Vintage HI Fi. Anyone else in to it?

[Profpointy]

It was about that height (maybe a little lower) but wider - the tab switches were quite small.

Thanks for the effort from my pitiful description.

Ah well. The distinctive switches on the meridian really seemed like a match for your description, but seems others have gone for this look

 

[bruce1530]

If anyone is interested in a single Quad 50E, no cables, believed working but untested, then I’d let it go for a donation to my favourite charity...

 

[Profpointy]

The older stuff does have an aesthetic appeal though. I do find myself irrationally disapointed by how good modern cheap stuff is. The in built sound output from my PC's headphone socket wasn't that much worse than my studio quality sound card £200 2nd hand and £600 new. This is the kind of card they use in recording studios so essentually as good as it's possible to get. Back in the day you'd be tinkering and spending dosh to get these little improvements. Irrational to be nostaligic for inferior stuff, but there wwe are

 

[Fab Foodie]

Mmmm Sugden....

 

[Pale Rider]

It’s interesting that cassette tapes are still out there, whereas MDs are not.
I use MDs in radio broadcasting as I find them useful (nay, essential) for home pre-production and stockpiled a lot of blanks about 12 years ago. I have found they do have a finite life in use.
MDs are one of those unfortunate pieces of technology that arrived too close to the dawn of the MP3 era and thus was their doom sealed.

The BBC 6 Music breakfast presenter Shaun Keaveny routuinely refers to his studio's 'cart wall'.

I'm guessing that's short for cartridge on which jingles used to be recorded.

That he still refers to cart wall suggests to me the jingles are still on indivicual media, possibly Mini Disc.

I was in a commercial radio studio about 10 years ago which I'm fairly sure had racks of jingles on individual Mini Discs.

 

[Drago]

My project for the next day or so is to make an FM dipole for the Man Shed to go with my new tuner when it arrives.

 

[raleighnut]

If anyone is interested in a single Quad 50E, no cables, believed working but untested, then I’d let it go for a donation to my favourite charity...

They fetch £200-£250 on e-bay.

 

[CharlieB]

The BBC 6 Music breakfast presenter Shaun Keaveny routuinely refers to his studio's 'cart wall'.

I'm guessing that's short for cartridge on which jingles used to be recorded.

That he still refers to cart wall suggests to me the jingles are still on indivicual media, possibly Mini Disc.

I was in a commercial radio studio about 10 years ago which I'm fairly sure had racks of jingles on individual Mini Discs.

‘Cart wall’ refers to the touch screen I mentioned yesterday. All jingles and promos appear as large oblong ‘buttons’ on the screen (so that there’s no faffing about with a mouse when you’re in a hurry), so it literally looks like a wall. Buttons lower down the screen (on our version, anyway) can select different walls.
The days when jingles and promos were on physical media are long gone, although they’re still called carts.
Why ‘carts’? Because in days of old, jingles were on 1/4” tape in the same housing as an eight track cartridge. Twin track formatting, though, so they would never function in a normal eight track player. The other addition was that of a stop foil that cued the tape at the correct location ready for next use.
Horribly unreliable, and even in 1983, when I started out, a decent Sonifex player would cost over £500. And any reasonable station would need two at the very least.
Sorry to go on.

 

[bruce1530]

Yes, in radio these days “cart” is the generic term for any piece of audio recorded on the playout system which can be played by the presenter. Depending on the software in use (or culture of the organisation) then “cart” may just be used to refer to jingles/idents/trailers/adverts/sweepers/beds etc - or may refer to any recorded audio unit (songs etc).

 

[MontyVeda]

Blank MDs are still available on Ebay... i have a look at what prerecorded MDs are for sale now and then, and there's always plenty of unopened packs of blanks for sale.

FUN FACT... I have four MiniDisc players but only two prerecorded disks

 

[raleighnut]

Blank MDs are still available on Ebay... i have a look at what prerecorded MDs are for sale now and then, and there's always plenty of unopened packs of blanks for sale.

FUN FACT... I have four MiniDisc players but only two prerecorded disks

I've got a 'full size' MD recorder/player hooked up to my QUAD and Maz has one in the front room connected to her Yamaha 5:1 system and I also have 2 'Walkman' MDs (a cheap one and a really expensive one)

I've never bought a 'pre-recorded' disc though

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

I've got this Arcam Alpha 9 amplifier, that I bought new in 1999, for £500. I've just recently purchased an Arcam Alpha 9 power amp off Ebay, that I'm awaiting delivery of. Then I'll bi-amp my much newer KEF Q500's. I love the Arcam sound, detailed, but warm.

I've also got a Cambridge Audio CD player, this is more or less redundant as I bought a Cambridge Audio Dac Magic, DAC. I've connected my HTPC to this, via USB. I've ripped my CD's to FLAC. I can't tell the difference in sound quality, compared to my CD player. So that's redundant. I think there's a lot of rubbish talked about digital sources and also cables in hifi. But that's just my experiences, with CD players up to £500.

 

[raleighnut]

I've got this Arcam Alpha 9 amplifier, that I bought new in 1999, for £500. I've just recently purchased an Arcam Alpha 9 power amp off Ebay, that I'm awaiting delivery of. Then I'll bi-amp my much newer KEF Q500's. I love the Arcam sound, detailed, but warm.

I've also got a Cambridge Audio CD player, this is more or less redundant as I bought a Cambridge Audio Dac Magic, DAC. I've connected my HTPC to this, via USB. I've ripped my CD's to FLAC. I can't tell the difference in sound quality, compared to my CD player. So that's redundant. I think there's a lot of rubbish talked about digital sources and also cables in hifi. But that's just my experiences, with CD players up to £500.

View attachment 399192

Yep you're right, digital sources are rubbish.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Yep you're right, digital sources are rubbish.

Ha ha maybe, I need to buy a decent turntable. You know what I meant though, about them all sounding exactly the same. I've never heard a mega expensive cd player, so can't comment on that...

That's why I like the Arcam amp's they add a bit of warmth to a digital source. I also auditioned the Audiolab 8000A, at the same price point as the Alpha 9, back in 1999. This sounded far too clinical to my ears with a CD player. Everybody to their own though...

 

[Fab Foodie]

That's why I like the Arcam amp's they add a bit of warmth to a digital source. I also auditioned the Audiolab 8000A, at the same price point as the Alpha 9, back in 1999. This sounded far too clinical to my ears with a CD player. Everybody to their own though...

I'd agree! I tried an early Roksan CD Player (more expensive than my Arcam Alpha 7SE) and it just dreadful, no warmth or heart or soul in combo with the Audiolab, even though the Studio 1a's were on the warmer side.
The TD160/Audiolab combo was superb though!