A Look Back to Hi-Fi in 1962

[TLS Guy]

I stumbled on a copy of the exhibitors for the 1962 Audio Fair at the Hotel Russell on Russell Square London. This is a snap shot of the active audio manufacturers at that time. I am certain I would have visited that year and would have been 15 years old.

For some reason the first page is side ways. The name of Quad was then the Acoustical Manufacturing Company.

Largs of Holborn was a prominent audio dealer at the time and would make custom cabinets.

Largs comparator room.

 

[Mikado463]

Great B&W photos do in fact make a more dramatic statement at times.

As for 1962, I was 6 years younger than you , our home stereo was a Stromberg Carlson console unit. Made in Rochester, NY

 

[highfigh]

I stumbled on a copy of the exhibitors for the 1962 Audio Fair at the Hotel Russell on Russell Square London. This is a snap shot of the active audio manufacturers at that time. I am certain I would have visited that year and would have been 15 years old.

For some reason the first page is side ways. The name of Quad was then the Acoustical Manufacturing Company.

Largs of Holborn was a prominent audio dealer at the time and would make custom cabinets.

Largs comparator room.

The large speakers in the back- Tannoy?

 

[TLS Guy]

The large speakers in the back- Tannoy?

Yes!

 

[Verdinut]

The large speakers in the back- Tannoy?

I thought so too! I found this: https://hyondaesound.co.kr/speakers/?bmode=view&idx=166710247

 

[Mark E. Long]

I thought so too! I found this: https://hyondaesound.co.kr/speakers/?bmode=view&idx=166710247

I always had a fascination with Tannoy’s would love to hear these set up in a big room .

 

[Verdinut]

I always had a fascination with Tannoy’s would love to hear these set up in a big room .

I'm not sure if it's the case at present, but Tannoy loudspeakers in the 70's had a moderately high Qts, and required a power amp with a low output resistance in order to get a tight bass response.

I remember my friend who was managing a Hi-Fi store in Montreal at the time. He replaced a McIntosh tube amp which was driving the Tannoys by a newly released Sony. This Sony was a solid state amplifier that could at last keep the Tannoys bass tight.

EDIT: Correction: The Tannoys had a moderately high Qts, not a low Qts.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm not sure if it's the case at present, but Tannoy loudspeakers in the 70's had a low Qts and required a power amp with a low output resistance in order to get a tight bass response.

I remember my friend who was managing a Hi-Fi store in Montreal at the time. He replaced a McIntosh tube amp which was driving the Tannoys by a newly released Sony. This Sony was a solid state amplifier that could at last keep the Tannoys bass tight.

Horn loaded speakers are always low Qts. The model does not work unless they are.

 

[Mark E. Long]

I'm not sure if it's the case at present, but Tannoy loudspeakers in the 70's had a low Qts and required a power amp with a low output resistance in order to get a tight bass response.

I remember my friend who was managing a Hi-Fi store in Montreal at the time. He replaced a McIntosh tube amp which was driving the Tannoys by a newly released Sony. This Sony was a solid state amplifier that could at last keep the Tannoys bass tight.

They have always looked power hungry I imagine it would take serious amp that’s stable down in the low ohms to do them justice in a room .

 

[TLS Guy]

They have always looked power hungry I imagine it would take serious amp that’s stable down in the low ohms to do them justice in a room .

Horns are highly efficient and require little power. Those Tannoy horn loaded speakers play loud with very little power. Lowther speakers play loud with about 5 to 10 watts of power.

My TLs are also very efficient, but not on the level of horns but much better than others. My TLs take way less power then people here drive their subs with to shake the floor.

 

[Mark E. Long]

Horns are highly efficient and require little power. Those Tannoy horn leaded speakers play loud with very little power. Lowther speakers play loud with about 5 to 10 watts of power.

My TLs are also very efficient, but not on the level of horns but much better than others. My TLs take way less power then people here drive their subs with to shake the floor.

Must be an excellent driver and design as well .

 

[Verdinut]

Horn loaded speakers are always low Qts. The model does not work unless they are.

I know that as I once owned and designed cabinets using Altec Voice of the Theatre speaker components. Their 15 inch woofers had a Qts of 0.25 and under. They were good high sensitivity woofers but limited in low frequency performance below 35 Hz, unless they were put in vented 20 cf cabinets, in which case they would respond to 20 Hz, but at the expense of efficiency.

 

[Verdinut]

They have always looked power hungry I imagine it would take serious amp that’s stable down in the low ohms to do them justice in a room .

Their impedance was rather close to their published impedance. Loudspeakers of that time did not have impedances going stupidly low as a lot of drivers today.

Please note that I corrected my previous post to indicate that Tannoy loudspeakers had a moderately high Qts. This happens when you have a lower magnet flux density to moving mass ratio.

 

[TLS Guy]

Their impedance was rather close to their published impedance. Loudspeakers of that time did not have impedances going stupidly low as a lot of drivers today.

Please note that I corrected my previous post to indicate that Tannoy loudspeakers had a moderately high Qts. This happens when you have a lower magnet flux density to moving mass ratio.

The Qts, of the 15" Tannoy Monitor Gold is 0.20 which is very low.

 

[highfigh]

I'm not sure if it's the case at present, but Tannoy loudspeakers in the 70's had a moderately high Qts, and required a power amp with a low output resistance in order to get a tight bass response.

I remember my friend who was managing a Hi-Fi store in Montreal at the time. He replaced a McIntosh tube amp which was driving the Tannoys by a newly released Sony. This Sony was a solid state amplifier that could at last keep the Tannoys bass tight.

EDIT: Correction: The Tannoys had a moderately high Qts, not a low Qts.

What part of the '70s- early, middle or late-'70s? Any memory of the appearance? It would be interesting to find which series of Sony it came from.

If it had a toggle switch for power, a plain rectangle or a rectangle with a green line, it would help to identify it.

Did it have power meters?

Basic appearance-



Plain power switch button- not a power amp, but the meters and appearance might have been similar (aside from the color since most Sony came in silver)-



Power switch with green light and LED power meters-

 

[Verdinut]

The Qts, of the 15" Tannoy Monitor Gold is 0.20 which is very low.

If the Qts of the Tannoy Gold is that low, can you explain why the McIntosh tube amp could not adequately control its bass while the Sony solid state amp did ? The Altec 416 woofer has a Qts of 0.25 and there was no transient response issue while being driven with a tube amp.

 

[TLS Guy]

If the Qts of the Tannoy Gold is that low, can you explain why the McIntosh tube amp could not adequately control its bass while the Sony solid state amp did ? The Altec 416 woofer has a Qts of 0.25 and there was no transient response issue while being driven with a tube amp.

The Mac amps have been over hyped. They are not as good as people think. Back in 1962, Quad, and Leak amps were in common usage in the UK and Mac would not have rated. The impedance of those large Tannoy horns in those days was 15 ohms, but they dipped to 7 ohms. A lot of tube amps back then would exhibit an FR that tended to follow the impedance curve, so my hunch is that the Macs did. Peter Walker and Harold Leak would make darn sure their amps did not.

1962 was in the Golden Age of British Audio, when UK products were rated the finest available.

Mac as a brand has never impressed me, and that Auto transformer nonsense really put me off.

The only US products that I remember impressing back then were Ampex tape recorders and the Klipschorn.
I remember the Klipsch room being packed and a queue waiting to get in.

 

[Teetertotter?]

All, I can remember at that time was installing a reverb gizzmo in my car, 2 years earlier than 1962. lol

 

[Hobbit]

I stumbled on a copy of the exhibitors for the 1962 Audio Fair at the Hotel Russell on Russell Square London. This is a snap shot of the active audio manufacturers at that time. I am certain I would have visited that year and would have been 15 years old.

For some reason the first page is side ways. The name of Quad was then the Acoustical Manufacturing Company.

Largs of Holborn was a prominent audio dealer at the time and would make custom cabinets.

Largs comparator room.

Cool Pics! I wasn't even born yet. It does remind me of the late 90's when Hi Fi stores were still around town. I friend of mine used to own one of them and it was always fun to go listen to all the different gear. Nowadays the only left by me is Listen Up. All the others have ceased to exist.

 

[Verdinut]

The Mac amps have been over hyped. They are not as good as people think. Back in 1962, Quad, and Leak amps were in common usage in the UK and Mac would not have rated. The impedance of those large Tannoy horns in those days was 15 ohms, but they dipped to 7 ohms. A lot of tube amps back then would exhibit an FR that tended to follow the impedance curve, so my hunch is that the Macs did. Peter Walker and Harold Leak would make darn sure their amps did not.

1962 was in the Golden Age of British Audio, when UK products were rated the finest available.

Mac as a brand has never impressed me, and that Auto transformer nonsense really put me off.

The only US products that I remember impressing back then were Ampex tape recorders and the Klipschorn.
I remember the Klipsch room being packed and a queue waiting to get in.

I agree with you with regard to the Mac amps.

My closest friend who passed away 6 years ago, managed two serious audio shops in Montreal. He told me that some McIntosh reps used to conduct audio clinics in Hi-Fi stores and in one of his. They were open to comparisons with other brand amps. What they did is that they were using a Variac transformer to power the amps, and when they switched to the amp from another manufacturer, they were reducing the Variac output voltage, to indicate the failure of the other brand product as compared to theirs.