This video is an interesting trip through history. i am 74 years old and have worked in electronics my entire life. I've built numerous kits including Heath, Knight, and Dynaco. Like others, I jumped on the solid-state bandwagon and ditched all my tube equipment. Seven years ago, that all changed. I built a vacuum tube power amp, line preamp, and phono preamp. I acquired a Empire Scientific 598 turntable and replaced the tonearm with modern low mass unit. I also acquired two H.H. Scott AM-FM tuners, neither of which worked. The problem with both was mainly dirty/corroded tube pins/sockets. Surprisingly, all the capacitors and resistors in both tuners were within tolerances. I really love the sound I get from all of these components and have no desire to go back to solid-state.

Hi Scott, I grew up on Long Island in the 1950's and can remember taking the bus into Jamaica, Queens, to go to the Lafayette Flagship store. I could barely afford the bus fare, but I remember looking at all the cool new audio gear. I still have my first HH Scott 299B and 330c ( with the stereo sidecar adaptor). Nothing beat their sounds, when they were attached to Scott S-100 speakers. I still use this system daily. Thanks for your compilation of the 1960's electronics!

Scott, thanks for taking the time to put together this fascinating retrospective. This is the kind of gear we looked down our noses at in my college days in the late 1970s. If we only we only knew how good the tube gear was!

My dads friend had a Fisher receiver and it got New York from sixty miles away FM yet. We used to listen to Alison Steel "The Nightbird" on WNEW.

Fun video, Scott. I love seeing all these old components. I used to go to Lafayette store near my childhood house in LI. I would browse their catalog then ride my bike there. They actually had McIntosh. I remember seeing it without realizing what it was.

The Fisher 600 receiver was mainly a console model with EL84 power. How about the KLH speakers. Very popular. In 1960, while in high school. I sold High end Audio in the pre Tandy Radio Shack in Stamford Connecticut. Where they had a dedicated sound room. Only 4 Radio Shack locations then.. At that time Harvey Radio in NYC was very impressive..

Very well done. I grew up with this stuff and loved going to Lafayette Radio in Newark, and Radio Row in lower Manhattan and mainly window shopping until ultimately putting together my system (Arkay Integrated amp, Collaro changer, GE cartridge, Lafayette diy enclosure, and Norelco full range 10” speaker.) Quite good sound for a 12 year old in 1955. I wish you were able to find some McIntosh and Marantz ads as they were the undisputed kings of the era.

Great to see Glaser Steers mentioned! Incredible changers that automatically changed speed according to record size.

Enjoyed that Scott, well researched and presented, thank you!

Wonderful, I remember a lot more than I thought I would. My father bought an FM Receiver kit in 1959, I don't remember the manufacture. I had a Fisher RS-1035 Stereo receiver I bought from Macy's in the early 70s, I used to work for Harvey Radio, they sold high-end audio and TV's, also supplied the defense industry with electronic parts.

My dad’s first stereo was a Fisher 400 that he bought on “Radio Row” in NYC back in ‘63. He could only afford the Fisher and one AR2A speaker so he used it as a mono setup for the first two years until he had the scratch to buy the other speaker and a turntable (a Garrard changer). Another neat gizmo was the “Off-A-Matic”, a box that you would plug your record changer and receiver into. It would shut off your receiver when the changer shut itself off.

Your best video, many times over. If you stepped into an audio store in 1969, and spent the whole afternoon listening to reel tapes through a Citation II tube amplifier, into KLH 9 elelectrostatics and then went into a coma until today; if after awakening so many decades later, and you stepped into a pretty high end audio store today, would you likely hear sound as good? After finally coming out of a coma, I think you would think "Geez, the sound quality isn't as good as it used to be." They made some great gear back then. Henry H. Scott started calling his company H.H. Scott because the name Herman had become sort of a comical name. As exemplified by Herman Munster on TV.... Grandpa the Count (Al Lewis), decades later actually ran for Mayor of New York. He didn't succeed. His line "You're a bum, you always were a bum, and you'll never be anything but a bum" worked for his vampire character on the show, but didn't go as well for his political platform. Like Donald Trump, some people would have voted for him, because it would simply be a lot of fun having him in office. Whatever you think of Trump, he was easily our funniest president***. With many asterisks though. The Citation II amplifier, which many thought was actually THE BEST sounding amplifier back then, with the exception of the Marantz model nine, did come in kit form. It had lots of negative feedback loops, which if well done does not degrade the sound; with tube amps especially. The model nine sounds darker than the Marantz model 8 power amp, but it's still a nicer sound by far. A lot of the Radio Shack stuff from back then was made in Germany & rebadged. Fisher's reputation might have been hurt by offering all in one compact stereos in the 1970s, with the turntable and receiver sitting inside the same chassis. Similarly Luxman, a brand with good status and reputation, were bought out and sold in department stores for a while about 40 years ago. They re-emerged as the pricey esoteric brand that they are today. Factory pre-recorded music from your favorite artists became available in Stereo by 1954 or 1955 on reel tape, beating stereo lps by 2 or 3 years until Audio Fidelity came out with stereo lps in 1957. Reel tape guys were BIG STUFF for a few years. The very first RCA Living Stereo title with Fritz Reiner & the Chicago Symphony doing Strauss music was recorded in stereo in November of 1954 for reel tape people, with lps in stereo on the horizon. Reiner, one of the great cobductors of all time knew Johann Strauss, and they were good friends. No surprise that Reiner was a wonderful interpreter of Strauss's music. They discussed the music together often.

Thank You for the time machine back to the year I was born :)

My first set of speakers were AR with a Sherwood amplifier. I would always enjoy looking through the Heathkit catalog, but never had the spare income to buy a kit.

I really enjoyed this video. Hope you do another one like it!

I'd love to see a similar video but mid-late 1970s: Kenwood, Pioneer, Yamaha, Sansui, Marantz, etc. etc. I was born in the 90's but I'm fascinated by that era of home audio equipment.

I remember, in 1960, College, went to a real Hi-Fidelity show at the fancy Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles hotel. 1st class stuff; Marantz, (then almost equal to) MacIntosh, the first electrostats, Ampex recorders, Audio Empire/B&O/Thorens, Shure, Rek-o-kut, etc. Of special note, the JBL Paragon mono speaker assembly ( it would cover an entire L/R end wall). $600-$800 as i recall. Magnificent!!!! I bought, on a 50% sale ($50)- a brand new TEC SS amp/preamp- about 1"x4"x6". Worked great and way better for the money than the typical Sherwoods, etc..... until, 6 months later one of the power transistors blew.- the beginnings of solid state. My brother-in-law had a set of Macintosh amps and tuners, my nephew still uses them today!! I think the 'audio" progression typically evolved from short-wave to AM to 78's, mono wire, then FM, LPs, and then RR tape, finally stereo LPs, FM Stereo and stereo RR tape in the 60's that from then was mostly refined, as SS stuff began to mature. I remember having a wonderful Sony RR Stereo Tapecorder, (SUPERB Heads!) using a microphone to record classical music over the AM radio, then later FM, and thenwonderful pre-recorded stereo tapes. I found out later that both Quincy Jones and Harry Belafonte had the same home models of the Sony recorder- missed it in your ad compilation. I built both a Fisher tuner and preamp/amp as well early on, at about that time. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!!!

I actually had the dual-dial Scott tuner as featured in that ad. The one I had was a gold face tube unit very classy-looking tho the performance was so-so. Gave $10 for it at Dixie HiFi Charlotte, NC in 1970. Purchased at the same time from Dixie - a really nice Rek 0 Kut belt drive turntable, a pair of Altec 12-inch 3-way floor standing loudspeakers, and a 50 wpc Kenwood receiver - $60 for the lot. Dixie bought and sold surplus radio station and hifi gear. Dixie eventually became Circuit City..

Quite a nice trip down memory lane! I grew up during this early era of Hi-Fi/Stereo equipment. I used to eagerly await my catalogs from Allied Radio, Heathkit, Lafayette, Bursteine-Applebee, Radio Shack and others. I spent hours looking through them, digesting manufacturer's specifications for their gear etc. Also there were Hi-Fi/Stereo magazines that did reviews of equipment and recordings and presented the latest equipment and technology. Most of the available equipment was from US manufacturers, although there were examples from Europe including Norelco, Phillips, Bang & Olufsen, Grundig and Telefunken. In turntables and changers there were the Benjamin-Miracord, Dual, Garrard, Thorens units that developed quite a following. Kits for amplifiers, tuners and receivers were in their prime time when vacuum tubes were dominant. As transistorized equipment was introduced, kits became less popular due partly to the destruction modes transistors can develop.

I have a Kenwood 6400 stereo amplifier that I bought new in the mid-1970s. It is within arms reach and it works as well as the day that I bought it.

6:20 - ESL references the LP "Persuasive percussion" as a demo for stereo separation. Good choice; all those Enoch Light productions had *NO* 'center channel' to speak of!

Thank you for this trip to memory lanes. I remember seeing few of these while they were still relatively new during the late 60’s. Technology was evolving quickly specially with the advent of Ge power transistors amplifiers.

Great retro journey for us aging stereophiles. I bought a mess of gear, amps, speakers, decks, turntables to listen to music. Now I have my BOSE Soundlink Flex hooked up to my OLD (out of date) iPhone via KZfaq. My trusted stereo shops have all closed.

I bought a Fisher receiver in 1968 while I was in the Navy and still have and it still works

Still have 2 Dynaco amps in the closet. Some gems here and, of course, some real dogs. Not everyone should have been in the audio business.

You have taken us on trips through audio history before, but wow, this is really something! I recognized most of these brands because I'm old. I got interested in radios and stereo the first time I played with my grandparent's 1936 Silvertone radio and picked up stations from around the world. I still have it and it works pretty well. I've been a Hi Fi and radio nut ever since.

Thanks for this trip down memory lane. I was a teenager in 1960 and was really interested in the hi fi/stereo stuff. Built a couple of Lafayette and Knight kits. You did not mention the FM and AM dials on the tuner dials were separate on many to accommodate the AM/FM simulcast--before multiplex FM stereo. I had an older friend in college at the time who did not believe that a stereo amp was valid stereo. To him, you needed two separate mono amps to be truly stereo!

Used to have a Fisher 800-B similar to 14:24 and thumbnail image got me here. Got it at a garage sale and put my money int re-tubing it. Amazing sound...I was back in high school then.

Dynaco distributed B & O in U.S. (possibly Canada, also). Among products were microphones and (for one motor limitation) great quality reel to reel. Webcor was name Webster Electric used. Thorens made turntable that turned the record over to play other side called TD-224 Masterpiece.

Awesome to see the old stuff, I have Citation 1 and 2 (McShane Kit on amp)(Dads), Citation A and B(was Uncles) with AL Harkness C-40s(1200), AR-XA Turntable. I have Pioneer 1050,750. LP12 Soundsmith/Ruby, on B&Ws DM-640s. Extra stuff Sherwood Rec.,Eico ST-84. I loved the ad's my oldest brother was telling me when my dad and uncle where always talking about these company's. My Dad got the best. thanks for a great video.

My girlfriend worked at H.H.Scott for a time. I was a Sony guy, (STR-6055 was my dream receiver), so I don't need to tell you how that relationship ended!

My very first system was a Dual 1009 Turntable with arm (rim drive). The Amplifier was a Star SA30 12 watt per channel tube integrated ( i think this amplifier goes by the name of "Layfeete"in the U.S) The speakers were a pair of Goodmans 12 inch dual cone Axiom loud speakers rated at 15 watts 16 ohm. The speakers came with no cabinets, so i had to build them myself. This was all i could afford at the time. The top system most people would love to own at the time. was a Quad based setup. Thorens turntable fitted wit an SME arm. Shure cartridge. Quad tube preamplifier. Two quad mono tube amps. and the Electrostatic loudspeakers.

I remember some of these adds. It was a fun time to be into stereo records. Garrard, Pilot, H H Scott and Shure and Empire. I lived in the Olsen Electronics store.

Sansui and Harman Kardon..were my favorite receivers....now I have the Harman Kardon Studio 8 party center made a few years ago.... very nice speaker...it has the same sound my original receiver I had in the 1970s and 1980s... only in portable 😮

The Stereo Fax appears to be a passive phase shift network. To the untrained ear, it may have sounded like stereo, but it actually sounds weird when one channel is out of phase. My grandfather had a set of Wolverines back in the 1950s. One day he came home and found that my grandmother had traded them in on a set of bookshelf speakers. The fallout from that event lasted for decades. I still have his old Heathkit AA-100.

A Wollensak reel to reel had a 1/4" mic/input jack that you could plug a guitar into. It made a real cool fuzz tone, we called the set up, swollen sac.

We sold Harman-Kardon Citation kits at a shop I worked for. (Citation 12 amp and Citation 11 Preamp). Late 60's early 70's.

My first receiver was a Fisher as well as a Gerrard turntable, both back in '74.

Here are a couple of H.H. Scott tidbits. Hermon Scott's middle name was Hosmer. Second, at the time, Scott tuners were used for FM station re-broadcast. This was in lieu of leased-line connection. FM radio networks (most notably the Concert Network which included WBCN in Boston, WHCN in Hartford and WNCN in New York City) would use a Scott tuner to pull the signal off the air from another Concert Network station and feed it into the local transmitter.

I had an old Hammond organ with an A20 tone cabinet. The amplifier in it was built by Webster Electric. It had a set of 4 2A3 tube finals in it, and 2 Jensen 12in electromagnetic speakers. Built VERY well! IIRC, Webster electric did have some connections to Western Electric

3:10 - I like how many of these turntable ads don't mention that you need to provide (or build) a plinth for some of these models!

There was a Voice of Music factory here in my hometown of Benton Harbor Michigan. It unfortunately met the wrecking ball last December.

Cool thank you I have old ads stereos etc

23:22 Motorola was also pushing the 3-piece speaker setup with 3 separate amplifiers during this time. There appears to be a console with that layout, though I can't tell what brand, on the living room set up "Leave it to Beaver". What goes around comes around.

My dad had a Thorens TD-124 which unfortunately we got rid of when he died. Ugh. We really goofed on that one.

Definitely gonna be a fun one

Great seeing the old print ads. Unfortunately I’m old enough to have seen some of that beautiful vintage equipment when it was new. Some years later Grommes became Precision Electronics. They were located west of Chicago for many years, and at that point only produced commercial amplifiers and related components for paging systems. They were well built amplifiers until the company was forced to buy boards and components off shore to maintain competitive prices in the industry. That’s when, just like Bogen, the quality and reliability suffered considerably.

Norelco was Philips brand that was marketed in the United States. Philco way back in the 1920's sued due to the similarities of the name forced Philips to use Norelco. As for as the reel to reel decks, probably before 1960, staggered vs stacked tape formats and the such. My understanding from my late parents that the first home stereo formats were in fact reel to reel tapes that came out a few years prior to the advent of the stereo LP in 1958. These days it's old people like us who still enjoy good sounding audio systems.

Enjoyed this video but would really like to see one of the ads about ten years later. 1972 is when I first started purchasing my stereo gear.

It was my understanding that in the age of the record changer that the records themselves were designed for it. Supposedly the label area of the record was raised and so was the outer edge so that theoretically the grooved portion of the record would never touch the grooved portion of the next record.

A good note about record changers and actually why they don’t scratch your records is because if you notice the label section of an LP is raised, and so is the lip at the edge of the record. So there’s are the only two points that contact. The grooves of the record actually don’t come in to contact.

Holy smokes! The "Empire Troubador" turntable is extremely nice looking. $145.50 in 1960, or $1,497.78 in 2024.

Love the 15" "full-range" driver. It appears to have what was called a whizzer cone to help out the high(er) frequencies.

I was lucky to have the Heath Company salvage store to buy from in the late 60's into the 70's. I got a job at Heath Co. later in 1978. I've had / made / serviced so many Heath models I can't remember them all. Buy your sound by the pound.

19:00 - The Wollensak was 'king' of the schools! They were ubiquitous!

If I'm not mistaken a lot of homes already had TV antennas on the roof and the FM band was very close to the VHF band. This may be why you didn't see a lot of dedicated FM antennas.

15:35 Sromberg Carlson was big into intercoms. They made the intercoms, with the big control panel, including PA gear with tuners and turntables, in the schools I attended as a kid in the 1960s. The last time I saw that name was on the PBX phones in a 1985 building where I worked for a few years. It was around that time that they were bought out by Siemens.

reeves soundcraft also had a facility right here in danbury ct.

I remember going to Lafayette radio to replace our first magnetic cartridge when the stylus broke. They didn't have that same brand, but the guy told me I could replace it with this Pickering cartridge. It said on the box, with Pickering you can hear the difference. I didn't believe it, but my brother and I were shocked, there was a big difference. I went and bought a copy of high fidelity, and came to the conclusion when I got some money, I was going to buy an Empire cartridge. I thought they looked nice, had better specs than the Shure, and ugly Stanton ones, had a large HF frequency cutoff. I started off with the yellow, because I couldn't afford the purple 999X or black 1000ZX. Later I bought their turntable 598 II turntable and the 1000ZEX. Empire turntable advertised, no wow & flutter, and a 0% speed error.

17:30 - What's up with the brown tint over those PACO components?

Interesting vid Scott. A little before my time but enjoyed the walk down memory lane with those products. What stood out to me most is how most of those names are defunct or have been absorbed/rebranded today. It seems like it was the wild west of audio electronics back then. Did you run across any McIntosh ads from that era?

7:29 - I didn't realize Bogen made stereo gear. I've only seen their PA amps.

nice video

Ahh mammaries, I mean memories... I was a lucky kid, spoiled because I was born in '53 making me 70 today. Pops was a designer at Sears in Chicago late 50s early 60s and about '60 we went to Allied Stereo (I'm 7 remember it like yesterday in our '57 Plymouth wagon) in Chicago and picked up the modern walnut cabs 2 cabs had the speakers and 2 or 3 others were clones for books and crap - Playboy mag hip. Cabinets made by Knight loaded with EV horns and a woofer in each; he built the Dynakit pre and amp, got a Garrard changer and while all my homies for the next few years were still doing those big singular mono magnavox TV record players we were buying stereo "demo" records, Effects records and man..... the SOUND - all those 60s Sinatra, Stan Getz, Bossa Nova, Angel Classical, Command Jazz and then the Beatles and 60s? Forget it. The BEST sound. The cabs were 4 ohms so that Dynakit would LIGHT THEM UP, I remember neighbors down the block years later bitching they could hear me the ONE day I dimed Cream's Wheels Of Fire LP on the Dynakit. Woof. Horn tweeters, go finger. Thanks for the trip down the Lane. 🎸

I have that ESL tone arm with a Rek-O-Kut turntable.

Any high end Heathkits (receivers, amps, tuners, speakers) in your collection?

16:35 Webster Electric is now called Northpoint Industries, which makes motor-driven hydraulic equipment. Their website indicated that they were bought-out and reorganized several times. I don't see any indication that they had anything to do with Webster-Chicago, which made record changers until the mid 1960s and sold small audio appliances under the name Webcor.

8:00 - it would be a year until FM Stereo was a reality. That tuner on the right could receive 'stereo' broadcasts -- receiving one channel on AM and the other on FM!

I grew up during the time when the two main manufacturers and sellers of audio equipment were Lafayette and Radio Shack. As a late teen/early twenties consumer I always found LRE to be superior to RS. Sure, LRE tended to look a bit stodgy while RS was less expensive and more modern looking. But for quality you could not beat LRE. Where there was plastic on RS, there was metal on LRE. I have a Switchcraft input selector (1 in- 3 out or visa versa) which is still in use this very day, as well as a pair of Criterion 2002 12" 3way speakers with metal Brilliance/Compensation knobs. Sure, I've replaced the woofers and tweeters over the years, but they still work.

Has anyone heard of Churchill? I have a small integrated amp I found at an estate sale. Hardly any information on them.

A hundred dollars in 1960 would be $1,029.40 today.

What happened to Webcor, (Webster Chicago) Concord.

In consoles, V-M reigned supreme from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Most Magnavox and some Curtis Mathes models used Collaro; cheaper brands and the majority of everything from the late 1970s forward would employ BSRs. Garrard was favoured by Packard-Bell; some were also used in upper-level General Electric models. Glaser-Steers (echch) and Dual (wonderful) appeared as original equipment in only a very tiny percentage of consoles. Zenith developed a premium-grade changer with a very long tonearm for its last range of super-deluxe cabinets.

16:22 - IIRC, Wharfedale speaker cabinets were filled with sand!

Nice video, you should do one of these with ADs for European gear.

TT’s have seen Thorens, EV Traubidor,Garrard 301 in some radio stations-and course Rek-o-Kit-later to beQRK and CCA-they made AM and FM broadcast transmitters. And for broadcast RCA was the king of transmitter builders fonAM,FM, and TV. They also marketed broadcast gear under their name.

16:15 LEAK and Warfdale were imported by British Industries Corporation, the same Long Island importer which sold Gararrd turntables and put them in those plastic-tacky, but clever bases with the 3-way lids and the cubbies for the 45 adapter and unused spindles. Garrard unceremoniously dropped them in the early 1970s after a dispute with the CPSC over the flammability of Delrin, so BIC teamed up with Voice of Music, Maestro, and a couple of other American manufacturers to sell BIC 900 turntables and BIC Venturi speakers.

See, I was right from the start, that this was your best video. 25k views and climbing is a lot. To the guy that tried to refute my claim that stereo lps started coming out in 1957; look it up! Audio Fidelity here in America was releasing stereo lps in 1957. The legendary RCA Living Stereo catalog started being released to record stores in 1958, among some other labels. They say right on the back of the lp covers when they were recorded. The original shaded dog Living Stereo lps were not in any way eclectronically simulated stereo. It says on the lps back cover the exact date they were recorded; and in the case of the first one, LSC 1806, it was recorded in November 1954. Reel tape people could buy stereo reel tapes years before stereo lps came out. If in doubt; why not look it up on the internet instead of telling someone they don't know what they are saying? Hope that clears it up. Of course in other countries it could be different; exactly when they first released things.

I had a few oldschool integrated tube amps and one stuck out and was the best amp I had. My Audiolab 6000A is now my second best amp. Unfortunately I sold the little tube amp to a friend and I had a Sansui oldschool tube receiver that had more power. But not as good... the good one was called "Star". I couldn't find anything on such a brand online. Maybe you have heard of the Star brand oldschool amp.😅

Thank You Very Much For Going Above and Beyond Yes Oddly Enough There is a Adaptors For The 7868 Power Tubes Too The 7591 I Looked 👀 On Line and Found The Gold Plated Adaptors Thank You No Bias Change Everything Is as Simple as 1,2,3 Thanks 🙏 Again

$99.99 is like $999.99 today!

Wish we could bring our hifi equipment to the afterlife.😢

6:52 Wasn't Norelco just another name for Phillips in those days? They didn't always use their name over here for fear of being sued by Philco (even though both operated in the UK with no conflict). The Norelco name was also used for the first cassette (eh, "Phillips Cassette") tape recorders. For some reason, they didn't mind selling records in the USA with the Phillips label.

Nothing about JBL speakers and Marantz?

(1) Hermon Hosmer Scott. (2) I think there are two tuning dials on the Scott tuner, because -- before the FCC approved multiplexing for stereo FM broadcasts -- there was a very brief fad for broadcasting stereo by transmitting one channel on FM and the other channel on AM. Really! I remember trying it, just once, when a local classical FM station that had an AM corporate partner (both in San Diego) broadcast a recording this way. I had to use a mono "hi-fi" that my father had built for one channel and an AM tabletop radio for the other. The speakers were totally mismatched. I didn't hear noticeable stereo. I think (a guess) this tuner with two dials did both AM and FM with separate outputs. (3) A friend of mine built an HH Scott solid-state stereo integrated amp, from a kit. Model 299 I think. That was as late as 1967-1968. (4) One thing that you've already noticed: pretty women in advertising. Audiophilia is mostly an interest of males. Men like audio gear. Men like pretty girls. I sure-fire ad is to show the gear with a beautiful woman. That's as true now as it was in 1960.

No I think the Strob worked it was your turntable that was running to fast or to slow ?

19:19 Was Crown International the same company that sold those "Crown of Japan" giant boomboxes that graced the front windows of Woolworth's stores in the 1980s? I read somewhere that people assumed they were junk because of how tacky they looked, but that their quality wasn't half-bad for the money.

I still have my Garrard 301and have been offered silly money for it. It performs as good as my Rega P3, and that is saying something of the 301, being about 50 years old !

9:52 That's probably a spoof of the then-current hipster-fad of building book shelves out of stacked cinder blocks with boards separating each tier. These things looked cool to some, but were probably a bad idea for anyone in an earthquake zone, anyone with a cat, people with small children, those who sleep walked ... really, anyone with any common sense.

I Got a Fisher 400 and a Pair of JBL Lancer 90 Great Combo But The Output Tubes or Power Tubes are The 7868 Bummer Hey I’ve Never Seen a Fisher 600 Actually Fisher Was Just Above McIntosh Back in The Day Kool Thanks

1960-just a few years earlier than I was aware of any of this kind of stuff. Well, I'll tell you. A lot is said about nostalgia. These ads are interesting, but what I feel is something like the opposite of nostalgia. I had substantial experience with some of this kind of gear, including building several kits (Heath, Knight, and Dynaco). And when I look at these ads, or videos featuring the gear, I mostly feel a strange kind of revulsion. Compared to the tech I see now, this stuff was clumsy, clunky, not all that reliable or precise, and not even especially good-looking. Not that today's gear seems like the ultimate. I can imagine much better designs, and without stepping outside of known physical principles. I didn't even like it all that well at the time. Time and again, I would eagerly anticipate how cool something was going to be, as a teenager is often prone to doing, only to be disappointed. I could go on and on. I'm so glad to be beyond most of that stuff. And it didn't even cost much to get to that point. It mostly just took a lot of waiting.

Ainda tenho o 500c funcionando aqui no Brasil.

You're a little off on the solid state timeline. Dad traded in our 1956 Chevy for a brand new 1960 Dodge Dart station wagon. We sat in the car and marveled at the instant on transistorized radio. No more waiting on tubes to warm up we were in the jet age now..

Your video looks way better. New camera?

"Garrard" has a hard "G." Back in the day of those ads, you could separate the audiophiles from the wannabes by how they pronounced "Garrard." Wannabes pronounced it like "Girard."

Add a zero to those 1960 prices to get a 2024 estimated cost, ouch!

Wow, HiFi gear was very expensive back then. To adjust for inflation just 10x the price. TVs were also expensive comparted to today and TVs are a LOT better now. Stereo gear has not improved by the same ratio.

What? No AR turntables advertised in the 60s?

$99.95 in 1960 would equal $1,028.88 in 2024. Not being an audiophile, would that still be considered a bargain?

Fisher 500C what junk. I made a living rebuilding the final in those babies under warranty.