Most of us of a certain age have fond memories of the Lafayette Radio catalogs, right up there with RadioShack and Allied Radio for everything from electronic components to stereos to electric guitars. You want quick delivery? You got it!
We never stopped to do the math, but we'll take this 1964 Philco ad's word for it. After all, who wants a second-rate, flimsily constructed stereo phonograph?
We just can't get enough of these vintage Marantz components, and neither can the rest of the world, judging from their escalating prices. Here's a Model 1040 integrated amplifier, produced from 1974 to 1977. It offered 20 watts per channel into 8 ohms, accommodation for numerous sources including two tape monitors, dual speaker outputs, and those front panel fasteners that your editor still can't figure out how to remove without scratching the panel. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/liwi.s.
Behold the mighty Infinity IRS loudspeaker system! Four towers, 12 woofers with built in servo amplifiers, more EMIM and EMIT planar magnetic midrange drivers and tweeters than we care to count, and an introductory price tag of $50,000. The IRS V was the long-time reference of people like Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound, our very own Paul McGowan, and other audiophiles with big rooms and deep pockets. Trust us, it sounded impressive.
The Unknown Comic? Yeah, we don't remember much about him either, or the Centrex brand, other than that it was Pioneer's budget line from about 1974 to 1980 (OK, we looked it up). Have any of these survived? We've never seen one in real life.
Header image courtesy of Shopify AI.
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