Radfords(shop) where (when) did they go?

I had great service from Radfords in Bath over the years and was sad to see them shut up shop.

I havn't bought any Hifi since

If my memory is correct they threw in the towel just over a year ago arount New Year 2006

eddie

Is this him?

This is Geggsy AKA Graham Radford:


This is Radfords Bath:


Next door to the Midland pub, what an ideal location it was...

Radfords seemed to breed reps, including someone called Doug who works somewhere in Salisbury now..

Ya, Hi-Fi shops and pubs tend to that, make reps that is....."look this guy is to drunk to sell"
"putem on the road then"

The Bristol one closed about a year sgo.

My first exposure to real hifi came from the first Radfords on the corner of Gloucester Road (at the bend) - they had a bank of speakers (BC1s, HB2s etc) on shelves, usually driven by an LP12/R200 and an A&R A60 (1980 ish). Very helpful shop. Mike Manning left to start his own in Yeovil which is still going AFAIK.

That was a lovely rabbit warren of a shop.

When CD first came out they had a CD with a big sign on it saying 'is this a lemon'...

The head office with the 'import/export emporium' was just up the road.

I bought my Dunlop systemdek II from the Windsor shop in 1984, as a 21st birthday present. Several cartridges later it is still going strong.

I met the guy who sold it to me again in 1997 at Infidelity in Kingston and we had a comiseration moment over the demise of the Windsor shop.

Jono

I got my 72 / 140 at the Windsor shop and it was also where I had my Lingo 1 fitted, not long after it came out. It was always nice to drop in as there was always something interesting playing.

It was there that I discovered Monty Alexander for the first time. It's rare now to go into a Hifi shop and be able to go "cor, what's that?"

Thank God there was no Amazon / E-Bay / online retail back then or I would have spent even more!

the windsor shop was a law unto itself...a brilliant take on the radfords philiosophy.

Music was excellent working in a shop. the reps and customers always opening my eyes to something new. Occasionally we'd open their eyes as well...

I love wastimg money in Bristol until the manager left to open his own successful Yeovil-Taunton business.


After his departure to my beloved Somerset, I bought only in Radfords a Best Buy - still - rack, and a black play-all Best Buy DVD-DVDA-SCDA m/c.

Later I think I learned not to waste money on e.g latest Linn new screw-you upgrade, and started to enjoy recorded music further.

In Bristol I have bought a few things including new/used LP12s in Audio Excellence whcich is worth using if you want to enjoy spending on audio (as is Richer Sounds if you know what you want/why you want it)..

I was very pleased to find that e.g. Naim CD5i is to me/my aurally knowing wife better than CDX2/worth using for many commercial CDs.

I fondly fondle my Radfords tobacco-tins.

quote:

I got my 72 / 140 at the Windsor shop and it was also where I had my Lingo 1 fitted, not long after it came out. It was always nice to drop in as there was always something interesting playing.

It was there that I discovered Monty Alexander for the first time. It's rare now to go into a Hifi shop and be able to go "cor, what's that?"

Colin Macey was the manager of the Windsor branch of Radfords and now runs Martin Kleiser in Beaconsfield (and he is still playing Monty Alexander!)

quote:

Colin Macey was the manager of the Windsor branch

Funny as Colin Massey was the manager of the Plymouth branch. (now a Sevenoaks with diamond Dave as the manager)

Aaah, (False) Memory Lane.

"And suddenly my whole life passed before my eyes. I saw myself as a kid again, in Kansas, going to school, swimming at the swimming hole, and fishing, frying up a mess-o-catfish, going down to the general store, getting a piece of gingham for Emmy-Lou.

And I realise it's not my life."

Hmmm. Plymouth was a bit of a black hole Naim-wise...

I discovered something interesting about my SBLs yesterday when I put them in their old boxes - sigh. They are so old that the company archive simply refers to them as black, and does not say if they were in Active mode or had cross-overs, which they do. They were first sold at Radfords at Gloucester Road in Bristol, so some of the mystery has gone over their early existence.

They have a four figure serial number. The next pair is indicated as having a specification and a purchaser!

I bought them several years ago, second hand, from AudioX in Worcester, and they were fetched up from the Bristol branch for me, so they have never gone far in they twenty one years of life. They must be among the very oldests SBLs in existence, and yet they are still completely mint. They had been fitted with the new style mid-bass drivers at some stage, and I think they are the one item I would be unable to find a significant upgrade on in my idea of replay, short of a pair of SL2s!

Kindest regards from Fredrik

Out of curiosity, did any Forum member actually own my old black SBLs before me?

They were made in Jan or Feb 1986, originally sold by Radfords in Bristol [on the basis of the delivery address on the Naim despact labels], and I bought them off AudioX in the summer of 2003. They were in the second hand stock at Bristol, so I guess they had been traded in at that time...

The serial number goes 10++. I would be fascinated to know their early history, such as when they were fitted with the new driver units and so on, if anyone cares or can throw any light onto this.

Kindest regards from Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Out of curiosity, did any Forum member actually own my old black SBLs before me?

I think you would want a dedicated thread in the music room to smoke that one out Fredrik.


Try a thread like

were SBL's the best speaker ever made?
or
were SBL's the worst speaker ever made?

If that doesn't smoke he/she out nothing will.



Regards

SJB

Dear Sloop JB, Advice followed. Thanks from Fredrik

He was always a perfectionist.

I was good at getting the bounce right but he was better...