So after the diversion on the 300 Listening Experience thread I thought it may be sensible to start a thread for those who have an interest in old (ish) computers. Whilst I am not a computer buff myself I do have an interest in old computers particularly Tunny, Robinson and Colossus. Others may be more interested in post war computers such as WITCH and EDSAC or possibly even newer ICL mainframes, minis or Elliott 803,903 etc etc.
Feel free to contribute and if you can link it to our interest in HiFi, particularly Naim, then so much the better.
My first attempt at streaming was before any streamers were available; I don’t even think it was called streaming then. I connected the optical SPDIF output from my PC to the optical input on a CD writer. I was blown away by the uplift in SQ, circa 1997
My first home computer was an MSX made by Goldstar (now LG) a market the Japanese did not do that well in.
I have those too! Used with a BBC micro which I sadly killed a while back (or at least the PSU died in a puff of smoke, potentially repairable I think).
Have a look at the TNMOC website. They have a classroom setup with 20 or so BBC micros all linked together for teaching purposes like in the 1980s. My understanding is that there is still a fair amount of people using and repairing these machines.
Seem to recall some people used them to control synthesisers and making of music. Personally I used my BBC to learn a bit of BASIC programming and to play Elite - still available today (Elite that is).
You may be thinking of the Acorn Music 500 synthesizer. I’ve still got one somewhere but never scratched the surface with it. At least I think that’s the version I had.
Also if you want to re-live some BBC fun this is a great emulator written in javascript - once you figure it out you can select game images online and play many retro games. Impressive.
Memories of Jonty Harrison demonstrating the Fairlight Musical Instrument at Birmingham University in 1981. Part of the demo involved picking up a set of keys and recording them being shaken. The individual sounds could then be separated and arranged in different patterns. The Fairlight was new in 1979, so cutting edge. https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/fairlight-cmi-playlist/
Peter Gabriel is said to have bought the first one in the UK.
I was a literature student, but it was a fascinating experience. I learned to program in SNOBOL which was designed to manipulate and analyse written language.
The demo of Tony Sale’s rebuilt Colossus 11 at Bletchley is amazing. Visitors to Bletchley Park should note that the National Museum of Computing is now entirely separate and requires its own entrance fee.
