1960 Stereo Hi-Fi Ads - What were manufacturers advertising? Watch this video to find out!
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- čas přidán 21. 01. 2024
- The 1960's had a lot of interesting things going on within Hi-Fi. Stereo had just started two years prior, so things were in transition. The record was the king of media, Thorens, Empire and many others were vying for customer dollars. Fisher, HH Scott, Dynaco, Harman Kardon and many others were making great tube gear.
Video link: • 1960 Stereo Hi-Fi Ads ...
Email: stereoniche@gmail.com
Hi-Fi Stereo magazine: www.worldradiohistory.com/Arc...
This video is an interesting trip through history. i am 74 years old and have worked in electronics my entire life. I've built numerous kits including Heath, Knight, and Dynaco. Like others, I jumped on the solid-state bandwagon and ditched all my tube equipment. Seven years ago, that all changed. I built a vacuum tube power amp, line preamp, and phono preamp. I acquired a Empire Scientific 598 turntable and replaced the tonearm with modern low mass unit. I also acquired two H.H. Scott AM-FM tuners, neither of which worked. The problem with both was mainly dirty/corroded tube pins/sockets. Surprisingly, all the capacitors and resistors in both tuners were within tolerances. I really love the sound I get from all of these components and have no desire to go back to solid-state.
Great gear from the 50's onward can sound fantastic.
I'm a 49er also. It's interesting to see what was once thought passe come back. Tubes and mono sound, for example. Mono became a dirty word after stereo came in. But some mono records, like The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album in mono, are big with collectors, some of whom insist that the mono mix sounds better. The worst sound are mono records made to sound like stereo using engineering techniques like reverb. Transistor equipment almost made tubes obsolete. For the past couple decades, some audiophiles like yourself wouldn't use anything but tube amps. Tubes do sound warmer, less clinical, but I could be happy with either.
Hi Scott, I grew up on Long Island in the 1950's and can remember taking the bus into Jamaica, Queens, to go to the Lafayette Flagship store. I could barely afford the bus fare, but I remember looking at all the cool new audio gear. I still have my first HH Scott 299B and 330c ( with the stereo sidecar adaptor). Nothing beat their sounds, when they were attached to Scott S-100 speakers. I still use this system daily. Thanks for your compilation of the 1960's electronics!
Thank you for sharing your experiences and fond memories!....
I am a man of the same type but I live in South Asia.
Very cool!
My dads friend had a Fisher receiver and it got New York from sixty miles away FM yet. We used to listen to Alison Steel "The Nightbird" on WNEW.
Wonderful, I remember a lot more than I thought I would. My father bought an FM Receiver kit in 1959, I don't remember the manufacture. I had a Fisher RS-1035 Stereo receiver I bought from Macy's in the early 70s, I used to work for Harvey Radio, they sold high-end audio and TV's, also supplied the defense industry with electronic parts.
Scott, thanks for taking the time to put together this fascinating retrospective. This is the kind of gear we looked down our noses at in my college days in the late 1970s. If we only we only knew how good the tube gear was!
Same here. Back then, I always looked at anything with tubes are so "old school", surely transistors were better, etc.. Even after college, around '89, I recall seeing a LOT of huge silver faces receivers stacked up in pawn shops and even then, I recall thinking those old analog faces, no remote, so "old school". I guess it takes some age and wisdom to know better. 🙂
@markthomas7124 Yes, I agree with your view!
The Fisher 600 receiver was mainly a console model with EL84 power. How about the KLH speakers. Very popular. In 1960, while in high school. I sold High end Audio in the pre Tandy Radio Shack in Stamford Connecticut. Where they had a dedicated sound room. Only 4 Radio Shack locations then.. At that time Harvey Radio in NYC was very impressive..
Great to see Glaser Steers mentioned! Incredible changers that automatically changed speed according to record size.
Glad to see they are recognized.
Fun video, Scott. I love seeing all these old components. I used to go to Lafayette store near my childhood house in LI. I would browse their catalog then ride my bike there. They actually had McIntosh. I remember seeing it without realizing what it was.
We did not have Lafayette in our area, but Radio Shack was quite similar from what I understand.
Lafayette were larger stores. But similar for sure. They had Ham and CB radios. Scanners, hifi and electronic knickknacks.
@stevezeidman7224 Good memories for you!!
@@stereoniche I had both in my area. Bought product from both. IMHO Lafayette built a stronger, durable and better product.
My dad’s first stereo was a Fisher 400 that he bought on “Radio Row” in NYC back in ‘63. He could only afford the Fisher and one AR2A speaker so he used it as a mono setup for the first two years until he had the scratch to buy the other speaker and a turntable (a Garrard changer). Another neat gizmo was the “Off-A-Matic”, a box that you would plug your record changer and receiver into. It would shut off your receiver when the changer shut itself off.
An early "sleep timer". 🙂
I actually had the dual-dial Scott tuner as featured in that ad. The one I had was a gold face tube unit very classy-looking tho the performance was so-so. Gave $10 for it at Dixie HiFi Charlotte, NC in 1970. Purchased at the same time from Dixie - a really nice Rek 0 Kut belt drive turntable, a pair of Altec 12-inch 3-way floor standing loudspeakers, and a 50 wpc Kenwood receiver - $60 for the lot. Dixie bought and sold surplus radio station and hifi gear. Dixie eventually became Circuit City..
Wow! Really interesting comment. thanks
I remember, in 1960, College, went to a real Hi-Fidelity show at the fancy Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles hotel. 1st class stuff; Marantz, (then almost equal to) MacIntosh, the first electrostats, Ampex recorders, Audio Empire/B&O/Thorens, Shure, Rek-o-kut, etc. Of special note, the JBL Paragon mono speaker assembly ( it would cover an entire L/R end wall). $600-$800 as i recall. Magnificent!!!! I bought, on a 50% sale ($50)- a brand new TEC SS amp/preamp- about 1"x4"x6". Worked great and way better for the money than the typical Sherwoods, etc..... until, 6 months later one of the power transistors blew.- the beginnings of solid state. My brother-in-law had a set of Macintosh amps and tuners, my nephew still uses them today!! I think the 'audio" progression typically evolved from short-wave to AM to 78's, mono wire, then FM, LPs, and then RR tape, finally stereo LPs, FM Stereo and stereo RR tape in the 60's that from then was mostly refined, as SS stuff began to mature. I remember having a wonderful Sony RR Stereo Tapecorder, (SUPERB Heads!) using a microphone to record classical music over the AM radio, then later FM, and thenwonderful pre-recorded stereo tapes. I found out later that both Quincy Jones and Harry Belafonte had the same home models of the Sony recorder- missed it in your ad compilation. I built both a Fisher tuner and preamp/amp as well early on, at about that time. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!!!
Fun stuff!
Very well done. I grew up with this stuff and loved going to Lafayette Radio in Newark, and Radio Row in lower Manhattan and mainly window shopping until ultimately putting together my system (Arkay Integrated amp, Collaro changer, GE cartridge, Lafayette diy enclosure, and Norelco full range 10” speaker.) Quite good sound for a 12 year old in 1955. I wish you were able to find some McIntosh and Marantz ads as they were the undisputed kings of the era.
That was quite the setup for a 12 yo! I'll see if I can dig up some Marantz/Mac ads in a future video.
After 31 years with Pioneer, I am pretty much where I started with McIntosh and Pilot tube gear, but modern speakers, and far superior modern turntable. Sounds wonderful!
Great retro journey for us aging stereophiles. I bought a mess of gear, amps, speakers, decks, turntables to listen to music. Now I have my BOSE Soundlink Flex hooked up to my OLD (out of date) iPhone via CZcams. My trusted stereo shops have all closed.
I have a Kenwood 6400 stereo amplifier that I bought new in the mid-1970s. It is within arms reach and it works as well as the day that I bought it.
A great era of stereo, for sure.
My first set of speakers were AR with a Sherwood amplifier. I would always enjoy looking through the Heathkit catalog, but never had the spare income to buy a kit.
6:20 - ESL references the LP "Persuasive percussion" as a demo for stereo separation. Good choice; all those Enoch Light productions had *NO* 'center channel' to speak of!
Still have 2 Dynaco amps in the closet. Some gems here and, of course, some real dogs. Not everyone should have been in the audio business.
I bought a Fisher receiver in 1968 while I was in the Navy and still have and it still works
Built like Navy ships! :-)
I'd love to see a similar video but mid-late 1970s: Kenwood, Pioneer, Yamaha, Sansui, Marantz, etc. etc. I was born in the 90's but I'm fascinated by that era of home audio equipment.
Indeed, I'll work on one from the 70's, then 80's, etc.
Quite a nice trip down memory lane! I grew up during this early era of Hi-Fi/Stereo equipment. I used to eagerly await my catalogs from Allied Radio, Heathkit, Lafayette, Bursteine-Applebee, Radio Shack and others. I spent hours looking through them, digesting manufacturer's specifications for their gear etc. Also there were Hi-Fi/Stereo magazines that did reviews of equipment and recordings and presented the latest equipment and technology. Most of the available equipment was from US manufacturers, although there were examples from Europe including Norelco, Phillips, Bang & Olufsen, Grundig and Telefunken. In turntables and changers there were the Benjamin-Miracord, Dual, Garrard, Thorens units that developed quite a following. Kits for amplifiers, tuners and receivers were in their prime time when vacuum tubes were dominant. As transistorized equipment was introduced, kits became less popular due partly to the destruction modes transistors can develop.
I really enjoyed this video. Hope you do another one like it!
Already done! Check out 1978 under the video list.
My girlfriend worked at H.H.Scott for a time. I was a Sony guy, (STR-6055 was my dream receiver), so I don't need to tell you how that relationship ended!
🙂
Your best video, many times over. If you stepped into an audio store in 1969, and spent the whole afternoon listening to reel tapes through a Citation II tube amplifier, into KLH 9 elelectrostatics and then went into a coma until today; if after awakening so many decades later, and you stepped into a pretty high end audio store today, would you likely hear sound as good? After finally coming out of a coma, I think you would think "Geez, the sound quality isn't as good as it used to be." They made some great gear back then. Henry H. Scott started calling his company H.H. Scott because the name Herman had become sort of a comical
name. As exemplified by Herman Munster on TV.... Grandpa the Count (Al Lewis), decades later actually ran for Mayor of New York. He didn't succeed. His line "You're a bum, you always were a bum, and you'll never be anything but a bum" worked for his vampire character on the show, but didn't go as well for his political platform. Like Donald Trump, some people would have voted for him, because it would simply be a lot of fun having him in office. Whatever you think of Trump, he was easily our funniest president***. With many asterisks though.
The Citation II amplifier, which many thought was actually THE BEST sounding amplifier back then, with the exception of the Marantz model nine, did come in kit form. It had lots of negative feedback loops, which if well done does not degrade the sound; with tube amps especially. The model nine sounds darker than the Marantz model 8 power amp, but it's still a nicer sound by far. A lot of the Radio Shack stuff from back then was made in Germany & rebadged. Fisher's reputation might have been hurt by offering all in one compact stereos in the 1970s, with the turntable and receiver sitting inside the same chassis. Similarly Luxman, a brand with good status and reputation, were bought out and sold in department stores for a while about 40 years ago. They re-emerged as the pricey esoteric brand that they are today. Factory pre-recorded music from your favorite artists became available in Stereo by 1954 or 1955 on reel tape, beating stereo lps by 2 or 3 years until Audio Fidelity came out with stereo lps in 1957. Reel tape guys were BIG STUFF for a few years. The very first RCA Living Stereo title with Fritz Reiner & the Chicago Symphony doing Strauss music was recorded in stereo in November of 1954 for reel tape people, with lps in stereo on the horizon. Reiner, one of the great cobductors of all time knew Johann Strauss, and they were good friends. No surprise that Reiner was a wonderful interpreter of Strauss's music. They discussed the music together often.
How cool it would be to have a time machine.
@sidesup8286 Thank you for sharing your wonderful experiences and your fond memories! They were fantastic!
I am a 62 year old man living in South Asia but I have the same type of taste as yours about music and hifi. I agree with all your views herein regarding audio but I like to write you that I want to point out about one mistake in your comment. Stereophonic was first introduced to the world in the year 1959 according to my knowledge. Before the year 1959 there could not be stereo recorded sound. Before 1959 it was the experimental period for audio reproduction, culminating in 1959 with stereophonic sound. Therefore it would not be possible to have stereo recorded material like LP's or open reel tapes in the years like 1954 or 1955. I would like to know your views in this regard. Please be noted that I am writing you this message just for the information.
Thank you again!
@sidesup8286 Hello, I hope that you have received my reply comment a few days ago. Any response please!?....
Sansui and Harman Kardon..were my favorite receivers....now I have the Harman Kardon Studio 8 party center made a few years ago.... very nice speaker...it has the same sound my original receiver I had in the 1970s and 1980s... only in portable 😮
A Wollensak reel to reel had a 1/4" mic/input jack that you could plug a guitar into. It made a real cool fuzz tone, we called the set up, swollen sac.
Enjoyed that Scott, well researched and presented, thank you!
Thank You for the time machine back to the year I was born :)
You are welcome. I wonder if in China it would be the year of the Audiophile? LOL
My very first system was a Dual 1009 Turntable with arm (rim drive). The Amplifier was a Star SA30 12 watt per channel tube integrated ( i think this amplifier goes by the name of "Layfeete"in the U.S) The speakers were a pair of Goodmans 12 inch dual cone Axiom loud speakers rated at 15 watts 16 ohm. The speakers came with no cabinets, so i had to build them myself. This was all i could afford at the time. The top system most people would love to own at the time. was a Quad based setup. Thorens turntable fitted wit an SME arm. Shure cartridge. Quad tube preamplifier. Two quad mono tube amps. and the Electrostatic loudspeakers.
That would have been a dream system, even today, for many.
Used to have a Fisher 800-B similar to 14:24 and thumbnail image got me here. Got it at a garage sale and put my money int re-tubing it. Amazing sound...I was back in high school then.
The 800B used 7591A output tubes. These are renowned for their wonderful sound. They were also used by McIntosh, HH Scott, and Eico in select models.
Thanks for this trip down memory lane. I was a teenager in 1960 and was really interested in the hi fi/stereo stuff. Built a couple of Lafayette and Knight kits. You did not mention the FM and AM dials on the tuner dials were separate on many to accommodate the AM/FM simulcast--before multiplex FM stereo. I had an older friend in college at the time who did not believe that a stereo amp was valid stereo. To him, you needed two separate mono amps to be truly stereo!
I had briefly discussed the AM/FM simulcast in a prior video, but it would have been good to mention here as well. So a dual mono setup was the only "real" way to setup a stereo. Well, he was an early critic! 🙂
@@stereoniche He convinced my dad too. Our first home stereo had a Pilot AM/FM mono receiver for one channel and a Stromberg Carlson mono amp for the other channel. Each was about 25 watts. Worked well and sounded good, at least to my teenage ears, and considering the crap my brother and I listened to.
I had an old Hammond organ with an A20 tone cabinet. The amplifier in it was built by Webster Electric. It had a set of 4 2A3 tube finals in it, and 2 Jensen 12in electromagnetic speakers. Built VERY well! IIRC, Webster electric did have some connections to Western Electric
Interesting history!
Dynaco distributed B & O in U.S. (possibly Canada, also). Among products were microphones and (for one motor limitation) great quality reel to reel. Webcor was name Webster Electric used. Thorens made turntable that turned the record over to play other side called TD-224 Masterpiece.
We sold Harman-Kardon Citation kits at a shop I worked for. (Citation 12 amp and Citation 11 Preamp). Late 60's early 70's.
Would be quite awesome to find one of those as NOS.
There was a Voice of Music factory here in my hometown of Benton Harbor Michigan. It unfortunately met the wrecking ball last December.
I remember some of these adds. It was a fun time to be into stereo records. Garrard, Pilot, H H Scott and Shure and Empire. I lived in the Olsen Electronics store.
The Stereo Fax appears to be a passive phase shift network. To the untrained ear, it may have sounded like stereo, but it actually sounds weird when one channel is out of phase.
My grandfather had a set of Wolverines back in the 1950s. One day he came home and found that my grandmother had traded them in on a set of bookshelf speakers. The fallout from that event lasted for decades. I still have his old Heathkit AA-100.
That event sounds so eerily similar to the father/mother scene in "A Christmas Story"! 🙂
Here are a couple of H.H. Scott tidbits. Hermon Scott's middle name was Hosmer. Second, at the time, Scott tuners were used for FM station re-broadcast. This was in lieu of leased-line connection. FM radio networks (most notably the Concert Network which included WBCN in Boston, WHCN in Hartford and WNCN in New York City) would use a Scott tuner to pull the signal off the air from another Concert Network station and feed it into the local transmitter.
Thanks very much for the additional information.
Great seeing the old print ads. Unfortunately I’m old enough to have seen some of that beautiful vintage equipment when it was new. Some years later Grommes became Precision Electronics. They were located west of Chicago for many years, and at that point only produced commercial amplifiers and related components for paging systems. They were well built amplifiers until the company was forced to buy boards and components off shore to maintain competitive prices in the industry. That’s when, just like Bogen, the quality and reliability suffered considerably.
You have taken us on trips through audio history before, but wow, this is really something! I recognized most of these brands because I'm old. I got interested in radios and stereo the first time I played with my grandparent's 1936 Silvertone radio and picked up stations from around the world. I still have it and it works pretty well. I've been a Hi Fi and radio nut ever since.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and good memories!
Me too, I am same kind of person but i am living here in South Asia.
@@janath9118 Greetings from Wisconsin USA. My ship made it as far as The Philippines and Singapore in 1978 while in the Navy.
@mikecampbell5856 Greetings from Sri Lanka! I am impressed to hear from you! USA is a great country! Noted about your visit to Philippines and Singapore by Navy ship in 1978. I am happy to know that your grandparent's 1936 Silvertone radio is still working well! We also had a 50's German made Telefunken radio console which worked until the 90's. I listened to all the music including western music on it since i was a boy. Very good memories! Thank you for replying me!
Thank you for this trip to memory lanes. I remember seeing few of these while they were still relatively new during the late 60’s. Technology was evolving quickly specially with the advent of Ge power transistors amplifiers.
3:10 - I like how many of these turntable ads don't mention that you need to provide (or build) a plinth for some of these models!
At that time, there were many companies making empty furniture grade cabinets they could be installed into, then add your other components and speakers, etc.
My dad had a Thorens TD-124 which unfortunately we got rid of when he died. Ugh. We really goofed on that one.
A good note about record changers and actually why they don’t scratch your records is because if you notice the label section of an LP is raised, and so is the lip at the edge of the record. So there’s are the only two points that contact. The grooves of the record actually don’t come in to contact.
I probably did not word it well, but my point was mainly trying to relay that most do not consider changers "audiophile" level. Thank you for the added comments though, much better than my word salad. LOL
Holy smokes! The "Empire Troubador" turntable is extremely nice looking. $145.50 in 1960, or $1,497.78 in 2024.
Awesome to see the old stuff, I have Citation 1 and 2 (McShane Kit on amp)(Dads), Citation A and B(was Uncles) with AL Harkness C-40s(1200), AR-XA Turntable. I have Pioneer 1050,750. LP12 Soundsmith/Ruby, on B&Ws DM-640s. Extra stuff Sherwood Rec.,Eico ST-84. I loved the ad's my oldest brother was telling me when my dad and uncle where always talking about these company's. My Dad got the best. thanks for a great video.
I was lucky to have the Heath Company salvage store to buy from in the late 60's into the 70's. I got a job at Heath Co. later in 1978. I've had / made / serviced so many Heath models I can't remember them all. Buy your sound by the pound.
My first receiver was a Fisher as well as a Gerrard turntable, both back in '74.
23:22 Motorola was also pushing the 3-piece speaker setup with 3 separate amplifiers during this time. There appears to be a console with that layout, though I can't tell what brand, on the living room set up "Leave it to Beaver". What goes around comes around.
I grew up during the time when the two main manufacturers and sellers of audio equipment were Lafayette and Radio Shack. As a late teen/early twenties consumer I always found LRE to be superior to RS. Sure, LRE tended to look a bit stodgy while RS was less expensive and more modern looking. But for quality you could not beat LRE. Where there was plastic on RS, there was metal on LRE. I have a Switchcraft input selector (1 in- 3 out or visa versa) which is still in use this very day, as well as a pair of Criterion 2002 12" 3way speakers with metal Brilliance/Compensation knobs. Sure, I've replaced the woofers and tweeters over the years, but they still work.
I remember going to Lafayette radio to replace our first magnetic cartridge when the stylus broke. They didn't have that same brand, but the guy told me I could replace it with this Pickering cartridge. It said on the box, with Pickering you can hear the difference. I didn't believe it, but my brother and I were shocked, there was a big difference. I went and bought a copy of high fidelity, and came to the conclusion when I got some money, I was going to buy an Empire cartridge. I thought they looked nice, had better specs than the Shure, and ugly Stanton ones, had a large HF frequency cutoff. I started off with the yellow, because I couldn't afford the purple 999X or black 1000ZX. Later I bought their turntable 598 II turntable and the 1000ZEX. Empire turntable advertised, no wow & flutter, and a 0% speed error.
Ahh mammaries, I mean memories... I was a lucky kid, spoiled because I was born in '53 making me 70 today. Pops was a designer at Sears in Chicago late 50s early 60s and about '60 we went to Allied Stereo (I'm 7 remember it like yesterday in our '57 Plymouth wagon) in Chicago and picked up the modern walnut cabs 2 cabs had the speakers and 2 or 3 others were clones for books and crap - Playboy mag hip. Cabinets made by Knight loaded with EV horns and a woofer in each; he built the Dynakit pre and amp, got a Garrard changer and while all my homies for the next few years were still doing those big singular mono magnavox TV record players we were buying stereo "demo" records, Effects records and man..... the SOUND - all those 60s Sinatra, Stan Getz, Bossa Nova, Angel Classical, Command Jazz and then the Beatles and 60s? Forget it. The BEST sound. The cabs were 4 ohms so that Dynakit would LIGHT THEM UP, I remember neighbors down the block years later bitching they could hear me the ONE day I dimed Cream's Wheels Of Fire LP on the Dynakit. Woof. Horn tweeters, go finger. Thanks for the trip down the Lane. 🎸
"Forget it." Love that! So, did you inherit your good sense of humor from your Dad? Great comment
@@edrichard6153 Dad and Mom were pretty hip - nuts, got the tech geek and graphics from Dad; got the "nut" and music appreciation from Mom. Been playing and multitracking for 70 years (well started at 12) because of those pesky Beatles on Ed Sullivan show LOL. Stereos and "Hi Fi" as a new thing in my life no less radical "new" than Answering Machines, VHS, Compact Disc, LaserDisc, Internet and now AI !!! 🎸
It was my understanding that in the age of the record changer that the records themselves were designed for it. Supposedly the label area of the record was raised and so was the outer edge so that theoretically the grooved portion of the record would never touch the grooved portion of the next record.
They are. Plus, the outer edge is thicker as well.
Norelco was Philips brand that was marketed in the United States. Philco way back in the 1920's sued due to the similarities of the name forced Philips to use Norelco. As for as the reel to reel decks, probably before 1960, staggered vs stacked tape formats and the such. My understanding from my late parents that the first home stereo formats were in fact reel to reel tapes that came out a few years prior to the advent of the stereo LP in 1958. These days it's old people like us who still enjoy good sounding audio systems.
19:00 - The Wollensak was 'king' of the schools! They were ubiquitous!
15:35 Sromberg Carlson was big into intercoms. They made the intercoms, with the big control panel, including PA gear with tuners and turntables, in the schools I attended as a kid in the 1960s. The last time I saw that name was on the PBX phones in a 1985 building where I worked for a few years. It was around that time that they were bought out by Siemens.
Enjoyed this video but would really like to see one of the ads about ten years later. 1972 is when I first started purchasing my stereo gear.
New ones are coming, stay tuned.
7:29 - I didn't realize Bogen made stereo gear. I've only seen their PA amps.
Cool thank you I have old ads stereos etc
16:35 Webster Electric is now called Northpoint Industries, which makes motor-driven hydraulic equipment. Their website indicated that they were bought-out and reorganized several times. I don't see any indication that they had anything to do with Webster-Chicago, which made record changers until the mid 1960s and sold small audio appliances under the name Webcor.
8:00 - it would be a year until FM Stereo was a reality. That tuner on the right could receive 'stereo' broadcasts -- receiving one channel on AM and the other on FM!
Love the 15" "full-range" driver. It appears to have what was called a whizzer cone to help out the high(er) frequencies.
Definitely gonna be a fun one
Interesting vid Scott. A little before my time but enjoyed the walk down memory lane with those products. What stood out to me most is how most of those names are defunct or have been absorbed/rebranded today. It seems like it was the wild west of audio electronics back then. Did you run across any McIntosh ads from that era?
Yes, there was quite the frenzy of companies vying for a piece of the market that are long gone now. I did not run across McIntosh (or Marantz), but they probably advertised in other mags or perhaps they were dealer centric.
If I'm not mistaken a lot of homes already had TV antennas on the roof and the FM band was very close to the VHF band.
This may be why you didn't see a lot of dedicated FM antennas.
The TV tower on the Empire state building was completed on July 1950. TV channels 2-5 were under the 88-108mHz FM radio band, and channels 6-13 were above the FM, and 108-135 mHz, aircraft band. Very few people listened to FM radio in the 50's even though many living room sets, had both AM and FM bands. The FM band didn't have that many stations because it is more expensive to operate. Most people used the same flat TV cable for FM radio and connected it to the same roof antenna. Every TV station went off at night for maintenance etc.
In consoles, V-M reigned supreme from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Most Magnavox and some Curtis Mathes models used Collaro;
cheaper brands and the majority of everything from the late 1970s forward would employ BSRs.
Garrard was favoured by Packard-Bell; some were also used in upper-level General Electric models.
Glaser-Steers (echch) and Dual (wonderful) appeared as original equipment in only a very tiny percentage of consoles.
Zenith developed a premium-grade changer with a very long tonearm for its last range of super-deluxe cabinets.
I have that ESL tone arm with a Rek-O-Kut turntable.
ESL Red Head
16:15 LEAK and Warfdale were imported by British Industries Corporation, the same Long Island importer which sold Gararrd turntables and put them in those plastic-tacky, but clever bases with the 3-way lids and the cubbies for the 45 adapter and unused spindles. Garrard unceremoniously dropped them in the early 1970s after a dispute with the CPSC over the flammability of Delrin, so BIC teamed up with Voice of Music, Maestro, and a couple of other American manufacturers to sell BIC 900 turntables and BIC Venturi speakers.
A hundred dollars in 1960 would be $1,029.40 today.
16:22 - IIRC, Wharfedale speaker cabinets were filled with sand!
17:30 - What's up with the brown tint over those PACO components?
Has anyone heard of Churchill? I have a small integrated amp I found at an estate sale. Hardly any information on them.
I had a few oldschool integrated tube amps and one stuck out and was the best amp I had. My Audiolab 6000A is now my second best amp. Unfortunately I sold the little tube amp to a friend and I had a Sansui oldschool tube receiver that had more power. But not as good... the good one was called "Star". I couldn't find anything on such a brand online. Maybe you have heard of the Star brand oldschool amp.😅
Thanks for sharing! Unfortunately, I have not heard of Star. Just guessing, but the name sounds more like it would have been a private label brand from a chain store vs an independent manufacturer. If that is the case, information will be very limited.
Wish we could bring our hifi equipment to the afterlife.😢
$99.99 is like $999.99 today!
And sadly the boutique market has driven the prices for higher on the new tube gear. For those um dare I call them-“audiophiles.” Because they can hear things my cat does and will be the first to tell you that you must have gold plated power cords to be able to hear all the “sonic nuances” on songs like “Popsicle Toes” by Michael Franks. They’re experts- they have spent thousands of hours sitting around with men in socks and drinking wine. Some call them “homosexuals”, others call them “audiophiles.”
Any high end Heathkits (receivers, amps, tuners, speakers) in your collection?
Not currently. I had a nice monoblock some years ago, but sold it as someone else had match.
reeves soundcraft also had a facility right here in danbury ct.
TT’s have seen Thorens, EV Traubidor,Garrard 301 in some radio stations-and course Rek-o-Kit-later to beQRK and CCA-they made AM and FM broadcast transmitters. And for broadcast RCA was the king of transmitter builders fonAM,FM, and TV. They also marketed broadcast gear under their name.
See, I was right from the start, that this was your best video. 25k views and climbing is a lot. To the guy that tried to refute my claim that stereo lps started coming out in 1957; look it up! Audio Fidelity here in America was releasing stereo lps in 1957. The legendary RCA Living Stereo catalog started being released to record stores in 1958, among some other labels. They say right on the back of the lp covers when they were recorded. The original shaded dog Living Stereo lps were not in any way eclectronically simulated stereo. It says on the lps back cover the exact date they were recorded; and in the case of the first one, LSC 1806, it was recorded in November 1954. Reel tape people could buy stereo reel tapes years before stereo lps came out. If in doubt; why not look it up on the internet instead of telling someone they don't know what they are saying? Hope that clears it up. Of course in other countries it could be different; exactly when they first released things.
Good thing I listened to your idea on creating that video.....wait a sec, that was MY idea! LOL. Yes, it seems to have struck a nice chord. I've been swamped lately with personal commitments which delayed the next video, but one is scheduled for release on Monday.
I think it had only a 127 views when I commented that it was by far your best video. Not that your other videos aren't good; but this was something special and one that virtually transported us back in time, to before our times, and what happened before our time is always interesting. That some of the equip.from way back in the 1950s & 1960s like McIntosh MC 30 tube amps and Marantz, Quads, KLH 9's etc. would still be dream equipment today and surpass just about anything that we can afford today, gives it a special magic. We will all be looking forward to your next videos!
nice video
Thanks!
1960-just a few years earlier than I was aware of any of this kind of stuff. Well, I'll tell you. A lot is said about nostalgia. These ads are interesting, but what I feel is something like the opposite of nostalgia. I had substantial experience with some of this kind of gear, including building several kits (Heath, Knight, and Dynaco). And when I look at these ads, or videos featuring the gear, I mostly feel a strange kind of revulsion. Compared to the tech I see now, this stuff was clumsy, clunky, not all that reliable or precise, and not even especially good-looking. Not that today's gear seems like the ultimate. I can imagine much better designs, and without stepping outside of known physical principles. I didn't even like it all that well at the time. Time and again, I would eagerly anticipate how cool something was going to be, as a teenager is often prone to doing, only to be disappointed. I could go on and on.
I'm so glad to be beyond most of that stuff. And it didn't even cost much to get to that point. It mostly just took a lot of waiting.
9:52 That's probably a spoof of the then-current hipster-fad of building book shelves out of stacked cinder blocks with boards separating each tier. These things looked cool to some, but were probably a bad idea for anyone in an earthquake zone, anyone with a cat, people with small children, those who sleep walked ... really, anyone with any common sense.
What happened to Webcor, (Webster Chicago) Concord.
Nothing about JBL speakers and Marantz?
I still have my Garrard 301and have been offered silly money for it. It performs as good as my Rega P3, and that is saying something of the 301, being about 50 years old !
You're a little off on the solid state timeline. Dad traded in our 1956 Chevy for a brand new 1960 Dodge Dart station wagon. We sat in the car and marveled at the instant on transistorized radio. No more waiting on tubes to warm up we were in the jet age now..
They are not my dates, they are from 1960 magazines.
6:52 Wasn't Norelco just another name for Phillips in those days? They didn't always use their name over here for fear of being sued by Philco (even though both operated in the UK with no conflict). The Norelco name was also used for the first cassette (eh, "Phillips Cassette") tape recorders. For some reason, they didn't mind selling records in the USA with the Phillips label.
Norelco stood for North-American Phililps.
Thank You Very Much
For Going Above and Beyond
Yes Oddly Enough
There is a Adaptors For
The 7868 Power Tubes
Too The 7591
I Looked 👀 On Line and Found The Gold Plated
Adaptors
Thank You
No Bias Change Everything Is as Simple as
1,2,3
Thanks 🙏 Again
Excellent, glad to be of some assistance.
No I think the Strob worked it was your turntable that was running to fast or to slow ?
Correct, it was used to determine if your platter was spinning at the correct RPM
Nice video, you should do one of these with ADs for European gear.
I Got a Fisher 400
and a Pair of
JBL Lancer 90
Great Combo But
The Output Tubes or
Power Tubes are
The 7868 Bummer
Hey I’ve Never Seen a
Fisher 600
Actually Fisher Was Just
Above McIntosh Back in The Day
Kool Thanks
It is possible to convert it to 7591 tubes, if those are easier for you to obtain.
19:19 Was Crown International the same company that sold those "Crown of Japan" giant boomboxes that graced the front windows of Woolworth's stores in the 1980s? I read somewhere that people assumed they were junk because of how tacky they looked, but that their quality wasn't half-bad for the money.
no, there was always trouble with the name. I have a Crown IMA (Intermodulation Analyzer) branded Amcron for American Crown.
(1) Hermon Hosmer Scott. (2) I think there are two tuning dials on the Scott tuner, because -- before the FCC approved multiplexing for stereo FM broadcasts -- there was a very brief fad for broadcasting stereo by transmitting one channel on FM and the other channel on AM. Really! I remember trying it, just once, when a local classical FM station that had an AM corporate partner (both in San Diego) broadcast a recording this way. I had to use a mono "hi-fi" that my father had built for one channel and an AM tabletop radio for the other. The speakers were totally mismatched. I didn't hear noticeable stereo. I think (a guess) this tuner with two dials did both AM and FM with separate outputs. (3) A friend of mine built an HH Scott solid-state stereo integrated amp, from a kit. Model 299 I think. That was as late as 1967-1968. (4) One thing that you've already noticed: pretty women in advertising. Audiophilia is mostly an interest of males. Men like audio gear. Men like pretty girls. I sure-fire ad is to show the gear with a beautiful woman. That's as true now as it was in 1960.
My Fischer 500 receiver has AM -FM stereo .
I did the same thing listening to WQXR, AM and FM, from the Empire state building!
I used to have a MCIintosh FM-AM tuner where you could use the FM for o
Nen
In my college days I looked down at the 70’s equipment - the 50’s and 60’s was better quality and the tubes were BETTER than early SS gear.
Ainda tenho o 500c funcionando aqui no Brasil.
Your video looks way better. New camera?
Same camera, I think I accidentally put the lights in better position. 😂
@@stereoniche The framing of the shot with more perspective also did the trick. I would keep shooting in that location.
"Garrard" has a hard "G." Back in the day of those ads, you could separate the audiophiles from the wannabes by how they pronounced "Garrard." Wannabes pronounced it like "Girard."
Don't get us started on how to pronounce Technics.😅 I have seen a commercial from back in the day and they actually pronounced Teck-neeeks.
Add a zero to those 1960 prices to get a 2024 estimated cost, ouch!
Indeed, good gear was still expensive, even in 1960
Wow, HiFi gear was very expensive back then. To adjust for inflation just 10x the price. TVs were also expensive comparted to today and TVs are a LOT better now. Stereo gear has not improved by the same ratio.
What? No AR turntables advertised in the 60s?
Can't say my search was completely exhaustive. :-)
$99.95 in 1960 would equal $1,028.88 in 2024.
Not being an audiophile, would that still be considered a bargain?
Yes indeed, a very good bargain for the quality of that table.
No cheap Chinese H$it sold by a corporate electronics chain store.