COPPER

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Issue 228 • Free Online Magazine

Issue 228 Audio Anthropology

90-Degree Stereo

90-Degree Stereo

This 1950s gentleman of refined taste is enjoying his Fisher Stereo Companion, an add-on speaker to a Fisher mono setup that, with two simple plug-in connections, delivered newfangled stereo sound. Buy why, we must ask, did he go through all that trouble only to listen at 90 degrees off axis?

 

I'm not a pen collector, but if I got started, these 1950s promo pens from RCA would be the first ones on my list. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Joe Haupt.

 

Here's an eye-popping set: a 1970s Revox A720 preamp and A722 amplifier. The tuner had a quartz-stabilized frequency oscillator; too bad the Nixie tube display isn't lit up here. Other features included slider volume and balance controls, preset tuning capability, independent tone controls to bass, treble and presence, and a whole lot more. The amp offered 45 watts per channel into 8 ohms and could connect to two sets of speakers. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Hannes Grobe.

 

Admit it: it you're a tube aficionado you can't get enough of pictures like this (we're guilty as charged). Here's an Eico Model HF-20 mono integrated amplifier made around 1959. The HF-20 was rated at...wait for it...20 watts, and had "low-distortion feedback tone controls." Dig those gray RCA 6L6 power tubes! Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Joe Haupt.

 

This 1953 Motorola radio had a novel speaker design – we think what they're trying to tell us is that they moved the voice coil from behind the speaker to the middle of it. Lots of tech for $24.95!

 

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90-Degree Stereo

90-Degree Stereo

This 1950s gentleman of refined taste is enjoying his Fisher Stereo Companion, an add-on speaker to a Fisher mono setup that, with two simple plug-in connections, delivered newfangled stereo sound. Buy why, we must ask, did he go through all that trouble only to listen at 90 degrees off axis?

 

I'm not a pen collector, but if I got started, these 1950s promo pens from RCA would be the first ones on my list. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Joe Haupt.

 

Here's an eye-popping set: a 1970s Revox A720 preamp and A722 amplifier. The tuner had a quartz-stabilized frequency oscillator; too bad the Nixie tube display isn't lit up here. Other features included slider volume and balance controls, preset tuning capability, independent tone controls to bass, treble and presence, and a whole lot more. The amp offered 45 watts per channel into 8 ohms and could connect to two sets of speakers. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Hannes Grobe.

 

Admit it: it you're a tube aficionado you can't get enough of pictures like this (we're guilty as charged). Here's an Eico Model HF-20 mono integrated amplifier made around 1959. The HF-20 was rated at...wait for it...20 watts, and had "low-distortion feedback tone controls." Dig those gray RCA 6L6 power tubes! Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Joe Haupt.

 

This 1953 Motorola radio had a novel speaker design – we think what they're trying to tell us is that they moved the voice coil from behind the speaker to the middle of it. Lots of tech for $24.95!

 

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