Laskys in the 70's

Pcd posted:

I purchased a Trio tuner from Laskys in Bristol to match a Trio amplifier I always remember the rows of massive Japanese two and four channel receivers with more knobs and switches than you'll find in the Cockpit of a Airbus 320.

We also had The Tape Recorder And HI FI Centre in Stokes Croft who sold a lot of Sony but also a range of Scandinavian speakers I bought a pair they were £70 at the time this must have been around 1975ish.

Over in Bath we had Duck,Son and Pinker a shop noted mainly for sheet music and musical instruments but also had an excellent record department specialising in Classical recordings, tucked at the  back of the shop they had a stereo department which seemed to have a large number of Radiograms but they also stocked Quad,Leak and Tandberg to name a few the Tandberg Colour TVs were rather special how times have changed.

There was a Duck son and Pinker in Swindon that I just loved. I bought many records there and got to know the two who dealt with that side of things really well. I bought a pair of Mordant Short Signifer's from them , a fantastic speaker that just didn't like my Quad amp at all so had to ditch them. As to Lasky's I never used them but I did use Comet when they actually sold proper hifi. I bought a SME arm from them and a Shure V15 as well. Those were the days, sigh.

Gary Shaw posted:

I must admit I didn't have too many wow moments in my time there, though four bits of kit stick in the mind:

The Nytech CTA252 receiver*. It sounded brilliant, but I think I only ever sold one. It looked too funky, would never stack nicely with associated Japanese kit, and with one exception utterly failed the wife approval stage.

The Neal 103 cassette deck*. Again, outstanding sonics but looked all wrong for the mid-70s aesthetic. Despite getting just about everyone I demoed it to to agree it was superior to anything but a Nak, I sold not a single one.

Videoton Minimax speakers. These I could sell as many as I could get my paws on. Amazing value (but a bit prone to blown tweeters IIRC).

The Sony Elcaset. We got one in, I demoed it once, I sold it immediately, I never saw another one. For a tape machine, the closest we had to a reel to reel. 

* Both were a daily nightmare to dust. In a big store (and Oxford Street was huge) that was complete ball-ache. 

Make that two exceptions on the Nytech and WAF, dearly beloved always accompanies me to auditions and we bought ours direct from the late Richard Hay.

Others in Bristol, Radford Hifi and my earliest memory of trying to buy equipment, I had saved my pocket money for a tape recorder,  and walked into a shop just off Park Row in Bristol.

"I want to buy a tape recorder please"

"What sort do you want?"

"I don't know, my Dad has a Collaro"

Pompous, looking down his nose and over his half moon glasses "We only sell real hifi here, you'll have to go somewhere else." Turns his back.

That shop no longer exists!

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Richard Dane posted:

 I did buy stuff from the accessories shop nearer the tube station (can't recall its name) including an Ortofon MC200 and an Audio Technica SUT, along with countless blank cassettes.  

The place actually in the station entrance lobby?  Lovely guy that ran it. 

It was one of the shops in the row of three or four that were low rise and like small huts, on the left hand side just as you started up TCR.  

notnaim man posted:

Gary Shaw posted:

I must admit I didn't have too many wow moments in my time there, though four bits of kit stick in the mind:

The Nytech CTA252 receiver*. It sounded brilliant, but I think I only ever sold one. It looked too funky, would never stack nicely with associated Japanese kit, and with one exception utterly failed the wife approval stage.

The Neal 103 cassette deck*. Again, outstanding sonics but looked all wrong for the mid-70s aesthetic. Despite getting just about everyone I demoed it to to agree it was superior to anything but a Nak, I sold not a single one.

Videoton Minimax speakers. These I could sell as many as I could get my paws on. Amazing value (but a bit prone to blown tweeters IIRC).

The Sony Elcaset. We got one in, I demoed it once, I sold it immediately, I never saw another one. For a tape machine, the closest we had to a reel to reel. 

* Both were a daily nightmare to dust. In a big store (and Oxford Street was huge) that was complete ball-ache. 

Make that two exceptions on the Nytech and WAF, dearly beloved always accompanies me to auditions and we bought ours direct from the late Richard Hay.

Others in Bristol, Radford Hifi and my earliest memory of trying to buy equipment, I had saved my pocket money for a tape recorder,  and walked into a shop just off Park Row in Bristol.

"I want to buy a tape recorder please"

"What sort do you want?"

"I don't know, my Dad has a Collaro"

Pompous, looking down his nose and over his half moon glasses "We only sell real hifi here, you'll have to go somewhere else." Turns his back.

That shop no longer exists!

I also purchased my Nytech from the late Richard Hay I worked in a garage in the next village, Richard used to call in for petrol and I ended up visiting Richards family house adjacent to the Nytech factory on numerous occasions.

He invited me over to listen to a system which consisted of a LP12 with Grace arm and Supex cartridge playing through a yet to be released Nytech pre amp,602 power amps and electronics into a pair of active Linn Isobarik speakers the record was Pink Floyd Off the Wall which had just been released the system was simply awesome this with no  fancy mains or speaker cables etc.

I started with a CTA252 but ended up with a  Nytech active system using ARC 202 speakers, ARC were Manchester speaker company that Richard developed active electronics to use with their speakers amongst others.

Good old days indeed.

Richard Dane posted:

The Strat (Fender) posted:

Richard Dane posted:

 I did buy stuff from the accessories shop nearer the tube station (can't recall its name) including an Ortofon MC200 and an Audio Technica SUT, along with countless blank cassettes.  

The place actually in the station entrance lobby?  Lovely guy that ran it. 

It was one of the shops in the row of three or four that were low rise and like small huts, on the left hand side just as you started up TCR.  

That was the place Richard - all comes back now!