What classics changed your hi-fi life?

[Neil McCauley]

Well ………. Here’s the story, or rather a small part of it. A while back after I sold my controlling interest in a software business (you can read about it here: http://www.stereonow.co.uk/history.html) and before starting Listen Carefully, the forerunner of Stereonow, I considered funding whatever it took to bring the Beveridge line back to the market.

I had no intention of mucking about with the design. My input, so I hoped, would be to contribute money, marketing and sales expertise (none of which they had at that time) and would leave all the technical know-how to the experts.

And so I embarked on a series of long phone conversations with one of sons of the late Mr. Harold Beveridge. In a nutshell, at some point Mr. B (the elder) was considering retiring and for safe keeping he placed in storage all the plans, schematics, patents, constructional know-how and everything else. Quite sensible. However, Mr B was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

My understanding is that this was a, if not the contributory factor in his death. Anyway, at some point prior to the death one if not both sons decided to resurrect the business with their dad’s help. Apparently at this point their dad was utterly unable to remember nor to describe where these assets were stored. To this day, they have never been recovered.

For me, this was a bit of a setback in terms of getting the company back up and running. Nevertheless Mr. B (junior) had anticipated this and was in the process of buying back a few of the 700 or so pairs in the USA to reverse engineer them. This was, as it turned out, very far from easy.

Rather than add stress to his frustration, I backed away with no animosity on either side. In fact I felt deeply privileged to have at least got closer to the heart, spirit and soul of arguably one if not the greatest loudspeaker system ever built.

As it turned out, I wasn’t the only person to have though of doing this and Mr. F of Absolute Sounds and a colleague of his from Sweden did apparently invest a serious amount of money in getting the pre-production sample built. It was not an easy path. There were, I believe, numerous technical obstacles. Again, apparently, these were resolved. One pair were built.

After that, my knowledge is hazy.

The impression I got was that the construction was very deeply and prohibitively labour intensive and was resolutely resistant to anything approaching batch production. Moreover the cost of packing necessary to protect this delicate mechanism for global transport, let alone the cost of transport made this a commercial unreality outside of the USA.

And that’s pretty much that, other than to say they are alive and I sincerely hope thriving in the USA. I wish them well.

[Mike]

My understanding is that this was a, if not the contributory factor in his death. Anyway, at some point prior to the death one if not both sons decided to resurrect the business with their dad’s help. Apparently at this point their dad was utterly unable to remember nor to describe where these assets were stored. To this day, they have never been recovered.

Blimey!!!

There are probably people out there right now, still searching for what could be regarded as the loudspeaker equivalent of 'The Holy Grail'.

Absolutely fascinating!

[Neil McCauley]

Actually, that a rather apt phrase – 'Holy Grail'.

Having been in and out of the industry over a few years, 32 in fact, I got to know a lot of people and from time to time, when they aren't on duty, they can be candid. The number of industry movers and shakers, who make equipment themselves and yet will readily agree that Beveridge made the greatest speakers probably of all time, are legion.

These include Ricardo F of Absolute Sounds, Helmut Brinkmann and I seem to recall Mr John Atkinson of Stereophile to name just 3. Truly Mr B was a man many years ahead of his time or indeed a gentleman ahead of his time.

He has, for a few of us, achieved audiophile immortality without resorting to hype, snake-oil, bullying, verbal thuggery or anything like that. Quite wonderful really.

[DSJR]

Hi all,

There were two systems (and the music played on them more importantly) which changed my life and brought about a 35 year career (God was it that long????) in the industry until fairly recently..

The first was in 1970, the Dad of a school-mate had a Garrard SP25 III with AT66 cart, a Metrosound ST20 amp and Wharfedale Dentons - magic to a thirteen year old, especially when Zep or Floyd were being blasted out..

The second one blew my socks off and I became a lifelong "EM" fan from then on thanks to Tangerine Dream - Lenco GL75/Shure M75 EJ, Armstrong 626 and, most importantly, JBL L26 "Decades." Those bloomin' JBL's had a bass that most UK speakers could only hint at, despite being one of their basic models and I've had a sneaky affection for the "JBL" sound ever since, even though the seventies ones could scream and bite your head off at the same time.....

I suppose my time with a late seventies "classic" Linn/naim system with 'briks should count for something, although my two years previously with a Radford valve pre and power and BC1's count for far more these days.

The highlight for me was a much missed pair of black lacquer ATC 100A's, which gave such total musical pleasure (and they weren't even the "SL" ones either), but impending marriage sorted them out - I grieve for them still twelve years later and their current owner rubs it in regularly.....

More recently, I've heard some lovely Tannoy Turnberry's, one of their smaller models. There's something about them that slowly draws you in and once your ears have got used to them they seem to disappear, always a good sign IMO.

[alb]

the Dad of a school-mate had a Garrard SP25 III with AT66 cart, a Metrosound ST20 amp and Wharfedale Dentons

That was posh.
When i was fifteen i had to make do with a Garrard 2025TC with ceramic cartridge, Amstrad 8000 amp and a pair of Elac full range drivers in home made cabs.(Couldn't afford to buy speakers).

Then i got a Connoisseur BD2. What an upgrade!
Mind you, i think anything would have been.

[Filterlab]

I heard a fantastic pair of Wharfedales back in the late eighties that blew my mind, they were the Coleridge Class C standmounts. I remember they were really very well made, super clean treble and startlingly clean midrange. Lean bass but I remember at the time thinking that it didn't really matter to me, maybe that's the first place I really found the type of sound that appealed to me.

I think they had ceramic dome tweeters if I remember correctly, there's not much on the web about them now though. I'd love to get hold of a pair even if it's just to take me back.

Can't even find a picture of them.

[Marco]

Wharfdale used to make some great speakers back then. I loved the original Diamonds - they were much better and more fun to listen to than the current models.

And what about some of the speakers Mission used to make in the 80s... Does anyone remember the Argonauts? They were veritable 'party' speakers of the highest order!

Marco.

[Filterlab]

I had a pair of Mission 782s in Rosewood a long while back. I remember they were proper wood rather than faced chipboard and had a lovely weighty sound. Can't remember for the life of where I got them, I do know that the chap I sold them to still uses them and loves them.

A picture, but not my pair:

[Filterlab]

And who could forget the rather 'in your face' 753s? More drivers than a chinese taxi firm.

[Marco]

I had a pair of Mission 782s in Rosewood a long while back. I remember they were proper wood rather than faced chipboard and had a lovely weighty sound. Can't remember for the life of where I got them, I do know that the chap I sold them to still uses them and loves them.

A picture, but not my pair:

Now that's what I call 'computer speakers' and a 'computer audio' set-up!

None of yer puny little ADM9 shit

I love the 753s, too. All that stuff was from an era when Mission made 'proper' speakers. This is another example of what I mean when I say how much genuine progress have we made with hi-fi, in terms of pure sound quality, in the last 20-odd years?

I know what my answer is!

Marco.