My Latest and Last Speaker Build

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planet10
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#91

Post by planet10 »

floppybootstomp wrote:\Now I'm sure I saw the figure of $10K mentioned and somebody (I think Colin) said $10K basically = £10K which is actually true cos everything is cheaper in the USA.

I also see a lot of editing of posts. Ok, I now realise the figure should have read £1K.
I said that if we were to build a bespoke set of these, that they would sell for ~$3K (we've gotten $2.2 K for Fonken167 and it really wasn't enuff).

If these speakers went thru distribution etc (like a B&W Nautilus) they'd sell for at least $10k (and they'd be competitive)

Colin said he was only looking to get £1K out of them -- an absolute give away price.

dave
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#92

Post by floppybootstomp »

Ah, thanks for the clarification, I understand now. And quite agree with you.
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Mike H
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#93

Post by Mike H »

MJK wrote:Most people I work with

<snip>

Listening to music is background noise while playing video games or web surfing, it is not a top priority

<snip>

etc.
That's my impression also, what's more, I think that was pretty much always the case. There's lots of vintage consumer grade stuff still survives going back to the 1930's and earlier even, but I haven't noticed much vintage Hi-Fi knocking around. But it must have existed somewhere, sometime :?:


 
 
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chris661
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#94

Post by chris661 »

Not sure.

There would've always been higher/lower quality units, but I don't think people spent huge amounts of money on hifi back in the '30s. The radio transmission quality wasn't up to much, and recording techniques weren't brill, so I guess there wasn't much point in having any serious fidelity.

When better quality recordings etc came about, there's incentive to get a better sounding system. I'm thinking vinyl records and things here.

This is mostly guesswork - there's a lot of (partially irrelevant) info on wiki, but I'm not trawling through all that...
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#95

Post by Scottmoose »

Kind of. HiFi certainly didn't exist but cinema sound was big business, & you might be surprised at the quality. Money was no object; the majors (Bell Labs et al) were throwing cash at it as it was terrific advertising for them, and there were humbler applications that would see the usual trickle-down effect. Home audio was one of them in future decades, but this is heritage that has largely been forgotten today. Not all was good of course (most wasn't), but there was some excellent work going on.
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#96

Post by Nick »

Scottmoose wrote:Kind of. HiFi certainly didn't exist but cinema sound was big business, & you might be surprised at the quality. Money was no object; the majors (Bell Labs et al) were throwing cash at it as it was terrific advertising for them, and there were humbler applications that would see the usual trickle-down effect. Home audio was one of them in future decades, but this is heritage that has largely been forgotten today. Not all was good of course (most wasn't), but there was some excellent work going on.
The old Western Electric cinema amps and horns fetch big money now. At least the kit that isnt already in Japan.
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#97

Post by shane »

Although HiFi may not have existed as such, the hyperbolic art of the hifi reviewer seems to have been fully formed by 1923!

http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/De ... eader-logo



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#98

Post by andrew Ivimey »

August 1975 copy of American 'Keyboard' magazine free floppy 45 advertising the ARP Odyssey synthesiser.

obvious innit!
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#99

Post by pre65 »

"my instrument was my pleasure and my relief" ? :wink: :lol:

Slightly adapted from the original text. :lol:
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#100

Post by Mike H »

LOL


So as I suspected, albeit "high-fidelity" is a marketing term first coined in the 1950's, even before that there seems to have existed the more economy level oriented equipment for the plebs with cloth ears, and alternatives for those more fussy about how much their recordings resemble live performances. Even if it is on 78 r.p.m. records.
 
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#101 Re: My Latest and Last Speaker Build

Post by Jazzman53 »

Toppsy wrote:Thought I'd share my latest and most likely my last ever build. As things stand I doubt very much I'll be doing any more building speakers and will most likely be selling my back catalogue of builds and just keep my Electrostatics...
Just curious; do you build ESL speakers too?

Charlie
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#102

Post by The Stratmangler »

Resurrecting a 4 years dead thread is an odd thing to do.
Things have changed since then.
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#103

Post by IslandPink »

I think we value oddness here on this forum, don't we Chris ?
Seems like a worthwhile question to ask for someone who is exploring the forum having landed recently .
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#104

Post by The Stratmangler »

Aye, I suppose so Mark.
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#105

Post by Toppsy »

Jazzman53 wrote
Just curious; do you build ESL speakers too?
Well to answer your query Charlie, not any more.

I used to build electrostatics from kits supplied by ER Audio, based in Perth Australia. In effect I was the UK agent for his kits though it really never took off. I'll post up some photos of my ESL builds when I can locate my original image files.

At the time of posting this thread I was quite disillusioned with building speakers, Mainly down to the fact folk (not necessarily guys from this forum, mind you) were not prepared to pay a fair price for a pair of bespoke speakers expecting them for 'mates rates' and not much more money than the cost of materials, so I was intending giving up.

I have moved on quite some since then and now have Scott Lindgren, Scottmoose on the forums, as my business partner. Basically he the designer me the builder. I still have a pair of Quad63's and a pair of Quad57's whenever I'm in the mood for some ESL listening.

As said I'll post up some ESL build photos when I can find and download the files.
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