An article that appeared in our Audio News some 21 years ago! Not much has changed!
With something akin to shock I realise that I have dabbled with
varying seriousness in hi-fi for a quarter of a century.
Originally I was smitten in the late 1930’s when my school acquired a 78 rpm electric
reproducer complete with 12 inch speaker mounted on a 5 ft. square baffle. It used thorn
needles, sharpened between each record. This was to protect the records from the terrors
of a blunt steel needle!
In the early 50’s I discovered "The Gramophone" which reviewed equipment of
superior quality, together with records which justified such expense. A radio engineer
contracted to build a 6 W receiver of above average quality complete with wall mounted 12
inch SMP speaker for 60 pounds in 1954. This was duly installed and performed very well.
The cone resonance had been lowered to about 50 Hz. and with wall mounting there was no
enclosure resonance! For another 20 pounds I subsequently acquired a 3 speed Garrard
turntable and arm with a crystal cartridge with 2 sapphire turnover styli - one for 78 rpm
and the other for microgrooves. Both styli, of course, were conical and tracked at 7 gms!
Believe it or not I still have a number of records which suffered. They still sound O.K.,
probably because later styli track lower in the groove with a smaller radius!
With this equipment we listened to 3LO (which then carried the ABC serious programmes and
commenced a record collection. In the 1950’s 12 inch records were 2/12/6 ($5.25) and
10 inch records 1/16/6 ($3.65). I became friendly with Kevin McBeath who was just starting
to develop Thomas’ and he kindly gave me a 10% discount and devoted much time to
broadening my musical education. When I hear whinges at the high price of records I
remember that they once cost 10-12% of the basic wage!
Inevitably upgrading commenced. Most of us bought components and built speaker cabinets,
etc. After adding a cheap cone tweeter and hearing a triangle clearly for the first time
on my records, it was time to up the overall quality.
The 6W job was rebuilt as an 8W single-ended ultra-linear receiver together with variable
slope high filters. A GEC metal-cone 8 inch speaker replaced the SMP in the wall and we
had genuine Hi-Fi sound. Initially I used a good quality crystal cartridge, which from
memory tracked at around 3-5 gms. Radio programmes could be quite good. The ABC
consistently transmitted a signal well beyond 10 kHz. - It still does - and although much
interference sometimes spoiled this (hence the filters to cut it) at its best A.M. radio
was (and still is) quite hi-fi. I still use this receiver to give me a decent A.M. signal
as my own AM/FM receiver, like many Japanese jobs, has only a narrow band with A.M.
section - no mush, but not much Hi-Fi either!
My first good pickup was an Ortofon. Not the then fabulous Ortofon C (which cost around 50
pounds when I was earning about 30 pounds per week) but the still good Ortofon A (21
pounds). I had several records with bad end-of-side distortion. I spent one afternoon at
Radio Parts, armed with one Ortofon C and 5 Ortofon A’s. End-of-side distortion
(tracing distortion) was almost inaudible with the Ortofon C and one of the A’s was
much better than the others. I assumed that this was the A to purchase, together with the
arm (a simple massy Ortofon arm, but it had good ball- bearings).
Stereo records had now become available but I saw no reason to change, the reviews
frequently criticised their quality, besides I could not afford the cost. Instead I
experimented with various speakers and acquired, for 35 pounds I think, a Garrard 301
turntable. This must have been in the very early 60’s and I still have it and I think
that it still goes very well!
This turntable served a Decca Mk.3 cartridge, mounted on a, unipivot arm which I had made
using portion of the Ortofon arm. The Decca was thought very highly of in those days - in
fact no one claimed any other cartridge to be superior. By now this fed a Wharfedale 15
inch bass speaker mated with a Kelly Ribbon horn-loaded tweeter, both of which I still
use.
In 1964 my wife returned to work and presented me with a Leak Stereo 20 valve amplifier.
So I bought a Barker Duode 12 inch speaker (this had a special cone, not twin cone, the
main cone provided the bass and the inner area the highs using a mechanical crossover -
the cone was pretty flexible so the bass could not have been too clean). An ADC 660
cartridge mounted in a solid timber Grado arm (with a very crude vertical bearing I
recall) extracted the vibrations off the records, In those days it was not considered
essential to have a matched pair of speakers. I guess that the Stereo wasn’t too
precise.
Members may be interested to know that the first SME arm was reviewed in 1961 and that the
Ortofon SPU dates from around 1963 - and some still think that it is a top class
cartridge!
Two years ago a small insurance policy matured, We split it - my wife purchased a
sea-chest and I set out after two nicely made compact speakers. I was out of hi-fi reading
but had heard about DM4’s and Concertos. I listened and liked! One day I set forth to
buy but called in at Encel’s just to hear a shop-soiled pair of Magneplanars. Then I
went to hear the others. Compared with the Maggies they sounded small and obvious. I
traveled back very quickly to Encels and that night a nice man delivered them. A shocked
family was awed by their size but then won over by this beautiful transparent sound!
But the Leak was far too little to play these when I added a little bass boost And the
clipping on an organ record sounded just like a death rattle. A nice young man who owned a
pair of Lowthers needed the valve sound and bought the Leak and a large JVC receiver took
its place.
More recording and I realised I was still missing out - hence a Supex Super, Trevor Lees
pre- preamplifier and Grace 707 arm. Since the Maggies are bass light, the Wharfedale
currently lives in a 6 cu.ft. concrete lined reflex box and adds impact from about 50 Hz.
down.
My membership of the Club has enabled me to listen to some superb equipment and this has
been fascinating. For the present I am content. I have heard nothing which sounds like the
real thing and the cost of marginal improvements will have to wait until we win Tatts! For
the present we are upgrading our record library - me and the Kids!
Barry H