Just some Xmas fun!

chris1000

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It's that time year for Xmas joy and fun!

So I thought I would start a thread that looked back at what AV used to be like... :)

Do you remember?

Scart leads costing £100!
Laser Disc Players!
High End AV Receivers from Sony, Denon, Pioneer, Yamaha, and Marantz running into the thousands, and and weight into the thousands!
High End video projectors using 3 tubes! Today we worry about OLED screen burn! Imagine life back then!
Rear Projection TV's I owned two!!!

So in the spirit of Xmas, please post your favourite memories of an AV industry long gone!

Here are some gems to get us started... happy AV-Xmas everyone!

back in my day.png
 
Yep! AND, all of the decision process that went into selecting which type of tape to use! There all stated different proprieties, like signal to noise ratio, etc... You had to really do your research! :)
 
Yep! AND, all of the decision process that went into selecting which type of tape to use! There all stated different proprieties, like signal to noise ratio, etc... You had to really do your research! :)

I think what I remember most was how long you had to allow to set things up if you wanted to use it. Especially recording on it. I think it was a TEAC. takes me back :)
 
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, older AV equipment really looked to the user to understand what they wanted and required them to manually set various parameters in order to achieve that?
 
Anyone remember using these?
41RMolzM-5L._AC_SY400_ML2_.jpg
...
I used them in an aiwa Walkman shown below.
Spent many a year traveling on buses blasting music to my ears and everyone else that sat close to me. 😉
 

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The euro pop Scooter days :laugh:
 
I'd love to find an old photo of my dad's gramophone record player from the 50s or 60s. Beautiful lacquered wood with either end covering valves a couple of inches long etc. A real piece of furniture. Now I wonder where that Harry Belafonte LP went.....
 
1576799162560.jpeg

1998 just qualified and money in my pocket.
Someone introduced me to laserdiscs and discrete surround sound
I was blown away
So I went and splashed out on the DVD player and and 32” widescreen Sony Trinitron
Boy was it jaw dropping.
I used to use Blade DVD for demo purposes
 
Anytime remember using these? View attachment 1234693...
I used them in an aiwa Walkman shown below.
Spent many a year traveling on buses blasting music to my ears and everyone else that sat close to me. 😉
I also had a aiwa walkman! :), I think I paid £140 down Tottenham Court Road, which was a small fortune back then, but they where mechanical, you where paying for quality made a difference!
 
View attachment 1234721
1998 just qualified and money in my pocket.
Someone introduced me to laserdiscs and discrete surround sound
I was blown away
So I went and splashed pout on the DVD player and and 32” widescreen Sony Trinitron
Boy was it jaw dropping.
I used to use Blade DVD for demo purposes
How good did that Sony DVD player feel in your hands? It would have been heavy and so well constructed! Just the feel of pressing the buttons would have been special!
 
How good did that Sony DVD player feel in your hands? It would have been heavy and so well constructed! Just the feel of pressing the buttons would have been special!
It wasn’t cheap but you felt you got a premium product for your money. Similar to a few remaining high end brands/products of these times. Also none of this faff with unfinished products that keep needing updates. You got a product that did what it said on the box, out of the box.
 
Did anyone have one of these pre-DD surround amps in the mid 90's? It was the heart of my first av set up powering 5 JPW mini monitors. Didn't even have a sub out on it and I think I probably had a passive sub but I don't really remember. Had it set up with 29" Sony 4:3 CRT and Panasonic VCR and everyone wanted to come over to watch films and thought it was amazing. How things have changed!

 
How about Band III converters, remember them?

When ITA started in 1955 most TVs only received Band I (roughly 40-60 MHz) so the roughly 200 MHz Band III signals (initially from Croydon) could only be received using a converter. Unfortunately, they suffered from interference from the BBC signal breaking through underneath the ITA signal on the fixed single channel TVs. It was not ideal, but better than nothing.

How we have moved on since then.
 

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