I was really hoping
@TLS Guy would see this post and give an opinion on some of the equipment.
There are a lot of turntables that look like TLS Guy might recognize them.
The speakers themselves I was also hoping he would offer an opinion.
If there's anybody that could give us a critique on them, it would be him. He's awesome.
Well Buck, the speakers were either home made or cam out of a cinema. There were a lot of custom speakers in cinemas then. Drivers were usually Altec or EV. I bet those speakers are efficient but I doubt quality of modern speakers. The HF horn looks particularly crude.
The turntables are an interesting collection.
The arms are practically all by SME and the series II improved generation, both 9 and 12 inch versions. If you want the best in tone arms, you begin and end with SME. Some of the arms have been gold plated! There is a high end Thorens turntable there. A lot of the turntables look like customized SME creations, which SME will do at a huge cost.
Ortofon moving coil cartridges are heavily represented including those from the 60s. I note Ortofon moving coil cartridges with shells made to fit SME arms. The shell contains the moving coil transducer and the step up transformers. We had one of those set ups on my father's rig for a while.
There are some cartridges I do not recognize.
Most are variations of this arm.
That is my SME series II improved arm on a Garrard 301 of the period.
I did not own one of these Ortofon moving coils.
That is my late father's Ortofon moving coil SL 15E circa 1968.
My farther was an Orofon enthusiast, I was in the Decca camp. In the late fifties and during the sixties if you wanted the best you were either Ortofon or Decca. Shure were still playing catch up then.
I have the most complete vintage Decca collection I am aware of. Folks at vinyl engine agree.
You can look through my collection here. It does not look as exotic but is not mucked about.
In this picture there is a picture of an Auriol lift. This was the earliest arm lift. Back then the cartridges were frail. The arms had no lifts. I made a lift out of the focus mechanism of a broken Swiss Bolex camera. I think I was more creative as a kid than as an adult. Any how after the Auriol, which are now very rare, lifts proliferated. You can also see the Decca lift in these pictures. The Decca professional arm had an integrated lift. I have restored two of the now very rare Auriol lifts.
As the lift is raised it sucks in air into a cylinder with a piston. The knob on top closes the valve and the arm stays up. The rate of decline of the arm is determined by how much you turn the knob anticlockwise. You can make the arm fall very slowly indeed, while you have time to start a tape machine for archiving. You can also see the Decca brush to clean the stylus.
Here is a piece of nostalgia. This picture shows the original early Decca arm. The weight is for LP or 78. You will see the Decca 78 head in the pictures. You can also see the old Quad II tube preamp used as the phono preamp for this vintage Decca exhibit. The white card shows the button combinations on the Quad for the different Equalization required for the different companies 78 RPM records.
The only item of which I was not the original owner is the Decca professional arm in use now and the Auriol lift which I obtained and restored, as it did not work, but does now.
The owners either put their rigs together, like I did this one, or had the installation done custom by bespoke dealers like Largs of Holborn.
I have searched the Net far and wide for pictures of those wonderful cabinets and installations by Largs and others, to no avail. I do have pictures of them in my original Hi-Fi Years books of the period, that I purchased at the time.
My turntable case is intentionally designed to evoke that era in a modern setting.
I just shudder to think what that Decca collection is worth. It still sounds very good indeed.
