Anyone want a free pair of "Endangered Collossus"? (Yonkers, NY)

[swechsler]

Anyone who read the DAK catalog in the early 1980s will remember these and Drew Kaplan's colorful description. Pretty sure these are those infamous speakers.

No affiliation.

From the web:

 

[teal'c]

10 hour drive.

 

[markshan]

I passed on a pair at the thrift a few months back. Rotting foam and cabs that were only slightly heavier than corrugated cardboard IIRC. They may be overpriced at free.

 

[w1jim]

I’ve seen those at a yard sale in the past - rather feebly built.
But looking at the DAK ad, shipping sure was cheaper back then!

 

[Dazaa]

LOL BSR and desirable in the same sentence? I've seen hundreds, literally hundreds of BSR branded pieces of equipment, usually turntables and can confidently say i've never seen even one that was even remotely worth saving.

 

[markshan]

Okay, but you referred to Adcom and Cambridge audio as as run of the mill.

 

[goodolpg]

Were the LEGENDARY ThunderLizards better or worse than the Collossis?


I did pass on a pair of ThunderLizards at GW a few years ago.
I think they were priced at $10 or $15.

 

[swechsler]

LOL BSR and desirable in the same sentence? I've seen hundreds, literally hundreds of BSR branded pieces of equipment, usually turntables and can confidently say i've never seen even one that was even remotely worth saving.

In the late 1970s, BSR did make a few turntables that weren't half bad; Quanta 600, 700 and 800. They were no Thorens, but you wouldn't feel guilty about having them around. They also sold similar models under the ADC label, with ADC's classic straight arm (similar to the ALT-1) The BSR models had S-shaped arms. They show up on eBay occasionally.

 

[JosephH]

Wow, DAK, there is a blast from the past. It certainly deserves to stay there too!

 

[Wildcat]

One thing that amazes me today about the DAK ads was how wordy they were. I'm thinking these crappy products (and they were--I made the mistake of buying a few things back then, but not speakers) needed two full pages of wordiness in order to sell them. Wasn't there an old saying? "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh!t." And it was laid on thick!

Their cassettes were horrible. They were supposedly "pure chrome" Type II cassettes, but after maybe a dozen uses, they would start dropping out like crazy. They didn't sound half bad when new (my deck has adjustable Dolby and bias levels), but it didn't take long before they'd deteriorate, or even jam.

Still, it's kind of a fun trip down memory lane to come across those old ads.

 

[swechsler]

I never tried their tapes, but I did unfortunately waste some of my hard-earned cash (and it was pretty hard-earned back then) on some of Drew's craptastic stuff, and a couple of decent items (the DAK bread maker was pretty good until it killed itself by walking itself off my kitchen counter).

 

[sKiZo]

All BSR wasn't junk - I put a lot of miles on one of their 4000XR equalizers.

(and yes, I did buy it new from DAK for a good price back in the day ...

For anyone not familiar with the DAK catalogs, there's a few of them posted up here for download. Great throne room reading material! Links at the bottom of this page for additional catalogs.

https://archive.org/details/1984-Fall-DAK-Catalog

 

[HiFi in WYO]

I think Drew Kaplan secretly wrote for Stauer.