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Heathkit

Mike Reed said:
...
Tott. Ct. Rd was a bit of a Mecca for hifi in the '60s; (Lasky's, e.g., where I worked for a short while). Edgware Rd at t'other end of Oxford St. was the Mecca for components. THE emporium for hifi had to be Imhof's in New Oxford St, Those were the days, my friend.........
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Oh I do remember my trips to Edgware Road and the electronics components shops there.

Closer to home there was an electronics surplus store I frequented called Pattrick & Kinnie, just off the London Road to the west of Romford town centre. There was another more mainstream electronics shop in North Street. Also, during my undergraduate years in Southampton, there was a shop in a nissen hut whose name I don't recall which provided a lot of electronics stuff for my practical education alongside my theoretical education.

Nothing like this exists today I think. I do recall on visits back to Southampton in the 1980s the teaching staff in the electronics department bemoaning the trend for fewer people to be interested in electronics and more who were interested in digital logic and programming computers. Fewer designers were being prepared for the electronics industry. At the industry research lab where I had my first job there were some really talented electronics and integrated circuit designers with lots of experience from whom I learned much. But that lab is no longer there.
 
RJohan said:
Oh, Heatkit was very well known, at least in Sweden where I live. Never seen the RTA before, though.
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It was one of their last new products, and indicative of their decline. It wasn't that much cheaper than one you could buy, and not as good either.
 
bob smog said:
I still have an AA-30 stashed away

3265641060_ef53698649_h.jpg
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That looks wonderful...

I came across this trove of information https://www.vintage-radio.info/heathkit/
 
With a friend I built a sound to light unit and I think it was based on a Heathkit. He knew a lot more about electronics than I did but my soldering was better than his and my carpentary skills were needed for the light boxes. It was taken to many parties in the mid-70s.
 
Heathkit UK was set up in 1958 and they recruited George Tillett as chief engineer. He was ex Pye, Armstrong and Decca as well as doing a bit of hi-fi reviewing so it was pretty obvious what one of their key markets would be. UK versions of American designs normally had a U suffix: MM-1U, AV-3U etc.

The British designed hi-fi had unique model numbers such as the afore mentioned MA-12, the S-33H, the S99 etc. In this case the model numbers show mono amp, 12watts. Stereo 3 watts per channel high sensitivity (for Deram cartridge). Stereo 9 watts per channel.

The arrival of transistors and Japanese hi-fi spelled the beginning of the end.
 
I had one of their very first transistor amplifier kits (early 1960s) - AA21, I think. Didn't sound any better than my Sansui 250 receiver with tubes. Kinda sad to see them go bust (much like Radio Shack) but Tempus Fugit.
 
In my days as student in Edinburgh, Browns on George VI Bridge was the place to go components etc.

While a little tempted by Heathkit stuff I ended up with ready built kit.
 
cctaylor said:
In my days as student in Edinburgh, Browns on George VI Bridge was the place to go components etc.

While a little tempted by Heathkit stuff I ended up with ready built kit.
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Yes! Bought my first amp there - a Tripletone (mono convertible to stereo, early 60s). Also built a ‘record player’ for my then GF (now wife) SP25, crappy spkr, crappy amp, nice gaboon ply box (!)
 
I used to buy my components from Crescent Radio in Wood Green, North London. My dad introduced me to it as he was a TV engineer. The road isn't there any more, let alone the shop.
 
sktn77a said:
Didn't sound any better than my Sansui 250 receiver with tubes.
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As if an early sand amp could compete with Japanese valved amplification, esp. Sansuis. As nearly everything was valved in the mid sixties, the new breed of transistor amps (Truvox, Leak etc.) were assumed (by novice audiophiles) to be progress.
 
Mike Reed said:
As if an early sand amp could compete with Japanese valved amplification, esp. Sansuis. As nearly everything was valved in the mid sixties, the new breed of transistor amps (Truvox, Leak etc.) were assumed (by novice audiophiles) to be progress.
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Well, I guess, at 15, you could call me a novice audiophile!
 
stevec67 said:
Wh ich commercial amps used the Williamson or a derivative?
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Besides Heath? Altec used a variant of that circuit in several amplifiers. I'm sure there must be some Williamson type amps from the UK too, but I'm not up on my '50s UK hifi history, and I gather that the Mullard circuits were more widely imitated.
 
Yank said:
Besides Heath? Altec used a variant of that circuit in several amplifiers. I'm sure there must be some Williamson type amps from the UK too, but I'm not up on my '50s UK hifi history, and I gather that the Mullard circuits were more widely imitated.
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Heathkit UK never produced a Williamson themselves, but the US kits would have been available at a price.

Surprisingly there seems to have been much more commercial interest in the Williamson in the US than in its home. There were UK built versions such as the Goodsell and the British Radio Electronics Williamson:

https://jedistar.com/dtn-williamson-amplifier/

The latter seems to have been mainly (exclusively?) exported to the US.
 
Anybody heard of Jason? I believe they may have been kit amps (valved) but the ones i bought for one of my first adventures in the early/mid sixties were already built.. Managed to melt an LP on it.
 
Jason were for a while a British rival to Heathkit. They majored in tuners, amplifiers and some test gear. A little known fact is that the Beam-Echo Avantic tuner was actually a re boxed Jason!

At least some ready built Jason stuff was built by outworkers rather than Jason themselves. Back in the day an ex-colleague built one of their FM tuner kits which had an issue, something to do with the IF transformers IIRC. It was returned to Jason and they fixed it and also said "we noticed how well built your unit was would you like to build some more for us?"
 
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