From the BBC Archive: 1959: The AUDIOPHILE's Quest for PERFECT SOUND

[Kr2d2]

Apologize please, if someone/-where else already posted.

1959: The AUDIOPHILE's Quest for PERFECT SOUND | BBC Archive

"Do they like music? Or are they in love with equipment?"
"Is it a religion or a disease?"

Very amusing & a nice overview of everything about music (re)production over 65 years ago!
And interesting to see what has changed (record shops!!), and what is still the same (do you recognise yourself?).
The view into a shop where you can see QUAD ESL 57 on display is also very nice.

Vinyl & tube fans will love the good old times!

Plus subtle English humour!

 

[Mart68]

Apologize please, if someone/-where else already posted.

1959: The AUDIOPHILE's Quest for PERFECT SOUND | BBC Archive

"Do they like music? Or are they in love with equipment?"
"Is it a religion or a disease?"

Very amusing & a nice overview of everything about music (re)production over 65 years ago!
And interesting to see what has changed (record shops!!), and what is still the same (do you recognise yourself?).
The view into a shop where you can see QUAD ESL 57 on display is also very nice.

Vinyl & tube fans will love the good old times!

Plus subtle English humour!

I liked the bit where stereo is introduced and all his old tube stuff is shown sat in the dustbin by the front gate.

Not sure record shops were ever really like that except for the one featured, although my earliest memories of them are from about 15 years later than that film. The more traditional ones did still have big sheet music sections back then though.

 

[jdg78]

Fun. That probably would have been me if I were alive in 1959.

Although on balance I prefer the convenience and availability of streaming (not to mention the cost savings), I do still miss the old days of record stores and the whole ritual of shifting through bins of albums on the hunt for the next acquisition. Many happy memories.

 

[antcollinet]

Oh well of course that that is no good to you at all You must have one of these better class units which has ultra linear output stages The distortion factor on it is very very low indeed somewhere in the region of 0.1 1% at 10 watt output

Wow - as low as that


But this was interesting.

Of images larger than life of machines more sensitive than the ears they play to

See, they knew the goal 66 years ago. What the hell happened since then?

 

[ernestcarl]

"Is it a religion or a disease?"

Hilarious!

 

[kyuu]

"Is it a religion or a disease?"

Yes.

 

[DWPress]

Actually watched this last night, couldn't resist. The upselling clerk, crowding into the sweet spot, record store from another world - hilarious!

 

[NoteMakoti]

It's funny to think they were doing this to themselves over stuff that would be outclassed by bluetooth speakers and spotify nowadays.

 

[Kr2d2]

It's funny to think they were doing this to themselves over stuff that would be outclassed by bluetooth speakers and spotify nowadays.

You may call me oĺdfashioned - and I am! ... but I think my QUAD ESL57 electrostatic loudspeakers (named that way because designed around 1957) are not at all outclassed by any Bluetooth speaker that I know of!
The ESL57 can be seen in the shop scene starting around 14:53

 

[DSJR]

I watched that a few years back - were 'we' really that bad - umm - gulp - cough...?

I was never so DIY as to make my own amps, but a few pals were that way inclined and there were many now gone component stores as well as HiFi-gear ones they regularly visited.



We used to have a chain of newsagent/book/record shops (renamed recently) called W H Smiths. The one in Aylesbury High Street in the 60s and 70s was on two floors, the book and record department upstairs. The record dept. had Garrard SP25 mk2 decks with Goldring G800 pickups fitted (no idea on amps) and one listened via booths at the opposite side with the records in between. Back in '69, I remember seeing the 'charts' displayed on one of those peg boards with individual letters and numbers and being surprised at two albums by a strangely named band - Led Zeppelin (oh how terribly innocent I was ). I was browsing a year or two later when the theme from Shaft was played in one of the booths and I stood nearby, spellbound by it... Another memory was hearing 'Close To The Edge' at the HMV store in London's Oxford St (some years before I worked at a HiFi store nearby), the system being a Thorens 150 with Ortofon M15 cartridge, Quad amp and B&W speakers (DM1s?) set high above - wonderful clear sound I remember).