Steven Tate
CEO Flat Forehead Soc.
I was reminiscing about my childhood experience with audio via my dad's hobby and thought I would share it to see if it jogs memories in any of you old guys (like me). I was born in 1950 as the post-war interest in audio was getting in full swing. My dad was an engineer for the phone company and a life-long ham operator who built his own equipment. He was the techie of his day. In the 50's, there was no stereo vinyl or FM stereo.
So his first nice amp was an Eico of some kind - I think maybe an 81. He found an FM radio with no case and got it working to play through the Eico. He also bought an old Garrard turntable and refurbished it. He never bought anything new. I remember him playing his favorite albums on that system -- Chet Atkins and The Ames Brothers. As stereo approached in the early 60's, he had built a console with a single 12" speaker to play his Eico through. The memory that jogged all of this was when everyone was interested in stereo, but there weren't yet stereo broadcasts in our area (Dallas).
He got very excited when two sister radio stations - one FM and one AM - announced they were going to simulcast two stereo channels for a short program. One channel on AM and one on FM. He set up a table top AM radio on one side of the room and his console system on the other side and waited with great anticipation for the first stereo broadcast he had ever heard. I was there and he excitedly pointed out the differences in the music coming through each channel. It's hard to believe it was such a big deal, but it definitely was at the time. Horns forward in the left channel and piano forward in the right? Wow! Not long after that, FM stations started broadcasting in multiplex stereo, and he got his hands on a bare chassis Curtis Mathes stereo that had the "magic eye" tube for center tuning. The space age had arrived.
Of course, he had to build a new console that was longer and had speakers on each end. He studied speaker design and made them actual internal enclosures scientifically designed to match the very nice 8" speakers he got to use as woofers/midrange to go with horn tweeters. When he finished it, he put a stereo cartridge in the Garrard and played stereo Chet Atkins. I thought the sound was the best possible audio in the world. It sounded like you were in the room with Chet Atkins.
My dad never moved into the solid state era, but in 1972, when I was 22 and in the Navy, I bought my first nice stereo - a Marantz 2230, and soon upgraded to a 2245. Those younger than me can't imagine a time when stereo was not available or was just a novelty. But I'll never forget the excitement and amazement I experienced when I heard that first AM/FM stereo in my dad's living room. Anybody else have memories of that transition era?
Steve
So his first nice amp was an Eico of some kind - I think maybe an 81. He found an FM radio with no case and got it working to play through the Eico. He also bought an old Garrard turntable and refurbished it. He never bought anything new. I remember him playing his favorite albums on that system -- Chet Atkins and The Ames Brothers. As stereo approached in the early 60's, he had built a console with a single 12" speaker to play his Eico through. The memory that jogged all of this was when everyone was interested in stereo, but there weren't yet stereo broadcasts in our area (Dallas).
He got very excited when two sister radio stations - one FM and one AM - announced they were going to simulcast two stereo channels for a short program. One channel on AM and one on FM. He set up a table top AM radio on one side of the room and his console system on the other side and waited with great anticipation for the first stereo broadcast he had ever heard. I was there and he excitedly pointed out the differences in the music coming through each channel. It's hard to believe it was such a big deal, but it definitely was at the time. Horns forward in the left channel and piano forward in the right? Wow! Not long after that, FM stations started broadcasting in multiplex stereo, and he got his hands on a bare chassis Curtis Mathes stereo that had the "magic eye" tube for center tuning. The space age had arrived.
Of course, he had to build a new console that was longer and had speakers on each end. He studied speaker design and made them actual internal enclosures scientifically designed to match the very nice 8" speakers he got to use as woofers/midrange to go with horn tweeters. When he finished it, he put a stereo cartridge in the Garrard and played stereo Chet Atkins. I thought the sound was the best possible audio in the world. It sounded like you were in the room with Chet Atkins.
My dad never moved into the solid state era, but in 1972, when I was 22 and in the Navy, I bought my first nice stereo - a Marantz 2230, and soon upgraded to a 2245. Those younger than me can't imagine a time when stereo was not available or was just a novelty. But I'll never forget the excitement and amazement I experienced when I heard that first AM/FM stereo in my dad's living room. Anybody else have memories of that transition era?
Steve
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I guess I'm a stream-of-conciousness writer.
