What ever happended to...................

Wasn't  Radio Shack (almost bankrupt) bought by C. Tandy.

What's wrong with Lasky's?  Reminds me of all those Hi-Fi shops on Tottenham court road in the 70's. 

Do you remember the dreadful Hifi called, rather incongruously, 'Realistic'? I have a feeling it was an own brand of one of the hi fi chains. 

COMET?

Not the latter day incarnation, rather the model which existed in the 70's and early 80's, and which, I would hazard a guess, provided many current forum members with their first experience of hi-fi.....(well, almost).

Dave.

Hungryhalibut posted:

Do you remember the dreadful Hifi called, rather incongruously, 'Realistic'? I have a feeling it was an own brand of one of the hi fi chains. 

You're right it was Radio Shack's own brand.

dave marshall posted:

COMET?

Not the latter day incarnation, rather the model which existed in the 70's and early 80's, and which, I would hazard a guess, provided many current forum members with their first experience of hi-fi.....(well, almost).

Dave.

Bought my Hi-End Philips system from them in early 70's. And a Canon A1 SLR in the late 70's.

On the OP's theme of "whatever happened to?", my original venture into hi-fi, (well, almost....as above), courtesy of Comet consisted of :

Armstong 521 amp

Garrard 401 / SME turntable

Wharfedale Dovedale speakers

Only Wharfedale seem to have survived, which just confirms that there's no accounting for taste! 

Dave.

There's posh - Garrard 401. Most people started with an SP25. 

dave marshall posted:

COMET?

Not the latter day incarnation, rather the model which existed in the 70's and early 80's, and which, I would hazard a guess, provided many current forum members with their first experience of hi-fi.....(well, almost).

Dave.

I'm among them.  Comet used to produce a newspaper-style listing of their hi-fi kit which I can remember pouring over to see what I could afford.  Kit I bought from them included a basic Goldring turnable (102, I think), latter replaced by a Pioneer PL112D (the less successful replacement for the PL12D), and a Sansui AU-2200 amp, complete with 'loudness control'.  

I also remember Dixons getting into separates with their own brands of turntables (BSR rebranded), amps and speakers.

Happy days!

Comet, bless 'em were selling a "ready to go" 401 / SME combo, which made life easy for an impatient 15 year old.

It went to the great auction site in the sky a couple of years later in favour of a sexy B & O polished aluminium deck, which the ladies at the time greatly admired.......see above.....impatient, by this time, 17 year old. 

Dave.

I can remember a Laskeys  in Sheffield about the time CD was first introduced. There was also a shop down the Wicker called Quadrophenia, I bought my NAD system from them along with a Dual 505 turntable and Heybrook HB1 speakers.

Are NAD and Dual still running ?

Alan Michael Sugar Trading........Amstrad. Every time I watch The Apprentice......

I know the PC part was sold off to BSkyB, but what ever happened to the "HiFi" part that produced the Amstrad 8000 integrated amp ?

The NAD ( a 7120 tuner/amp ) is working perfectly, the Dual does work but has been stored for the last 10 years or so. The Heybrooks are alas no more and the NAD  6050C cassette deck ( which I forgot to mention ) is also working well.

Don Atkinson posted:

TANDY ?

Did they go bankrupt, voluntary liquidation, merge, swallowed up ?

Just curious. I popped into Reading today, must be six months or a year since I last went into town. I wasn't surprised that Tandy was gone, its been gone for donkey years, but as I wandered past the place it had been, I began to wonder "What ever happened to....."

 

It is all explained in Wikipedia at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...oration#Tandy_stores

Hopefully Richard will allow this link as Wikipedia is not a commercial site. But if he deletes it, then you can just search for Tandy stores in Wikipedia.

best

David

DBS-Al posted:

I can remember a Laskeys  in Sheffield about the time CD was first introduced. There was also a shop down the Wicker called Quadrophenia, I bought my NAD system from them along with a Dual 505 turntable and Heybrook HB1 speakers.

I had a set of Heybrook HB1s from new when I was young.  Bought them from a shop in Wilmslow and powered them with an A&R Arcam Alpha Amp, gosh they were good speakers for what they cost.  Wish I'd kept them really 

dayjay posted:

DBS-Al posted:

I can remember a Laskeys  in Sheffield about the time CD was first introduced. There was also a shop down the Wicker called Quadrophenia, I bought my NAD system from them along with a Dual 505 turntable and Heybrook HB1 speakers.

I had a set of Heybrook HB1s from new when I was young.  Bought them from a shop in Wilmslow and powered them with an A&R Arcam Alpha Amp, gosh they were good speakers for what they cost.  Wish I'd kept them really 

To complement that, dayjay, I had a pair of Heybrook HB2s which I powered with an A&R A60 (front end: Ariston RD80/LVX/Elite700). A match made in the hi-fi heavens.  Those Heybrooks had some bass that belied their size.  Still got them in loft somewhere.  Am a bit reluctant to dig them out and power them up least my favourable memory of them is shattered.

Mike  

dave marshall posted:

On the OP's theme of "whatever happened to?", my original venture into hi-fi, (well, almost....as above), courtesy of Comet consisted of :

Armstong 521 amp

Garrard 401 / SME turntable

Wharfedale Dovedale speakers

 

Only Wharfedale seem to have survived, which just confirms that there's no accounting for taste! 

 

Dave.

A friend of mine had an Armstrong 621 integrated amp, which I think was the series following the 500. I really thought the 621 was the bees elbows - a really good looking amplifier, which I still see on eBay occasionally.

dave marshall posted:

On the OP's theme of "whatever happened to?", my original venture into hi-fi, (well, almost....as above), courtesy of Comet consisted of :

Armstong 521 amp

Garrard 401 / SME turntable

Wharfedale Dovedale speakers

 

Only Wharfedale seem to have survived, which just confirms that there's no accounting for taste! 

 

Dave.

The Wharfedale name survived, bought by IAG, who actively use it still, but so far as I can see, it wasn't Wharfedale as a brand that survived.

 Interestingly, IAG also bought Quad but you can easily see the roots of what was Quad then in today's offerings, eg current dumping power amplifiers, electrostatic loudspeakers etc.

best

David

MDS posted:

dayjay posted:

DBS-Al posted:

I can remember a Laskeys  in Sheffield about the time CD was first introduced. There was also a shop down the Wicker called Quadrophenia, I bought my NAD system from them along with a Dual 505 turntable and Heybrook HB1 speakers.

I had a set of Heybrook HB1s from new when I was young.  Bought them from a shop in Wilmslow and powered them with an A&R Arcam Alpha Amp, gosh they were good speakers for what they cost.  Wish I'd kept them really 

To complement that, dayjay, I had a pair of Heybrook HB2s which I powered with an A&R A60 (front end: Ariston RD80/LVX/Elite700). A match made in the hi-fi heavens.  Those Heybrooks had some bass that belied their size.  Still got them in loft somewhere.  Am a bit reluctant to dig them out and power them up least my favourable memory of them is shattered.

Mike  

...........or they blow the socks of your current Focals ...........

There is a Bang & Oulfson dealer shop in Exeter which seems to be eternally empty of customers with two sales assistant sitting in often in a state of boredom in front of their computers.  I glance through the shop windows  to have peak of their equipment and it seems to never change.  All components try to look slick like new architecture in the 60's, all feels a little bit like being on the Star Ship Enterprise from Star Trek.  I have noticed this above state on & off for about 7 years and I am astonished that they are still in business.  Seriously how do they stay open?  The only logical answer I can think off is they do a lot of business through the internet (a bit like a Restaurant without customers but a heavy trade in takeaways).  Otherwise its just a Tax front or a place for laundering money?

There's a B&O shop just like you describe in St Albans. I don't think I've ever seen a customer in there.

A nostalgic thread for me gents - all those 'household' names reminded me of my college (Uxbridge) and uni days in London. 

If my memory serves me right, there used to be a hi-fi shop opposite the main entrance of the Uxbridge Station. And guess what was on offer? Linn and Naim - that's when I fell in love with those buggers

dave marshall posted:

On the OP's theme of "whatever happened to?", my original venture into hi-fi, (well, almost....as above), courtesy of Comet consisted of :

Armstong 521 amp

Garrard 401 / SME turntable

Wharfedale Dovedale speakers

 

Only Wharfedale seem to have survived, which just confirms that there's no accounting for taste! 

 

Dave.

Gosh! that takes me back!

My first 'stereo' system when i was @ Uni...

Audiotronic LA32 (i think) integrated amp (from Lasky's -- whatever happened to them???)

Garrard AP96 record deck (from Lasky's again, i think) with some Shure cartridge

Wharfedale Dovedale speakers -- from Henry's in Edgware Rd (whatever happened to them???)

As i recall, i bought the amp first -- couldnt afford anything else at the time, so i just put the little amp in my wardrobe while i was saving for the other bits. you can see that sacrifice for Hifi started a long time ago 

enjoy

ken

Crickey ken, Henry's in Edgeware Road. I'd completely forgotten about them !

Tandy! Wow. That name brings me back like the ghost of a girlfriend's mom. Did they make Wharfedale W90s? Sorry, still chuckling about that thread.

The picture that comes to my mind would be of me and my buddies half passed out in a cemetery at 14 years old after a long night of smoking left-handed cigarettes and everyone's at the point of getting punchy. Someone blurts out "Tandy" and everybody cracks up! And then someone else blurts out "Realistic", just like Halibut did, and everybody laughs even harder!

RatShack was the only semblance of brick and mortar audio we had left in our town. Now most of our local audiophile meets are held at Walmart where we press the selection buttons to compare soundstages on the Dual car stereo display board in the automotive section while Scooter snitches us a Taylor Swift CD. If the Walmart manager has got wise to Scooter, we go down to Bojangles and kick back with some shrimp poppers while we listen to the 8 inch big dogs in the ceiling until the manager tells us we have to leave because we're "scaring the out-of-towners" with our PRAT. Last week I found an old dented up Minimus 7 at a yard sale and Cletus had another one he inherited from his gramps, so we put the two together and could listen in stereo for about an hour or so until the truck battery died. Then a cop came along and told us we had to get off the median strip because our empties were rolling into the road. Now that I think of it, I kind of miss Tandy!