DavidSC
26-02-2012, 19:46
Hi to all from a new joiner and a vintage Quad man.
To start my membership of this forum, here's a little teaser for other Quad afficionados. Have a look at this FM valve tuner currently on eBay item 290672742706 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290672742706?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_921wt_1139). You'll notice immediately the non-standard stereo indicator light on the LHS of the tuning scale. Where did that come from?
Some of you with long memories will recall an article in (I think) Hi-Fi News around 1974 by D A Petty, called "Stereo Beacon for the Quad Tuner", which described a circuit for automatic switching from mono to stereo, complete with instructions on adding the additional neon. I know all this because I did such a modification to my first FM tuner at the time, using this article. (If anyone's interested I will post a copy of it on this site.) It's interesting to see a modded tuner up for sale, though the seller doesn't seem to know that what he's got is not factory standard.
Of course now we might balk at modifying Quad equipment, but back in those days stereo broadcasts on FM were reserved for music and drama, and it was very irritating to have to switch between mono and stereo on the preamp - if not in the correct mode there was just silence. Nowadays just about everything on FM is in stereo so it tends not to be such a problem.
That's my two penn'orth for today.
Best wishes to you all,
David
To start my membership of this forum, here's a little teaser for other Quad afficionados. Have a look at this FM valve tuner currently on eBay item 290672742706 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290672742706?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_921wt_1139). You'll notice immediately the non-standard stereo indicator light on the LHS of the tuning scale. Where did that come from?
Some of you with long memories will recall an article in (I think) Hi-Fi News around 1974 by D A Petty, called "Stereo Beacon for the Quad Tuner", which described a circuit for automatic switching from mono to stereo, complete with instructions on adding the additional neon. I know all this because I did such a modification to my first FM tuner at the time, using this article. (If anyone's interested I will post a copy of it on this site.) It's interesting to see a modded tuner up for sale, though the seller doesn't seem to know that what he's got is not factory standard.
Of course now we might balk at modifying Quad equipment, but back in those days stereo broadcasts on FM were reserved for music and drama, and it was very irritating to have to switch between mono and stereo on the preamp - if not in the correct mode there was just silence. Nowadays just about everything on FM is in stereo so it tends not to be such a problem.
That's my two penn'orth for today.
Best wishes to you all,
David