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Brands that disappeared very quickly

Many years ago, when JPW was our default budget speaker, I ordered 10 x pairs of their little wonder. Imagine our surprise, a couple of weeks later, when a lorry turned up with 10 x pallets of the speakers. Somehow the order had been confused.
 
hifi_dave said:
The original design was, literally, scribbled on a piece of scrap paper. It was a Tim design that he wrote down to explain how an amp worked. John paid something like £20 to Tim for the piece of paper. It was a good design which Tim refined for John Shearne but was never really a proper, bespoke design.

Tim took the 'design' to Zia Faruqui to make for him.

Steen Doessing made some excellent and interesting speakers including his 'ribbons' which he made from Bacofoil.
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I remember a guy called Michael Merry being involved with John Shearne at some point, he operated, I think in Chobham, I remember it being near a railway station and we were discussing how little money there was in manufacturing and it might be better to open a hifi shop to lure commuters coming home.
 
Snufkin said:
A friend had a Harrison S200 back in the 70's and it was a lovely thing - 100 watts per channel and led VU meters, whats not to like. I can still remember it pushing out music through a big pair of Goodmans in his larger than average lounge.
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Yes that’s the one. I thought it was great until I got my hands on an nac12/naps/Nap160....are they still around?
 
Fuller said:
I did a bit of delving on JPW. They were based in Plymouth and apparently the cabinets were assembled by inmates of HMP Dartmoor !

I always thought their speakers sounded decent at the hi-fi shows back in the day.
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The JPW mini-monitor was a cracking speaker.
 
davidsrsb said:
I still have a 305S, but it is sick, with suspension hanger bushes crumbling with plastic rot and a motor bearing vibration
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The motor appears to be the same as used by Thorens, rather than the expected Premotec.

And to post above, yes, the position of the on/off switch is dumb, it should be where the STD logo is on the other side.
 
RustyB said:
The motor appears to be the same as used by Thorens, rather than the expected Premotec.
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My one had the motor fail at a few months old and replaces under warranty with a Philips motor.
The motor pulley is also corroded, which may be the source of the flutter.
 
Tony L said:
Quantum were short-lived, but Crimson are still with us as far as I know and rather well respected.
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Wasn't one of them an offshoot of t'other? Started out as kits - I remember seeing their adverts in the back of Practically Electronics....
 
suzywong said:
Wasn't one of them an offshoot of t'other? Started out as kits - I remember seeing their adverts in the back of Practically Electronics....
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I believe they were partners who split. We sold Quantum for a couple of years and very good they were too. Even had a waiting list extending to months, at one time.
 
hifi_dave said:
I believe they were partners who split. We sold Quantum for a couple of years and very good they were too. Even had a waiting list extending to months, at one time.
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I had a pre power combo back in v early eighties. Great value, swapped to ion. Anyone know anything about Equinox? I still have in use a pre and mc head amp which sound fine in second system, pre has some batteries, chevron updated a few years back. Quality built kit.
 
hifi_dave said:
I believe they were partners who split. We sold Quantum for a couple of years and very good they were too. Even had a waiting list extending to months, at one time.
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Yeah, I think both were in the “hair shirt looks, but high quality sound” camp, like the bunch from Salisbury :)
 
hifi_dave said:
The original design was, literally, scribbled on a piece of scrap paper. It was a Tim design that he wrote down to explain how an amp worked. John paid something like £20 to Tim for the piece of paper. It was a good design which Tim refined for John Shearne but was never really a proper, bespoke design.

Tim took the 'design' to Zia Faruqui to make for him.

Steen Doessing made some excellent and interesting speakers including his 'ribbons' which he made from Bacofoil.
Click to expand...

Like I said we made them at Alchemist products for Shearne... at one stage anyway... We shared the same casework provider which was underneath Alchemist and also made the cases for Trilogy.

I had to work with a diagram literally on the back of a fag packet from Tim once at MF!
 
RustyB said:
Alexander.

Interesting range of speakers notable for their sheet-steel enclosures and directly coupled bass drivers (Seas).

Founded by one James Alexander Neal, in the late 80's.

I still have a pair of the top model, the Aurora, pretty good they are too. Cleverly, the resonance of the un-braced and un-damped enclosures compensated for the lack of baffle step correction you'd normally get from a high-pass filter.
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I remember the Alexanders from the Bristol Show the year they were launched. My father was so impressed that he offered to buy a pair there and then. The owner of the company took his details and.........we never heard another thing.
 
Tiny JPW speaker. The 'Minim'? ISTR they were well less than £100 per pair early 90s. £ 80 springs to mind.

Little known other facts. Papworth Audio were responsible for the revival of the QUAD 2. (The ones sold in gold plated cases with silver badges) I don't recall who owned QUAD at that point, but he wanted the '2' revived and QUAD couldn't so it was subbed to Papworth. Was also told that Rogers offered production of new valve amps to Papworth but were declined.

I've got some amazing isolation devices coming up... anyone ..?
 
CJ14 said:
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I've still got a gold pinned Inca Tech mains plug - I think it came free with Hi Fi Review...
 
Amazing how many are still lurking, My ex found one I buried in a compost bin last year, it had been there for 30+ year, OK it was yellow not white, but the Gold pins were perfect.
 
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