Audio HiFi Ads of 1980 - All of the great gear that year had to offer, speakers, receivers, amps
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- A look at what gear was popular in 1980. As we transitioned from the 1970's into the 1980's, gear manufacturers like Sony, Pioneer, Technics, KEF, Yamaha, Sansui, Hitachi, Ohm, TEAC and many others produced some very cool gear.
Video: • Audio HiFi Ads of 1980...
Email: stereoniche@gmail.com
I have the AIWA system M501, with a set of IMF Super Compact's - Excellent spec cassette deck and pre+power amp. Great to see an original ad for it! Loved the video, thanks!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I loved this video. The 80s were a great decade for me. My wife surprised me with a Harman Kardon PM 650 Integrated amp and a TU 610 tuner in 1984. We bought a pair of DCM Time Window 1A speakers that we couldn't afford in 1984, and she surprised me with a Technics CD player for my birthday in 1985. I bought an HK CD291 cassette deck too. All the components were in glorious silver! I still have the amp and tuner. Thanks for another trip down memory lane!
Really Good video! You showed the Dahlquist DQ-10's. My opinion was the finest speakers that were ever made. They needed a lot of power to run them.
They are very well regarded as a speaker that seems to appeal to any genre. Sadly, my set needs a complete overhaul or I would have done a review by now.
I don't know who did the Pioneer ads in the late 70s and early 80s but they were always eye catching.
I had a pair of ESS AMT 1B's back in 1979. Traded them in for ADS 910's.
It's good to revisit those old ads to remind us of what was going on in that time. I would like to see some cartridges from that time (Stanton 681 EEE, and Shure V15 III, and IV, and even M91ED) come back and be manufactured again! Not to mention some speaker companies be revived (such as EPI/Epicure.) I know if that would happen, and the quality was the same, I WOULD be buying them! No question about it!
Sadly, odds of seeing most of these gems being remade is quite small, so we need to keep the originals going for the next generation!
That was a great video for myself, as I was working in HiFi stereo sales from 79-83. I miss all the really cool stuff from back then. Thanks :_)
It was certainly a fantastic period for Stereo in those days.
The KLH computer-controlled loudspeakers were IRC from the five seconds when they were owned by infinity. The bass computer used a combination of motion control and filtering to provide accurate deep bass. The analog computer was inserted in a receiver's tape loop as well as connecting to the high-level speaker outputs of the amp. So a lot going on there, but apparently very effective. This was on the KLH 1, 2, and 3 models.
Many thanks 😊
Great vid trip down memorie Lane... how often I wish i could go back to the 80s for some fantastic Hifi !!!
Thanks
Same here. Sometimes I daydream about having a time machine to go back to some specific era. Walk in, buy a new Sansui G series receiver or back to the 60's to pickup a new McIntosh amp.
Thanks for this video, when you said Jensen stereo was the thing to have, yes, even in Costa Rica that was true, if you had the bi amped Jensen R430 plus a couple of Jensen speakers 6x9, thaaat was the cool thing to have in those days!
Jensen Triaxials were IT! They probably made your car a little faster too. :-)
My sideline in the late 80s was buy and sell of used CDS. Dau Angeles Pampanga is where US Clark air base is located.
Lots of used american merchandise there. Magazines, audio gears, etc. etc. Also brand new stuffs. I have hundreds of magazine like CD review, High Fidelity, Stereo review, MAD, National Lampoon. A rare find waterproof all black Pioneer walkman I also acquire in that place
I was 10. Had the whole zenith lineup ..allegro 4000 speakers.... system sounded incredible.
I am sure you have some great memories of that system. I recall fondly the cheap, all-in-one stereo I first got as a 13 yo from JCPenney. It was really low end, but for me, it was music autonomy and was fantastic.
$28 grand for the infinity IRS. Just a few years later, it jumped to $65,000.
Crazy amount of money.
Lots of money but the first time I heard the IRS V, I was blown away. Was really tough to go home and listen to my so-so speakers.
Phase Linear in the 80's was owned by Pioneer. At the higher end the speakers were basically HPMs with TAD tweeters. I have never seen the speakers in the wild.
Another interesting view point, thanks for your hard work
Glad you enjoyed it
What, no Marantz ads? 😮 Very interesting piece - I was in high school around that time and remember some of those ads.
Agree. At least not where I was looking. I am sure they were advertising somewhere though.
Nice work. Thanks.
I just purchased a set from 1986, A pair of VSP Labs TM200 Trans Mos Gold Edition amplifiers and the Straightwire II preamplifier previously own by Steve Eberbach of DCM Loudspeakers he also Co designed these units with the patent holder for the Transconductance circuit Juan Velazquez, DCM Loudspeakers shared the same address as VSP Labs in Ann Arbor Michigan.
The units lack and serial numbers and differ from the consumer editions of these models.
They would make for a great topic on 1980 HiFi.
Thanks for reaching out John. Send me an email - stereoniche@gmail.com
Enjoyed that video Scott. I grew up in high school and college during the 80s and it was the golden age of audio as we went into the 90s as well. Started building my system with a pair of carver speakers in 1990 and 30 years later finished it with a six figure system, using many of the components that you talked about. Keep the videos coming my friend.
Always fun to do. Many more years to cover in future videos, so stay tuned.
I owned the Great Awakening clock radio
A piece of history! :-)
The Allison speakers were very soft and tame sounding. If there was a total opposite of JBL, they were it. The opposite of the Pioneer HPM series also which were a perfect example Japanese colration in a speaker. Not very natural sounding. Roy Allison designed the AR 5 speakers, which came out in 1969 and they ran concurrently for awhile with the AR 3A. The Dahlquists were more interesting speakers, they didn't sound like a box, and had a very different spatially free sound, but seemed lacking in bass compared to many speakers. The later vessions of the Dahlquist Dq10 were intended to mimic the sound of the old Quad ESL57. Although they look like they were meant to look something like them, right from the start.
I remember the old Memorex commercials where Ella Fitzgerald sang into a mic connected to a cassette deck recording her on Memorex cassette tape. When the tape playback hit a certain frequency it made a glass shatter. Memorex was a very inferior recording tape. Maxell UDXL II had a much more prominent midrange than TDK SA. Better for rock music.
Hah, I had one of those Omnisonix units although I never heard it referred to as a "honey box." I can't remember how the circuitry was laid out but they claimed it expanded the sound stage. I remember it making those small metal box speakers sound much better than you would expect them to be. I really wasn't into critical listening back then, but I kinda wish I still had the unit. I've seen some modern gear that suggests they may be doing something very similar.
A good marketing name attracts attention. LOL
1980. Had to play Black Sabbath "Heaven And Hell". And David Bowie "Scary Monsters".
There were some GREAT rockin' tunes to be played back then. Many top down, ride at night songs.
Hi, really enjoy your videos and passion. Would love to get a pdf or copy of the Onkyo tx-7000 ad you showed! Thanks
Hi Dennis, send an email to stereoniche@gmail.com
The Crown ad is for a high power amp and not an EQ. Those are vents on the front. Great video. I have some of the SAE Two gear. It looks cool , sounds pretty good but the build quality is really bad. For some reason most of the diodes in these units fail as well as the caps. These were made in Korea.
Indeed it is! I was clearly just focusing on the picture. Over a hundred ads and I didn't want to just read each one. I think I also have some SAE Two gear as well. I also recall it not being quite as up to par.
Eumig was known best for their movie cameras, but because they made 99%+ of all the cameras for Polaroid's failed instant movie film system Polavision, they went bankrupt. Sad, as they had made some great old Regular 8mm and 16mm movie cameras, plus a wide selection of Super 8 movie cameras (most from Bolex were relabels of theirs and they just issued the first (and only) waterproof, weatherproof, underwater Nautica Super 8 camera. Wonder how good their tape decks were? Thanks for a great video.
Thanks for the detail. I was not aware they were a camera company.
@@stereoniche Sure.
Mordaunt-Short was a well known English brand. 🇬🇧
SABA was a mythical German brand. 🇩🇪
English brand? Well, I would have (obviously) never guessed. Mordaunt just doesn't have that English ring to it. SABA, very mythical. :-)
@@stereoniche I offer you information and you reply to me with sarcasm and mockery. A great American (obviously) gentleman.
@@davidrubert1536 Might be a communication barrier here, there was no sarcasm or mockery. I was not aware of Mordaunt's lineage or know anything about SABA, so it remains mythical (to me). 🙂
@@stereoniche It's OK 👍
1980 was a turning point for Japanese made consumer audio. Those huge, gorgeous monster receivers from the 70s gave way to plastic, flimsy, light weight crap. There were already signs of cheapening in the late 70s but from 1980 into the early 80s was a complete marketing change emphasizing gimmicks, lights and smallness. And just about every manufacture took part. The standard materials of glass, wood and metal became either minimal or gone and everything was designed with as many ICs as possible and power supplies the size of walnuts became standard fair.
In 1980, it was still in transition, but there are certainly clear indications of the direction for sure for the industry in total. As other things, like computers, video games, etc. competed for consumer dollars in the next few years, hi-fi had to get less expensive. This is a factor not commonly pointed out.
What I said is pretty well restricted to Japanese made gear. The cheapening phenomenon did not seem to affect British, European and US made gear at least not nearly to the same extent. In fact there were marked improvements in the technology and refinement of existing products such as iconic British Loudspeakers not to mention a huge growth in the "high end" of both electronics and speakers. The early 80s British loudspeakers got better than ever from firms like KEF, Spendor, Harbeth, Rogers, Chartwell employing new and better materials. But even that did not stop consumer interest from drifting to computers, walkmans and video. The transition to flimsy, plastic, IC based crap of Japanese gear in the early to mid 80s didn't help matters that's for sure.
How many times did he say COOL?
22 times, but who’s counting
Bose. Better sound through marketing.