Cool Old Kit You Never Heard Of

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Originally Posted by Marco

Yes, mate. I used to work for Bill Hutchison Hi-Fi, in Glasgow in the early 90s, who was a big Technics and Denon dealer:)

Marco.

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I had forgotten about Bill Hutchinson’s.

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Originally Posted by Barry

:lol:



Fortunately all my gear uses plain lettering for the legends; with the sole exception of the Miyajima SUT where the manufacturer's name is in a green cursive font. And talking of colours, I really dislike the use of a mixture of coloured LEDs: just keep them to the one colour - either red, blue or green.

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On professional equipment the idea is to clearly indicate at a glance which functions are in operation and which are not, also the use of different colours for different controls is pretty common. That all makes sense to me and I don't see why domestic use is any different.

Having all the LEDS and controls the same size and colour may look harmonious but it's function following form, which I don't like. These are tools to do a job, decoration should be a secondary consideration if it's to be a consideration at all.

I'm stuck with a variety of LED colours - Amp's are all blue, as is the phono amp, CD player's is red, t/t is green, as well as its power supply (goes to amber when 45 rpm).

Pretty much out of my sight line, so no big deal really.

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Originally Posted by rmcin626

I had forgotten about Bill Hutchinson’s.

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Did you used to go there?

Marco.

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Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony

Yeah, they look a lot better. Apart from the knobs.

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Ha - I like the knobs!

Marco.

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Originally Posted by Marco

Did you used to go there?

Marco.

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From memory, I think only the once, in the late 80’s I bought some equipment from John Neilson’s shop, Elite Rock and some valve amps, which led me to Concordant Amplication around that time, which I bought direct from Doug Dunlop.

Too be honest the Glasgow stores at that time were a bit full of their own importance and not really listening to the customer.

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Originally Posted by Macca

On professional equipment the idea is to clearly indicate at a glance which functions are in operation and which are not, also the use of different colours for different controls is pretty common. That all makes sense to me and I don't see why domestic use is any different.

Having all the LEDS and controls the same size and colour may look harmonious but it's function following form, which I don't like. These are tools to do a job, decoration should be a secondary consideration if it's to be a consideration at all.

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The aesthetics of domestic audio gear is different from professional audio gear precisely because it is in a different setting with different requirements of use. Professional gear will often have provision for 19" rack mounting, or will have grab handles at the front. When professional electronic gear is used the controls are deliberately set before use; the only 'glancing' that is done is with the displays: meters or waveform traces. None of this is done with a domestic audio system (unless of course if you like to watch the power meters dancing to and fro).

On all of the domestic audio gear I have used, none of it has had control knobs of the same size: the most used control, the volume control has always been larger than the rest (the only exception is with the Levinson ML10 preamp).

But in the end the styling of domestic audio should harmonise with its surroundings; most women don't want to see the corner of the living room look like a corner of a laboratory, and not everyone is fortunate to have a separate listening room.

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Originally Posted by Barry

The aesthetics of domestic audio gear is different from professional audio gear precisely because it is in a different setting with different requirements of use. Professional gear will often have provision for 19" rack mounting, or will have grab handles at the front. When professional electronic gear is used the controls are deliberately set before use; the only 'glancing' that is done is with the displays: meters or waveform traces. None of this is done with a domestic audio system (unless of course if you like to watch the power meters dancing to and fro).

On all of the domestic audio gear I have used, none of it has had control knobs of the same size: the most used control, the volume control has always been larger than the rest (the only exception is with the Levinson ML10 preamp).

But in the end the styling of domestic audio should harmonise with its surroundings; most women don't want to see the corner of the living room look like a corner of a laboratory, and not everyone is fortunate to have a separate listening room.

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It's not just that though. For example I had an Audiolab CD transport where eject was next to play, same size button. I was always ejecting when I wanted to play. Piss-poor ergonomics just so the front of the unit looks 'tidy'. I mean, for who? Women IME are either not bothered by hifi in the living room or don't want it there at all, whatever it looks like.

It's replacement has the eject button set away from the other controls and I've never hit the wrong one once. Basic stuff.

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Originally Posted by rmcin626

From memory, I think only the once, in the late 80’s I bought some equipment from John Neilson’s shop, Elite Rock and some valve amps, which led me to Concordant Amplication around that time, which I bought direct from Doug Dunlop.

Too be honest the Glasgow stores at that time were a bit full of their own importance and not really listening to the customer.

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Yeah, you're not wrong... We were simply told to sell the gear with the biggest mark up, and you got a 'slap' if you didn't!

Commission rates were good, though;)

Marco.

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Originally Posted by Marco

Ha - I like the knobs!

Marco.

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Then you'll love my air fryer :)

https://digitalcontent.api.tesco.com...eg?h=960&w=960

But that's only got one knob...

Marco.

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Originally Posted by Macca

It's not just that though. For example I had an Audiolab CD transport where eject was next to play, same size button. I was always ejecting when I wanted to play. Piss-poor ergonomics just so the front of the unit looks 'tidy'. I mean, for who? Women IME are either not bothered by hifi in the living room or don't want it there at all, whatever it looks like.

It's replacement has the eject button set away from the other controls and I've never hit the wrong one once. Basic stuff.

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Yes that is poor ergonomic design. That said, the buttons on my Levinson CD player are all of the same size and the 'stop/eject' button is to the left of the 'play' button, but the latter is spaced further away to the right, and I have never made a mistake. My only complaint is that the engraved symbols on the buttons are hard to see easily if they are not at near eye level, and the size of the legends is too small.

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Originally Posted by Barry

the 'stop/eject' button is to the left of the 'play' button, but the latter is spaced further away to the right, and I have never made a mistake. .

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That's the key to it. Even if you can't read the legends and the buttons are identical, if eject is set off to a degree from the others, that's all that's really needed. Not even doing that shows the thing was designed by someone who had no idea of its practical use. Sadly you see that everywhere now especially in computer software GUIs.

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Originally Posted by Marco

But that's only got one knob...

Marco.

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True, but on the plus side it'll cook your chicken :)

My CD player gets confused by its own buttons. Sometimes when I press 'play', it ejects :doh: And that's not me, the buttons are at opposite ends of the player.