Best looking vintage Hifi gear

Snap. We had one more integrated amplifier after this and then put a first foot on the Naim ladder. Get up in the loft, it might be hiding up there somewherešŸ˜€.

Well I suppose the designer was Dr Martin Thomas. A bit more memorable than calling it The Poweramp :slightly_smiling_face:

A fabulous deck, indeed! However, Iā€™m not sure Iā€™d call it the best looking deck. For me, that would be either the SPJ La Luce, or the full acrylic plinth Gyrodec with an SME IV or perhaps the Oracle Delphi, also with an SME IV.

Hang on a minute, could the SME IV actually be the best looking piece of vintage Hifi gearā€¦?

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I had the same thinking

I agree, not the best looking deck, but cool enough. The SME IV/ V are indeed beauties.

My first amplifier attached to LP12 basik K9 and Mordaunt Short MS20 in 1981

Myst tma3

Minimalist inside and outside.

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Outside Volume and input selectors gorgeous (to me) blue case and brushed steel fascia.

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Inside- Star earthing, minimum signal path
1% metal film resistors, ALPs, polystyrene caps, glass fibre pub

Great sound wish I could have kept it but changed for 62/90

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I donā€™t think anyone has mentioned that the most obvious thing about this photo is that it is reversed! It is indeed a Quad 22 control unit. You can see that the balance control is hard over in one direction. And it is a Quad FM tuner sometimes called the FM ll (not FM2 which was something else entirely). There would have been a Quad ll power amplifier somewhere.

But the large knobs are on the left hand side of the tuner and control unit as shown below, not the right as shown in that photo!

And that same publicity photo of yours seems to be the source for this Quad leaflet:

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That looks great, inside and out!

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My friends parents had a B&O CD player on the wall in their kitchen which I always thought looked rather cool. They had a B&O CRT TV as well and you could rotate it on its base using the solid block of metal remote (you could hammer nails in a wall with that thing)

s-l600

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I had one many years agoā€¦ I wish I had one now, nice sounding and yes, pleasantly minimal.

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Shurely shome mishtake, Moneypenny, when ye ken aw along that itā€™sh wan oā€™ these :

Nae contest! :scotland:

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Hereā€™s a pic of my Quad IIā€™s, 22 Pre and tuner, needs a little tlc as you can see, the ESL57ā€™s are in the garage!

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My dad had one of these, with a single Altec speaker in a cabinet he built himself - my first attempt at getting a hifi was rehabilitating that system.

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From the David Bogen Co. of Paramus, NJ.

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Unfortunately I canā€™t see the image as itā€™s broken for my browser, however I can see the description of B&O Beogram 1200 - great choice!

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As mentioned a few days ago, I saved up all my spare pennies for one of these, as I thought they were the coolest looking thing on the planet, at the time.

Certainly not the best sounding turntable, but when you look this good, who cares?

(Shallow person, that I am.) :smile: :man_shrugging:

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Memories, that was my first foray into hifi, Mission Cyrus One (same look, very forward for the time - 1985 in my case), Rega Planar 3. Still a respectable combo with the right speakers, not just designed to look good :wink:

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Same story as @dave-marshall ā€¦saved up from my very meager pay. I was around 17 / 18 and had the coolest looking turntable, the envy of my mates. Sounded fantasticā€¦moved on a lot since those days, Dual, Phillips GA212, LP12 to P8. But the 1202 was the coolest look.
beogram-1202

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Richard posted above that his nicest turntable may be the SPJ . I couldnā€™t found the year of production. I guess itā€™s more than 30 years.
Here a picture of the SPJ La Luce. I like. However knowing the tastes of the forum, I doubt a lot will find it nice.

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Hereā€™s my own Beogram 1200 with the lid off;

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Of course you will know that the correct acronym for these infections is STI- I for infection. I would imagine that the Strathclyde company breathed an huge sigh of relief- if they are still alive :rofl: