-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathaudio.htm
289 lines (289 loc) · 12.2 KB
/
audio.htm
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Ageing Audio</TITLE>
<META NAME="DC.title" CONTENT="Ageing Audio">
<META NAME="DC.creator" CONTENT="John Honniball">
<META NAME="DC.language" CONTENT="en-GB">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="valve, vacuum tube, Rogers, Grundig, Sony, quadrophonic, quadraphonic, SQ, CD-4, Q-8, 8-track, 4-track, Muntz">
<META NAME="author" CONTENT="John Honniball">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Ageing Audio page. Old radios, tape recorders and amplifiers.">
<LINK HREF="index.htm" REL="home" TITLE="John Honniball's Home Page">
<LINK HREF="index.htm" REL="top" TITLE="John Honniball's Home Page">
<LINK HREF="oldsad.htm" REL="up" TITLE="Old Sad Things">
<LINK HREF="avo.htm" REL="next" TITLE="Ancient AVOs">
<LINK HREF="video.htm" REL="last" TITLE="Vintage Video">
<LINK HREF="eee.htm" REL="made" TITLE="John Honniball's Contact Page">
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff">
<TABLE BGCOLOR="#ccffcc" WIDTH="100%" COLS=1>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=CENTER>
<FONT SIZE=7 FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><B>Ageing Audio</B></FONT>
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<P>
Here are radios, amplifiers and tape recorders from the age of
valves (or even the age of vacuum tubes).
Oh, and a few quadrophonic gadgets.
While viewing this page, try to imagine the smell of burning dust
that you get when an old radio warms up...
</P>
<H2>Bush VHF61 Valve Radio</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="bush.jpg" ALT="Photo of Bush radio" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=107>
<P>
An <ACRONYM TITLE="Frequency Modulation">FM</ACRONYM>
radio from 1957, complete with
<A HREF="parts.htm#EM84">magic eye</A> tuning indicator.
Note that the
<ACRONYM TITLE="Very High Frequency">VHF</ACRONYM>
scale goes from 88MHz to 100MHz, whereas modern
sets go up to 108MHz.
At the time, the broadcast band for FM only went up to 100MHz;
stations above that frequency are a recent development.
</P>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
<H2>Ever Ready Portable Valve Radio</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="er1.jpg" ALT="Ever Ready radio, closed" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=88>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="er2.jpg" ALT="Ever Ready radio, open" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=112>
<P>
Mid-1950s portable radio, made by the Ever Ready battery company.
Medium and Long wave-bands, and a frame aerial in the lid of the box.
Opening the box switches on the radio.
</P>
<P>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="er3.jpg" ALT="Interior of Ever Ready radio" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=122>
Inside, you can see the two big zinc-carbon batteries that power
the
<ACRONYM TITLE="High Tension">HT</ACRONYM>
(90V) and the valve heaters (1.5V).
Pasted to the bottom of the box is a circuit diagram (schematic).
</P>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
<H2>Internet Radio</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="intrad.jpg" ALT="Internet radio" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=103>
<P>
How appropriate, an Internet radio.
It's just a fairly ordinary transistor radio of the late 1960s or
early 1970s, made by a company called Internet.
It uses germanium transistors with Mullard GET113 part numbers.
The writing on the front reads "ALL transistor" and "Internet 10".
Like the Ever Ready, it has MW and LW bands, selected by a switch on the back.
</P>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
<H2>Sony Quadrophonic SQ Decoder/Amplifier 100</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="sonysq1.jpg" ALT="Sony SQ decoder, front" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=237>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="sonysq2.jpg" ALT="Sony SQ decoder, rear" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=250>
<P>
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadraphonic_sound" TITLE="Wikipedia: Quadraphonic sound">Quadrophonic hi-fi</A>
was popular in the 1970s, but died out with the introduction of digital
audio on CDs (nowadays, we'd call it 4.0 stereo).
This Sony unit is a combined SQ decoder and rear channel amplifier.
It took in an SQ-encoded signal from your existing stereo gear,
separated out the front and rear channels and then sent the front
channels back into the stereo.
The rear channels were amplified and fed to the rear speakers.
Try to imagine how many wires were needed to hook this thing up!
</P>
<P>
Sony made a whole range of hi-fi gear in this vertical format
during the 1970s.
I don't have any other parts of the system, though.
</P>
<BR CLEAR=RIGHT>
<H2>Grundig TK24 Tape Recorder</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="tape1.jpg" ALT="Grudig TK24, closed" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=105>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="tape2.jpg" ALT="Grudig TK24, open" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=121>
<P>
After the Second World War, developments in tape recording technology
led to the domestic reel-to-reel machine.
This is a Grundig TK24, a quarter-track (also known as four-track)
mono tape recorder from the late 1950s.
It looks like an electric overnight bag when closed, but it's
much heavier than it looks.
The circuits are built from valves, and the recording level indicator
is a <A HREF="parts.htm#EM84">magic eye</A> (similar in principle to a cathode-ray tube).
</P>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
<H2>Philips DCC730 Digital Compact Cassette Deck</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="dcc730.jpg" ALT="Philips DCC730" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=56>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="dccr.jpg" ALT="DCC (rear)" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=56>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="dccf.jpg" ALT="DCC (front)" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=57>
<P>
The doomed Philips Digital Compact Cassette format.
My example is a DCC730 deck, which was a full-size HiFi separates
model.
It boldly describes itself as an 18-bit digital recorder.
Also shown are the front and rear of a DCC tape.
</P>
<BR CLEAR=RIGHT>
<H2>Philips DCC170 Digital Compact Cassette Portable</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="dcc170.jpg" ALT="Philips DCC170" WIDTH=250 HEIGHT=201>
<P>
One of the Philips DCC portable models.
<!-- One quirk is that you must press the "stop" button to make it start
charging the battery. -->
</P>
<BR CLEAR=RIGHT>
<H2>Sony Elcaset EL-5</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="elcaset1.jpg" ALT="Sony Elcaset" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=111>
<P>
The equally doomed Sony Elcaset format.
Mine is a Sony EL-5 deck, the simpler of the Sony models.
</P>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
<H2>Pioneer CD-4 Quadrophonic Demodulator Model QD-240</H2>
<P>
<!-- http://www.quadraphonicquad.com -->
<!-- http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/bbs.html -->
There were a few rival quadrophonic audio systems, some based on
the idea of squeezing four channels into two, and others simply
recording and playing back four parallel channels.
<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/quadaudio/page6CD-4.html">CD-4</A>
was an encoding system that squeezed four channels into two by
modulating the two rear channels onto an ultrasonic subcarrier.
This high-frequency modulated signal was then recorded on vinyl
records and played back with a special stylus and pickup cartridge.
The stylus went by the name of
<A HREF="http://www.4channelsound.com/cd-4.htm">Shibata</A>,
but unfortunately I have
neither that nor the special cartridge.
</P>
<P>
What I <EM>do</EM> have, though, is the box that demodulates the
high-frequency carrier and recreates the two rear channels.
I have a record (yes, one record) that has a CD-4 recording
on it.
It's <CITE>Playing Possum</CITE> by Carly Simon, 1975.
</P>
<H2>Pioneer SQ Quadrophonic Decoder Model QD-210</H2>
<P>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="qd210.jpg" ALT="Pioneer QD-210" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=101>
Rather smaller than the CD-4 Demodulator, this is another
decoder (like the Sony) for the SQ quadrophonic system.
Note that Pioneer made decoders for both CD-4 and SQ systems.
Also note that the Sony mentioned above includes rear channel
amplifiers, while the Pioneer models don't.
</P>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
<H2>Craig Pioneer 4-track Player</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="craig.jpg" ALT="Four-track player" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=106>
<P>
A forerunner of the 8-track format, this is a 4-track machine intended
for use in a car.
It has the usual 12-volt power supply, but is much bigger and heavier
than a modern car radio or tape player.
Unlike the 8-track, the playback head is fixed and selection of the
two stereo programmes on the tape is by an electrical switch.
8-track players physically move the head up and down to select
programmes, usually by a solenoid and ratchet mechanism.
</P>
<BR CLEAR=RIGHT>
<H2>Harvard 880 Stereo 8-track Deck</H2>
<P>
Rather a neat little 8-track playback unit.
No power amplifiers, not many controls (just the track-change button)
and simple styling.
Not even lights to show which programme's playing.
Just the thing for playing Pink Floyd's <CITE>Dark Side of the Moon</CITE>
cartridge on.
</P>
<H2>Golding Audio Quadrophonic 8-track Player</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="quad8t.jpg" ALT="Quadrophonic eight-track player" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=81>
<P>
An altogether fancier 8-track player, with lots of slider controls,
amplifiers to drive four speakers directly, and the ability to play
either stereo or quadrophonic cartridges.
Unlike the SQ or CD-4 systems, the quadrophonic 8-track plays four
quite separate channels in parallel.
Tapes and players that can do this carry a Q-8 label.
An extra notch in the plastic of the cartridge operates a switch
in the player and changes it into four-channel mode.
<A HREF="http://www.goldingaudio.co.uk/">Golding Audio Ltd</A>.
<BR CLEAR=RIGHT>
</P>
<P>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="hhth.jpg" ALT="Quadrophonic eight-track tape" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=139>
I have three cartridges in this format, one of which is
<A HREF="https://www.discogs.com/release/13849611-Harry-Stoneham-Hammond-Hits-The-Highway">Hammond Hits the Highway</A>
by Harry Stoneham, on the Studio 2 label.
The Hammond in the title refers to the electronic organ, the only
instrument featured on the tape.
So, how do you get a four-channel tape out of a single instrument?
Easy, just wire up the organ so that each different voice or sound
effect appears to come from a different direction!
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
</P>
<H2>Akai Stereo 8-track Recorder</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="akai.jpg" ALT="Akai 80track" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=121>
<P>
Even more sophisticated than the quadrophonic player, this Akai deck
can both record and play 8-track cartridges.
</P>
<BR CLEAR=RIGHT>
<H2>Howland West Audio Products CIS-4000 Quadrophonic Headphones</H2>
<P>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="qphone1.jpg" ALT="Quad headphones" WIDTH=100 HEIGHT=123>
Leaving aside the question of the effectiveness of quadrophonic
headphones, here's a fine example of 1970s design.
Two little tiny speakers in each of the cereal-bowl-sized headphones,
one in front, one behind.
On the end of a generous length of curly cable are two quarter-inch
jack plugs labelled 'front' and 'rear' (mix them up at your peril).
</P>
<BR CLEAR=LEFT>
<H2>Rogers Valve Hi-Fi Amplifiers</H2>
<IMG ALIGN=RIGHT SRC="cadet3.jpg" ALT="Cadet III" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=86>
<IMG ALIGN=LEFT SRC="hg88.jpg" ALT="HG 88" WIDTH=277 HEIGHT=86>
<P>
Just to add to that smell of hot electronics in the living room,
I have two Rogers stereo valve amplifiers.
One is the HG 88 Mark II and the other is the smaller Cadet III model.
<BR />
<A HREF="https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/rogers_integrated_stereo_amp_hg8.html">Rogers HG88 MkII at Radiomuseum</A>
<BR />
<A HREF="https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/rogers2_cadet_iii.html">Rogers Cadet III at Radiomuseum</A>
</P>
<BR CLEAR=RIGHT>
<H2>Gramdeck</H2>
A truly bizarre device that converts a record player into a tape
recorder.
It consists of an amplifier box plus a contraption that sits on the
record player's turntable and carries the tape head.
As the turntable rotates, it drives a capstan that pulls the tape
past the head (at a non-standard speed).
Rewinding is manual.
<BR />
<A HREF="https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co117405/gramdeck-tape-deck-and-control-unit-1957">Gramdeck at the Science Museum</A>
<BR />
<A HREF="http://www.museumoftechnology.org.uk/objects/_expand.php?key=270">Gramdeck at the Museum of Technology</A>
<BR />
<A HREF="https://reel-reel.com/tape-recorder/gramdeck/">Gramdeck at reel-reel.com</A>
<BR />
<A HREF="https://www.snellingsmuseum.co.uk/artefact/audio/gramdeck">Gramdeck at the Snellings Museum</A>
<BR />
<A HREF="https://historictech.com/gramdeck-early-tape-recorder/">Gramdeck at historictech.com</A>
<BR />
</P>
<HR>
<div align=center>
<P>Return to the <A HREF="oldsad.htm">Old Sad Things</A> page</P>
<P>Return to <A HREF="index.htm">John Honniball's home page</A></P>
<FONT SIZE="-1">
Copyright © 1998-2000
by <A HREF="eee.htm">John Honniball</A>.
All rights reserved.
</FONT>
</div>
<HR>
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-8655234-1");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}</script>
</BODY>
</HTML>