As far as I remember, Strathern was a company founded with government money which and which was supposed to produce hi fi and of course jobs in the depressed area of Northern Ireland.
Some might argue that some of their stuff was not even hi fi - their odd looking turntable had many weaknesses but the speakers were something different. There were two main types and both were based upon their own ribbon tweeter/midrange unit. The first units I had were in attractive maple cabinets which used short stands to get optimum height. The ribbon was almost full length of the unit and behind it was a flat surfaced pink 8" bass unit. The speakers were a bit of a pig to drive - probably due to the transformer in the crossover which was needed to match to the 0.5ohm mid range/tweeter unit. However with suitable amplification they sounded pretty good to my ears. Alas as time went on the glue holding the magnets in place on the ribbon unit started to break down and thus so wrecked the units and so I had to eventually obtain other speakers.
A friend of mine had the later larger speakers. They employed the same ribbon unit which was mounted on an arm above a pretty conventional box housing a 10" bass unit. The sound was pretty formidable but again it took some driving and some amps simply did not like the inductive loading.
Alas I never had any pictures of my own or my friends units and wondered if any are speakers still with us and what their owners think/thought of them!
Some might argue that some of their stuff was not even hi fi - their odd looking turntable had many weaknesses but the speakers were something different. There were two main types and both were based upon their own ribbon tweeter/midrange unit. The first units I had were in attractive maple cabinets which used short stands to get optimum height. The ribbon was almost full length of the unit and behind it was a flat surfaced pink 8" bass unit. The speakers were a bit of a pig to drive - probably due to the transformer in the crossover which was needed to match to the 0.5ohm mid range/tweeter unit. However with suitable amplification they sounded pretty good to my ears. Alas as time went on the glue holding the magnets in place on the ribbon unit started to break down and thus so wrecked the units and so I had to eventually obtain other speakers.
A friend of mine had the later larger speakers. They employed the same ribbon unit which was mounted on an arm above a pretty conventional box housing a 10" bass unit. The sound was pretty formidable but again it took some driving and some amps simply did not like the inductive loading.
Alas I never had any pictures of my own or my friends units and wondered if any are speakers still with us and what their owners think/thought of them!
He also had Linn Index speakers and the Strathern turntable - I took the speakers but the turntable looked complete plastic tosh, although the owner was very enthusiastic about it's NI government funded history and he had the original manual and other sales literature with it. Can't remember what he wanted for it, but I just thought it look rubbish!