Ah, the dreaded thump! In my second build I included a 2-pole switch in the output, that I would throw after turn on, and before turn off!
I really want one of those now.
The first music system I ever bought. I sold it to a mate when I got a job and replaced it with a stack of Technics separates.
I’m absolutely loving this thread so here goes. I’ve had a long relationship with my music, now enjoying a Naim, but have very fond memories of listening and tweaking, I once made all the electricity cut out in our lane when I wondered if I could power a radio by taking out the battery and connecting the cable to the wall socket! It was quite a bang, enough to bring in my parents from outside as it was the Queens Jubilee in 1977, I was 4.
I’ll try to list as many systems as I can;
Alba Record Player with BSR Deck.
Frisco Disco.
ITT Record Player KA 1026.
Sanyo Music Center G1005 (I took it to my Grans’ for a family occasion, I was very proud).
Matsui Midi System.
Panasonic Midi System SG-D16.
Goodmans 5200 System (First separate components, pretty poor really, I thought it was amazing).
Early 70s at school. You could dial a telephone number to hear a top 20 chart song and we used to hold the telephone earpiece to the machine to record it. Stopped after parents got the phone bill .
Early 70s for me as well - Happy memories of recording the top 20 pop chart from the radio on a Sunday night.
ATB. George
Circa 1979 we tripped over to Russ Andrews in Edin. and came back with a Rega 3/Ortofon VMS10/Nytech 225XD, but could not afford any speakers. So we hooked them up to some Rigonda ones, and were totally taken back how good these cheaper-than-chips speakers sounded when driven with authority. Genuine firm stereo imaging, front-to-back depth and some semblance of dynamics to boot.
Over the years I have repeated some ‘stupid speaker tricks’, including running a pair of JC Pennys speakers with an Audio Research D70mk2 for a couple months.
I suppose it’s off-topic as it’s not long gone, still being here. But I haven’t touched it in about 25 years.
Best
David
Used to have a pair of Tannoy reds at one point…amazing, oh and a pair of Tannoy Super reds. Which I loaned to a mate, who then moved house and chucked them…not my mate now !!
So this one is long gone. It was my first proper tape recorder and I got it from my Dad when he acquired something better. This is a Ferrograph 632H. The H meant 15ips top speed, which was magic quality-wise but cost weeks of pocket money and paper rounds per half hour of tape! I remember one Easter school holiday when I cut the Hawthorne hedges around my parents’ garden, which took me a week or so, and I got one reel of tape that mum bought for me. I think I was 18 at the time.
David, it looks like it was built to survive a nuclear war, or on tour with a band.
It was a proper professional deck. It weighed about 60 kgm. It was stereo, but used all of the quarter inch tape, so you couldn’t turn the tape over for another pass like on many home hifi decks. Ferrograph did make a version that did that, the 634. But you suffered from all sorts of quality issues if you went that way, especially crosstalk between the two different recordings, but also tape hiss and difficulty keeping the hf response good.
Best
David
And from 1978, the original Michell Focus One with GH228 arm and Sonus Blue Label cartridge, purchased from Subjective Audio in Palmers Green for circa 224 UKP.
“The smashing CDS1”. I agree. It was certainly better than the CDS2 and probably the CDS3, although both the latter machines could probably have shown the CDS1 a clean pair of heels if they’d been powered by a 555PS.