The Audiophile - 1959

Apologies if you have seen this before but I enjoyed it…

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Haaaaaa

They all seem quite normal to me.

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A week’s money on one driver…
Sounds about right to me ?

Well the demograph hasn’t changed, nor has the mains hum at 6:04 :wink:

Pipes at work, more civilised times…

How ridiculously contrived! And why on earth are are they putting a pair of corner speakers well away from the corners?

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Oh for the days when the staff at your local dealer wore white lab coats (1:25) and a proper suit, and BBC engineers smoked their pipes whilst twiddling the dials (4:31). Presumably the presenter is mopping his brow at 4:58 because he’s gone more than 8 minutes without a slug of whisky or a puff of old shag and is getting a bit shaky, but at least his diction is still thoroughly proper.

Once the lockdown is but a distant memory, 8:25 could serve as inspiration for forum members in need of a few shillings to pay for the next crossover - just pop your LP12 in a wheelbarrow, trundle down the High Street playing Dark Side of the Moon and see how much you make. About fourteen pence, I’d estimate.

By the way, the £11 that our friend spends on his electronics would be worth about £250 today.

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I kneel in my cake very often when searching for the sweet spot

This is awesome thanks. My wife and I watched it together. I laughed…she laughed…then it got a little too real… :sweat_smile:

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Yes I’ve seen that clip–ha! good times I recall perusing Comet / Dixons(?) etc on Tottenham Court Road at every opportunity in 1960 drooling all over the windows-bought my first kit Amp a Heathkit stove grey with those ever sharp old Stove type knurled knobs plus-a Leak tuner and a Richard Allen oval speaker.

I was in Pig heaven!

D41

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I think I vaguely remember listening booths in record shops. Was the idea that you could listen before you purchased? Or were there demo copies available to listen to so that you didn’t open a new one?

and don’t forget Lasky’s!

Same here for me in the early 70s whenever I visited my older brother in the South of England for part of my school holidays & would often head into London just to wander around the hi-fi shops there.

I still remember fondly one occasion browsing in ‘Lion House’ (another of the hi-fi shops in Tottenham Court Road in those days) when a rather tall gentleman who wasn’t looking where he was going bumped into me. He immediately turned round and apologised to me. I murmured something like ‘that’s ok’ and would have thought nothing of it until my brother came up to me and asked me if I had recognized the chap. When I looked round again, I could clearly see that it was Michael Caine who was also browsing, accompanied by his wife (or soon to be wife) Shakira.

I wonder what hi-fi kit he uses these days?

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Laskys indeed, bought my first turntable and amp from there. Sony something and Marantz something.

For those that haven’t seen it here’s a more serious video of audiophiles in Greece.

The Audiophile Club of Athens

Yes indeed. Tottenham Court was a must-visit place on the (few) occasions I went to London. Bought my second reel-to-reel (Sony TC645) there in Laskys. Then there were the electronics shops, including Proops. And - true heaven - Buck and Ryan, the tool shop, which sold proper tools from jewellers’ screwdrivers to metal turning lathes. And the staff actually knew about the things they were selling. Sort of AntiB&Q.

Records, unlike the USA, were never sealed here afaik, so what you heard was what you bought (assuming you intended to buy - school friends and I would play the game of “how many records can we get to listen to” - before they twigged we had no money!)

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Was Comet there that early? I didn’t think they were around till later? Lasky’s I recall in Tottenham Court Road in early 70s, but there were a lot of others around that era, though I don’t recall names other than KJ Leisuresound (actually of TCRd, somewhere behind Googe St Station), and also - fitting the video opening this thread, lots of shops selling all sorts of interesting electronic goods, from radio components to army surplus stuff (junk, my wife would say!).

For the first 5 minutes I found it quite amusing, then I realised they were serious! Scary stuff, thank goodness the object of their obsession is relatively harmless. 49 amplifiers in 5 years? I almost feel sorry for people with that sort of affliction. Doomed, in all likelihood, never to be satisfied and content with their system.

Feel like they need an Ethernet mania update video.

“193 cables and 57 power supplies in 4 years”

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Of course they were serious, as fully evident in the final part listening in stereo… :joy: