View Full Version : System pics 1974 (yes, really)
Couple of pics of my first independent hi-fi system on my blog at:
https://digitalprakel.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/seventies-nostalgia/
David
narabdela
30-09-2017, 15:53
Nice system David. I had a very similar one at the time. Cambridge P110/T55, LP12/SME3009/V15III feeding my ALS40s.
I had much more solid stands though. I can't imagine that IMF would have advised those weedy things.
Wonderful - a real trip down memory lane.
I still use a Thorens TD124/II /SME combination and have a Cambridge P50 integrated amp with the T55 tuner in my collection.
I remember your system being featured in Hi-Fi Answers. From memory you were using a Radford STA amp and a Decca cartridge at the time. Oh and Stax electrostatic headphones. :)
Nice system David. I had a very similar one at the time. Cambridge P110/T55, LP12/SME3009/V15III feeding my ALS40s.
I had much more solid stands though. I can't imagine that IMF would have advised those weedy things.
The stands came at the recommendation of Harmann Audio in Manchester - I think you had a better amp for the rather odd bass of the ALS40s in the P110 - didn't it run hot?
DGP
narabdela
30-09-2017, 16:04
The stands came at the recommendation of Harmann Audio in Manchester - I think you had a better amp for the rather odd bass of the ALS40s in the P110 - didn't it run hot?
DGP
It did. You just had to be careful where you put your fingers.
Wonderful - a real trip down memory lane.
I still use a Thorens TD124/II /SME combination and have a Cambridge P50 integrated amp with the T55 tuner in my collection.
I remember your system being featured in Hi-Fi Answers. From memory you were using Radford STA amp and a Decca cartridge at the time. :)
Once I got to London in 1976 things went mad on the hi-fi front after meeting various folk who shopped through Hampstead Hi-Fi - I sold my Yamaha and bought a Radford pre/power/tuner that had been traded in at HH. The Decca I originally used in a damped SME III which sounded OK. I'd already traded the IMFs for a pair of Gale GS401s
I had a TD124 with a 12inch SME on a big black Perspex armboard for a very short while which I sold to a clutch of Japanese enthusiasts who visited me, spoke little English but who appeared to be sharing the cost and turntable.
This was in the black plain plinth Linn (Serial 17???) that was stolen through my bedroom window from my flat in London along with cameras etc. Hope they got Silicone fluid over everything! The police recokoned they left the Gales as no one in their right mind would think they were loudspeakers (almost direct quote!).
I put a Syrinx on the replacement Linn and a Decca Gold worked great in that but the combination was far too temperamental and I ended up with the Ittok Asak I used until I went Fidelity Research arm and cart and then Koetsu - just sold the Linn, arm and cartridge.
I really like the Cambridge aesthetic even today.
DGP
That’s far too neat and tidy for student digs. All classical? The only one I can identify is this. Haven’t listened to it in ages. Great players, instruments, location. Will give it a spin now.
21536
Ah - I married at the end of my third year and this was married quarters. I'd off-loaded a lot of prog rock vinyl but the left end of the record rack had some real odds and ends - Tonto's Expanding Head Band courtesy of my other half, Burt Alcantara's Zygoat (early synth) a lot of Pete Atkin/Clive James, Strawbs, Caravan, Steely Dan etc. The classical stuff was eclectic but had been padded out by our best man who insisted we had decent recording of important classical works like Brahms 4th, late Mozart symphonies, Beethoven 3rd/9th - my first classical LPs were Dances from Terpsichore, Bruckner 9th, Rite of Spring, Prokofiev 5th, Telemann Recorder Sonatas and Sadler's Wells Wagner (forerunner of the great ENO cycle). Glad the L'Estro Armonico was identifiable! Wish I could read all the spines.
DGP
That’s far too neat and tidy for student digs. All classical? The only one I can identify is this. Haven’t listened to it in ages. Great players, instruments, location. Will give it a spin now.
21536
walpurgis
08-10-2017, 23:04
You just had to be careful where you put your fingers.
Ah. I had a girlfriend like that too. :eyebrows:
Ah - I married at the end of my third year and this was married quarters. I'd off-loaded a lot of prog rock vinyl but the left end of the record rack had some real odds and ends - Tonto's Expanding Head Band courtesy of my other half, Burt Alcantara's Zygoat (early synth) a lot of Pete Atkin/Clive James, Strawbs, Caravan, Steely Dan etc. The classical stuff was eclectic but had been padded out by our best man who insisted we had decent recording of important classical works like Brahms 4th, late Mozart symphonies, Beethoven 3rd/9th - my first classical LPs were Dances from Terpsichore, Bruckner 9th, Rite of Spring, Prokofiev 5th, Telemann Recorder Sonatas and Sadler's Wells Wagner (forerunner of the great ENO cycle). Glad the L'Estro Armonico was identifiable! Wish I could read all the spines.
DGP
Your best man had education but your other half had taste! I’m surprised she didn’t have Silver Apples of the Moon.
Your best man had education but your other half had taste! I’m surprised she didn’t have Silver Apples of the Moon.
The year before - when I was sharing hi-fi with my soon-to-become best man - we borrowed the entire avant-garde classical/American rock album collection of one of the post-grads who didn't have the means to play them. He certainly had the Morton Subotnick Silver Apples - and it was from his collection I got into Steely Dan, Quicksilver Messenger Service. He had a vast collection of Stockhausen, Berio, Henri Pousseur, Boulez much of the Wergo (Studio for New Music) catalogue and a lot of the Philips electronic music series. And some of the Nonesuch 'white sleeve series with music which I still love like Rochberg, Weill and Milhaud. DGP
Couple of pics of my first independent hi-fi system on my blog at:
https://digitalprakel.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/seventies-nostalgia/
David
Love the decor there, David [which is actually very 'current']... You must've been a rather cool dude! :respect:
The system is also very well set up for 1974... A T/T wall bracket AND speaker stands, not just kit or speakers simply plonked onto a sideboard and/or the floor!! Double respect :respect::respect:
Next you'll be saying that you were using something more 'exotic' than bell wire to hook it all up! :eyebrows:
Marco.
Thanks Marco
The wallpaper was a roll-end we just loved the colour and patterns but there wasn't enough to cover the end wall of our attic flat so we painted round the corner, cut the flowers out and glued 'em on!
The turntable bracket was one step up from trying to balance the big blockboard record cabinet on half tennis balls! Speaker cable was twin core lighting flex - does that count as 'exotic'?
Trying to find pics of the first Connoisseur BD1, Sony, B&W DM1 system my Dad had.
Best
DGP
Love the decor there, David [which is actually very 'current']... You must've been a rather cool dude! :respect:
The system is also very well set up for 1974... A T/T wall bracket AND speaker stands, not just kit or speakers simply plonked onto a sideboard and/or the floor!! Double respect :respect::respect:
Next you'll be saying that you were using something more 'exotic' than bell wire to hook it all up! :eyebrows:
Marco.
Just found a picture from the end of the 70s - London system with Gales and Radford
https://digitalprakel.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/late-seventies-nostalgia/
WOW... That system would've been the dogs bollocks in those days - still would now, in terms of its sonic performance! Very, very impressive :youtheman:
Marco.
https://digitalprakel.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/system003.jpg?w=670
very cool.:)
For a vintage system it doesn't get much better. Only thing I'd change is the turntable, for a quality Jap direct-drive of the day...
Marco.
walpurgis
03-11-2017, 17:03
The old Litz speaker cables are somewhat sought after these days. I had a couple of sets and sold my original Monitor Audio branded pair recently. They were always rather long for some reason.
Your wife will be saddened to learn that I can still remember the photograph featured in Hi-Fi Answers with her sporting the Stax headphones.
Yes very '70s, but distinctive: not many then were using a Decca cartridge, or Radford electronics. I did hear those Gale speakers, but wasn't impressed by them at the time. They were demo'd in an upstairs room of very small dimensions in London and had to share the space with some enormous Dayton Wright electrostatic speakers as well as few others, so it is quite possible the Gales were not being given the opportunity to perform at their best.
Trust me, Barry, in the right environment (and on the end of the right system), they can sound stunning! :)
What's all this about headphones? I can't see where that comment has come from....
Marco.
I thought them very bright and glaring (rather like the speaker's chrome-plated end caps), but as I said, they were probably not demonstrated under the best of conditions. Can't remember what amplification was used, but the dealers were agents for the early (aubergine coloured) Exposure electronics.
Yeah, partnered badly in the wrong room they can sound like that, but not on the end of some Radfords.... ;)
So what's this about, then:
Your wife will be saddened to learn that I can still remember the photograph featured in Hi-Fi Answers with her sporting the Stax headphones.
That seems somewhat of a 'random' comment, unless I missed something earlier. Did you know David's wife?
Marco.
walpurgis
03-11-2017, 17:49
Trust me, Barry, in the right environment (and on the end of the right system), they can sound stunning! :)
Marco.
Yes. I heard them a few times and was impressed. They were an interesting design, the early models empoying a pair of AR6 bass drivers, Peerless 4" cone midrange and a Celestion HF2000 tweeter. It all obviously worked well together.
Yeah, partnered badly in the wrong room they can sound like that, but not on the end of some Radfords.... ;)
So what's this about, then:
That seems somewhat of a 'random' comment, unless I missed something earlier. Did you know David's wife?
Marco.
No - I just remember the photograph of David's wife wearing the Stax headphones, in the systems feature in HiFi Answers. David Praekel's system featured in the article used Radford electronics and a Linn/SME III/ Decca front end. I have to confess I don't remember the Gale speakers.
Don't ask me why I remember the article and photographs; it was just one of those eidetic memories that we all can have. Maybe it was because of the unusual partnering of audio equipment (at the time) that attracted my interest and attention.
No - I just remember the photograph of Davids's wife wearing the Stax headphones, in the systems feature in HiFi Answers. David Praekel's system featured in the article used Radford electronics and a Linn/SME III/ Decca front end.
Ah, I get you now... You see I had no idea about any of that, as it was all before my (hi-fi) time.
Marco.
I love that Radford-Gale set-up. And the black-and-white room. Always wanted a go on some Gale 401. You could pick them up mint for a couple of hundred back in the 1990's but when they came up I never had the money.
Hello DRG,
Nice system and a pleasent looking place to enjoy music.
There's people out there who pay style gurus/interior designers a fortune to have their homes look that now!
Ain't that the truth :exactly:
The man, he got style.....
Marco.
cpjvej2012
31-01-2018, 10:54
Nice looking speakers, It has to be said that old speakers really do look nice and sound rather nice too. There's nothing like a nice old pair of speakers.
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