driven a bit in large enough venues, but sounded awful at with the miniscule power needed in a lounge at home - though that may have been a limitation of my amp. Good looking? Yes if you like the visual appearance of their pure sense of purpose…