The AMAZING Evolution of Stereo - Vintage Audio Ads of 1964

[@scj00380]

In 1964 everyone was into the word "transistor". I get my first transistor radio - a Perdio - in July 1965, on my eleventh birthdy. It made a big difference to my life in that it was never turned off... I was always listening to the latest hits on Radio Luxembourg. I still have it although it no longer functions. Great video, by the way!

[@stereoniche]

Thanks for watching! Indeed, in 1964, the buzz was all about transistors. Companies, like Fisher, were trying hard to sell their current tube gear while ramping up their solid state models. Very similar to the early 80's when companies were quickly shifting over to some form of digital interface, the old analog meters looked so "old school". :-)

[@Kw1161]

This reminds of my old college roommate who had a tube Macintosh stereo set that he picked up at the dump that the truck next his threw away. Sounded great. Have a great day!

[@simonzinc-trumpetharris852]

That was a find!

[@stereoniche]

Well, that was exceptionally lucky and rare of a day. Good thing he had an eye for great gear!

[@jodydoakes8754]

Really enjoyed this video. I probably saw all of those adds when I was lusting after all of that equipment. I owned some of it. I really wanted a Roberts tape deck, but could not afford. When Uncle Sam sent me to Asia in late sixties I saw lots of the Roberts machines except they had Akai name on them.

[@stereoniche]

Thanks for watching. A lot of rebranding and distributing activities were going on in the industry at the time. I guess they felt at the time the "Akai" name may not be well received by consumers.

[@maly2ts408]

Sorry but I don't like that racket, it's too loud

[@Mrsteve4761]

The smoking pipe advert brought back memories of my father in his study grading college exams. Pipe smoking was quite popular in the day in academia (the 1960s) as most of his colleagues at Boston College did the same. My father was also quite an audiophile and would always have classical music playing on his HH Scott as he toiled away in his study. Though I was quite fond of the smell of Borkum Riff cherry tobacco wafting in the air at the time, I of course now know it wasn't this best thing for any of us in the house! Great presentation, Scott, really enjoyed it.

[@stereoniche]

Thanks for watching. It did seem to be the stereotypical audiophile profile of that era.

[@scottbennett3119]

I assume you are doing everything to do with making and producing your videos. Great job! 👍 Very interesting and enjoyable. Thanks

[@stereoniche]

Yes indeed, a one man shop here. This type of video takes an exceptional amount of time to create all of the slides, then speak to each one. Much easier to stand in front of the camera and talk. Thanks for watching!

[@waverly2468]

Big changes inside the equipment also as the years go by. I had an old Sherwood receiver S-7200 that I bought in 1975. I finally had to get rid of it. I could not believe the workmanship inside. Many wires hand-soldered everywhere. Now most of the components in audio equipment are integrated circuit chips connected together with ribbon wire.

[@TriAmpHiFi]

Love a good story....... Nicely done 👍 Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔊🔊

[@stereoniche]

Thanks! It took a LONG time putting this together.

[@rrotwang]

I have my parents console with that Bogen in it Still works

[@stereoniche]

That is a classic!

[@EddyTeetree]

Fun. Thanks. b4 my time but really appreciated seeing this. We use omni directional speakers with a 2 channel receiver for TV and Internet. It can sound absolutely stunning for a very realistic cost.

[@stereoniche]

Those Omni Lamp shade speakers really caught my attention. I've never seen such a thing. I've seen omni-directional speakers before, just not in a lamp configuration. That was special.

[@garyharper2943]

First receiver I owned was when I was in College a Pioneer sx-626, but I did have EV speakers and a Garrard turntable.

[@stereoniche]

So you were an early adopter of modern and vintage gear! 🙂

[@garyharper2943]

@@stereoniche Always an early adopter and paid for it. My first CD player was a Pioneer that cost $1000.

[@sputumtube]

No mention of Dynatron. The Sylvania ad. reminded me (1.10) of the Dynatron brand from the 60's and 70's. As much cabinet maker as audio producer. The parents of my friend had a Dynatron system in their house and it sounded (to my young ears) spectacular.

[@stereoniche]

Well, I'll be. That is a new name for me. I had never heard of Dynatron, but as you say, it seems they were quite the cabinet maker too. Of the units I am seeing online, they had some very cool designs. Thanks for sharing.

[@johnnytoobad7785]

I got small open-reel portable tape recorder for Christmas once when I was about 8-9 years old. It was from the Sears Christmas catalog. I think it cost (somebody) about $35.00.

[@stereoniche]

It was from "Santa"! 🙂

[@nefertemra]

Hi Scott back in the late 80s a friend of mine found a rare Sansui Au70 1964 Tube integrated amp new in box at a store in Hyannis Massachusetts and I had it for a few years it blew away any simulator H.H Scott amps using the same 6BQ5 output tubes I believe because the Sansui transformer were superior to any American brands

[@stereoniche]

I've not been fortunate enough to acquire a Sansui tube unit yet. I bet it sounded fantastic. I have read that Sansui engineers toiled for some time with their Solid State designs with the goal of emulating that tube sound.

[@sidesup8286]

I was into Hii Fi at Birth. My first word was a big one, 4 syllables;.... Telefunken.... My second word was Television.... My third word was Monophonic.... My fourth word was Mom... Stereo For The Joy Of It was the first album I remembered ever seeing. It was an RCA set that years later, at the height of the RCA shaded dog Living Stereo craze in the 1980s, was worth hundreds of dollars. Seeing the prices that the old Living Stereo lps were getting, RCA released them on cd. But it wasn't until Classic Records re-released them on lp, that the drama began. Much of 1964 was clouded by the JFK incident. A lot of songs about losing something important were popular. Songs about Loss Where Has Our Love Gone by The Supremes, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by The Righteous Brothers etc. Perhaps inspired by the melancholy of our country's sense of loss.

[@stereoniche]

Well, you started off with an automatic subscription to the latest audio mags, I guess. :-)

[@sidesup8286]

The subscriptions actually didn't come till later. I had just moved in to a new apartment and some kid starts knocking on my door. Very jjoyous, bubbly & optimistic. He was selling magazine subscriptions. Those were the days when your mind didn't put possible scam in front of everything. So I gave him some money hoping he would sign me up for 1 year sub to an audio magazine. The thought did occur to me that I might have just given someone money for nothing. But in a month or so an issue was crammed in my mailbox. I enjjoyed the magazine very much. A review put me onto a model of AKG headphone, which were partialky electrostatic and just plugged right into a headphone jack without the usual energizer boxes. They taught me how instruments sound when they are ultra clean and the bass ultra defined. It took me decades to catch up in those ways using loudspeakers. Maybe they were the most important thing ever in teaching me about sound quality. It is a "perceptual" education; and I couldn't have chosen a better teacher at the time. They are still cleaner and quicker than most highly touted headphones on todays market.

[@bblimediamostlyspeakers]

Well this was fun, it took me about 3 days to get through all of it. These were great to see, I probably could spend hours pausing and reading each add. So much neat stuff!

[@stereoniche]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@gli7utubeo]

Kind of hard to believe that arguably the best sounding turntable ever made was in 1964 (42:37).

[@stereoniche]

Crazy right? There is something to be said about the build quality of that era.

[@gli7utubeo]

@@stereoniche Thanks. And these catalog deep-dives are great videos; so engrossing. Thanks.

[@billmilosz]

Do you have a Harman-Kardon Citation II in your collection?

[@stereoniche]

Unfortunately, I do not. Some early HK is on my list though.

[@billmilosz]

@@stereoniche I have an H-K Citation II in very good physical condition, with the tube cage. It has the "McShane" upgrades. I use it with my Quad ESL's. Great amp!

[@stereoniche]

@@billmilosz I bet it sounds GREAT! I have some Quads I plan to review at some point, as well.

[@tomreidy1237]

12 years before I got into HiFi.

[@stereoniche]

The year of my birth, so it took me a little longer. :-)

[@Fed610]

Китайцы ещё не все скупили? Недавно видел детский дешёвый будильник в виде милого пластмассового мишки фирмы Nakamichi и набор недорогих сковородок фирмы Blaupunkt, висевших у касс в супермаркете.

[@santadavid3320]

It’s pronounced Jarrrard not Guh-rard. Also, with Miracord, the mir sound is like mirror.

[@stereoniche]

An early Xmas, gifts from Santa! Thanks! 🙂

[@gailsmith9835]

That germanium junk does not compare to tube equipment a couple years earlier.

[@stereoniche]

True, it took quite a few more years for engineers to start improving the sound, but it was all the rage at that time, similar to how companies shifted to digital interfaces of the early 80's.

[@njm1971nyc]

Arrrgggh. The American pronunciation of Garrard hurts my British ears. At least you got the hard G right. 5 out of 10. 😂

[@stereoniche]

Well, hope the rest of the hour plus video was less painful! :-)

[@njm1971nyc]

@@stereoniche Mostly pain-free...and quite enjoyable 😉 So, yeah...back in the early days, before Sony Corp of America was even a thing, Superscope were their importer/distributor (of tape recorders). For radios they had a separate deal, with Gendis. Think that was for the US, possibly Canada. Superscope was certainly a weird/interesting company. They were, as far as I recall, mostly in the film business, with their "Superscope" widescreen cinema system, but, as you know, got tangled up with both Sony and Marantz. If they taught this kinda stuff in school history lessons, instead of boring old wars & Kings & Queens, it would probably have been my favorite topic! 😂 "Myracord" did hurt a little, btw. It's like "Miracle" - Miracord. 😉 Similar to the Sony/Superscope deal, Roberts were importing/re-branding Akai, Craig were importing/re-branding Sanyo, and Denon went under the "Griffin" brand name in the US for a while. Hard to imagine how these name changes "helped" sales, none of them seem like an improvement! Even Technics wasn't allowed to just be Technics, but had to go by "Technics, by Panasonic" in the US. And of course, the most cumbersome "made up name" of all, Norelco, for Philips, lest the "stupid" American public get "confused" by the similarly to Philco 🙄 Talk about paranoid! Somehow I think they would have coped with two completely different brands beginning with the same few letters. (I'm saying "stupid" based on Philco's claims, btw!) Kenwood has an interesting history, too. Without going into too much detail, they also had branding "issues" and had to be sold under a different name in the UK - lest they get "confused" with the Kenwood food mixer brand! Hence "Trio". Eventually, I guess, it was decided that people weren't so stupid as to mix up kitchen appliances and hifi gear, and the name reverted to Kenwood in the UK. Anyway, nice job (overall! 😛). I'm still angry that my parents threw away all my old 1970s Hifi magazines that I'd stored in the attic! The nerve!! I absolutely loved that stuff. We were hardly "short of space" up there! 😡

[@njm1971nyc]

Funnily enough, my first "HiFi" was a "Philco Ford". Even as a six-year old, inheriting my hifi when dad bought his Aiwa/Technics/Celestion system in '77, I certainly wasn't "confused" by any similarity to the name "Philips"! Philco-Ford wasn't a major brand in the UK, but my uncle worked for the Ford Motor Company and got some kinda discount on Philco-Ford gear. It was decent-enough...turntable was a Garrard SP25 mkIII, magnetic cartridge, the Amp was "decent enough" too, god-knows who actually made it - probably not Philco in the US since it was all DIN connections on the back, and the "Philco Ford" speakers were EMI on the inside. I remember the day it was set up in my bedroom, and I excitedly rushed outside, telling everyone. My mum told me to "keep it down" (my excitement). The neighbors were a bit "hard up" and my stereo, at 6 yrs of age, was better than they had in their living room 😆 "not everyone can afford things like this" she whispered into my ear.

[@njm1971nyc]

...back on the subject of brand-confusion, briefly. Elac was a super-popular brand of speaker drive units, in the UK. Open up virtually any British-made radio/tv/record player from the 50s/60s/70s and you'd find Elac drivers. But apparently not the same Elac from Germany. Not even any connection 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, enough rambling from me, time to face Monday morning 😭

[@stereoniche]

@@njm1971nyc Lots of great stuff. Maybe we should do a vid of all the branding changes of early audio companies, etc.. Well, Monday eventually gets here and we have to deal with it. LOL