Dying or dead features from the past

[MajorFubar]

I've been thinking about those once-common but now dying or dead features from old HiFis. (I know, I have no life).

Amps with fluorescent peak meters;

Mono switches on amps;

Hi-Blend switches on amps or tuners (bit like a mono switch but only affected frequencies from around 5kHz+);

MPX switches (tuner, amp or cassette deck);

Crystal cartridge inputs on amps (even MM/MC inputs are now dying; have been for 20 years);

HiFi cassette decks with 1/4" microphone inputs! (Assuming you can actually find a new HiFi cassette deck);

CD players with a display showing index numbers, and controls on the player/remote to skip indexes;

Tape monitor switches on amps (still around, but dying, I'd say);

Muting buttons on amps (typically sliced 10 or 20db or so off the volume for more precise control at low levels);

Amps with switchable multiple speaker outlets (not surround!);

Turntables with strobe-markings round the rim of the platter;

Consumer-grade turntables with linear-tracking arms;

Turntables with 16RPM! (Yes I know you can still buy TT's which do 78);

Feel free to add your own reminiscing

 

[plastic penguin]

I've still got a mono button on my tuner. Acts as a good filter: if the signal is bad it removes background hiss.

 

[nopiano]

1. I hadn't seen a Dust Bug for ages until I saw one on ebay a month or two back. Not the chrome copies by Bib, but the original perspex job made by Watts.

2. Test tones on tuners for setting recording levels.

3. Reel-to-reel tape recorders (though there was one at the Whittlebury show last weekend, alongside a Tascam cassette deck running double-speed).

4. Loudness controls were mentioned in a recent thread here, mostly gone I think.

5. Pickup cartridges that track at 1 gramme.

6. Phono sockets that aren't gold-plated!

7. Pretty much any accessory for cassette decks, like degmagnetisers, or even the tapes themselves come to think of it. TDK D and SA seems to be about the only choice these days.

I'm sure there are lots more, but I already sound like an old man, so will shut up and go to bed!

 

[nopiano]

I've still got a mono button on my tuner. Acts as a good filter: if the signal is bad it removes background hiss.

It doesn't actually filter anything though, as in mono it simply uses all the FM signal for 'quieting' (which reduces hiss) rather than using some of it to trigger the stereo decoding. In stereo there is less signal left for reducing background noise (hiss). That's if i remember my tuner stuff from years ago!

 

[Anonymous]

Green markers for CDs was always a laugh

 

[Anonymous]

I still have a turntable with strobe markings. An old Pioneer PL-200X. Still works as well, even thought it must be approaching 30 years old. When was the last time What Hi-Fi did a review on Graphic Equalizers?

Amps with analogue VU meters.

Ah happy days......

 

[lee37]

i can think of a few things

1)sony metal xr casettes in their day they were the best

2)dolby s what ever happened to that

3)cd players that arnt made of plastic and last more than 3 years

4)graphic equalizer i had a kenwood 7030

5)minidisc

6)dat tapes

7)amps that weigh 20kg and are built like a tank

8)speakers that can handle 200w rms the max nowadays is 150w for a £300-400 speaker

8)tv and amp without 3D lets put feature on that no one wants and hike up the price

and not really hifi but music related

1)ghettoblaster we all had one

2)commodore 64 music synthesizer

 

[El Hefe]

1. Dolby Noise Reduction

2. 8 tracks cartridges

3. Screw type speaker terminals

4. Balance L/R knob

5. Chrome cassettes

6. High speed dubbing

7. Twin cam cassette player

8. Auto reverse

9. APSS (Auto Programming Search System)...or something like that. Use to have it on my Sharp Mini Compo.

 

[chebby]

Loudness on a popular 5 star amp.

Stereo/Mono (ST/MO) button on a recently launched tuner.

Two amps with VU meters here and here. (There are many more, these are just the first two that came to mind.)

Twin cassette deck with Dolby B & C. Still being made and sold. (And another one.)

Popular amp with tape monitor button. (Actually very common on a lot of amps including new ones.)

Currently made turntable with strobe markings. (4 star WHF review).

 

[Anonymous]

VU meters on cassette decks - loved em!

Also had an Amstrad receiver which had a "Panorama" knob, never did figure out what it actually did

The Amstrad TP12D trilateral with equiponderate balancing force or something like that. Hi Fi BS existed then too. Owned one for a bit rumbles like hell but boy was it cheap and a looker.

 

[chebby]

3. Screw type speaker terminals

Found on almost every amp and speaker. (Modern terminals take bare wire, spade connectors and banana plugs.)

 

[BillDay66]

cd players :wave:

 

[CnoEvil]

1. Does anyone remember Sony's Elcaset (Nopiano?)
This was a Cassette Deck that played cassettess that were nearly twice the size of normal and gave the performance of a reel to reel (in a more convenient format). It appeared in 1976, was a complete flop, and was fazed out in 1978. Any remaining stock were sold off to Finland in 1980.
A fellow (rich) student bought one of them...so I am one of a handful of people who actually got to hear one.

2. Top Loading Cassette Decks (all controls up top as well)

3.AFC - I had a Bush radio bought in the early 70s with this feature (Automatic Frequency Control).

4.My Father's old Garrard TT had some trendy features of the day (early 60s I think):
- A system for putting on a stack of 45s, which it then dropped and automatically cued up.
- It had a larger centre plastic "plug/adapter", to allow the playing of 45s, that for some reason seemed to be missing the normal small hole.
- It had two switchable styli. I think one was for playing 78s, but I could be wrong. There was a small "tag" that stuck out just under the right side of the head shell, which if rotated so it now stuck out the other side, changed to the other stylus.

5. 78s (which I still have and don't know what to do with)

 

[eggontoast]

4.My Father's old Garrard TT had some trendy features of the day (early 60s I think): - A system for putting on a stack of 45s, which it then dropped and automatically cued up. - It had a larger centre plastic "plug/adapter", to allow the playing of 45s, that for some reason seemed to be missing the normal small hole. - It had two switchable styli. I think one was for playing 78s, but I could be wrong. There was a small "tag" that stuck out just under the right side of the head shell, which if rotated so it now stuck out the other side, changed to the other stylus. 5. 78s (which I still have and don't know what to do with)

That post brought back some memories......there used to be a PYE stereo in my house when I was young which had these features. I believe that the large plastic plug was for use with singles who's centres had been popped out for use in a jukebox. The double stylus had a diamond tip on one side and when you flipped it over it was a sapphire tip for 78's.

 

[MajorFubar]

It had a larger centre plastic "plug/adapter", to allow the playing of 45s, that for some reason seemed to be missing the normal small hole.

US 45s or ex-jukebox records. Or if you was a young kid like me, you'd deliberately push-out the middle.

rumbles like hell but boy was it cheap and a looker.

I once went out with a girl like that

 

[CnoEvil]

rumbles like hell but boy was it cheap and a looker.

I once went out with a girl like that

:rofl: They must be everywhere!

Thank you (along with Eggontoast) for explainin/confirming the TT features.

Have you heard of the Sony Elcaset?

 

[MajorFubar]

I have: potentially better than Compact Cassette (twice as fast for starters). About as big as a Betamax tape iirc.

Died because it was a format that wasn't marketed well, it couldn't find a niche and not enough people wanted it.

Now where have we heard that recently? [Cough]SA-CD/DVD-A[/Cough]

 

[John Duncan]

rumbles like hell but boy was it cheap and a looker.

I once went out with a girl like that

I marr...oh hello dear.

 

[CnoEvil]

I have: potentially better than Compact Cassette (twice as fast for starters). About as big as a Betamax tape iirc.

Died because it was a format that wasn't marketed well, it couldn't find a niche and not enough people wanted it.

Now where have we heard that recently? [Cough]SA-CD/DVD-A[/Cough]

.....and Bluray vs HD DVD. Sony won out on that one (by "getting" the support of the main film studios, if I remember correctly).

 

[nopiano]

Does anyone remember Sony's Elcaset (Nopiano?)

Hey, I resemble that remark! :O

Yes, I remember the Elcaset, but never indulged. Sony was sold by a rival shop to the one I worked in - they were also a B&O dealer - otherwise I might have been tempted. I was saving up for a Harman/Kardon HK1000 cassette deck around then (a poor man's Nakamichi).

I remember the VHS -v- Betamax war too, and how fabulous the construction of those early video machines were, the Sonys especially. All cast magnesium and stuff, hardly any plastic. No wonder they cost so much!

Which reminds me:-

The Garrard Zero 100 turntable. It had a rod attached to a pivoting headshell to keep the offset correct across the whole record (in theory anyway). Never seen the like of it since.

 

[MajorFubar]

.....and Bluray vs HD DVD. Sony won out on that one (by "getting" the support of the main film studios, if I remember correctly).

Indeedy

 

[nopiano]

.....and Bluray vs HD DVD. Sony won out on that one (by "getting" the support of the main film studios, if I remember correctly).

Indeedy

Wasn't it more like buying up all the studios....?

 

[chebby]

Wasn't it more like buying up all the studios....?

Sounds about right.

And another one.

 

[MajorFubar]

.....and Bluray vs HD DVD. Sony won out on that one (by "getting" the support of the main film studios, if I remember correctly).

Indeedy

Wasn't it more like buying up all the studios....?

lol! Very fair point.

 

[CnoEvil]

Does anyone remember Sony's Elcaset (Nopiano?)

Hey, I resemble that remark! :O

You may do....but my hunch was right. You're probably one of the few peeps on here old (and sad) enough to have heard of it.

It was the quality from the likes of Nakamichi, along with the advent of chrome tapes, that sounded its death knell.